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Flyin' Country Style
By Cami Cox
Staff Writer
Still flying high, two local brothers are preparing to release their second country music CD to an international audience.
When Dixie High School graduates Eric and Andy Dodge released their first album, “Since I Let You Go,” in 2005, they sold thousands of copies of the CD in 14 countries. On the heels of that album, the country music team will debut their second CD, “Why Not Today,” Aug. 4, with power seller Amazon.com as their distributor.
“It's really a good, heartfelt CD. There's something on it for everyone, and we're excited about it,” Eric Dodge said.
With Eric Dodge as the headlining vocalist and brother Andy on acoustic guitar and backup vocals, the two brothers are slowly but surely sweeping the country with their toe tapping tunes and harmonies for the heart. And one of Eric Dodge's maxims, and one he intends to stay true to no matter where his music career takes him, is to keep it clean when it comes to his music.
“We like our music to be uplifting,” Eric Dodge said. “After our first CD, I got hundreds of e-mails from people saying, 'I'm so happy that my kids can listen to your music.' Not one song has a swear word in it.”
The Dodge brothers have gained fame throughout the country since the release of their first CD. They've been featured twice in Nashville-based Country Weekly magazine, and they tour regularly with New York Times bestselling author and household tips guru Marla Cilley, aka The FlyLady.
Many Nashville songwriters have come knocking on their door, with songs to be considered for the Dodges’ latest CD. In putting together “Why Not Today,” Eric and Andy Dodge listened to more than 1,000 songs from professional lyricists by the time all was said and done. Of those songs, the brothers whittled their final selection down to nine, all the while using their moral filter as a deciding factor in whether songs got the green light or the ax.
“I have one song, and I almost didn't take it, because the first line in it is, 'Standing on a corner, laughing, acting cool after school, lighting up a cigarette and bragging, while he's taking bets,' and then it says, 'Walks into Maggie's Market, hides a beer down in his coat pocket,” Eric Dodge said. “But the whole song is about people doing stuff to be accepted by their friends. The name of the song is 'Everybody Wants to Be Loved,' and people will do those things in order to be loved by their friends, by their husbands – a whole verse is about that kind of stuff. And so I thought, you know what? It does say 'beer' and 'cigarettes' – which I wouldn't take it because of that reason, normally – but because of the whole message of that song, it's actually one of my favorites on the album, because everybody knows what it's like to want to be accepted.”
The final album features nine of the Nashville tunes, including “Everybody Wants to Be Loved,” two originals written by the brothers, and the title track, which was previously featured on Cilley's “Fly!” CD.
Helping the Dodge brothers on their climb to fame has been FlyLady Cilley, who lives in North Carolina but has a national following of “FLYbabies” throughout the country who read her books, buy her CDs and subscribe to her Internet newsletters.
“She gets a thousand members a week,” Eric Dodge said. “She grew by almost 100,000 last year, and that's a huge amount of people to be touring with.”
The Dodges met Cilley at a taping of ABC 4's “Good Things Utah” in 2006. It was a fortuitous meeting, Andy Dodge said, because none of them were supposed to be there that week; the Dodges were booked because of a last-minute cancellation, and Cilley, who was supposed to be leaving Utah the day before, was held over, also due to a cancellation.
The three met backstage in the ABC studio, Cilley heard the boys perform and the rest is history.
“She stayed and watched us perform, asked for our CD and decided that she was going to be our full-time promoter and sponsor,” Eric Dodge said. “She's turned into more of a family member. We call her our other mom.”
Eric Dodge, sometimes accompanied by brother Andy, has toured regularly with Cilley ever since, performing with her at FlyLady events throughout the country. It was Cilley who helped the Dodges get their new album listed on Amazon, and the CD had already pre-sold more than 1,000 copies on that site a month before its August release. They've also been contacted by SIRIUS Satellite Radio about having music from their new CD broadcast over the national airwaves.
The Dodge brothers are currently producing under their own recording label, RS Records. Some smaller Nashville record labels have approached them with offers, but they've elected to stay independent for now. When and if they do decide to pursue a contract with a bigger label, Eric Dodge said, Cilley will be there to back them, 100 percent.
The FlyLady and her two rising stars will celebrate the release of “Why Not Today” with a free concert in Highland, Utah, Aug. 4, where Eric and Andy Dodge will perform with artist Ryan Shupe. They also appeared on Good Things Utah once again Thursday, Aug. 2; but this time, the Dodges and Cilley went on stage together.
“I think it's cool that we actually met her on Good Things Utah last year, and now we're actually premiering our new album on Good Things Utah with her there,” Andy Dodge said. “It's kind of gone full circle, and it's something we feel like was meant to be when we met.”

Eric Dodge's new CD, “Why Not Today,” can be purchased online at Amazon.com. For show dates, song samples from the CD and other information about Eric Dodge's music, visit www.ericdodge.com.

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