Kane Brown released his fourth studio album, The High Road, on Jan. 24, and his tour in support of the album runs from mid-March through late August with more than 40 shows across North America, followed by more dates in the UK and Europe this fall.
While known as a country artist who also draws plenty of genre-blending inspiration from pop and R&B, Brown’s latest album includes tracks like “Fiddle in the Band” and “Says I Can” that hew close to traditional country music roots, with plenty of focus on traditional fiddles and slide guitar.
At the same time, the album also features more collaborations than in the past with other artists, including Marshmello on “Miles On It,” Khalid on “Rescue,” Jelly Roll on “Haunted,” Brad Paisley on “Things We Quit” and Katelyn Brown, his wife, on “Body Talk.” And for his touring performances of “Says I Can,” Brown shares the stage with the tour’s supporting acts, including Ashley Cooke, Dasha, Mitchell Tenpenny and Scotty McCreery.
As with the album, the touring production has been praised for its ability to showcase Brown’s increasing confidence in blazing his own artistic path.
“People always ask me what genre the show is,” the tours’ creative director, Alex Alvga, told FRONT of HOUSE’s sister publication, PLSN, for an article last month. “It’s just Kane Brown,” said Alvga, who’s been supporting this artist since 2017. “There’s no way to define it, and the design has to reflect that.” (See PLSN, Production Spotlight, May 2025, page 26).
FOH Q&A
FRONT of HOUSE asked FOH engineer David Loy (who, like Alvga, joined up with the Kane Brown camp in 2017) about what it has been like supporting the audio needs for the shows as they have evolved from smaller to larger venues.
For this tour, Loy has been using Yamaha’s Rivage PM3 with RX-EX Engine to control a Clair Global-supplied Cohesion system. The setup includes CO12 (Mains), CO10 (Sides), CO8 (Center), CP218 (Subs) and CF28 (Fills).
After hearing good things about the PM3’s sound and the stability of its software, Loy spent a week learning the ins and outs of the desk in early 2023. “I was really happy with the product at the end of the week,” he says.
“I went with the PM3 specifically because I love a small footprint. I love having a single screen,” Loy adds. “I’m not looking at knobs and screens the entire night and I really like that. I’m watching the stage and watching what’s going on and trying to mix with my head up, if that makes sense.”
Loy notes that when he built the show file for the tour, “I built it in-the-box to start. That was important to me as I really wanted to see what it could do. And again, I was really impressed with the way that it sounded. So then I took it a step further. ‘How will it sound even when adding some outboard that I’m used to having?’ So, I’m still summing outboard, I’m still doing inserts outboard, but it’s very easily switched with a button press. It’s not hard to go back in-the-box. And I’ve even had to do that at festivals where outboard got damaged in travel… I was able to bypass all of that and continue on with the show without any issues, and everyone remains happy.”
For The High Road tour, Loy’s FOH outboard setup includes Rupert Neve Designs Shelford and 5059, SSL Fusion, Bettermaker Limiter 2.0, Bettermaker Bus Compressor, Wes Audio Dione, DBX 560, Elysia nvelop, Elysia xfilter and Antelope Audio Galaxy 32 components.
FRONT of HOUSE: What have been some of the challenges of mixing Kane’s tours from the beginning? How did you and your team handle the growth of scaling from clubs/theaters to arenas, and eventually, stadiums?
David Loy, FOH Engineer: When I first started with Kane in 2017, it was everyone on one bus, and a 40-foot semi truck. Within two years, it had scaled to headlining his first arenas with four buses and six semi trucks. It’s one of those situations where I realized early on that I needed to remain proactive, and not reactive. Learn as much as I could, as fast as I could, and lean on the support of our production team and our audio vendor, Clair Global. They’ve been doing this much longer than I have, so when designing the audio system for Kane’s first arena tour in 2019 began, it started with designing a system that would fit in half a truck but still have enough horsepower to cover B-market arenas really well. That’s when I began my relationship with Clair’s Cohesion System, using CO10 as our primary deployment on that tour. Year after year, the process remained the same, where I would sit down with Clair’s engineering team about one or two months prior to production rehearsals and design a system that gives us the best coverage and impact while still taking the limitations of truck space and set design into account.
