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a rockin road to country
interview with Crossin Dixon
by rick grant    rickgrant01@comcast.net

      Crossin Dixon formed three years ago, causing quite a stir in the clubs and among radio DJs. In 2006 the band met record producer Michael Knox and signed a record deal with Broken Bow records in Nashville. In July 2007, the band released their first single, ‘Guitar Slinger,’ from their first album, which is soon to be released.
      The band consists of Jason Miller on lead vocals, Brandon Hyde on guitar and vocals, Charlie Grantham on bass and vocals, and Michael Bole on drums. This unadulterated rocking country band is a Southern rock band crossed with country roots. The taut groove machine comes on strong and kicks-butt with a no-frills rock-country sound.
      Prior to the Crossin Dixon’s live show at the Jax Fair November 11th, I called Jason Miller to chat about the band’s evolution from bar band to signed artist. They were just pulling into a truck stop for a lunch break.
      “Yeah we’re in the Deep South now, our kind of country. We’ve been together for three years now. All of us are from small towns in Mississippi. All four of us had been playing in different bands for many years. The drummer and I decided to form a band and two of the guys from another band we knew liked what we were doing and decided to join us. Charlie Grantham and Brandon Hyde were in a rock band before joining us. So, when we started out we realized we had great chemistry together and this could be a band worth pushing to the top. It just fell into place–our harmonies were perfect and we get along well on the road, even though we are all different personalities.”
      “We’re not one of those bands that just got signed and hadn’t played out much. We all have been playing professionally most of our lives in clubs and bars. So, we knew how to work an audience. This gave us a big advantage. And we love playing live and being on the road.
      “In Mississippi, we built up a following of fans just from the clubs we were playing. Now we’re playing nationally, everywhere we go we win over new fans who join our fan group online. Since we are more of a Southern rock band, we crossover into the country music scene as well as the rock [scene].
      “In country we can play more ballads than we would if we were strictly a rock band. But we can rock out with our up-tempo songs. We’ve been doing our radio tour and appearing on radio shows and our fan group has increased exponentially. The fair circuit exposes our music to a cross-section of the population of the towns where the fairs are being produced. And the audiences are very enthusiastic. We love playing fairs.
      “We’ve also been opening up for headliners such as Chris Cagle. Last year, we played the Jacksonville Landing. The place was jam-packed and the people really went wild over our music. So we have fond memories of Jacksonville.”
      Jason went on to say that they have completed their self-titled album for Broken Bow which will be released after Christmas. They are waiting on a release date from the record company.
      This is a noteworthy group of experienced musicians who are living their dream of big time success. Jason was humble and appreciated my interest in his band. I checked out the bands’ music on Rhapsody and I was impressed by its hard rocking, redneck-fueled sound that took the rock’n’roll road to country and got everyone rocking.

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