GREG STERLING
On Fire

By Phil Sweetland
Music & Radio contributor, The New York Times

NASHVILLE – It’s called the Fire Rope, and the Montana-bred singer and songwriter Greg Sterling is said to be the first man in the world to ever set fire to a lasso while standing on a horse.

An expert horseman, trainer, and trick roping artist, Sterling literally stands on the back of his horse – Renegade – in the middle of a flaming lariat in the striking photograph. The trick is too dangerous to perform onstage, but the heat that fiery rope generates is similar to the temperature rise his family-friendly shows have caused fans of all ages, at fairs and festivals from coast to coast, at Country Radio, and all along Nashville’s famous Music Row.

“Greg is the consummate entertainer,” said Gayle Hart of the Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair, an award-winning marketing director in the booming International Association of Fairs & Expositions. “What Greg delivered over the Fair’s 12 days far exceeded our expectations.”

In an ever more competitive entertainment market, those words are music to the ears for the professionals booking fairs and festivals, and for PDs and MDs at Country Radio.

Greg’s live shows are unforgettable. They combine music, athleticism and trick roping into an unforgettable set that thrills on many levels, and provides huge bang for the entertainment buck.

Greg is a superior athlete and a born showman who is equally talented at music. He has the classic good looks of a Gary Cooper, another Montanan who took the showbiz world by storm: Cooper, the star of High Noon, Sergeant York, and countless other Hollywood classics, was born in Helena, Montana, in 1901.

Greg performs songs by many of Country’s most famous tunesmiths but some of his best music is his own. Sterling wrote all four songs on his new Western Revolution EP, which is already creating major buzz at Radio, along Music Row and on the fairs-and-festivals circuit. His ballads, including “From The Heart,” make the female fans of all ages swoon, while his tempo numbers like “When The West Was Won” get the fans up, cheering, and stamping their feet.

Greg often closes his shows with another original, “My Hat Is Off To You, ” co-written with Justin Lantz. It sends the fans into the night begging for even more, and keeps them all talking about the real-life singing cowboy they just saw, and who they can’t wait to see and hear again.