Date Signed: Nov. 15, 2022
Label: 8 Track Entertainment / ADA / Warner Music Group
Band Members: Chris Ramos, Ben Chism
Type of Music: Country
Management: Gary Kraen - 8 Track Entertainment, [email protected]
Booking: Bob Kinkead - [email protected]
Legal: Robin Gordon - Gordon Law Group
Publicity: Claire Cook-Taylor - [email protected]
Web: boomtownsaintsmusic.com
A&R: Gary Kraen; Noah Gordon - [email protected]
Learning to play 13 instruments in the band room in middle school, Chris Ramos—one-half of country duo Boomtown Saints—has been songwriting since he was a teenager. Ben Chism was raised on hard rock in Mississippi and started learning about country music in high school, first inspired after hearing Kenny Chesney. With Chism moving to Tennessee shortly after placing top ten in a talent contest, the pair met at a gym in Nashville (where Chism’s wife was a trainer).
A year into their friendship, Chism asked Ramos to play bass for him at a last-minute show. The setlist was 44 songs and ran for four hours. Returning multiple times for repeated performances, songwriting and traveling together, Boomtown reached out to Lighting 100 radio director Gary Kraen, who became a fan and introduced them to producer Noah Gordon. Helping with recording, mastering, image, and live shows, Gordon began pitching the band, and he and Kraen soon formed 8 Track Entertainment, signing Boomtown Saints as their first artist. Says Ramos, “[Noah’s] technical ability to take tracks, refine them and make them sonically as good or better than anything out there—he put in the years to complement his creativity.”
Having just signed to Kinkead Entertainment for booking, Boomtown reached out years ago but was told they weren’t ready. Ecstatic to have signed now, the duo recognizes how far they’ve come. Shares CEO Bob Kinkead, “When I first saw Montgomery Gentry perform at the level Chris and Ben are at, they didn’t have this kind of energy. Boomtown Saints have the “IT” factor—the energy, the vocals,” adding that he appreciates their management team, who has “a special passion for the band and all the right strategies.”
“We’ve tried to steer clear of heartbreak downers,” confesses Ramos of their shows. “We want everybody to forget about problems.”
Concludes Kinkead, “I believe in my heart they are going to be a really big act.”
