Brock Gonyea moving to Nashville this month in time for debut of first album

by Dan McClelland

Brock Gonyea is headed back to Nashville in coming days to be there for the release of his first album. Brock also has a new manager.

Before heading to the country and western capital of the world, he gave a private concert on a recent Sunday for a big fan here- his 92 year old great aunt Beulah Gonyea at her Sunset Ave. home. Beulah's daughters Tina Baldwin and Terry Whitman joined her for the exclusive concert.

The local gig also featured Brock's dad, Bruce, who sang and harmonized with the rising star, as they performed country classics from the 1940s and 1950s.

Brock recorded the five songs on his album on his most recent visit to Nashville late last fall.

This month he’s relocating there permanently, after just finding an apartment.

In early 2020 Brock signed with Big Machine Records, one of the biggest names in country and western music today. Company officials helped him find his new apartment.

Big Machine Records is an American independent record label, which is distributed by Universal Music Group. The company was founded in September 2005 by former Dream Works record executive Scott Borchetta and became a joint venture between Mr. Borchetta and country singer Toby Keith.

It's the record label of such country performers as Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Sheryl Crow, Lady A., Carly Pearce, Dan Smalley, Callista Clark, Rascall Flatts, Sugarland and now Brock Gonyea.

Brock's road to Nashville began several years ago when he sang a song “Hello Walls,” written by Willie Nelson and made famous by old-time country star Faron Young.

Mr. Young was an American country music singer and songwriter from the early 1950s into the mid-1980s and one of the industry's most colorful stars. The honky-tonk singer was known as the Hillbilly Heartthrob and the Young Sheriff. His singles, which also included “It's Four in the Morning” were on the charts for more than 30 years. Many of Brock's fans believe he sounds very much like Faron Young.

Brock's video of his performance of “Hello Walls” went viral and managed over 3.7 million hits in the days after he uploaded it, according to a story we published about Brock last summer.

Brock's trips to Nashville began when a singer and performer named Brynn Arens saw and heard the “Hello Walls” video on the internet and called him. Mr. Arens is also a part-time manager of performers.

“The reason Brynn clicked on the video to begin with was because I supposedly look exactly like his youngest son, Felix. Then he listened to it and said: 'wow, this is awesome.'”

“He tried to get in touch with me and at the time I was working with other management and heading in completely different direction.” He noted that arrangement went by the way side.

Eventually Mr. Arens reached him. Mr. Arens had contacts with several record companies and together he and Brock headed out. There’s been several trips to Nashville and one to the west coast.

One of their first stops was Big Machine Records in Nashville. They also flew to Los Angeles, California to meet officials with another record company Brynn has worked with there.

“Then we heard back from Big Machine and they told us they were very, very interested in me.”

The president of Big Machine Records, Scott Borchetta, always personally listens to all new artists. Some times he listens to one song, sometimes two. If he listens to only one, his company is probably not going to sign the artist. If the artist is asked to play two in the audition, there’s a chance he or she will be signed. In Brock’s case he asked him play seven songs.

“Scott seemed to like me right off the bat!” Brock admitted in an interview last year.

Brock recently secured a new manager, Danny Nozell, who is also Dolly Parton's manager.

Brock's new album- his first one- is due to be released the end of this month. Its title is “Where My Heart Is!” It's also the name of the song that is the title track.

Big Machine Records is in the process of forming a band for Brock. His long-time friend and fellow musician Mark Pratico of Tupper Lake, who is now teaching in California, has been asked to audition for the new band.

Brock expects to eventually tour with his new band. But until the pandemic ends, he may just go on the road with another musician and perform acoustically in small, well-spaced venues.

Bruce said that for the new album the band members were all professional musicians, well known in Nashville. One of the performers was flown in from California for the recording sessions.

“Not only are these guys amazing musicians, many have written many of their own songs which have been hits and some are also music producers,” said Brock.

“They just know the music inside and out!”

Brock sang all the five songs on the album.

“They are calling it a collection,” he said of his new album.

Once the album is out, Big Machine promoters will be pushing for lots of radio play on country stations across the nation.

Did your dad sing on the album? the Free Press asked Brock in jest.

“No, but we're working on that,” the young performer said with a grin.

Brock and his dad harmonize well together. They have been singing and playing guitar together since Brock was a teenager.

Two of the songs on the new album are what Brock calls “completely his.” They are entitled “Where My Heart Is” and “My World Turns to Silver.” A third song was co-written by Brock and a musician named Larry McCoy.

“Where My Heart Is” is a song about Brock working with his dad on the family's wood pile behind their Park Street house.

“It's basically about me growing up there,” Brock explains.

