Old Dominion, formed in Nashville in 2007, comprises lead singer Matthew Ramsey, guitarist and keyboardist Trevor Rosen, drummer Whit Sellers, bassist Geoff Sprung, and guitarist Brad Tursi. The band members, with roots in Virginia, initially gained recognition as songwriters for notable country artists such as Kenny Chesney, Blake Shelton, and Luke Bryan. Their debut studio album, Meat and Candy (2015), featured the chart-topping single ‘Break Up with Him,' propelling them into the country music spotlight. Subsequent albums, including ‘Happy Endings' (2017), ‘Old Dominion' (2019), and ‘Time, Tequila & Therapy' (2021), solidified their reputation with hits like ‘No Such Thing as a Broken Heart,' ‘Written in the Sand' and ‘One Man Band.' Their fifth album, ‘Memory Lane,' was released in October 2023.
In December 2023, Old Dominion announced plans to open Odie’s, a neighbourhood bar and music venue near Nashville’s Music Row, in collaboration with Good Time Design. Odie’s aims to recreate the intimate atmosphere of the venues the band frequented during their early songwriting days. Demonstrating their continued excellence, Old Dominion secured their eighth consecutive Group of the Year award at the 2025 Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards and we caught up with lead singer Matt Ramsey to talk about it all and the new music and tour to come this year.
Hi there Matt, thanks for your time today because I know just what a busy guy you are so I appreciate it very much. Congratulations on the recent 427th ‘Best Group' award win and breaking the ACM record – it was never in doubt, was it?
(laughing) Thank you! It's always in doubt, always in doubt! (laughing) We never know and we never take anything for granted. It's certainly brought out some haters having a winning streak like we have…. you know, that's OK, it's to be expected I guess.
Do you ever get any response – ribbing, roasting, teasing – from the guys in bands like Little Big Town and Lady A?
No, not really – they're all such gracious people, they are some of the best people that you could ever meet. We count them as our friends and they have always been happy for our success – at least to our faces! (laughing)
We talked during the release phase of the ‘Happy Endings' album about your streak of consecutive number ones at that point and you told me that it kept you awake at night knowing that streak would come to an end at some point. Do you feel like that about the award wins or do you just take each one as it comes?
No – we don't feel that pressure. We never think about the awards, honestly, until the moment that we are in the crowd at the show. We're very much, like, ‘I guess this is either gonna happen or not!' We just try to focus on the music and, thankfully, we've been rewarded because of that.
In terms of awards, sales, tickets and the whole jigsaw – what do you consider to be the metrics of success for the band at this point in your career?
Mostly I would say that it is that we are proud of the music that we are putting out. Do we feel good about the music that we are putting out? I would start there. As long as we are feeling good about that, then that is success. On the business side of it……… it would mostly be ticket sales. We wanna get people in those seats so that we can light up their day and be that source for them.
I also need to congratulate you on the opening of Odie's bar in Nashville. What takes more blood, sweat and tears – putting an album together or opening a bar?
On our part – definitely putting an album together! (laughing) We have great partners with the bar, we don't know how to run a bar, right? But thankfully we have some great partners who do! Our part of the process was all fun – it was all just decorating, finding memorabilia and spitballing different ideas. Our partners did all the hard stuff so it was easier for us than it is making an album!
I was looking at the menus last night. Whoever the mixologist is is doing a great job – those cocktails looked great. I particularly liked the look of the tequila-based ‘You're Hot Honey' one. Do you have a favourite cocktail from that list?
You know, they put the ‘Aftershow Manhattan' on that menu which is something that I have after a show – I like to have a Manhattan to wind down, it's my favourite drink. There's one on there called ‘The Work All Day' too which was Geoff's concoction and I had one of those on the opening night of the bar and I thought it was really good!
I've really loved the two songs you've put out this year – ‘Making Good Time' and ‘Me Most Nights'. They are classic Old Dominion ear-worms. Are they part of a bigger project that is coming down the line this year and, if so, what can you share with me about it?
Yes, they are. By the time we get over to see you guys in October we will have released a full-length album. We just got the masters back of it last week – it's done. We just shot the photo for the cover so we are approaching the finishing line for being able to get that out soon.
