Recording artist Ned LeDoux made his Grand Ole Opry debut at the Ryman Auditorium Friday night. The son of the late great Chris LeDoux performed his new single “Brother Highway” from his EP Forever a Cowboy.
“What an honor it is to be here tonight,” said Ned LeDoux on making his debut at the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman. “My Dad never had the opportunity to play the Ryman stage, but I know he’s standing right here next to me tonight having that chance now.”
“Brother Highway” was co-written with Mark Sissel, a founding member and guitar player in his Dad’s band Western Underground. Making his Opry debut even more poignant, Sissel played guitar for the younger LeDoux Friday night as he performed “Brother Highway.” Ned closed his Opry debut with an emotional and stunning acoustic performance of “The Hawk,” a song he wrote as a tribute to his Dad, and is also included on Forever A Cowboy.
Forever a Cowboy, produced by award-winning Mac McAnally and distributed by Thirty Tigers, includes “We Ain’t Got It All,” the first new Chris LeDoux co-write in over two decades. When Ned’s mom passed along a stack of his dad’s papers that included a list of unfinished song ideas and lyrics, Ned packed them up and travelled to Nashville to work with McAnally where they finished one of the ideas which became “We Ain’t Got It All,” – a brand new song by Chris LeDoux, co-written with his son Ned and McAnally. The song has now become Ned’s personal favorite to sing on the road because it’s the first original song he co-wrote with his Dad. He feels it is a nice tribute as it seems to pick up right where his Dad left off and carries on the LeDoux sound to and from a new generation.
Click HERE to hear Ned talk about his inspiration for Forever a Cowboy and carrying on his Dad’s legacy while at the same time forging his own.
Forever a Cowboy Track Listing:
1) “We Ain’t Got It All” (Ned LeDoux, Chris LeDoux, Mac McAnally)
2) “Brother Highway” (Ned LeDoux, Mark Sissel)
3) “Forever a Cowboy” (Ned LeDoux, Chris LeDoux, Mac McAnally)
4) “Johnson County War” (Chris LeDoux)
5) “The Hawk” (Ned LeDoux)
Click HERE to purchase Forever A Cowboy.
About Ned LeDoux:
It has been over 11 years since Chris LeDoux passed and Ned believes that people want to hear something new. The timing couldn’t be more right for him to pick up a guitar and belt out “Western Skies.”
Having been a drummer in Chris’s band Western Underground since 1998, Ned knew from an early age that he had “no plan b” but to play music, “Once I got the taste of the road, and being in front of a crowd and just the sound of it, it was…freedom.”
When his dad passed away in 2005, Ned continued to tour with his father’s band to keep the musical spirit of Chris LeDoux alive. This drove him to pick up the guitar and try his hand at some of his dad’s songs. It started with “Rodeo Man,” and before long Ned had a whole catalogue of his father’s early hits ready to play. When the other band members heard Ned’s voice, he found himself front and center singing at the shows. Stepping out from behind the drums stirred something inside of Ned that he hadn’t felt before, “It’s a different kind of rush, getting up with a guitar and standing behind a microphone…shoot I’m getting butterflies thinking about it right now.”
Keeping the cowboy in country is important to Ned as you can hear in the song “Forever A Cowboy” also co-written with his dad. Ned puts his own spin on his endless touring with “Brother Highway” about all the time he has spent on the road with various bands since his days in high school. Ned says he doesn’t even need a road map anymore–that he and the highway are like brothers. He wants to write songs about what he knows, keep the themes simple and harken back to the sound of good ole country music but with an edge. Looking forward Ned has plans to release a full album of new material and include a few of his dad’s songs re-recorded in his own style as a tribute.
For the last year, Ned has been steadily touring and opening for acts like Toby Keith, Chris Janson and Randy Houser. On tour, fans are guaranteed to hear “This Cowboy’s Hat”–the song most requested by his fans and a request Ned is honored to oblige.
To find out more about Ned LeDoux go to: www.NedLedoux.com or follow him on TWITTER, FACEBOOK or INSTAGRAM.
To connect with Ned LeDoux:
FACEBOOOK: https://www.instagram.com/nedledoux/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/nedledoux
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/nedledoux/
