{"id":805180,"date":"2020-03-12T15:30:28","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T21:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=380367"},"modified":"2020-03-12T15:30:28","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T21:30:28","slug":"sundance-head-to-perform-at-rocky-mountain-country-fest-focuses-on-moving-career-past-reality-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/sundance-head-to-perform-at-rocky-mountain-country-fest-focuses-on-moving-career-past-reality-television\/","title":{"rendered":"Sundance Head to perform at Rocky Mountain Country Fest, focuses on moving career past reality television"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sundance Head, winner of the 11th season of \u201cThe Voice,\u201d will perform at Rocky Mountain Country Fest in Keystone on Saturday, March 14. Visit WarrenStation.com to purchase tickets.<\/strong>
Amy Richmond \/ Amy Richmond Photography<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

KEYSTONE \u2014 Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cBlack Dog\u201d changed Sundance Head\u2019s life. The soul country singer-songwriter was 9 when his older brother Michael Head died in a car crash at age 21. No one could go into Michael Head\u2019s room for about half a year or more, until one day his mom let Sundance Head in. He immediately gravitated toward his brother\u2019s record collection and Led Zeppelin was the first he played.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t wait to come home and go straight to the record player,\u201d said Head, who is performing at the Rocky Mountain Country Fest in Keystone this weekend. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of how it all started for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He turned to music as an outlet and transformed his experience of loss into two songs \u2014 \u201cThe Walker Song\u201d and \u201cLast Call\u201d \u2014 that deal with Michael Head\u2019s death as well as Sundance Head\u2019s friend and mentor, Kevin, who killed himself when Sundance Head with 25. \u201cThe Last Call\u201d refers to the fact that Kevin called Sundance Head before taking his own life and is his favorite song he has ever written.<\/p>\n

Having that innate love and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll naturally made performing \u201cDetroit Rock City\u201d and \u201cRock and Roll All Nite\u201d with Kiss on NBC\u2019s \u201cThe Voice\u201d a highlight of Sundance Head\u2019s winning season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the hottest chick in school actually giving you a chance,\u201d Head said.<\/p>\n

Head was a semifinalist in the sixth season of Fox\u2019s \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d in 2007 and wasn\u2019t keen on returning to reality television since they were getting booked enough to pay the bills. But his wife, Misty, who is also his manager and convinced him to try out for \u201cAmerican Idol,\u201d talked Head into giving it a shot to see if it would lead to a booking agency and a national tour.<\/p>\n

While being crowned the champion of \u201cThe Voice\u201d in 2016 came with a record deal and a chance to tour with his coach Blake Shelton, life after the show wasn\u2019t what he thought it would be. The program had him sign with New York City\u2019s hip-hop-focused Republic Records, and Head said that they couldn\u2019t find him a country music partner, so he had three albums shelved like his \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d record.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing got squandered, dude,\u201d Head said. \u201cIt sucked. I never made the record, never followed it up with anything. I just toured forever. It\u2019s still all I do, just tour three or four nights a week.\u201d Head said his story of mismanagement isn\u2019t uncommon with winners of the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point I don\u2019t think it really matters anymore,\u201d Head said about \u201cThe Voice.\u201d \u201cYou do two (seasons) a year, and nothing happens to the winner. What\u2019s the point of watching it? What\u2019s the point of doing it? There\u2019s nothing special about it. You get to go on TV. Then you get your ass kicked, and you go back on the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was lucky he was playing music in a touring band in between the shows and therefore had a steady music gig to return to. Though he didn\u2019t get serious about his career in the industry until he was 33, he still has the passion to pursue it after the false starts. <\/p>\n

Sundance Head wasn\u2019t pressured into the family business, even with his father being Roy Head, who had an international hit with \u201cTreat Her Right\u201d in 1965 that reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts behind The Beatles\u2019 \u201cYesterday.\u201d Yet being surrounded by the sounds certainly helped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know that people had other things to do other than play music,\u201d Head said. \u201cI was really fortunate to be able to hang around and learn and listen. I really just thought that this was something that everybody did.\u201d <\/p>\n

