I’m sitting here looking at the tracklist for Old Dominion’s new EP, *Memory Lane*, and it strikes me how much they’ve shifted the gravity of modern country music. For the last few years, this band has been the sharpest tool in the Nashville shed. They’ve managed to stitch together traditional country bones with the kind of pop-rock sheen that usually feels manufactured. But with these guys, it feels lived-in.
They aren’t just another hat-act. They are a collective of songwriters who finally decided to stop giving their best stuff away to other people. Now, they are taking the "North American No Bad Vibes Tour" across the border. If you’re in Ontario, you’re looking at Ottawa on Jan. 27, Toronto on Jan. 28 and London on Jan. 30.
But there is a bit of a tease happening with this new release. It’s an EP, sure, but the industry is calling it a "sampler." That’s a word that usually implies you’re getting the leftovers before the main course. I caught up with lead singer and primary penman Matthew Ramsey to get the truth behind the branding.
When I ask him why the EP is labeled as a sampler, Ramsey is blunt about the band’s impatience. "Because there's more coming. We're definitely working on a whole body of music here, and we’re just tired of sitting on it. We wanted to put some of it up now and give a little sample of what is to come," Ramsey says.
It is a savvy move. In the streaming era, holding onto a full album for 12 months is a death sentence for momentum. By dropping a sampler, they keep the algorithm fed while they polish the rest of the record.
And let’s look at the sheer volume of their output. Since they signed with RCA Nashville in 2015, these guys have put out more than 50 songs. That’s a staggering pace for a band that spends half the year on a tour bus. Most artists struggle to find 10 decent tracks every three years.
Ramsey doesn’t see it as a grind. For him, the band was almost an accident of the trade. "Yeah. We moved here to be songwriters. First and foremost, it's what we love to do. We weren't really trying to be in a band. It just happened. Songwriting is our true love, and we try to do it as much as possible. We're always energized by it and inspired by other writers. It just makes you want to work. We would put out more if we could," he says.
That songwriter-first mentality is what separates Old Dominion from the pack. They aren’t just "performers" looking for a hit; they are craftsmen who understand the architecture of a bridge and the hook of a chorus.
But where does that spark come from when you’ve already written hundreds of songs? How do you keep the well from running dry? Ramsey suggests it’s about keeping your eyes open in the mundane moments of life.
"Oh gosh, it could be anything. You learn to have your radar on all the time. It could be something that you're going through. It could be something that your friend is going through. It could be something that you saw in a movie or read in a book or heard on another song or something your kids do. It can just really come from anywhere, and you always have to be ready to write it down or sing it into your phone so that you don't forget it," Ramsey says.
That "radar" led them to the title track, "Memory Lane." It’s a song that feels familiar but carries a lyrical twist that keeps it from falling into the trap of country nostalgia tropes.
Believe it or not, it’s hard to write a good up-tempo song. It's easier for us to write mid-tempo ballad songs, but this time we forced ourselves into that tempo... as soon as someone said, 'if I could buy a house on Memory Lane,' it sparked everyone's imagination. We thought it was a unique perspective of being able to put your memories in some actual physical real estate and think about that way—at a place that you could actually go visit or live in even.
The technical side of the song started with a simple rhythm. "Brad had this little guitar loop and kick drum going with that tempo. We wanted something that was up-tempo. Believe it or not, it’s hard to write a good up-tempo song. It's easier for us to write mid-tempo ballad songs, but this time we forced ourselves into that tempo and our co-writer Jessi Jo Dillon had this title called Memory Lane," Ramsey explains.
He’s right about the tempo. Most modern country leans on those mid-tempo "walking" beats because they are safe. Writing a fast song that doesn’t feel frantic or cheesy is a legitimate technical challenge.
The breakthrough for the track came when they stopped treating "Memory Lane" as a metaphor and started treating it like a physical location. It’s a brilliant bit of personification that gives the song its legs.
Ramsey says, "We didn't really know what that meant at that time, but as soon as someone said, if I could buy a house on Memory Lane, it sparked everyone's imagination. And we thought it was a unique perspective of being able to put your memories in some actual physical real estate and think about that way - at a place that you could actually go visit or live in even. Our minds just started turning and everybody started looking back at their own lives and we just started getting out all of these ideas and before we knew it, we had the song."
And now, that song is the engine driving the "No Bad Vibes Tour." The name itself sounds like a marketing slogan, but it actually has a more organic, almost accidental origin story involving a country music titan.
"Well, that's a line in one of our songs, No Hard Feelings. We were planning our tour at the time. It was the summer of 2022 just trying to put it all together. We went on tour with Kenny Chesney and we were selling these big flags on that tour that say No Bad Vibes and they would fly off the sales. People just love them," Ramsey says.
He continues, "You'd see them out in the crowd and one day, Kenny said, ‘have you guys named your tour yet, it's right there on your flags - No Bad Vibes.’ And we were like, wow, you're right. So that was a Kenny Chesney thing."
If Kenny Chesney tells you what to name your tour, you listen. The man is a stadium-filling machine for a reason. But the "vibe" isn't just about the flags; it’s about the connection the band has built with audiences, particularly north of the border.
Canada is often an afterthought for Nashville acts, but Old Dominion treated it like a primary market from the jump. They are hitting the 401 corridor hard this month before heading west in February and March.
"Canada has been really great to us. We were lucky enough to have a very smart team that way back in the beginning of this, said, we want you guys to make Canada a priority. We did it very early on and the first time we went up there was for a festival called Boots & Hearts, and we saw this huge impact our music had there and we were immediately hooked and committed to continuing to go back to Canada as much as we thought we could," Ramsey says.
I’ve always found it a bit masochistic that these major tours hit Ontario and the prairies in the dead of winter. There is nothing "No Bad Vibes" about a blizzard on the highway between Edmonton and Calgary.
Ramsey is well aware of the risks. "We have been there in the winter before. We've been stuck in the snow there a couple of times," he admits.
But why do it? Why not wait for the summer festival circuit? Ramsey doesn't have a definitive answer, but he suspects it's a matter of scheduling around the massive American summer machine.
"I think there's just a lot of big summer festivals and things like that there and in The States that we all try to work around, but I would only be speculating. At this point, I'm lucky to have people that just tell us where to go and we just go when they tell us to," Ramsey says.
Whether it’s the snow in London or the rain in Vancouver, the band is coming. After the Ontario run, they head west starting in Vancouver on Feb. 28. Then it’s Edmonton on March 2, Calgary on March 3, Lethbridge on March 9, Regina on March 10 and Winnipeg on March 11.
Tickets are already moving fast on Ticketmaster for the Ottawa and Toronto shows. For the London stop at Budweiser Gardens, you’ll need to hit their specific box office.
But here is the real takeaway: Old Dominion is in a rare groove right now. They’ve found a way to be prolific without being repetitive. They’ve found a way to be commercial without losing their songwriter souls.
And if *Memory Lane* is just a sampler, the full meal is going to be something to behold. Watch for our full interview where we go even deeper into the upcoming album in the February issue of 519 Magazine. For now, just get to the show and leave the bad vibes at the door.
