

Poster Comment:
Different as can possibly be, "Holy Water," their current single and video, is a teardrop-soaked power ballad of lost innocence and prayed-for rescue. Written about both their sisters' experience with domestic violence, "Holy Water" inspired an alliance between the band and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence to raise awareness about the problem. .......... .......... Enter Big & Rich. Longhaired, one-time Virginia farmboy turned rock singer "Big Kenny" Alphin and Texas country songwriting partner John Rich formed the duo after spotting a "big disconnect" between what Nashville music moguls were pushing and what people were listening to. As Rich told a reporter, "You go to a country bar on a Saturday night in Dallas and 40 percent is straight-ahead country music, 30 percent is hard-rock AC/DC to Van Halen," and the rest is urban music. "Everyone dances more to the hard rock and urban than to the country but they are wearing country hats and boots and love all those styles of music and love them all in the same atmosphere." And Alphin says, "The kids who are coming up listen to Johnny Cash, then Kenny Chesney, then Ludacris or Outkast or Kid Rock. I mean, John's little brother wears a John Deere hat and an Eminem tee shirt." Big & Rich created a revolutionary music to appeal to this crowd. They call it "country music without prejudice," meaning country that's unafraid of the rest of the world. They worked out their new sound at a Nashville bar called the Pub of Love. They were joined by like-minded young performers who came to be called the Muzik Mafia, among them singer Gretchen Wilson and rapper Cowboy Troy. (He calls what he does "hick hop.") Wilson just won the Grammy for best female country vocal on her signature song, "Redneck Woman," which Rich co-wrote.