The Nashville Tribute Band
The Nashville Tribute Band is a revolving group of talented artists and musicians pulled together by award-winning songwriter and Nashville record producer Jason Deere. The band tours the world performing the stories and songs from the albums Joseph: A Nashville Tribute To The Prophet, Trek: A Nashville Tribute To The Pioneers, The Work: A Nashville Tribute To The Missionaries, and My Call to Serve. Deere, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wrote most of the songs.
Deere recalls the inspiration for the first album:
- I was called to teach early morning Seminary. We were covering the Old Testament that year, and I immediately had this crazy fascination with the Restoration. I was teaching Exodus in the morning and reading everything I could get my hands on about the Restoration in the evening. I was immersed in both subjects and something started to change in me. Suddenly, songs about the Restoration started coming out of nowhere. I wrote two or three, and then called my friend Dan Truman, of the country super-group Diamond Rio. I went to his house and played him the songs. We knew we had to do something. We had no idea what the world would think of redneck Mormon songs, but we knew that we had to make an album – for us, if for no one else. In a few weeks, I had written all but one of the rest of the songs for the album (the last song, a song about Hyrum Smith, came as songs sometimes do – on the morning recording sessions were to begin).[1]
The first album was released in 2005, and it became one of the bestselling Latter-day Saint albums of all time, which launched the concert tours. The second album followed in 2007, and the third in 2011. The fourth was released in March 2014 and the fifth in November 2014.
About the fourth album, Deere said:
- We wanted the world to know that young men and young women, at such a pivotal time in their lives, give up their time and talents to learn of Christ, to speak of Christ, to teach of Christ . . . that moms and dads and sisters and brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles write letters and pray for their loved ones as they serve.[2]
In November 2014, the group released the fifth album, Redeemer: A Nashville Tribute to Jesus Christ. It features other Latter-day Saint musicians such as David Archuleta, Alex Boyé, Nathan Pacheco, and SHeDAISY. Deere said of the album:
- We had to give everything we had on this because of the subject matter. . . . I knew this would be an opportunity for people who are not members of our church to see our level of commitment and passion toward our understanding of the Atonement and this person who changed everything for us. We put 100 percent in it. I also want the population of our Church to have every opportunity, not just during the sacrament, but every opportunity to be reminded that the Atonement is what everything else is secondary to.[3]
The list of artists includes Dan Truman (of the country group Diamond Rio, who has been with the band since its creation), Brad Hull, Matt Lopez, and Tim Gates (of the country group Due West), Ron Saltmarsh, entertainer David Osmond, actor and recording artist Katherine Nelson, country artist Billy Dean, pop artist Mindy Gledhill, Dyer Highway, and Ben and Chad Truman (of the group Truman Brothers).
The band has performed over 500 shows for audiences in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and China since 2004. They have performed in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City as well as given several performances in the Tabernacle on Temple Square.
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