I think there is going to be 13 songs on it and I've gotta say, although I think every artist probably says this, we are more excited about this album than we have been in years or any album altogether, really. I can't remember us all being so aligned over a set of songs like these before. We're so excited to be able to get it out to you guys as soon as we can.
You dropped ‘Memory Lane' in quite a segmented, truncated fashion. Will this be a more standard release or can we expect to hear more songs upfront of its release?
You'll hear some more very soon. We're going to start trickling out some more stuff very shortly so that by the time it comes out there will have been some familiarity with it.
I've seen you teasing a song called ‘Break Your Mama's Heart' on Instagram. Tell me more about that one.
Absolutely. That's another way for us to get music out there. We felt like we hadn't explored that subject before or that part of the human experience – your mom is such an important figure in your life and often the unsung hero too so we kinda wanted to pay tribute to that on that song.
Have you written with any new writers for this new album or did you stick to the tried-and-trusted people that you've worked with before in the past?
It was mostly the trusted people we have written before with in the past. There's a few new folks on there, one of them being Ross Ellis who was part of ‘Making Good Time.' He is a guy that Brad has been championing for a number of years now – it was a great experience writing with him.
I think you played another new song ‘Goodnight Music City' at the Ryman residency in February?
That one is on the album, yes. We've done a full recording of that. We are so in love with that song! (laughing) We're hoping to give it some special time all of its own or some highlighting, for sure, over the coming months.
Both ‘Making Good Time' and ‘Me Most Nights' have a kind of 80s vibe to my ears, particularly that synth sounding chorus on ‘Me Most Nights.' Is that a feature of the album or will there be a number of sounds and styles?
There are multiple vibes but that does make an appearance, that kinda 80s sound. My first concert ever was Huey Lewis and the News and the band are all big Huey Lewis fans and there's one song in particular on the album where we decided to go ‘Full Huey' on that will also channel that 80s sound.
I looked at your tour schedule and, man, you've got a busy few months ahead! Little break in September before you head over to Europe in October. Is it getting harder to go out on the road at this stage in your careers or does the fire in your bellies still get you there?
It is hard. It's a little intimidating because this is one of the bigger tours that we have done in a few years. We're all a little intimidated by just the scheduling of it all so we're preparing ourselves for lack of sleep and all the things that come with touring but, you know, it's a funny thing, whenever you walk out on that stage it all goes away and the excitement kicks in, the adrenaline starts pumping and you feel great.
We're more prepared for this tour than we've been for any tour. We've rehearsed way more than we've ever rehearsed before and done so much planning for the visuals – we've been so hands on on every piece of the planning that we've just ready, now, to get out there and see some people! (laughing)
I saw you at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville during CMA Fest last year. Because that set was a shorter set it made me think about all the songs that I didn't hear! How do you go about choosing the setlist because I think you've reached a point in your career and your catalogue where there's going to need to be some hard decisions made on what and what not to play?
There are and we've learned a lot of people feel that way! (laughing) We can't play everything! It makes us super-grateful and proud that we have such a body of work to choose from so, of course, we have to find a way to put ALL the hits in there! That's where we start with our setlist – we start with the hits and how we want to map out the ride and the journey that we want to take people on.
After that, maybe there are some fan favourites that have been requested a lot that we want to put in – we take requests at the show now too – which means every show on the tour will be different due to the requests at each show. We also have some slots in there that are reserved for new songs that we want to swap in and out so it's gonna be a good, lengthy show filled with old and new songs and some moments of spontaneity too!
With the fan request thing – does that mean that you could play any song in your back catalogue?
Yes! We are prepared to play any song in our entire catalogue! There are a couple of songs that show up in requests that we have never played – I can think of one song in particular that keeps being requested that we've never played live and we keep looking at each other and going, ‘we should, probably, at some point, play this song!' (laughing)
If we start seeing requests for particular songs showing up from the crowd and we don't feel confident enough to do it on that night then we'll run it through a few times at soundcheck the next day. We always want to serve the audience and one of the best ways to do that is to keep yourselves engaged and fresh. If you play the same setlist every single night you can find yourself running on autopilot, right? You start phoning things in without realising that you are doing it if you are not careful so it's really helpful to have those moments of insecurity in the set where you are not totally comfortable with a song but you give it your best shot anyway!
You can grab tickets to see Old Dominion out on tour across America and Europe this year at this link right here.
