Artists That Begin With N

Jerrod Niemann

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:13:00 GMT

Jerrod Niemann is not a typical country artist, and the audacious, groundbreaking Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury is a far cry from a typical country album. With the first track, which is a humorously hyperbolic movie trailer, and the attention-grabbing lyrics of the opening song, “They Should Have Named You Cocaine,” listeners quickly realize they’re in for an extraordinary ride.

Niemann’s debut for Sea Gayle/Arista Nashville includes up-tempo cuts, heartache balladry, wicked wordplay and a couple of cool covers, all woven together with short comedic interludes. The 20 tracks constitute a progressive, album-length voyage into utterly unique territory in the country music landscape.

The lead single, “Lover, Lover,” is a groove-oriented, handclap-fueled Top 15 smash that features nine vocal parts, all recorded by Niemann himself.

“My original plan was to just sing the lead vocal part,” Niemann explains. “I was going to get Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser, Chris Young and a bunch of my friends to each sing a part. But I didn’t have a record deal, and I realized that getting permission for all of them would have been torturous, so my co-producer, Dave Brainard, suggested that I try singing all the parts. I sang eight out of nine parts the first night. The only part I didn’t have was that low bass part. I just couldn’t hit those notes. So Dave and I went down to the Tin Roof in Nashville, and in the name of country music, we properly medicated the vocal cords. When I woke up the next morning, I sounded like a mix between Richard Sterban from the Oak Ridge Boys and that cartoon Grape Ape.”

Listeners might get the catchy chorus of “Lover, Lover” permanently stuck in their heads — which is exactly what happened to Niemann when he heard the original version of the song, written by Dan Pritzker of the rock band Sonia Dada, and titled “You Don’t Treat Me No Good.”

“When I first heard that song, I was in a community swimming pool in Liberal, Kansas, in 1993,” Niemann recalls. I’ve always loved that song, and I associate it with my childhood. I took it into the studio, played it for Dave [Brainard], and literally five minutes later we were recording it, just on a whim.”

Niemann wrote or co-wrote ten of the album’s dozen songs. His co-writers on “They Should Have Named You Cocaine” were his buddies Jamey Johnson and Dallas Davidson. This track’s unusual production merges traditional, jazzy sounds with a space-age theremin (inspired by the Beach Boys) and just a touch of the Electric Light Orchestra hit “Strange Magic.”

Niemann shows his sensitive side with “What Do You Want,” the emotional centerpiece of the album. “That was the first time I had ever written a song truly from the heart,” Niemann admits. “I wasn’t trying to write a hit song. I just wanted to get it out of my system. I was missing an ex-girlfriend, and I would just start the process of getting over her, and then I’d hear from her. So that’s how that song came about.”

Niemann’s compositions reflect an adherence to the adage “Write what you know.” He calls “Old School New Again” his “soapbox” number because it comments on the machinations of the music industry. The song chronicles the hopes of a struggling musician, as Niemann sings, “I know times, they change / So I ain’t sayin’ we need to go back to Nudie suits, rhinestones and fringe / I just wanna be proud of what I’m playin’ / And sing a little Lefty now and then.”

He returns to the music-industry theme with the lighthearted barroom anthem “One More Drinkin’ Song.” The track is preceded by “A Concerned Fan,” a tongue-in-cheek skit addressing the notion of using demographic data as the basis for writing a country song.

The solo composition “For Everclear” is the smile-inducing tale of a hard-partying college student who winds up in bed with his instructor. A boisterous cover of Robert Earl Keen’s “The Buckin’ Song” features the kind of sly wordplay that Niemann has made a trademark of his own songwriting. “I didn’t write that song, but I thought it was just offensive enough to put on the album,” he jokes.

Puns and wordplay also are showcased in the tropical tune “Down in Mexico” and its accompanying sketch, “Phone Call at 3 A.M.” This Buffettesque track proves that an episode of quasi-drunk-dialing can result in a great country song.