What are some things you learned from mixing Kane as a support artist, transitioning into a headlining artist, and the dynamic that brings with other acts joining you on tour?
I had the pleasure of working with Kane during his support tours of Jason Aldean (twice), Brad Paisley, Chris Young, and a ton of others. One thing I loved during those tours was studying how those camps operated; how they helped their openers, and what kind of standards they required from everyone. It was really educational, and some of the relationships I made on those tours I still have today. So when Kane began headlining his own shows, I made it my genuine goal to welcome each guest engineer (and their extended crew) and make sure that everyone succeeds on our tour. We don’t want to be a tour where someone comes out and has a bad time with our system. I and Toni Luna (our system engineer) personally make sure that each act is sounding great and that their engineers are pleased. Oftentimes, Kane invites artists on tour that he has a personal relationship with. We want to make sure to extend that same hospitality to their crews and band as well. That’s why each artist gets a soundcheck every day, that’s why I make sure each engineer knows what processing Toni and I have on the system from venue to venue. That’s why we make sure that it’s not just our show that is set up for success, but everyone that comes out on our tours.
What is something specific about the system design for The High Road Tour that was a challenge or unique?
This year, our creative team decided to have a U-Shaped thrust that goes out a little over 72 feet from the downstage edge at its furthest point. That’s a pretty significant challenge for a clean vocal, and so myself and Toni, along with Clair’s Engineering team, opted to do a different PA Design than we normally do. This year, we continued with Cohesion CO12 as our Main L-R, but hung it 16 feet from the downstage edge. This pushes the main PA further into the floor, limiting its coverage on the thrust. We are also towing the main hang off-stage by 10 degrees every day, further aiming the sound away from the center of the thrust. This then leaves a significant lack of coverage in our pit area, so we are using a small center hang of Cohesion CO8 to cover the Pit. This allows us to not lose any coverage on the floor, but steer the main PA off of the thrust as best we can while ensuring each fan still has a great sonic experience. We’ve been really pleased with the result and so have our openers too. Because again, whatever benefits us, should also benefit them as well.
How involved is Kane’s audio team from tour prep to the final show?
Something that I’m immensely proud of is how well our audio and backline team prepare for each tour. In 2021, I helped design a rehearsal space at Kane’s house that allows our band and music director to come in and rehearse the show without any engineers present. There is integration for a Pro Tools or Playback System, and each band member has their own personal mixer and talkback. While the band works out the arrangements for the tour, I and the audio/backline crew set up as well and take a split of all the inputs so we can program along in the background. This is incredibly conducive because it allows us to follow on our own time and program at our own pace while the band has the creative freedom they need to build the show from the ground up as they use their own independent audio system. That way, when we transition into production rehearsals, no time is wasted on any mix programming because I, along with monitors, playback and backline have already done our work ahead of time.
What is something you’re proud of from your years of working with Kane?
Every year, we bring something new and exciting. This show has never remained the same for longer than a year. That’s because Kane is always creating new content. Music that is very often cross-genre too… It always keeps me challenged and on my toes from a mixing perspective, but I love it. Last year we went from arenas to festivals and then did five stadiums during the fall. Watching this production team handle each massive challenge with ease has been one of my favorite aspects of this crew. Everyone out here brings excellence at every turn, and it’s an honor getting to produce incredibly complex shows with them year after year.
MON Q&A
We also got some insights from Rob Brazinski for supporting Kane Brown and others onstage from the monitors mixing position. He’s mixing on a DiGiCo Quantum338 along with a processing setup that includes Rupert Neve Designs Shelford, 5057 and 545, Hairball Audio Lola, Soundskulptor CP4500, SPL BiG, Lindell Audio 510 and Ferrofish Pulse.
The monitor setup also includes Shure PSM1000 IEMs and Shure Axient Wireless along with DPA 4018VL, Telefunken M81, Telefunken M80, sE VR2, sE BL8, Beyerdynamic TG-D58c, Beyerdynamic M201, DPA 4055, sE V7x, Shure KSM313 and sE 6160 microphones.