Head recalled running around the woods by his home in Texas singing all day and sneaking into his father\u2019s rehearsal room when the band was on breaks to play various instruments. He never learned to read music and absorbs the melodies by ear. In his 20s, he had multiple odd jobs such as being a carpenter, selling vacuum cleaners and working in a machine shop. Eventually he considered being a blues musician. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s really impossible to be a blues artist and to be young,\u201d Head said. \u201cI found that out the hard way. You can be the most badass guitarist in the world, but you won\u2019t have the respect of your peers because they won\u2019t actually believe that you went through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flash-forward to the past decade when Head met iconic songwriter Dean Dillon, pre-\u201cThe Voice\u201d fame, and later on Dillon reached out to him to make a record. The writer of songs such as \u201cTennessee Whiskey\u201d and \u201cThe Chair\u201d approached Head with roughly 200 songs written by him or others that were then narrowed down to 13. Head was trepidatious at the start since it would become his first recorded where he or his band didn\u2019t play any instruments, he didn\u2019t produce it himself, and he didn\u2019t write all of the songs. Titled \u201cStained Glass and Neon,\u201d it released in January 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really had to take a step back and trust the process and let Dean do his thing,\u201d Head said. \u201cBut when I heard these songs I was totally blown away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
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Last year, Sundance Head released his album \u201cStained Glass and Neon,\u201d his first since appearing on NBC\u2019s \u201cThe Voice.\u201d The record was produced by Dean Dillon\u2019s Wildcatter Records.<\/strong>
Amy Richmond \/ Amy Richmond Photography<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

He managed to get two of his own tracks on the album \u2014 \u201cDrive Me to Drinking\u201d and \u201cClose Enough To Walk\u201d \u2014 and he\u2019s grateful Dillon and his crew welcomed him into Nashville, Tennessee, despite the fact that he doesn\u2019t look like the stereotypical resident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t wear skinny jeans, I don\u2019t have a pop haircut, and I have a 28-inch inseam,\u201d Head said about fitting into the Nashville scene, laughing.<\/p>\n

With most of songs not written by him, Head discovered that he\u2019s a \u201cmethod vocalist\u201d who can get in the right headspace to perform a song as if he wrote it, like a method actor becoming a character. For example, when singing the song \u201cShowing Off,\u201d he imagines the lyrics are about his own children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought unless it was a personal experience, I couldn\u2019t tie myself to it, but I was able to do it through meditation and playing those songs and instinctively knowing each chord progression and allowing those songs to become part of my heart before we recorded them,\u201d Head said. \u201cThen it was as if they were my own songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tour in support of \u201cStained Glass and Neon\u201d has been going well, and according to Head, the album has sold over 500,000 physical copies. He\u2019s aiming to make national radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes so much money, and there\u2019s so much grease that has to go on the wheel in order to get on the radio nationally,\u201d Head said. \u201cI was so naive before, I thought it was all about talent. \u2026 I spent half my life waiting for someone to walk into the bar and discover me, and that\u2019s my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Head\u2019s performance Saturday, March 14, he\u2019ll release a new single Sunday, March 15.<\/p>\n

\n
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Jason Boland and the Stragglers headline this weekend\u2019s Rocky Mountain Country Fest. Boland performs at 9:45 p.m. Saturday, March 14.<\/strong>
Courtesy Keystone Neighbourhood Co.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sundance Head, winner of the 11th season of \u201cThe Voice,\u201d will perform at Rocky Mountain Country Fest in Keystone on Saturday, March 14. Visit WarrenStation.com to purchase tickets.Amy Richmond \/ Amy Richmond Photography KEYSTONE \u2014 Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cBlack Dog\u201d changed Sundance Head\u2019s life. The soul country singer-songwriter was 9 when his older brother Michael Head […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-805180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-19 09:25:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}