kid rock performs his new single born free at dte energy music theatre in clarkston michigan
The rousing, patriotic “Born Free,” the title track from the Detroit rocker’s upcoming album, has been enlisted by TBS as the official marketing theme for the network’s Major League Baseball postseason coverage.
Turner Sports has created a 2 1/2 -minute video for the song, which intersperses baseball footage and scenes from Rock’s recent concerts at DTE Energy Music Theatre. That full-length video will debut Friday on National CineMedia’s 14,600 movie screens, including Star and Cinemark theaters in metro Detroit.
Clips from the video will be repurposed for commercial spots across the Turner networks, including TNT and CNN. The song will be integrated into the game presentations on TBS, which will air the playoffs starting Oct. 6.
“Born Free” was “the perfect track” for a baseball campaign, a Turner Sports executive said in a statement.
“It’s a song with an all-American feel that connects perfectly with America’s favorite pastime,” said Craig Barry, the senior vice president of content for Turner Sports. “Having the opportunity to shoot Kid Rock’s performance in front of his hometown crowd added a dynamic energy that could not be duplicated.”
The album “Born Free,” Rock’s eighth, is due Nov. 16.
There’s no way you’re going to be able to confuse Kid Rock’s upcoming album Born Free with twitch-pop bomb-thrower M.I.A.’s song of the same name.
First of all, Rock’s eighth studio album, due November 16, was produced by legendary knobmeister Rick Rubin. Second, even though Rock, like M.I.A., will release a song called “Born Free” as his first single, the Detroit bad boy’s tune focuses not on world affairs, but on the economic decline of his hometown, Detroit.
A press release announcing the album calls Born Free “transformational,” going on to note that while Rock retains his “edge, wit, and swagger” on the record, he has left his rap-metal roots behind. “There isn’t even a parental warning sticker,” the release says.
Rock described how D-town inspired the Americana feel of some tracks.
“The catalyst for this record was Detroit, and my thoughts on the world through the lens of Detroit,” he said. “Watching everything go downhill over the past few years, the economy, the loss of jobs everywhere, I wanted to make a record that reflected the times but that still had soul.”
Most of the album was recorded during a two-week session in Los Angeles with a band that included Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Los Lobos guitarist/singer David Hidalgo and Chavez guitarist Matt Sweeney. The release also noted that Rock logged time in studios in Detroit, Nashville and Atlanta to lay down collaborations with fellow hometown rock icon Bob Seger, former flame Sheryl Crow, Zac Brown and Trace Adkins. T.I. and Martina McBride will appear on a song called “Care.”
The disc is the follow-up to 2007′s slow-burn success Rock N Roll Jesus, which produced the Lynyrd Skynyrd-inspired 2008 hit “All Summer Long.”
Rock provided a preview of the album earlier this month when he performed six of its songs during a series of hometown shows. In addition to the Detroit-boosting anthem “Times Like These,” he pulled the cover back on the Springsteen-like title track, the midtempo “Slow My Roll,” the somber “Rock On,” the 1970s-style rocker “Feels Good to Me” and the Rolling Stones-influenced “God Bless Saturday.”
Kid Rock played a three-night stand at DTE Energy Music Theatre in Detroit over the weekend, where he debuted six new songs from his upcoming album Born Free.
Kid also announced that the CD was due out on November 16th.
The first single will be “Born Free”, which Kid says described “how lucky each and every one of us are, no matter where you’re from, to be born in a country that’s free.”
Other new tracks played included “Slow My Roll,” “God Bless Saturday”, “Rock On”, “Times Like These” and “Feels Good To Me”, which will feature Trace Adkins.
At Kid’s second sold-out DTE show on Saturday night, “Scream 4” star David Arquette came on-stage, and could be seen dancing “like a madman” side-stage all evening, while actor Ray Liotta and former Red Wing Chris Chelios were backstage.
A world tour starting later this year is expected !, sponsored by Jim Beam. But Kid said over the weekend, “I’m not sure if I want to exactly when the record goes. I’ve always thought about putting a record out and maybe sitting back and letting it soak in on the fan base rather than going out and playing it the day it comes out, when everyone hasn’t had a chance to soak it in yet…That’s what I’m thinking now — but it could all change tomorrow.”
Kid Rock sings in the audience at DTE Energy Music Theater near Detroit on 08/13/2010
At a beery, packed DTE Energy Music Theatre on Friday night, Rock launched into a typically vigorous set of hit fare for a capacity crowd of 15,000-plus.