One of the lines of the song refers to a place where the “chainsaws are running and the guitars are strumming,” his dad adds. “When they first heard that song they (the Nashville people) wanted to come up here this winter and film us cutting wood. Brock told them if they come to New York they were going to be quarantined for 14 days. It was also very cold. So they cancelled that right away.”

Brock last month played with Larry McCoy over the computer application Zoom in a song-writing session. “We had Google document pulled up on the side of the computer screen and we were both adding lyrics.” Brock called it a “real collaboration.”

On his last trip to Nashville, the record-makers there spent a lot of time with Brock developing “content” for the album cover and detailing his life growing up in Tupper Lake.

“That's all we did. We were in one of Danny's offices, and there was a film crew there taping from the time I got there until the time I left each day. The cameras were always rolling!”

He said there was a large wardrobe on site and he was steadily changing suits during the recordings, the interviews and the photo sessions.

“I don't know if the rumor was true or not, but apparently one of those suits was once worn by the legendary Earl Scruggs.”

Brock said that he changed managers because it was a normal progression in the business.

Bruce explained when they were talking to Brynn Arens on a conference call last summer out on the family's woodpile, he admitted that because of Brock's talent, in Brynn's words, “he is going to go so big, so fast,” it would soon be out of his hands and new management would follow.

“We didn't believe him. We said 'you are going to be his manager forever'. He was right, however.”

On the next trip to Nashville, the executives at Big Machine suggested Brock needed a bigger management team, said Bruce, and hence the decision to engage Mr. Nozell.

Brock will be presented to the world from Nashville in the style of “old country,” says Bruce, who has sang and performed many of those songs from the 1940s and 1950s with Brock and before him with his brother Rick, with their father, Richard, and with many in their Gonyea uncles here.

He said the music experts at Big Machine want to show how Brock got into old country and it's “because our family all played it.”

Brock in recent months has been trying to revive some of the family's old audio tapes that his grandfather Richard (“Puell”) once recorded.

“There's a couple of songs he recorded we can't even find who the artist was,” the young musician told the Free Press that afternoon.

Brock's life has started to change and there promises to be many more changes ahead for him as he pursues his musical career in Nashville. -And when he's home for a visit in the years ahead his bosses at Big Machine have made one thing very clear: no more working with his dad on the wood pile any more. Those guitar-playing hands are too valuable to risk injuring.

“They asked me in one of our conversations if I had ever been hurt cutting firewood. I told them: no! I know what I'm doing with a chainsaw. You have to respect it.”

His dad chimed in: “I made the mistake of telling them that running a chainsaw isn't bad, but when you are splitting and piling you smash your fingers a lot. Once I told them that, they said no more wood pile for Brock!” He laughed.

Brock is not sure when his band will be formed. The intent is to create a group he can tour the country with, to popularize and promote his music.

He says that's still on hold for now, given the restrictions of the pandemic.

“Once I get back down there I know it's going to be another whirlwind!” If past visits to Nashville are any indication, they may be 12 to 14-hour days in the recording studio. “I'm not sure how the process will unfold this time!”

He anticipates he and his new band will rehearse in one of his manager's many “rehearsal spaces. He has a ton of them around Nashville.” Once the band is polished and the pandemic ends, the plan is for them to hit the road touring.

There's a possibility too that some of the shows that will be booked for Brock and his new band may take them to Europe and Asia. “These are all some of the discussions we're having...my manager is looking for a touring agent “to go international.”

Brock noted that there are several agents overseas who have heard his music and would be interested in developing some touring and engagements for him there.

Bruce notes that “old country” is seeing a growth in interest among Europeans, according to what they have been told.

That afternoon in March in Great Aunt Beulah's living room Brock played a number of those old country songs by Hank Williams and others that she grew up with. Bruce sang and harmonized with his son.

Bruce sings a number of Charlie Pride songs. “After years of listening to me play them when Brock first heard Charlie play those songs, he said 'oh my, he's playing them all wrong'!” Lots more laugher.

“Pick Me Up On Your Way Down” was one old song Bruce and Brock sang that day. Hank Williams' “Cold Cold Heart” was another.

“A Fool Such as I” by Hank Snow, later performed by Elvis, was our favorite. The Gonyea ladies were undecided on which of the half dozen songs they liked the best.

It was, unanimous, however, that Brock, with his wonderful warbling and vibrato-style of singing, nailed every one!

As Brock re-locates permanently to Nashville in the days ahead, we at the Free Press wish him much luck in his musical career. Make Tupper Lake proud of you, Brock!

Incidentally Brock was the guest of honor Saturday evening at a going away party of family members and friends at his sister Amanda's Ohana's 1950s Diner on Park Street.