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30 The <strong>Nashville</strong> Musician April-June 2007<br />

Fellow Local 257 multi-instrumentalist Greg Cole co-produces<br />

Daryle Singletary’s latest album comes ‘Straight From the Heart’<br />

By WALT TROTT<br />

Daryle Singletary is the real deal, a rootsoriented<br />

singer, who thrives on twang. Inspired<br />

by the likes of Jones and Haggard, he<br />

nurtured a love of country playing in honkytonks,<br />

and in appreciation has released yet a<br />

second album saluting golden oldies: “Straight<br />

From the Heart.”<br />

He’s known best for his original 1996 hits<br />

“Too Much Fun” and “Amen Kind of Love,”<br />

Singletary’s deep vocals lend themselves well<br />

to such classic cuts as Don Williams’ “Some<br />

Broken Hearts Never Mend,” Buck Owens’<br />

“A Tiger By the Tail” and Conway Twitty’s<br />

“Fifteen Years Ago.”<br />

These are among the dozen tunes heard<br />

on Daryle’s new CD, co-produced by longtime<br />

associate Greg Cole and Chuck Rhodes<br />

for the indie Shanachie label, distributed by<br />

Koch Entertainment.<br />

Singletary and Cole stopped by the musicians’<br />

union for an interview about their latest<br />

album project, a chat taped in the parking<br />

lot on one of March’s first sunny days here.<br />

“I’m passionate about what I do,” says<br />

Singletary, who just marked his 36th birthday.<br />

“I’m not just going out making a living<br />

or just to get a check. I’m doing what I like -<br />

and I’m having fun. Since 1995, I’ve consistently<br />

played an average 60-to-80 dates a year.<br />

If you ask me, that says a lot about the state of<br />

our industry. I’ve been very fortunate and I’m<br />

thankful. I’ve seen some of my friends come<br />

into this business, have a hit and now they’re<br />

not out there anymore. I’m still here and I ain’t<br />

goin’ anywhere.”<br />

Dark-haired Daryle is a burly, no-nonsense<br />

guy, who doesn’t gloss over the facts:<br />

“I mean here I sit (on the tailgate of Cole’s<br />

pickup truck) in a pair of faded-out pants and<br />

boots, and I’ve got paint all over my shirt . . .<br />

“Our new album came out Feb. 27 and I<br />

think we sold a little over 1,100 pieces the<br />

first week, with 800 of those sold at Wal-Mart.<br />

Koch is our distributor, and Michael Koch<br />

owns it. It’s the largest independent distributor<br />

in the U.S. So they’re big and even sell in<br />

Wal-Mart. Hey, those ain’t the numbers a Tim<br />

McGraw sells, but we didn’t make the record<br />

for $250,000 either. We made it for under $50<br />

grand and here we are making money, while<br />

others are trying their darnedest to sell records,<br />

having to buy promotions here and promote<br />

there, spending more money.<br />

“We’re going about it saying, ‘Let’s go<br />

out there and work our behinds off and plug<br />

this record where we can make it work.’ I think<br />

the positive thing about it is if everybody<br />

keeps their minds on doing what’s real, and<br />

knows that we’re not trying to play with the<br />

big boys, because we can’t. What we’re doing<br />

is from the heart (we teasingly interrupt<br />

to remind him the title’s ‘Straight From the<br />

Heart’ and he chuckles), I mean straight from<br />

the heart, exactly.<br />

“We’re taking what we have to work with<br />

and we’ve got music that we’re proud of. Well,<br />

we can go home at night and go to sleep, saying<br />

‘We’ve done our best,’ and in the long run<br />

people know it’s out there and they’ll go out<br />

and get it. That’s where we’ve been fortunate.<br />

“Even though the deal’s been done, we<br />

sold 70,000 records of ‘That’s Why I Sing This<br />

Way.’ And that’s not bad money. Personally, I<br />

feel lucky to still be in this business, doing<br />

what I believe in. Greg and I started working<br />

together when we were (practicing) in a basement<br />

in Antioch (a <strong>Nashville</strong> neighborhood).<br />

He was playing for Jack Greene and I was<br />

still singing in a club, an unknown and he<br />

played for me on weekends or weekdays,<br />

when he wasn’t out with Jack(’s Jolly Greene<br />

Giants band).”<br />

Cole also produced Singletary’s acclaimed<br />

Audium album “That’s Why I Sing<br />

This Way,” in 2002, their first tribute to traditional<br />

favorites, which also boasted the thennew<br />

Billboard Top 40 title track, written by<br />

Max D. Barnes.<br />

No doubt that much-played tune would<br />

have been an easy Top 10 for Daryle had it<br />

Daryle Singletary and his co-producer Greg Cole in the Union parking lot as taken by Kathy Shepard.<br />