FRONT of HOUSE: What techniques or equipment have been crucial for your mixes on this tour and why?
Rob Brazinski, Monitor Engineer: For as long as I can remember, I have mixed my principal artists off of groups on DiGiCo, treating their mix more like a “FOH mix,” and having the band, crew, and guests on “pre-fader” auxes. This allows me to process groups of inputs in a more creative way when crafting the artist’s mix. Adding in a few choice pieces of outboard gear to accomplish this has helped a ton, including summing all of my groups in the analog realm. The Mustard Processing on the DiGiCo Quantum338 has quite literally changed the way I approach our inputs and has had a drastic impact on the mixes overall. I’ve ended up using it on all of my drum inputs, specifically for the comps and gates, as well as on my groups for much broader strokes on Kane’s IEM mix.
What were some unique challenges to this tour that both Monitors and FOH had to overcome in tandem?
The biggest challenge on this tour over last year’s has been the sheer size of the thrust and how much further it extends past the main hang of PA. On my end of the snake, primary source enhancers of multiple kinds are used on the vocal channels to overcome PA bleed and mitigate potential timing issues having the artist that far out front. Another challenge has been space in the stage left wing day-to-day. More often than not, it has made more sense to have monitor world backstage or in a vom to provide enough room for support/change-over/tech worlds. Giving everyone on stage access to a talkback and having a multi-view from video world has made that transition much simpler.
Are there any facets of your console’s infrastructure that has made your workflow unique or streamlined?
DiGiCo’s macro infrastructure has been a favorite of mine for many years, and in the last few years I have taken it to the extreme implementing both GPI across the stage and tech worlds, as well as a full OSC system using Companion. For this tour specifically, I built a wireless network that allows the backline techs to fire macros on my console from their iPads, allowing them to solo inputs, talk directly to the band members they take care of, and pretty much anything else they can think of. This in addition to a full suite of GPI switches to handle talkback routing has allowed me to be less of a switchboard op, and to focus more on creating an engaging mix every night.
Chris Holland (RF). Photo by Zach Pigg courtesy Kane Brown The High Road tour
Crew
- Sound Company: Clair Global
- FOH Engineer: David Loy
- Monitor Engineer: Rob Brazinski
- System Engineer: Toni Luna
- RF/Monitor Tech: Chris Holland
- PA/Comms Tech: Lucas Davis
- PA Tech: Cole O’Malley
- Backline Techs: Carl Hardin, Josh Hammons, Austin Belanger
- Playback Tech: Toure Harris
- Production Manager: Josh Gelfond
- Tour Manager: Daryl Dixon
Gear
FOH
- Console: Yamaha Rivage PM3 w/RX-EX engine
- Processing: Dolby Lake
- Outboard: Rupert Neve Designs Shelford, 5059; SSL Fusion; Bettermaker Limiter 2.0, Bus Compressor; Wes Audio Dione; dbx 560, Elysia nvelope, xfilter; Antelope Audio Galaxy 32
- Speakers: Cohesion CO12 (Mains), CO10 (Sides), CO8 (Center), CP218 (Subs), CF28 (Fills)
- Amps: Lab Gruppen
MON
- Console: DiGiCo Q338
- Outboard: Rupert Neve Designs Shelford, 5057, 545; Hairball Audio Lola; Soundskulptor CP4500; SPL BiG; Lindell Audio 510; Ferrofish Pulse
- IEM System: Shure PSM1000, FIR Audio Radon 6
- Wireless: Shure Axient
- Microphones: DPA 4018VL; Telefunken M81, M80; sE VR2, BL8, V7x, 6160; beyerdynamic TG-D58c, M201; DPA 4055; Shure KSM313
NOTE: Shortly after this story ran in FRONT of HOUSE magazine, Yamaha provided its interview with FOH engineer David Loy about using the Yamaha Rivage PM3 to mix Kane Brown’s shows. To download a PDF, CLICK HERE.