Other album highlights include the R&B–flavored scorcher “Come Back to Me,” a poetic rumination on lost love called “Bakersfield,” the honky-tonk rave-up “How Can I Be So Thirsty” (penned with John Anderson and Billy Joe Walker, Jr.) and a dramatic ballad with strings, “I Hope You Get What You Deserve.”

With a single spin of the album, it’s obvious that the recording sessions for Judge Jerrod were a blast. Ironically, Niemann’s personal life at the time was in tatters.

Although Niemann had experienced triumphs as a songwriter — with his songs being recorded by Garth Brooks, Jamey Johnson, Julie Roberts and Blake Shelton — he yearned to be a performer himself. Things weren’t going well in that regard. He had signed a recording contract, only to see the deal fall apart. Niemann signed another recording contract, but that one also failed to come to fruition. Then his life took a turn for the worse.

“I was at rock bottom,” he recalls. “I had horrible depression. I ran off a girl I was dating, and she moved clear to India. I gained 60 pounds, so I looked like the Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. I didn’t write a song for almost a year. That’s when I ran into Jamey Johnson, at that point in my life. He said, ‘Man, I can tell you’re not yourself. Why don’t you go cut a record? That’s what I did, and it changed my life.’ And Jamey was right. So I took a year to record the album, and by the end of that process, I had lost every bit of the weight. It’s amazing how doing something that you love can change your inner self and your outer appearance.”

After Niemann finished the album, he shared it with the heads of his publishing company, Sea Gayle Music. They wanted to shop it to Arista Nashville, and Niemann agreed, but under one condition: Not a single note on the album could be changed. In a bold move, Arista Nashville signed Niemann and agreed to release the album as is, even keeping the title (with its double entendre) intact.

Niemann says, “We called it Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury, but it’s not so much because I’m a judge. Instead, it’s about the idea that everybody is going to judge me and my band for making this album. Whenever you attempt to do anything different or unique, people are going criticize it. But that’s okay. I’ve been made fun of my whole life. Why stop now?”

Niemann grew up in Liberal, a tiny town in west Kansas. As a child, his knowledge of music was expanded at the skating rink that his parents owned. “That’s where I got my street cred, as a 7-year-old, rolling in circles, looking dangerous and mysterious on eight wheels of Country & Western thunder,” he recalls with a laugh. “I remember skating to Queen, to Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith doing “Walk This Way,” and to the Oak Ridge Boys’ “Elvira.”

After graduating from Liberal High School, Niemann studied music for two years at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. Then he moved to Fort Worth, where he honed his songwriting and learned how to win over tough crowds in bars. He moved to Nashville in 2000.

Today, Niemann is ready to become the full-fledged artist he always dreamed of being.

“A few years ago, my friends and I were burning up the honky-tonks in Nashville, but now everybody has matured a little bit,” he reflects. “We all realized that we’re representing country music whenever we leave Nashville. We still get rowdy and have fun, but we know where this town came from. We love it and we respect it. We’re doing what we can to ensure that country music fans have music that not only entertains them, but that they can enjoy in any mood.”

Niemann feels that he can be a distinct voice in country music, but he realizes he’s standing on the shoulders of giants. “Waylon and Willie are considered hard-core traditionalists now, but they were very innovative back in the day, and they caused a lot of controversy. No one’s ever going to say what they said, or sang what they sang, as well as they did. But I think there’s something unique that I can contribute to the format. If I can make somebody laugh, or get someone who’s never listened to country music to come over and check it out, then I’ve accomplished my goal.”

