First appearing on the scene as a neo-traditionalist in 1995, Daryle Singletary's career may not be littered with Top 10 hit after Top 10 hit but he's managed to maintain a steady career with an occasional hit peppered in to keep him touring. With his current single "Love You With The Lights On" currently in the Music Row Chart's Top 30, Daryle sat down and discussed his new album "Rockin' In The Country" his career and many more topics with Roughstock's Managing Editor Matt Bjorke.
Matt: You’ve had a long, eventful career with Top 10 hits and are releasing your seventh album. Did you think you’d still be making records 14 years later?
Daryle: Well, you always hope to but I’ve seen the business change since before I was even a part of it and I’ve seen it chance since I started in ’95. So, to be doing it 14 years later, I’m happy and very thankful. You know, you always think in the back of your mind, is this gonna end tomorrow? Is this gonna be my last record? Is this my last year? So to be releasing my seventh project is very awesome to me. I’m very thankful and so fortunate to not only be in the business but have been able to record the music I love to do. I love traditional country music and I’ve been able to stick to my guns and be successful and I’m thankful for that.
Matt: Given your traditionalist leanings, do you have any thoughts on the current state of country music?
Daryle: You know, I’ve always felt that there’s great music out there and ther’ll always be great music . The listerners have changed since I started in 1995 but I still think there’s room for everyone, there’s room for the music that moved me to town, George Jones and Merle Haggard. Country music is good, it’s thrivin’ and it’s a genre that’ll never go away. Change is inevitable but I think there’s definitely room for everybody and that’s the part that we’ve lost.
Matt: That’s always been my opinion because I love everything from Dale Watson and Merle Haggard to Sugarland and while some people call me an ‘apologist’ for some stuff, I just like what I like and in all honesty, you can find a positive in almost anything…
Daryle: You can and that’s always been my take on it. You know, I sat in a room last year doing the Country music family reunion and I looked around the room and I saw Johnny Lee, I see Mickey Gilley, Jimmy Dickens, and Bill Anderson. I saw all these great country artists that moved me to town and you can’t hear them on the radio. The sad part about that is the traditional music that I love and what influenced most of the people who moved to Nashville isn’t played on the radio these days so when these folks are gone, where’s the music gonna go then? What’s gonna happen to it? And that’s what’s scary to me, that the music will be gone.
Matt: Thank God for Jamey Johnson then….
Daryle: (laughs)…Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.
Matt: It seems to me that if they’re playing Jamey and George Strait, they should be able to play your records right next to ‘em too…
Daryle: Well, you’d hope for that but I don’t hold it against anybody if they don’t. You know, the sad part about all of that is it’s not always about the talent anymore and I think that in this tough economic time, that’s the reason that Jamey Johnson’s coming through. The talent is real and true and I’m a big fan of him and I’m appreciative of that kind of music for sure.
I think that goes back to my fourteen years in this business. I’ve never lost my integrity in my music and I think the fans see that. We’ve been fortunate since my first show in July ’95 to be able to work consistently 50-70 dates a year and supported the fan base we built but hopefully adding more fans to them because, in these times, country music’s real, when you hear the song you think ‘man, that’s me.’ I think that people still want the real stuff and even if they’re brought into country music by someone like a Taylor Swift, they’re still looking, even if it’s deep down, for something that’s not bubblegum and is true to life.
Matt: You have gotten to record some of your favorite songs over the years. What has it been like for you to be able to record some of your heroes’ songs?
Daryle: It’s awesome. And to have some of my heroes sing on my records with me has been icing on the cake. In 2002 I recorded a record called “That’s Why I Sing This Way” and George Jones, Merle Haggard were on there and one of the coolest things of my career was to have Johnny Paycheck say the recitation on “Old Violin” and the flattering part of it was me being told that he was asked to do a number of things but he always turned it down and then for it to be the last thing that he recorded before he passed away is touching. Then you record the songs you love and then you find out that people love the same songs you love.
