Gary Allan
Gary talks about where he sees country music as a genre currently.
Man, I think the best way to put it is country music used to be about what happened during the week and now it’s starting to feel like just what happened on the weekends. I think, sooner or later, country music is going to go back to the hard, traditional sounding country music. Songs that are about what happened during the week, when people are working and earning a living and spending time at night, after a hard days work with their families.
Country songs are stories and I want to hear the bad stories as well as the good stories. I think over the next little while you’re going to see several record labels collapse, you’re going to see a whole bunch of artist drop off of the scene. Good, bad or ugly that’s sort of where we’re heading as a genre, we’re witnessing the changing of the guard. Where it’s going, I’m not real positive yet, I think that somebody is going to come flying out of the pack and they’ll define where traditional country music is heading. While some artist are going to take country music to a kind of pop-oriented sound, there will also be artist who are going to define what traditional country music is Because, I think that’s what’s getting blurry these days. They’ve come so far off of the mark of what traditional country music is, that people aren’t sure what country music exactly is. I think somebody is going to have to define what traditional country music is, with today’s sound, so it will continue to be timeless.
Gary talks about the way he landed a role in the television mini-series titled “Shake, Rattle, Roll: An American Love Story”, in which he played the role of legendary rock artist Eddie Cochran.
It’s about rock music from 1955 until 1963, it’s about a band, it kind of follows a band through that period and it shows what they go through. They open for me (Gary plays Eddie Cochran.) and I have a small part. I get to play “Summer Time Blues”. The performance part was real easy, but the acting part was I’ll admit a little nerve racking. I don’t get real nervous so even though it was new to be, I think I did well. But, I guess that’s something that you can’t judge until you see it on television (he laughs). Acting is tedious, acting is about them spending a lot of time, getting the right shots. Now do I want to be an actor? I really don’t think so.
Gary talks about playing country music for all these years. Gary is 31 years old.
I’ve been playing clubs and bars since I was 13. You can definitely tell the difference between some of these newcomers to country music and the veterans. I mean some of these newcomers, the first show they’ve ever played was when the were on television at some award show and man, I’ll tell you, that’s wrong.
Gary talks about the events which have transpired for him over the past year.
Well, I struggled with my old record label for about a year until Decca records closed. Man, I think the only thing I had happen that year was ‘It Would be You” and when my contract with Decca ended, I had a whole lot of interest in signing me so it really made MCA come to the table for us.
I had asked off of Decca the day before it closed, so it was perfect timing. MCA is really excited about have me there and they’ve made some really cool offers. I am no longer second guessing my music, this time out I’ve made a record of music that I think is cool and I’ll tell you, it’s a great feeling. I think the result was just a great new record for me.
Gary talks about the new record.
I think the single “Smoke Rings In The Dark” and the album (same title) show another side of me, a side of me without any limits on creative freedom. They really let me go in and find my songs and record the songs that I wanted to and it’s a great end result. I think this is close to the real Gary Allan a we’ve ever come on record.
Gary talks about recording traditional country music and some of his favorite traditional country artists.
Just keeping the edge into it, is really important. I mean I think all I listen to. Right now, the old Johnny Horton is in my cd player along with the Buck (Owens) box set and the (Merle) haggard box set. I pretty much listen to old country music that’s on cd. So anything that I do will always have that vein. If I stick to stuff that I like, then I’m right on the money, I’m not guessing. I’ve also been listening to Roy Orbision and Chris Issac. I play guitar every night (on-stage or off-stage) and whatever I’m listening to comes out at night whenever I’m playing guitar.
What’s a guy from California playing traditional country music?
I think that, when I was growing up out in California, the artist are almost too country, in that they wanted to stay too retro. I mean Dwight almost did that with his career, you get so into an edge that you can almost cool yourself out of the market. I think that as a country artist, coming from California, you come from a different place out there. I never heard the term radio-friendly growing up in California. Growing up in LA, we learned country music so that we could play it live. I mean now, whenever I’m traveling to different radio stations across the country and someone asks me ,’What’s a guy from California doing playing country music?” I tell them,’ Man, that’s where Buck Owens and Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard are all from. We’ve always wondered what kind of music you all play in Texas.