Find Jerrod on the web:

Joe Nichols

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:20:00 GMT

The true measure of an artist lies beyond the milestones and the hardware. Joe Nichols, of course, has plenty of both, but a legacy relies just as surely on an intangible that is just as surely a part of Joe’s makeup--authenticity. Legends like George Jones and Merle Haggard have given Joe their public seal of approval, adding real luster to accomplishments that reflect the respect he has earned across the board:

-New artist awards from the Country Music Association, Billboard, Radio & Records, Music Row magazine and the Academy of Country Music, which jump-started his incredible career;

-Four Grammy nominations, a CMA Album of the Year nomination, and a New York Times Best-Albums-of-the-Year nod;

-Multiple RIAA platinum and gold albums and singles;

-And a stream of hits, including chart-toppers like "Brokenheartsville," "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off," and "Gimmie That Girl," and Top Ten smashes like "The Impossible," "If Nobody Believed In You," "What's A Guy Gotta Do," "Size Matters," and "I'll Wait For You," that made all the rest possible.

All those accomplishments are fired by the passion for excellence Joe brings to what he does, and it’s a passion the artist brings in spades to It’s All Good, his sixth studio album and the follow-up to his well-received Greatest Hits project.

"Yes, this is about commercial success," he says, "but if you want to make something that lasts, it's about art too. I want to bring a traditional sound into 2011 and 2012, to keep it faithful and make sure we're still connecting with today's listener. On every album, we're looking for hit singles, but every time out I want to satisfy the artistic part of my soul too."

Joe has long been recognized as an artist who digs deep for songs that touch listeners' hearts and souls and yet who is not afraid to take the lighter side just as far as it will go. With Greatest Hits, he summed up a decade of success on both sides of that fence. Now, his follow-up takes Joe and his fans on the next part of the journey. For Joe's take on how that future looks, look no further than the project's title.

"It's All Good as a title has got a deeply personal meaning to me," he says. "I've been through the ups and downs of life and I'm better at knowing what to hold onto. There was a lot of pain and suffering on my earlier albums. Sometimes it was in balance and sometimes there was an unhealthy amount. This one has a lot of love on it. It's got more of a fun and uplifting feel than any record in the past."

The CD's first single, "Take It Off," is a case in point, a bit of breezy summertime fun that became his fifteenth chart hit and a video that quickly passed a million good-time views. There is more fun in tunes like "This Ole Boy," about enjoying the luck of the draw when it comes to love, "No Truck, No Boat, No Girl," a "guy song" if there ever was one, and the title track, an easygoing nod to keeping an upbeat outlook. But, as is always the case with Joe, there is much more here. Love gets its due in "I Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "Never Gonna Get Enough," nostalgia and regret in "Somebody's Mama," and the poignant and powerful "How I Wanna Go," a powerful album-closer with special meaning to Joe.

Throughout It's All Good, Joe shows himself again to be a true country artist, a singer in whom the genre's traditions, sounds and themes meet the future. It probably shouldn't be surprising, given Joe's roots in Rogers, Arkansas.

He grew up with his bank-teller mother, Robin, but spent time with his dad Mike, a long-haul trucker who played classic country at the local VFW. Riding with his dad over school breaks and watching him play on weekends instilled in Joe a love of Haggard, Jones, and Marty Robbins, among others. At 15, he determined to follow in his father's footsteps, and at 21, he was in Nashville, working any number of day jobs and singing at a BBQ and beer spot called Rippy's on Lower Broadway.

In 2001, Joe became the flagship artist on Universal South Records. By the next year, he was on top of the country singles charts, and "The Impossible" and "Brokenheartsville" amounted to a one-two debut that earned him Grammy nominations and a host of awards and established him as one of the genre's most promising young voices. Tours with Alan Jackson and Toby Keith allowed him to prove himself as a riveting live performer, and soon the aforementioned legends were weighing in on Joe's place as their heir apparent.

"It's a wonderful thing," says Joe, "for the legends, the guys who are my heroes, to give me any kind of props. For them to say, 'This guy's got something we like' makes me feel great, like I've done something important."

Along the way, his movie star looks and at-ease-with-the-world personality led him into new realms. He caught the eye of Broadway producers and recently hosted the ACM Honors show at the historic Ryman Auditorium. The wide-ranging nature of his appeal led to a couple of tours of Australia, and his appreciation for the nation's service men and women took him to the Middle East.

