Country group on the rise to play Marietta
By Evan Bevins, ebevins@mariettatimes.comArticle Photos
Fact Box
If you go
What: Colgate Country Showdown Northeast Regional Finals featuring Gloriana.
When: Saturday, Oct. 24; Showdown starts at 6:30 p.m., Gloriana performs around 8:30.
Where: Marietta High School auditorium.
Tickets: $10, available at the Froggy 99 studios, 5 Rosemar Circle, Parkersburg.
Not so long ago, Cheyenne Kimball and her bandmates in Gloriana were riding in their 15-passenger van when they got a phone call from Taylor Swift.
Multi-platinum, country and pop superstar Taylor Swift.
"We thought we were being pranked," recalled Kimball, 19.
It was no prank. Swift was calling to invite the band along as one of the opening acts on her "Fearless" tour.
"You go from playing to 60 people in a bar to playing 20,000 in an arena," Kimball said Friday in an interview with The Marietta Times.
Now Gloriana - which consists of brothers Tom and Mike Gossin, Rachel Reinert and Kimball - is making the rounds in a tour bus and gearing up for the next leg of Swift's sold-out tour, a just-announced slate of performances that kicks off in February in Australia.
But before that, the quartet will headline its own show Oct. 24 at Marietta High School, following the Northeast Regional Finals of the Colgate Country Showdown.
Kimball said the group likes to play smaller venues in between the big arenas on tour with Swift. She said they look forward to signing autographs for fans after their shows and appreciate people waiting in line to meet them.
Chuck Lipps, vice president of Rick Modesitt and Associates Entertainment, which is bringing Gloriana to town, said the concert was booked a few months ago, not long after the band's first single, "Wild at Heart," hit the airwaves.
"We felt like that record's probably going to take off," Lipps said.
The single peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard country charts, and the band's self-titled debut album is currently at No. 25 on the country album chart.
Lipps said his company has had a lot of success with such up-and-coming acts, pointing to the Zac Brown Band's performance this year at the West Virginia Interstate Fair and Exposition in Mineral Wells and Swift's own concert at Marietta College two years ago. Today, Swift's shows have a million-dollar price tag, he said.
Gloriana has a new single out, "How Far Do You Wanna Go," for which they recently completed a video, Kimball said.
"It was very tiring and very busy, but it was fun," she said of the shoot.
One thing that sets Gloriana apart from a lot of the acts on the radio today is the mixture of male and female lead vocals.
"We all four each sing lead at different points on the record," Kimball said. "We think it's good to keep it interesting."
Kimball, who signed a record deal at 13 and had her own reality show, "Cheyenne," on MTV in 2006, was the final member to join the band. After the brothers Gossin moved from North Carolina to Nashville, they formed a trio with Reinert.
"I was living in Nashville and I saw the three of them playing ... and I asked to join the band," Kimball said.
To add to what she could bring to the table, Kimball learned to play the mandolin. That was a challenge in more ways than one since the left-handed musician only had access to a right-handed mandolin.
So she learned to play upside down.
"I love learning new instruments," Kimball said. "I want to pick up the fiddle next and then move on to the banjo."
A second album is in the future, but not too close, Kimball said. Right now the band is working on their live show and enjoying performing for and meeting fans.
The debut album features just one song written by Gloriana members, but Kimball said they've all been writing songs for a long time. For the album, she said, they had to put egos aside and just go with what sounded best.
That didn't stop them from putting their own stamps on the songs. For example, Kimball sings lead on "You Said," which on the demo was performed by a male singer.
"The second I heard it I just fell in love with it," she said.
