TRACY LAWRENCE ON CREATIVITY
The move to DreamWorks in 2003 and my recent shift to the Mercury Records roster has had a terrific impact on my creativity. Change, in the form of a new label home, newfound loyalty, support, and genuine excitement about my music, has been refreshing. With the success of “Paint Me A Birmingham,” I just got rejuvenated. Where creativity had seemed to elude me for a while, I was inspired to write again. I'm trying to grow as a person and as a writer, working with people I haven't written with before. I'm looking at life through different perspectives and it's all very motivating.
TRACY ON JAMES STROUD, PRODUCER AND CO-CHAIRMAN, UMG NASHVILLE
James and I have such a deep relationship. It goes back many years and runs the gamut from friend to confidant to producer to mentor to counselor. If you look at the beginning of my career, James Stroud was the first person that believed in me in this town. I sat down in front of him and played some of my original material, just me and my guitar. James agreed to produce my first record--and finance it!--long before I ever had my deal with Atlantic. I recorded my first three albums with James, and then we parted ways, with a lot of respect for each other intact. He was going through such a rise in his career and I was in a place where I wanted to grow and do more things on my own. I recorded with producer Don Cook, and I went through my years of self-production, working with Flip Anderson. As my time at Atlantic was coming to an end, I realized it was time to hand the reins to somebody else again. I met with everybody in town, but when I sat down with James, I think we both realized that we had unfinished business to do. We've made some great music together and we felt like we needed to pick up where we left off and recapture the magic of our professional relationship. As we got back into the studio, it felt good to have that kind of trust and respect for somebody, and to know that it was mutual. James holds the bar high. He challenges me to broaden my musical thinking, to stretch and experiment with my music, and to deliver the best possible vocal performance on every song. When he loosens the reins, he knows I'm going to make sure that everything's up to his standard because the last thing I want to do is let him down. Our relationship is different than that of most artists and label head/producers. I think it's really something special.
TRACY: UP, DOWN, AND FORWARD
After all of the meteoric ups and downs of the last ten years of my life, it's nice to experience the feeling of being embraced again. I really didn't get to savor these moments the first time around. There are a lot of people who are really rooting me on. I feel and I appreciate their support and I don't take any of this for granted. Just that vote of confidence, that pat on the back from folks out there has really been good for me. I've got my life together and all of the support has really put a fire back under me.
TRACY ON STAGE
I approach the concert stage differently than I used to. It used to be that I was aggressive from top to bottom, every show. I went out there with one goal in mind--just work the band and the fans into a frenzy. These days, I let the crowds dictate the way it goes. Crowds have personalities as a whole. Some want to kick back and just kind of roll with the flow of the show. They want to be entertained. They don't want to do any of the work. I'm happy to entertain them with a good solid show of hits. Other crowds are a little more fired up and rowdy. They're ready for a party and we can sure give it to them.
TRACY AND HIS BUS: THEN & NOW
Now that I have a wife and children I want to spend a lot of time with, my bus has been relegated to “just a necessary part of what we do.” There was a time when I lived for getting on that bus and pulling out of town. I used to love that bus. It was like my little safe chamber, my escape. I could lock myself up on it and hibernate. I could stay on it 24/7, and just get off to do a show and then go right back to it. I've learned to enjoy the world around me a little bit more as I've matured. These days, the bus is simply a mode of transportation to get me from Point A to Point B. I like to get off the bus and play golf as much as I can. I like to get up and go to the gym and work out in the morning. Sometimes we even put up a little tent outside the bus, pull out the grill, cook up some burgers and play some horseshoes.