Through the years, he established himself as one of country music's best judges of material. In addition to his hits, his albums are loaded with strong material--he recorded "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking" long before Blake Shelton turned it into a smash. In fact, he says, "The one thing I see in looking at the greatest hits album is that it's incomplete. There's so much more I want to do and so much more I have done. There are a lot of songs that were never released as singles that mean a lot to me, a lot of really cool stuff that never got its due. Moving forward, I want to make sure the best stuff, the best moments I have, people are able to hear."

It is something his fans are looking forward to as well, and Joe is working to extend his legacy.

"We're always trying to put more pieces into the puzzle, to take more steps in the right direction," he says. "It's simple, really--put out good music, make fun videos, do great live shows, keep the visibility up, and pay attention to the business end. The bottom line, though, is one of the key things I've learned from my heroes--go into the studio and produce a quality product. Put in the time to do good work. At the end of the day, that's what they're going to remember."

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Heidi Newfield

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:17:00 GMT

On the threshold of that open door, Heidi Newfield and Trick Pony bandmates Keith Burns and Ira Dean poured out what she calls “My ode to the group” in what would be the threesome’s final songwriting session together. Days before announcing her departure from the platinum-selling band that had earned four top 20 singles, an ACM Best New Artist award, and an army of fans for their rabble-rousing honky-tonk brand of country music, Heidi had a lot on her mind. “I love the road— but when I stopped wanting to pack my bag and get on the bus, that was a telltale sign it was time for a change,” she recalls.

The diminutive blond who became famous for her explosive voice, rambunctious stage antics, and trademark unruly curls points out, “That was still me. But I felt that I had been painted into a corner, and I wanted to be able to branch out. I wanted to depart from that simply because I felt that I could do more. ” So with a heavy heart, a deep respect for where she came from, and an artist’s hunger to evolve, Heidi Newfield flew the Trick Pony coop.

She alighted—as fate would have it—in the capable hands of famed producer Tony Brown. “He wouldn’t have time for me,” she remembers thinking, “between George Strait and Reba and Brooks & Dunn.” Yet Brown was intrigued by the project, and after giving Heidi three hours of his undivided attention, he was in. “Right away we just clicked. Right away I think he got my song sensibility, and was right on track with it. Loved that I wanted to step out from what I had been doing, kind of get out of the bar room for a minute.” The resulting ten-song collection is a reflection of that shared vision. “That’s the way I feel like a record should be made,” Heidi declares. “It’s been creative, and fun, and professional, and just a total joy.”Brown and Newfield’s great alliance is never more evident than in the album’s crowing jewel and lead single, “Johnny & June.” Written by Newfield, Stephony Smith and Deanna Bryant, the song wasn’t even born until the album was sixty percent finished. “From the moment that we started in on it, we all three just sort of looked at each other and went ‘ok wait a minute—this is really a special song,’” Heidi recounts. “I still listen to Johnny & June right now, after all the writing it and going through it and living with it, and I still get chills up my spine.” Using country’s legendary First Couple as a muse, “Johnny & June” yearns for a love that is “powerful and big, and crazy and wild. Everybody wants to find that kind of a big love in their life,” Heidi says with a smile.

She’s thinking, obviously, of her NFL agent husband, whom she married in June 2004. “It takes a special man to watch their spouse get on a bus and go up & down the road,” says Heidi. “This job takes a lot out of you and it is very time consuming, and even when I’m home, I’m not ‘really’ home sometimes. My wheels are always turning, always thinking about a song, what I need to do better, what I should do more. Thankfully, he understands, as he is very passionate about his job too. But then we have our time together and we try to keep that sacred. We do a good job of supporting one another.” Married shortly after Heidi’s mother passed away, the couple’s support system is certainly tried and true. “2004 was a year of transitions,” she recalls. “Interesting, and sad—the ultimate joy and the ultimate pain and sorrow at the same time…But my mom, it’s weird, because I really feel her. She’s with me very much. She’s right there with me.”