been released by a major label, with its knowing<br />

lyric, “Mama used to beat me with a<br />

George Jones album/That’s why I sing this way<br />

. . .”<br />

“I think Audium just didn’t understand the<br />

way things worked,” notes Greg. “I mean Koch<br />

(Entertainment, the label’s parent company)<br />

mostly did adult contemporary out of New<br />

York City. It needed a different promotional<br />

angle on it, and it would have been (ranked)<br />

way up there.”<br />

Daryle adds, “Even with the modest success<br />

we did get out of that song, it was very<br />

much talked about. I guess that’s one of the<br />

neat things about it.”<br />

So with the success of their “That’s Why I<br />

Sing This Way” tribute to traditional, why the<br />

need now for a second such release?<br />

“Well the Shanachie (named after an Irish<br />

storyteller) folk had heard our other album, and<br />

they wanted us to do another,” grins Daryle.<br />

“And I didn’t have any problem with that, being<br />

such a big fan of jack country music and<br />

some of these songs that we did on the record.<br />

Anyway, Shanachie’s sort of known for doing<br />

remakes, and they know we had some success<br />

with that first one.<br />

“You know the thing about it is if they’re<br />

ever fortunate enough to get to mainstream<br />

radio, the songs may do well, because there’s<br />

a lot of listeners today who might think they’re<br />

new, not having heard those cuts by the original<br />

artists. So they may not know those songs.”<br />

Did Greg and Daryle have to be careful<br />

about copying the arrangements or watch his<br />

vocal style in covering classics cut by such<br />

icons as George Jones or John Anderson?<br />

“It never scared me to do those songs, taking<br />

the attitude we’re not trying to re-do perfection,<br />

because they’d already been perfected<br />

by the original artists . . . ”<br />

The slender producer answers: “We just<br />

kinda put our spin on ’em, maybe modernizing<br />

them for today’s format . . .”<br />

There are some more recent gems, as well,<br />

among them Keith Whitley’s “Miami, My<br />

Amy” and Randy Travis’ “Promises.”<br />

Daryle, chuckling aloud, says, “I didn’t<br />

have to watch it, because I copied their style! I<br />

cut my teeth trying to sing like Jones and Haggard.<br />

So when I moved to <strong>Nashville</strong>, I saw no<br />

reason not to try to sing like these heroes, because<br />

they’re so good. It’s inevitable that<br />

Randy (Travis) and Keith (Whitley) stole licks<br />

from Jones or Haggard. Hell, I stole licks from<br />

Randy and Keith.<br />

“You know when (Johnny) Paycheck was<br />

still Donnie Young on George Jones’ records,<br />

singing harmony and playing guitar, I’m sure<br />

Jones borrowed some of Paycheck’s style. It’s<br />

something that happens all the time. I don’t<br />

even think about it, but I personally feel that<br />

by combining all those licks I learned, I developed<br />

my own style. I’m very thankful for<br />

that. I got a call a couple weeks ago from a<br />

friend of mine, who was in Memphis. He said,<br />

‘I heard your song on the radio, and the first<br />

few words I knew it was you.’ I take that as a<br />

compliment.”<br />

How does he feel about brand new artists<br />

citing him as a musical influence?<br />

“I feel very honored to be mentioned by<br />

some of the new artists as an inspiration, and<br />

I’m like ‘Wow!’ But the recording scene has<br />

definitely changed today . . .”<br />

Greg adds, “You know we all played those<br />

oldies of Jones and Haggard in the clubs for<br />

30 years. So what liberties we took we probably<br />

planned that way, but we tried to be true<br />

to them as we have a lot of respect for those<br />

artists and the songs. I’d hate to change a Mel<br />

Street song.'”<br />

“One thing that we did do and it was cool,<br />

we had musicians playing on this record that<br />

played on the originals or in the artists’ live<br />

shows,” explains Singletary. “It was great to<br />

see a guy like Pig Robbins, who played (keyboards)<br />

on five or six of the original songs,<br />

recording with us. Mike Johnson, who performed<br />

for us on Mel Street’s ‘Lovin' On Back<br />

Streets,’ actually added a lick, saying, ‘We<br />

played this on our live show.’ Though it didn’t<br />

appear on the original recording, it didn’t take<br />

away at all from the song and kind of added a<br />

little something special that nobody would recognize<br />

but us - and it worked.”<br />

Producer Cole, when asked why he didn’t<br />

play piano or percussion on his joint production<br />

ventures with Singletary, says: “First off,<br />

I don’t like to play if I’m producing. I just have<br />

a different attitude and want to look at it from<br />

the other side of the glass. I’d rather be concentrating<br />

on that more than anything else. And<br />

I’m not all that great on the instruments (when<br />

there’s a Pig Robbins or Paul Leim available).<br />

It works out better to just wear one hat.”<br />

Daryle Bruce Singletary grew up on a<br />

farm near Whigham, Ga., and himself was<br />

initially inspired by his greatgrandmother’s<br />

fiddle playing, and by parents<br />

who performed in a gospel group (in<br />

which he started singing at age 3).<br />

By age 9, the boy had already made up<br />

