Chris Young Sings His Life and Counts His Blessings

Posted by Webb on 03/03/2010
Keywords:
Chris-Young-2010

By Deborah Evans Price
© 2010 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Chris Young will be the first to admit that patience isn’t one of his virtues. Still, the RCA Records artist has learned that good things do come to those who wait, as he recently scored his first No. 1 single with “Gettin’ You Home.”
It’s been out for a long time and it almost died on the charts a couple of times,” he said of the song, which he wrote with Cory Batten and Kent Blazy. “It’s an ‘anything can happen’ business. I don’t know what it is about this song that has connected to people so well. I’m sure glad it did.”
The 24-year-old native of Murfreesboro, Tenn., achieved his success by working hard since he first roamed Music Row, looking for a record deal while still in his teens. “If you were to ask me when I was 17 if I was mad because I didn’t have a deal, I would have probably said yeah,” he admitted. “Now I’m so glad I got it when I got it. People tell you to be patient and wait. I’m not a patient person, but I think everything definitely happened the right way for me.”
Sitting in the Music Row office of Lytle Management Group, Young exudes a youthful enthusiasm tempered by a hard-earned appreciation for having claimed his place in the spotlight with a chart-topping single and an album, The Man I Want to Be, that rose to No. 6. It’s a goal he’s pursued for a long time, beginning with his performances as a teenager. By the time he had transferred as an undergraduate from Belmont University to Middle Tennessee State University, Young was doing 150 shows per year.
“I like talking to a crowd,” he said. “I’m not going to stand up there and talk for an hour, but I like doing a little lead-in on songs and making people laugh and making it entertaining. I thoroughly believe that if you set up a song right, it will make a difference if somebody listens to it or not. I think it matters.”
Young’s reputation as a great live act earned him an offer to perform regularly at Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, where he fronted a seven-piece band three nights a week. “It was a great learning experience for me,” said Young, who also used his time there to watch and learn from the major artists who headlined at the famed honky tonk. “I’d watch their shows and see how they worked the crowd.”
Like many young artists anxious to get a record deal, Young turned to television for an opportunity to be seen and heard. As part of his prize for winning the 2006 season of “Nashville Star,” which aired at that time on the USA Network, he was signed to RCA. His self-titled debut album, produced by Buddy Cannon, spawned two chart singles and made him the best-selling new male Country artist of 2006.
However, it was through recording The Man I Want to Be that Young feels he really hit his stride. “I really love every part of that record,” he said. “I made a record where I can honestly say I love every song. As an artist, that doesn’t always happen, but I love all the songs on the record. They could call me up and say any track is going to be the next single and I’d say, ‘Go ahead!’”
Young was thrilled as well to have James Stroud at the controls as producer. “I love that man!” he insisted. “I’d jump in front of a train for that guy, I would. In the studio, I have so much respect for him. We work really well together. I’ve found what every artist looks for in a producer.”
That respect and affection are mutual. “Several years ago, Chris interned for my wife Laura at her publishing company,” said Stroud. (Laura Petty Stroud, owner of Big Alpha Writers Group.) “So I had been fortunate enough to get to know him and hear him sing. I was amazed at the quality and richness in his voice and was extremely honored when he asked me to produce his sophomore album.”
Young’s sound is rooted in the new traditionalist school, fueled by his respect for Alan Jackson, Waylon Jennings, Marty Robbins and Keith Whitley, among many other artists. “Chris has been a fan and student of Country Music and its artists,” said Stroud. “He has a vocal range and sound that is needed in our format today. I was thrilled for Chris, his family and RCA Records. I am proud to have been a part of his first No. 1 single and positive there will be more to follow.”
“I just love Country Music,” Young concurred. “I think what I grew up listening to — the Keith Whitley stuff and Alan Jackson stuff — that’s what you get out of me. It’s not all of who I am, but it’s a part of who I am."
The album includes “That Makes Me,” Young’s upbeat ode to doing things old-school, which he penned with Batten and Blazy, as well as poignant ballads “The Shoebox,” written by Tom Hambridge and Jeffrey Steele, and a Monty Criswell composition, “The Dashboard.” In total, Young co-wrote three of the album’s 10 tracks.
“Our thought process on this record was we’re going to cut a serious record,” Young said. “The rule was, ‘No tongue-in-cheek funny songs, no drinking songs.’ When we made this record, we wanted to make a record that was similar to the first Clint Black record (Killin’ Time from 1989, also released on RCA), where every song was just a great, great song. That’s all we were looking for — songs that you gave one listen and you loved them. We were really just trying to make a serious Country record for somebody to pick up and listen to all 10 songs and think every song on there was a good one. I think it led us to a lot of things that were more serious and more me as a person.”
As an example, he cited “Voices,” which he wrote with Chris Tompkins and Craig Wiseman. “‘Voices’ is talking about how big family is to me,” Young said. “I’m real close to my dad, mom and sister and my grandparents. If you come to enough shows, you’ll probably see them at some of them. I think there are a lot of people that are real close to their family.”
“The Dashboard” is another of Young’s favorites. “It’s about a guy going away to war — and I picked that song because at the end he comes back,” he said. “There’s a happy ending to that song. Everybody always writes the sad endings. This song has a happy ending to a serious subject and it’s something that a lot of people don’t choose to talk about. My cousin is over in Afghanistan right now. It’s a real dangerous place to be. He’s over there and serving, and he loved this song when he heard it. So it’s cool to be able to play that and talk about him.”
Young believes that art should reflect life. “The title of the record is The Man I Want to Be because it shows you who I am as an artist and then who I am as a person too,” he said. “We wanted to say a lot on this record.”
Two seasoned covers mingle amidst the album’s newer tunes. Young needed just one take to nail the soulful version of Tony Joe White’s classic “Rainy Night in Georgia.” It was another story on “Rose in Paradise,” the Jennings hit, written by Stewart Harris and Jim McBride, but he had a good reason to be nervous, since Willie Nelson came in to join on duet vocals. Stroud remembered that the legendary artist eventually put Young at ease by saying, “Drop that, man. Come here and let me tell you how good your voice is.”
That session was a dream come true for Young — another example, he admitted, of life seeming almost too good to be true these days. “Even sitting here right now, it has not fully hit me yet that I’ve had a No. 1 song,” he confessed, shaking his head and smiling. “I’m just going to freak out one day. I did a duet with Willie Nelson. I’ve been playing the Grand Ole Opry. I played the Ryman last night and I remember thinking, ‘Man, I always wanted to get to play this stage.’ There are just so many things that I’ve been able to do — I’m counting myself as lucky.”
On the Web: www.ChrisYoungCountry.com