Growing up on a horse farm in Healdsburg, CA, in the heart of Sonoma County wine country, Heidi’s talent was lovingly nurtured by her mother and father. Every trail ride, every horse show and rodeo was set to a soundtrack of Ernest Tubb, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and all the great traditionalists. Later—to her mother’s dismay—Heidi’s two older sisters turned her on to the great rock bands of the 60’s and 70’s: The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and AC\DC. Heidi also fell in love with traditional blues, and began playing the harmonica at an early age, attracted by what she calls “the most lonesome sound on the planet.”

From the first time she ever picked up a microphone at the age of 5 or 6, Heidi was blessed not only with enormous vocal talent, but the conviction that she was meant to be a singer. “I never really veered off that path,” she explains. “And my parents, fortunately, were very supportive.” She remembers her first trip to Nashville at age 13 to record a demo: “We didn’t know what we were doing, and we certainly didn’t have the money to be running me all over back and forth between Nashville, but they did their very best to try to support me.”

Between the loss of a parent and her new marriage, Heidi Newfield is in a very different place now than when hard-partying, good-timing Trick Pony hit the scene in 2001, and her new album reflects that. “There are parts of this record that are not just about a man and a woman for me,” she explains. “They’re about my experiences all the way around, like leaving the group, and my feelings about that, the pain and the hurt, or the joy of being independent and standing on my own two feet. Everybody who listens to this record can take these songs, and place them in their lives, and relate to them.”

The diversity of the song selection is striking: from to the bleak melancholy of “Wreck You,” the sweaty desperation of “Can’t Let Go,” and the angry wail of “Nothing Burns Like A Memory,” Heidi reaches not just new heights as an artist, but new depths as well. She gracefully leads us through the sweet, breathy yearning of “All I Wanta Do,” the simple hurt of “Love Her And Lose Me,” and the retro groove of “Tears Fall Down.” Closing with the “redneck-clever” anthem “Knocked Up,” the album whirls its way through a 360 degree tour of Heidi Newfield.

“I wanted to create a really important body of work, no matter how long it took me,” Heidi explains. “I had no interest in going in and making another Nashville country record that just gets thrown out there and quickly forgotten. I was only interested in cutting a record that was going to step out and have some relevance in this day and age, when we are head-to-toe in pop culture with videos, the internet, and imagery. We don’t always listen with our ears and our hearts—we, more often, listen with our eyes. So I wanted to make a record that stood out. I wanted people to begin to get to know me in a way they’ve never known me before. I wanted to showcase with humility and pride that God made me different…without ‘trying to be different.’ I hope that people will open up their hearts and minds to me and this music because it has soul— my soul. For that, I have high hopes, and always will.”

Find Heidi on the web:

David Nail

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:13:00 GMT

It seems that good ol’ boys and girls are everywhere country fans look these days. And while that rough-hewn sound and image has clearly established its place in the genre, it’s refreshing to encounter an artist who stands apart from the crowd—in look and style, but especially in his music.

Enter David Nail. With Sinatra-like levels of poise and class, the rare gifts of natural melody and soul, and a voice as enveloping as a Cumberland River fog, the Missouri native is a modern-day country gentleman. He’s Jim Reeves crossed with Elton John. Garth Brooks meets Stevie Wonder. Glen Campbell blended with Michael Bublé.

The musical result of those mash-ups is a rich sound that hearkens back to Nashville’s Countrypolitan days, when artists like Campbell—one of David’s heroes—added a dash of sophistication to country music.

“My father was a band director for 31 years and he listened to all sorts of music, including a lot of old-school Elton John. I just loved the big, lush feel of those records,” David explains. “Glen Campbell was a huge influence on me for the same reason: the arrangements, the elaborate production, the dramatic songs. Those influences all come out in what I do.”

This is specifically true on David’s vibrant new album, The Sound of a Million Dreams. “A lot of the sounds that I try to emulate and use for inspiration are from a time when pop music was called that because it was popular,” David says. “And who doesn’t want to have popular music?”