his mind to be a country singer. When he was<br />

in his freshman year of high school, Daryle<br />

was playing guitar and formed his first band.<br />

“My father and grandfather were directors<br />

of our church choir, and I grew up singin’<br />

gospel, but was always a big fan of traditional<br />

country songs.”<br />

He later worked in a Ford tractor dealership<br />

and also after graduation, a print shop doing<br />

odd jobs, until owner Allen Baggett heard<br />

him sing, then urged him to try his luck in<br />

<strong>Nashville</strong>. That major move occurred on Oct.<br />

14, 1990.<br />

Singletary wasn’t the first Georgia cracker<br />

to sing a mean country ballad. He points out,<br />

“I think Georgia has flown its flag in this town<br />

pretty good. And you know Rhett Akins is from<br />

65 miles east of me in Valdosta, Doug Stone<br />

is from Marietta and Alan Jackson’s from near<br />

Atlanta. There’s a new kid now, Jake Owens,<br />

who’s from Tallahassee (Fla.), just across the<br />

state line, near where I’m from.”<br />

Once in Music City, Daryle worked on the<br />

road briefly for Tanya Tucker, then set about<br />

playing in local bars, trying to find his own<br />

way.<br />

“I thought for a while I could make a living<br />

entering talent shows,” he laughs aloud,<br />

“I won $100 (first place prize) 10 times in a<br />

row. You could do those at places like Gabe’s,<br />

The Rose Room, all those little honky tonks<br />

here back then. After I won the talent contest<br />

in one club for awhile, we started working<br />

there Sunday and Monday, and we were<br />

packin’ that place on what used to be off<br />

nights.”<br />

Cole follows up: “The first day I met him,<br />

I played on a session with him and I thought:<br />

‘This boy can sing.’ So I had invited him out<br />

to this club where I played - The Broken<br />

Spoke. I talked the manager into letting us play<br />

there on the off nights. Billy Bob Shane and<br />

Donna Faye were doing what was happening<br />

on radio, the Top 40, on Friday and Saturday<br />

nights. We were playing 1970s and early<br />

1980s’ stuff that we wanted to play, and we<br />

just had a big time. Then they added Tuesday<br />

nights . . . ”<br />

“I guess we did that for something like<br />

two years,” continues Daryle. “In fact, I was<br />

playing there when I met David Lowe, who<br />

introduced me to Rob Hendon, the guy that<br />

ran Giant music (publishing) at the time. So<br />

that’s how I demo’d ‘I Let Her Lie,’ and eventually<br />

got my record deal. Greg and I had<br />

worked together while I was doing demos,<br />

way before I got my record deal.”<br />

Although “Living Up To Her Low Expectations”<br />

was Singletary’s Top 40 Billboard<br />

chart debut, his first smash was the nearcharttopping<br />

“I Let Her Lie,” both released in<br />

1995.<br />

Run by former session drummer-producer<br />

James Stroud, Giant was also home to<br />

Texan Clay Walker, who like fellow artists<br />

Daryle, Deborah Allen, Rhonda Vincent and<br />

Neal McCoy, got caught up in that turningof-the-century<br />

closing of the label.<br />

Meanwhile, Koch Entertainment began<br />

meddling in the country field, sucking up behind-the-scenes<br />

Giant alumnus like Nick<br />

Hunter and Chuck Rhodes for the Audium<br />

imprint. In turn, these leaders called on<br />

Singletary.<br />

“I said, ‘I’d love to come over and talk to<br />

you, but I want Greg Cole to produce my<br />

records.’ Man, if you listen to my first three<br />

records on Giant, and then listen to my three<br />

or four records for Koch, well these blow them<br />

out of the water. I mean they breathe, they’re<br />

open, because here’s a guy who knows me,<br />

who’s worked with me and we don’t have to<br />

go in there and kill ourselves when we record.<br />

Greg knows when I can sing or when I can’t.<br />

“At the same time, down here (gesturing<br />

out to Music Row), when you book a studio,<br />

you’ve got to go sing. At Greg’s (Colemine<br />

Studios in suburban Smyrna), we’ve cut every<br />

vocal from George Jones to Rhonda<br />

Vincent, and all our harmonies have been done<br />

at Greg’s. They sound better than the stuff I’ve<br />

cut at some of these big-time $2,000 a day<br />

studios. The thing is, Greg knows me as a person,<br />

as a performer and that makes all the difference.<br />

I feel fortunate to have such a talented<br />

guy to record with, and it comes across on<br />

tape.”<br />

Daryle’s first Audium charting was “I<br />

Knew I Loved You” in July 2000, followed<br />

by “I’ve Thought Of Everything,” both of<br />

which were on his album “Now and Again.”<br />

(The latter tune was co-written by Texas newcomer<br />

Kerry Harvick, who for a time became<br />

Kerry Singletary, and even recorded a duet<br />

with Daryle: “Miracle In the Making.”)<br />

“Another thing with Daryle,” says Cole.<br />

“We like the same kind of music, style-wise,<br />

singing-wise . . . ”<br />

Daryle adds: “Greg knows when it’s good<br />

or it’s not, and when you’ve nailed it. He<br />

doesn’t mind saying, ‘Hey look, let’s do it<br />

another day.’ That comes after working with<br />

somebody so long. No offense to the guys who<br />

produced me before, but I may have done vocals<br />

with one guy, then this other guy comes

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