Big names lend a hand on Daughtry's sophomore project

By John Benson

After spending the last few years hammering away to fans and the press that there’s a full band behind his namesake group, “American Idol” season 5 veteran and singer-guitarist Chris Daughtry admittedly no longer has that chip on his shoulder.

“I’ve just kind of stopped,” laughed Daughtry, calling from Los Angeles. “People are either going to know it’s a band or not. And even the people who do know it’s a band still sometimes refer to it as Chris Daughtry coming to play tonight. It’s like, whatever. They already have their mindset with a specific name, and the fans know who we are. I think Daughtry suits us in the same vein as Bon Jovi suits them. For me it was just obvious to go with my last name for name recognition. Every job I ever had everybody called me by my last name, it’s what spawned the idea.”

The fact of the matter is this 29-year-old artist, whose 2006 platinum debut album “Daughtry” was the fastest-selling rock album ever and spawned Top 5 hits “It’s Not Over” and “Home,” has other worries at the moment. Specifically, putting to rest the sophomore slump specter, which greets every new artist who experiences any fame right out of the gate.

For Daughtry, the “American Idol” exposure couldn’t have worked out better, with his band’s Grammy-nominated debut selling more than 5 million copies worldwide. This leads us to Daughtry’s new CD “Leave This Town,” which boasts songwriting credits from some of the industry’s biggest names, including pop singer Richard Marx, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, Lifehouse’s Jason Wade, Three Days Grace’s Adam Gontier and more.

“We certainly put a lot of work into it, writing close to 70 songs,” said the shaved-headed Daughtry, who admits he bears a resemblance to actor Vin Diesel. “We started writing when the first record came out, so it was one of those things that the early bird gets the worm, I guess. We wrote as much as we possibly could and then kept writing. And then when we thought we were done, not so fast, we wrote some more. And then we recorded 19 of those songs, and out of that we just took the ones that felt cohesive and right for the record. They felt like a step in the right direction but yet at the same time, still familiar.”

So far “Leave This Town” has sold more than 600,000 copies, with lead single “No Surprise” becoming popular. Up next is single “Life After You.” Daughtry stresses there are plenty of bullets left in the new album, including “Tennessee Line” (featuring Vince Gill) and the midtempo “September.”

“The album title stems from ‘September,’ and that’s probably one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written,” Daughtry said. “It just felt like way more mature songwriting for me and that I evolved a great deal since we wrote the first record. It’s something that I’m very proud of, for sure.”

Now comes the fun part for Daughtry and company with a major U.S. tour, which includes a Wednesday show at Covelli Centre in Youngstown. When asked why rock fans should think about attending his upcoming concert, which include Theory of a Deadman and Cavo on the bill, the singer made a pretty good argument.

“Why not, that’s why,” Daughtry laughed. “There’s nothing else to do that night. And you’ll see three rock bands for less than $50, and yeah, it’s going to be a killer show. That’s really all I got to say about that.”

if you go

Who: Daughtry with Theory of a Deadman and Cavo

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Covelli Centre, 229 E. Front St., Youngstown.

Tickets: $31.50 and $41.50 (Box office price)