Drake Milligan‘s debut Dallas/Fort Worth album is out! The Texas native released the 14-track record on September 15, one day after landing in the Top 5 on the America’s Got Talent finale. The record has seven songs on the Dallas side, and seven on the Fort Worth side, combining his love of different styles of music, all influenced by his native Texas state.
While the songs were all co-written by Milligan, he credits Stoney Creek Records’ Adrian Michaels with the idea to make the album what it became.
“I’ve been in Nashville about five years, and really this record is kind of a culmination of a ton of songs that I’ve written in those five years,” Milligan admits to Everything Nash. “And we were sitting there in Houston a while back, and we had these 14 tracks cut, and Adrian goes, ‘Man, your music, it’s like Dallas and Fort Worth. It’s just so different. You’ve got this kind of polished side and you’ve got this kind of traditional honky-tonk side.’ And that’s when the light bulb went off, like, ‘Wow, that’s it. That’s what the record should be called.'”
Dallas/Fort Worth is very authentic to Milligan, and the music he grew up on. Although he now calls Nashville home, Milligan will forever be indebted to the Texas music scene, and the influence it had on his own career.
“I grew up in Fort Worth, just south of Fort Worth, and it’s such a traditional kind of city, right?” Milligan reflects. “It kind of holds onto its roots. You have the stockyards, you have Billy Bob’s. It’s a city that really holds true to its roots, and loves tradition. I like to call it a little more dust on the boots. And Dallas is of course a big, big city, and trying to be the next big thing, and looking towards the future. And so it was a great way to split up these songs. I have that side of me that wants to be on radio, and is more polished, and then that side of maybe a little bit of rock influence. And then the side of me that’s holding onto my roots, and wants to do a little honky-tonk traditional country music.”
Milligan is grateful for the Texas music scene, but he is also grateful to now be firmly established in Music City, where he is able to absorb even more styles of music.
“It’s a big change of pace, but I love Nashville,” Milligan shares. “I sought out the veteran songwriters in Nashville and veteran musicians and veteran producers like Tony Brown in Nashville. I tried to bring my kind of Texas thing to everything I was doing in Nashville. So it really is fun to get to explore, and get to bring in different flavors to that Texas thing.”
Although Milligan didn’t win America’s Got Talent, he still in many ways already feels like the champion, thanks to the big boost the time on the TV show gave to his career.
“I feel like I gained a lot of confidence with the last live show, on AGT,” Milligan maintains. “To be able to sing an original song on live television for millions of people, and to get a great response like that, just fills you with confidence. I feel like hopefully, I’ll walk away with even more of that confidence, since that’s the final round, and be able to take that into my career, and try to go a long ways.”
Find Dallas/Fort Worth and a list of Milligan’s upcoming shows at DrakeMilligan.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of BBR Music Group / Joseph Llanes
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