This Shinedown acoustic gig is no joke. It’s your chance at seeing Brent and Zach from Shinedown in such a small setting that it kinda makes my head spin. How we were able to put this together is a long story that gets deep into the music biz; but it’s really all about the dedication that The Rat has to the bands we play and the dedication that this particular band has for the people who support them. Those two things are important, but this gig wouldn’t have happened without a label and management team that are dedicated to the goal of making Shinedown the biggest rock band on the planet. Our thanks to everyone who’s had a hand in this opportunity.

That being said, I’ve been around these guys over the many stages of their career and I gotta say: I think the best is yet to come. That’s hard to imagine when we take a look at the songs that got us where we are today.

Shinedown is special because they’re honest about their experiences. They write about things that are hard to write about and do it from a deeply personal place. They write these deeply personal songs in a way we can all relate to. These guys don’t write songs about girls at a strip bar or doing shots of tequila off a groupie. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. These guys write about us, the crap we go through – our daily struggles and our daily triumphs.

These are my favorite Shinedown tracks. They’re in no particular order because this isn’t a ranking, it’s more of an appreciation. A very personal appreciation for a band that is proving to be one of the hardest working rock bands in America today. Mark my words: The best is yet to come for Shinedown.

• "I Dare You" from Us And Them

  One of the first tracks that I knew spoke to me.  It challenged me to be a better person on a daily basis… finding my way through all the voices I heard rattling around in my skull.  There’s no surprise to me that this band has grown into what they have based just on this one track from 2005.  Looking deep, feeling deeper and reaching for growth.  Truly prophetic.

• "Bully" from Amaryllis

  At one of our WRATFEST shows, I was down in my seats drinking up the show. Just taking everything in and enjoying it as a rock fan. When they played “Bully” I looked to my right and saw the people in font of me singing every word, shouting them at the top of their lungs. I could just feel their connection to this song. It was a group of young men, probably sophomores or juniors in High School. I related their passion for the song to my niece who was struggling with a bullying situation of her own at her local high school in Maryland. For that few minutes, it was all connected.

• "Second Chance" from The Sound of Madness

  I feel like this may be the first time the rest of the world got the feeling the rest of us had about these guys…. That this was a band that could write songs that went beyond the usual themes of the rock charts.  Brent has said multiple times what this song is about and yet, every time I hear it I hear a different challenge that he’s laying out for me.  So many of their songs are like that, and I love ’em for it:  The songs morph as I grow and as I change.  This song reminds me of where I’ve come and how much I have left to do… how much I have left to enjoy in life.

• "Get Up" from Attention Attention

  Paraphrasing an interview I did with Brent before a Starland Ballroom gig… I arrived with one question, one thing I wanted to talk about.  That was “Get Up”.  I recall him telling me that he had gotten the music from Barry and had worked on some lyrics that were extremely personal to the band.  That he was hesitant to share those lyrics back because he knew they were so personal… But when he did, the band grew tighter from the experience.  “But you gotta try…”

• "The Crow And The Butterfly" from The Sound of Madness

  A thing of beauty and loss, this song means so much to so many people.  I love it when music is like that.  Means one thing to one guy, and a totally different thing to someone else.  Lots of Shinedown songs do that but I think this one is kind of unique.  Brent taps in to so many different parts of his life to write about that we almost never know where a song is coming from.  That’s the magic, the mystery… of a good and talented song writer.

• "Daylight" from Planet Zero

  Dude.  “It’s amazing what the hard times can reveal… Like who shows up, who walks away, and who’s for real.”

  Hearing those words for the first time was so damn heavy.  It was like the band had been looking at videos of my life and decided to tap directly into me and my head.  My immediate response was to point away from myself and think, “That’s right!  Who’s walking away from me?!”  Playing the victim card is so easy… and yet it’s never fulfilling.

  These days I think differently because maybe I was the person who was showing up… walking away… and who was for real.  Which version of myself will I be today?  Is this song is like a chameleon for you as well?

  That middle part where the chorus kicks in and we all sing, “Have faith that you’re not alone” and “Have faith that you’re not on your own”?  The next time I see them live, I wish the band would lead us in a sing-along and let us sing that until we’re all hoarse, until every last tear has been shed.

• "Symptom Of Being Human" from Planet Zero

  This song is setting a new record, not just for Shinedown but for bands in general.  It’s been in the top ten on the rock chart, the alternative chart and now on the pop music chart.  That hasn’t been done by ANY band in 20 years.

  It’s almost like this song sums up everything the band has done up until now.  And it’s why I think the best is yet to come from Brent, Zach, Barry and Eric.  I’m happy to be invited to the lunatic ball….

   

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