Gannon University’s Activity Programming Board (APB) on Friday announced Chase Rice as the 2016 spring concert act.
The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, at the Erie Insurance Arena and is sponsored by Gannon and Edinboro universities.
The concert will feature Rice as the main act with special guests still yet to be named.
Rice is a 29-year-old American country singer and songwriter who is famous for singing a style of country music called bro-country.
Bro-country is characterized by mixing mainstream hip-hop, rock and electronic music with the swing of typical country sounds and lyrics.
The genre first came to attention with the popularity of the song “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line. “Cruise” was co-written by Rice and in 2014 became the best selling digital country song of all time.
When it comes to his own music, Rice’s first studio album was released in April 2010 and was titled “Friday Nights & Sunday Mornings.”
His first EP was titled “Country as Me” and featured his single “Buzz Back,” which he released in 2011.
“Country as Me” was followed by the release of his album “Dirt Road Communion” in March of 2012, which featured songs like “The Little Things” and “Jack Daniels and Jesus.”
His first major release under the label Creative Artists Agency was the EP “Ready Set Roll” featuring his single “Ready Set Roll.” The EP released in October of 2013.
His first full-length album released in August of 2014 under the labels of Dack Janiels and Columbia Nashville and was titled “Ignite the Night.”
“Ignite the Night” reached major success as it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums list.
Other popular songs that Rice is known for include “Gonna Wanna Tonight,” “Jack Daniels and Jesus,” “50 Shades of Crazy,” “Carolina Can” and “Look at My Truck.”
In addition to his own original music, Rice also has a cover of the song “Ride,” by Somo.
The cover has its own music video and has sold 315,000 copies in the U.S. as of June 2015.
Recently, Rice has been posting around his social media outlets that he will be releasing a new song Friday.
One of his latest tweets hinted to the song saying “New song. 2/5. #shhh #whisper.”
APB also had a hint of its own with the posters that promoted the concert reveal party held two weeks ago. The headline of the poster was “get ready to roll,” which alludes to Rice’s most popular song “Ready Set Roll.”
APB concert chair Elizabeth Gauriloff expressed great relief that Rice has been announced as the concert artist.
“I’m really excited that everyone can know now because that was quite the secret I had to keep for a while,” she said. “I’m excited that the students are excited.”
Freshman sport and exercise science major Ashleigh Haws is one of many students looking forward to the concert in April.
“I’m glad they chose a country artist and I’m glad that it’s Chase Rice because he’s really young and up-and-coming.” she said.
Student pre sale tickets for the concert are on sale now through Monday at 10 a.m. and are $15 for wing seats and $20 for floor seats.
Tickets can be purchased through the Erie Insurance Arena box office or through the Edinboro box office. Ticket sales are not available online at this time because online tickets require an extra convenience fee.
For more information about Rice, visit chaserice.com.
For more information about the concert, contact APB at its office located in Waldron Campus Center or online at engageu.gannon.edu.
OLIVIA BURGER
[email protected]