When a recording artist as accomplished as Clint Black says he wants to set aside everything he's learned, well, that's no small feat. The occasion of his tenth full-length studio album gave one of country music's most celebrated performers the chance to do just that, however.
Armed with a purposefully self-limiting album title and determined to recall the music of his formative years, Black embarked on a journey unlike any in his 16-year career. And despite being in the enviable position of having to conform to no one's rules but his own, he even managed to break those...but only once.
"From the very beginning I have pushed myself to grow as a musician, singer, writer and artist," Black says. "I learned music by ear and once I got the opportunity to work with great musicians I wanted to learn from them. I educated myself about theory and applied that knowledge."
Continually forcing new challenges on himself, Black succeeded in expanding his artistry, fueling and furthering his already remarkable out-of-the-box commercial success. He even branched into other forms including acting and, most recently, record production.
Following the early 2004 release of Spend My Time on Equity Records, a label with a groundbreaking new business model he helped launch, Black was back in the country music limelight after a five-year hiatus. But when the time came to follow that well-received release, he found himself considering how far he'd come with his music. And he very deliberately turned back -- all the way back.
"I went out and bought all the music I grew up on that I didn't already have and spent three months listening to only that," Black explains. "Only stuff from before I started making records, so it was pre-1989 Waylon, Willie, Buck Owens, Haggard, Don Williams, Jim Croce. And what I discovered was a simplicity in song that I had moved away from. It was quite an emotional journey, because these were all songs that moved me and inspired me to do what I've been doing ever since."
Energized to make what he calls a "barroom, honky tonk kind of album," Black's first order of business was choosing a title. "Drinkin' Songs & Other Logic was just a way to keep myself boxed in," he says. "I wanted the album to be exactly that."
Along with longtime co-writer and band leader Hayden Nicholas, Black determined that the album should be songs "about drinking, good for drinking or written while drinking," he says wryly. "We kept it all in house, literally. We recorded it in my home studio and used my touring band exclusively, with the exception of two guests -- Steve Wariner plays guitar on the title track and Little Big Town did backing vocals on 'Back Home In Heaven.'"
The album conforms to its creator's parameters in the dancehall swing of "Heartaches" and "I Don't Wanna Tell You," the western themes of "Code of the West" and "Go It Alone," in the lament of first single "Rainbow In The Rain," and in directly on-point numbers including "Thinking Of You (Familiar Drinkin' Song)," "Longnecks & Rednecks," "Undercover Cowboy" and the title track. As a writer, Black had a well of material to draw from going back to his days playing clubs as a teenager in his brother's band.
"I spent a lot of time in those bars, listening to that music and watching the people," Black says. "I love watching people anyway. That's the great thing about going to New York where I can put on a ball cap and watch folks without being watched. But I remember sitting in those bars and watching the little plays that happen between people. So much of it is predictable, but every now and then it's not. Those stories aren't lost on me."
The intervening years saw the youngest of four Houston-area brothers take a remarkable ride to stardom, leaving his honky tonk apprenticeship, breaking into the charts and becoming the face of a suddenly mainstream genre. He led country music's resurgence with his 1989 RCA debut album Killin' Time, and over the next 10 years enjoyed every possible measure of success -- album sales, critical acclaim, awards from his peers and dozens of chart-topping radio hits.