The Sound of a Million Dreams is Nail’s follow-up to 2009’s I’m About to Come Alive, which yielded the Top Ten hit “Red Light” and was also listed by Esquire Magazine as one of 50 Songs Every Man Should Be Listening To. David also received an Academy of Country Music nomination for Single Record of the Year for “Red Light.” Furthermore, Nail scored a Grammy nomination for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for “Turning Home.”

Much like I’m About to Come Alive, The Sound of a Million Dreams is cinematic in its scope, with lyrics and melodies awash in imagery. In the evocative “That’s How I’ll Remember You,” it’s snapshots of baseball-game dates in Brooklyn with an ex-lover. In the swirling “She Rides Away,” the titular girlfriend makes tracks in a rusty El Camino. And in the album’s yearning first single “Let It Rain,” a contrite husband seeks forgiveness for “the one night I forgot to wear that ring."

“Imagery is so much a part of what draws me to the songs I record. I pick songs with cities in their lyrics or the names of girls because I want you to know exactly where I’m coming from and what I’m talking about,” says David. “I love painting those pictures.”

And with the album’s title track, he just may have painted a masterpiece. Written by Scooter Carusoe and Phil Vassar, “The Sound of a Million Dreams” expertly sums up David’s belief in the power of music, namely the power of a song, to create memories. It references classics by Seger, Springsteen and Haggard, all pegged to different milestones in the narrator’s life.

Nail connected with the message so deeply that he chose “The Sound of a Million Dreams” to represent the album.

“I’ve always felt that an album’s title was the most important thing besides the music. It automatically gives someone an idea of what to expect,” says David. “If you had to tell the story of me to this point, that song really sums it up.”

But the lyrics on The Sound of a Million Dreams, whether David’s or those of his co-writers, only tell part of the story. The rest unfolds thanks to David’s incomparable voice. Bourbon-smooth, full of emotion and always in control, it’s an instrument in and of itself. And the singer-songwriter knows when to let it loose or rein it in.

“I don’t want somebody to think I’m a great singer because I can sing a Stevie Wonder hit and do all the licks,” he says modestly. “With this record, I wanted to find the best songs that I could sing as best as I can, but at the same time, songs that I could sing effortlessly. And by ‘effortlessly,’ I mean emotionally, not technically. There’s a difference between singing a song on key, and singing a song that makes a person instantly feel something.”

Still, David views the album as a stepping stone of sorts—he hopes his recorded work will draw listeners out to his live show, where the real vocal magic happens. While recording The Sound of a Million Dreams, he paid close attention to how the songs might sound when performed live. It was a pivotal difference from the way he and co-producer Frank Liddell structured I’m About to Come Alive, and an approach partially adopted from being on the road with Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum. (Lady A’s Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, incidentally, contribute a song to the album, the soaring “I Thought You Knew,” co-written with David and Monty Powell.)

“I had the chance to see some bigger productions and the art of putting on a show,” David says of those high-profile tours. “I learned how songs are so much bigger live and I had that in the back of mind while making this record. When people hear these songs, they’ll anticipate how grand they’re going to sound onstage.” This is proved with the album opener “Grandpa’s Farm,” a sultry honky-tonk shuffle that is equal parts Little Feat and the Rolling Stones.

Ironically, the record’s first song could end up being David’s concert closer.

“That’ll be a song that you wouldn’t want to follow with another,” he declares. “With ‘Grandpa’s Farm,’ we’d leave as big as an exclamation point as we can.”

The same can be said for The Sound of a Million Dreams as a whole. It’s a definitive statement that David Nail has arrived and is committed to releasing his brand of mature country music—songs that are built around personal stories, transcendent vocals and a sense of class.

“That will always be the basis of what I do on a record and what I try to do live. If you’re looking to get rowdy and hear a lot of screaming and hollering, you’ll be disappointed,” he says with a laugh. “This record yields a different kind of enjoyment. And there are all kinds of songs. It really does epitomize the sound of a million dreams.”

And for fans of sophisticated country music, it’s a million dreams come true.

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