It was a Kid Rock show with all the ritual frills: the self-assured showmanship, the blasts of pyro, the rat-a-rat-tat roll call of hits with his Twisted Brown Trucker band. Clad in a blue tank top and black fedora, Rock worked the DTE stage with all the aplomb you’d expect from someone who’s done it more than a dozen times.
Standard, routine stuff, it seemed. But in this first of three sold-out shows, it steadily became clear that Rock views this weekend as a transitional moment of sorts — a poignant, crucial turning of pages between career chapters.
“You could call this the start of a new era,” Rock said during a reflective moment in his show’s encore, as he performed a pair of songs from his upcoming album, “Born Free,” due Sept. 7.
Those songs, the Detroit healing ballad “Times Like These” and the new album’s potent title anthem, represent a different kind of Kid Rock — the one who will turn 40 in January and who looks ready to embrace a more mature brand of work.
“This is the last show you may see before I head over the hill, if you know what I mean,” he said while explaining the genesis of the song “Born Free”: His world travels, Rock said, have begun to open his eyes to the reality of the human condition. The trials of those born in less fortunate circumstances don’t erase the fact, he said, that all are meant to be free.
It was perhaps the most authentic expression of enlightenment we’ve heard onstage from the veteran star.
“Born Free” was also the best of several new songs debuted during the 2-hour-plus show, a rousing libertarian anthem propelled by a crisp and incessant rhythm guitar riff. The earnest patriotism and epic ’80s feel made it sound like the “Born in the U.S.A.” that some confused listeners always wanted that Springsteen song to be.
The Detroit passion piece “Times Like These” had some flag-waving of its own for the local audience. Backed by guitarist Marlon Young and a series of stirring Michigan images, Rock revealed a song that’s been honed since its debut last summer at Comerica Park, with a melody that pushed his voice to places it was almost unequipped to go after two hours on stage.
Other new material was a mixed bag: The pleasingly thick-grooved “Slow My Roll” clicked; the draggy “Rock On,” which came off akin to a tepid Pink Floyd blues tune, did not.
Rock took to a piano alone for a moving cover of “In Color” by country Jamey Johnson — who we’ve learned will pop up as a surprise opener for Sunday’s Kid Rock show.
Kid Rock may have had his own designs on the evening, but for fans, Friday was all about the party. It was a set largely comprised of comfy, familiar hits — high-wattage tunes such as opener “Bawitdaba,” “Son of Detroit” and “Devil Without a Cause” mingled with lower-key material like “Picture” and brisk sing-alongs like “All Summer Long.”
The regular set closed with a confetti-strewn, Vegas-fueled run through “Rock and Roll Jesus.”
While it lacked the larger-than-life power that marked last summer’s pair of blockbusters at Comerica Park, this weekend opener nonetheless exuded the feel of a special event.
“I guess this has turned into the intimate venue, huh?” Kid Rock quipped to the noisy crowd.
A mostly good-spirited vibe filled the congested grounds on a steamy summer night. It was likely the hardest-partying, heaviest-drinking crowd DTE has seen this summer — at least until the Saturday revelry kicks in tonight.
source: http://www.freep.com By BRIAN McCOLLUM FREE PRESS POP MUSIC CRITIC
Take the capacity of DTE Energy Music Theatre (15,274) and multiply that by three.
The number you get is 45,822 — which is how many people will be spending this weekend captivated by the sights and sounds of a Kid Rock concert in Metro Detroit.
The self-proclaimed “Son of Detroit” has made selling out multiple back-to-back concerts something of a summer tradition in his hometown, and this year will be no exception.
Last year, he sold out two full stadium shows at Comerica Park and extended the music into a weekend-long block party in downtown Detroit.
This year, he’ll keep his shows a little closet to home at the outdoor Clarkston venue (Rock lives in Clarkston), which music writer Gary Graff has dubbed “Pine Bob,” playing off the singer’s real first name and the venues former name.
The three shows are sold out, but a small number of tickets might be released right before each show.
Both The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press wrote tributes today, honoring this new summer tradition.
The Freep’s Brian McCollum compared Kid’s audience-drawing power, both locally and nationally, to Bob Seger and the J. Geils band.
The News’ Adam Graham put together a hodgepodge of lists, quantifying everything from the number of fans that have come to his concerts over the past ten years, to how many concerts he made an appearance at this year (six so far, including the Black Eyed Peas and Bon Jovi).
Are you planning on seeing Kid Rock this weekend? Which day? And what are your pre- and post-concert plans?
Each concert starts at 7 p.m., Friday Saturday and Sunday.
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