PANAMA CITY BEACH — The party continues for country singer Luke Bryan, as he returns to Spring Break in Panama City Beach for the sixth year.
Last year’s concerts brought about 120,000 fans over two days to Spinnaker Beach Club, where the ACM Entertainer of the Year performs again this year on March 11 and 12.
Bryan is hosting a contest for sorority girls to meet him. Fifty girls from the sorority with the most votes will meet him in Panama City Beach. Find out the sorority codes and text number at LukeBryanSororityContest.com.
The Spinnaker concerts coincide with the release of his new digital EP, “Spring Break 6 … Like We Ain’t Ever.” The album contains six orginal songs co-written by Bryan — “She Get Me High,” “Like We Ain’t Ever,” “Are You Leaving With Him,” “Good Lookin Girl” and “The Sand I Brought to the Beach.”
“The songs for this project came together so fast,” he said in recent promotional material. “These special EPs all began as a way to get new music out to the fans between studio projects. I feel like year after year we get a little bit better at writing for this. I think with these new songs I would be proud to put them on any album we release.”
His previous five Spring Break releases have sold more than 750,000 copies.
Bryan’s most successful Spring Break series album, “Spring Break … Here to Party,” debuted last March at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart and is certified Gold. The album is a compilation of songs from his first four Spring Break EPs, as well as songs, “Buzzkill” and “Just a Sip.”
His fourth studio album, “Crash My Party,” is a follow-up to his Double Platinum album, “Tailgates and Tanlines,” which included the single “Country Girl (Shake It for Me).” “Crash My Party” debuted No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Country sales chart, selling 527,783 copies, when it was released Aug. 13 and was certified Platinum within six weeks.
“I decided ‘Crash My Party’ was the perfect title for this album because, like the song, the album goes beyond the literal meaning of the title,” Bryan explained. “The song isn’t what you think it is, it is unexpected, and in the same way fans will definitely hear some surprises on my new album. It still reflects my sound but you will get to hear a little bit deeper, different side to me musically as well.”
The album ranges from party song “Beer In the Headlights” to “Goodbye Girl,” which shows a softer side.
“Usually I’m singing kind of loud and forceful and on ‘Goodbye Girl’ I’m using my tender, Conway Twitty-like, soft voice,” Bryan said. “It’s one my favorite things I’ve ever recorded.”
The Leesburg, Ga., native, who admits he spent a lot of time on dirt roads during his childhood, co-wrote “Dirt Road Diary” with Georgians Dallas Davidson, Rhett Akins and Ben Hayslip.
“’Dirt Road Diary’ is a song that I can envision country boys driving around on a dirt road listening to,” he added.
His Dirt Road Diaries Tour wrapped up in West Palm Beach in October, and his new tour, “That’s My Kind of Night” launched in January. Bryan performs March 7 in Memphis, Tenn., and March 8 in Bossier City, La., before heading to Panama City Beach.
Bryan has been nominated for the 2014 Entertainer of the Year for the 49th Academy of Country Music Awards, which air April 6 on CBS. Bryan and Blake Shelton will return as hosts.
Bryan called his Entertainer of the Year nod “validation. It’s checking the biggest goal for your career off the list. It reminds me just how wonderful my fans are. It’s every emotion possible.”
LUKE BRYAN
When: 4 p.m. March 11-12
Where: Waterfall at Spinnaker Beach Club, 8795 Thomas Drive, Panama City Beach
Details: (850) 234-7892 or SpinnakerBeachClub.com