Mariah Crom
Since moving to Music City in the beginning of the summer, Temecula Road have been making big strides. In four short months, their lives have completely done a 180, as they’ll be making their Grand Ole Opry debut this November, touring with Scotty McCreery in the UK, as well as opening for Sara Evans on her annual Christmas show.
“I don’t know what I’m going to wear, I’ve been stressing about it,” band member Maddie Salute tells CS Country of their Opry debut. “It’s been such a huge milestone to us. Looking forward to this moment has been crazy,” Emma adds.
Dawson continues, “All of our favorite acts and people we’ve grown up listening to started playing there, and were later inducted as members so it’s crazy that we are able to play on a stage with such awesome history. People like Dolly Patton and Patsy Clyne and Kenny Rogers and those legends so its cool that so many years later we’re going to get to.”
Celeb Secrets Country sat down with the trio just minutes before taking the stage at the iconic “steps” at their agency WME in the heart of Nashville, where they went more in depth about their plans for the rest of the year and how Sara Evans is indirectly responsible for all of this instant success.
CSC: You guys have only been in Nashville 4 months. Were you expecting to have such big opportunities so soon?
Maddie: “No not at all. We were shocked.”
Emma: “We were expecting to get the ball rolling and start writing more and everything like that but everything just took off as soon as we got here. It’s crazy how just your presence in Nashville is such a big difference.”
Dawson: “Exactly, presence can change a lot. We’re going to do a rendition of ‘Desperado’ by The Eagles and we’ll probably play that one because that’s something we took into all of the meetings we had when we first came to town four years ago and helped us get to where we are now. We’ve been playing it almost every night since so it will be cool to play that one and be like, ‘this is what we started with and it’s still with us’.”
CSC: What was your journey with music like before moving to Nashville? Did you still come to town often?
Maddie: “Our first trip here was actually 4 years ago in August and we met with record labels and our manager Matt.”
Emma: “We came about 8 times a year before we moved.”
Dawson: “It’s been quite the journey just coming back and fourth, it was a decision we made about 6 or 8 months ago. We were like, ‘you know, we should think about moving here’ because we could definitely feel the plateau a little bit in California. It was just time to move to Music City and continue our journey here.”
Emma: “We caravanned all the way across the country and he (Dawson) was in the car behind us. It was a whole 3 day voyage.”
CSC: Right before you debut at the Opry, you’ll be overseas on tour with Scotty McCreery. What are you looking forward to the most?
Emma: “For me, we’ve never been to Germany so that’s going to be amazing. Going back to the UK is going to be so much fun.”
Dawson: “For us too, the fans out there are just so awesome. They’re so dedicated to the music and they know the words to songs you haven’t released yet because they did their homework and found them on YouTube. It’s just cool to be able to meet new people like that and it’s a completely different way of living out there.”
CS: You’re also opening for Sara Evans for her Christmas show. Can you talk more about that?
Emma: “That’s going to be so much fun. We actually grew up singing ‘Suds In The Bucket’ all the time so it’s another surreal moment for us. She’s a sweetheart. We’ve done a couple of other shows with her. So we’re really excited to get back with her. It’s going to be so much fun.
Dawson: “My mom actually signed me up for guitar lessons because she went to a Brad Paisley concert and [Sara Evans] was opening up for him. She’s always loved Sara Evans so that’s really cool just to say that we get to open for her and join her on tour. My mom is freaking out and us too. It’s cool because that night is a defining moment for me. That was the decision she made when I was really young and she was like, ‘I want you to play guitar;’ and I said, ‘yeah I’d love to play!’ So she signed me up and obviously paid for it and helped me do that. Soon I got into singing and met them. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her doing that for me.”
CSC: Any other exciting projects or events that you have coming up?
Maddie: “We have two songs coming out next month, a Christmas song and another single.”
Emma: “We’re going on a cruise with Train called ‘Sail Across the Sun’ to the Bahamas so we’re excited for that.”
Maddie: “We’re very excited to go to the Bahamas but hopefully it’s all good there (due to the Hurricane Dorian).”
Dawson: “Music cruises are so cool. It’s same type of thing as the fans in London, everybody just loves to find new music. You won’t ever not be at a show, you can hear music 24/7 on those cruises.”
CSC: Can you give us any hints about your single
Maddie: “Maybe, maybe not. Well it’s called ‘Maybe Not’ so I had to do the joke.
Dawson: “We wrote it a little over a year ago and it’s cool because we’ve been performing this one live easily for over a year. We found videos of us from a year ago singing it and it’s just super cool to see how the song has evolved. We’ve done a lot to it.”
Emma: “It was actually a ballad at one point and now it’s no longer a ballad so it’s kind of been through different phases, but we’re finally going to keep it the way it is. We’re excited about this one.”
For more on Temecula Road, watch our interview with the trio backstage at the 2019 CMA Music Festival in Nashville earlier this summer.
