05.24.2005:Country Hunk Keith Anderson Rocks Nashvillle

from reuters:

By Phyllis Stark

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - With a title like "Three Chord Country and American Rock & Roll," you pretty much know what you're going to get from Keith Anderson's debut album.

The bodybuilder-turned-songwriter, who grew up in Oklahoma on a steady diet of music from legends of both genres, describes the music he makes as "rompin,' stompin,' slammin,' jammin' country."

With this Arista Nashville release, which debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart earlier this month, Anderson has achieved his goal of creating "a real melting pot of that country lyric with that great '80s groove that we all grew up listening to."

His vision for the CD, Anderson says, was "to put together an album of songs I'd written that I wanted to crank up at a party." He calls the project "a tip of the hat to some of my favorite country and rock artists growing up."

On the strength of hit single "Pickin' Wildflowers," the Jeffrey Steele-produced album sold more than 16,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Anderson previously dabbled in modeling, owned a singing telegram business in Dallas known as Romeo Cowboys and was a runner-up for the Mr. Oklahoma bodybuilding title.

from nashvillemuse:

We are at a local coffee shop in Bellevue , Tennessee . Keith Anderson just completed a 90-minute workout at a local gym, where he can be found there about any morning, Monday through Friday. Keith signed a publishing contract with EMI Publishing in 2001.

[Doak Turner] Tell me a little about yourself and your songwriting.

Keith Anderson I grew up in a little town in Northeast Oklahoma, in Miami , right on the border of Missouri and Arkansas . I started writing songs in late junior high or early high school. My brother was my musical influence, the first to start playing in our family. He taught himself guitar, and later taught me to play the guitar. He needed a drummer at the time, so I became a drummer and a harmony singer for my brother's band. Don Henley was one of my big heroes at the time.

After doing that gig, I taught myself some piano chords and started writing for fun, wouldn't even play any of those songs for anybody now, but that is when I got the buzz. Then I went to college at Oklahoma State , where I played on the college baseball team. I really started putting songs together during those years.

After getting my degree, I moved to Dallas and took a construction-engineering job. There is such a big country music scene in Dallas and I fell in love with the music again, quit my engineering job, and decided to go for it (the music business). I concentrated on my writing, put together a band, and started playing at a popular place called The Grapevine Opry. Lee Ann Rimes, Kix Brooks , Linda Davis had been a part of that venue in the past years.