Matt: So you’ve gotten to record with artists like the ones you mention and Charlie Daniels is on your new record. Is there anyone you’d like to have the opportunity to record with?
Daryle: Well, it’s impossible to do it because he’s passed but I’d have loved to have sung with Keith Whitley. And we actually tried and were denied to permission to get Keith’s voice on the record but I had the opportunity back in 1986 near my hometown in North Florida to go see Keith Whitley or Randy Travis and my parents back then said I had the choice between one of the two and I chose Randy. But if I knew he was going to die so soon, I think I’d go back and choose Keith.
Matt: Of the original songs you’ve recorded, what ones stand out as your favorites?
Daryle: Well, “The Note” (listen here) is a song that probably, if I get requests for songs, is one of the songs that I’ll never get tired of singing. We played in Canada this past year and you’d have thought that it was a current hit because of how crazy they reacted to it.
Matt: What songs do fans react to the most when you’re playing a show?
Daryle: Oh man, it goes back to our hits, “I Let Her Lie,” (listen here) and “Too Much Fun” (listen here)It’s an anthem for them. It was a hit in 1997 and 12 years later we still close our show with it. It’s one of those songs that people love to hear. I’d love to have another one or two…(laughs).
Matt: You recently re-signed to Koch/E1. How did that all come about?
Daryle: Well, this record ("Rockin In The Country") has been done since 2004. It has been on that dusty shelf they have there since then. We were, myself and Chuck Rhodes, who is running the label, he was at Koch when they had a strong roster but when the label closed in 2004, the record was in limbo. I went off and did a one-off with Shanachie Entertainment and then we came back to this. We loved the record and thought we needed to do something with it and we started talking about getting funds together to buy the record from Koch. They then started talking about releasing it as a download album and we felt so strongly that the album deserved to be released in stores as well and so after talking and beggin’ they decided to open up E1 music and that was going to be the first release at the time. When they finally agreed to put the record out, we asked if we could go back in and record a couple of new tracks because there were a couple tracks that had been recorded since 2004. We cut the current single “Love You With The Lights On” and one a buddy of mine wrote, “They Know How To Grow ‘Em.” We’re very, very thankful that they gave us the opportunity to cut these tracks and to get the record out.
We actually debuted the record on XM Radio in 2004 and the song “She Looks Good In Black” still gets some spins late at night even to this day. We have had fans come up to us and ask ‘when is that song gonna get released? Where can I buy it?’ and at the time we had to say “man, I don’t know if you’ll ever get to hear it anywhere but on the radio.” But persistence finally paid off and it’s gotten a release. Hopefully it will work.
Matt: What was the song selection process like for this record, perhaps for the newer tracks since they’re fresher on the mind?
Daryle: Well, we can go back to when we first were working on the record. Originally, Billy Lawson, who’s a good friend of mind, we were writin’ one day and we weren’t hittin’ on anything so after going to lunch I said, “I want to hear the most traditional stuff you’ve got.’ And he played “She looks good In Black,” “Real Estate Hands,” and “If I Ever Get Her Back” and I said, “This is the stuff, this is what I want to record. We went in and recorded those songs and for the new songs, I had demoed “Love You With The Lights On” for Chris Dubois and David Lee. Every once in a while they’d call me when they needed a traditional country singer for a song so I went in and cut it for them in a demo session. My wife told me “That song you sang for Chris Dubois, that’s one that is good for you” and I agreed so we cut it. We wanted an up-tempo song for the 2nd song and it’s very hard to find one that’s well-written. Publishers would send us songs and say “this is it, this is a hit” and I’d say, “no, that ain’t it.” So one night I asked Billy Lawson to send me some up-tempo stuff that he thinks might work for me. He sent me something like 50 songs and I was sittin’ one night listening to them and my wife was in the bathroom and she runs out and says, “That’s it” and I agreed with her. I told him when I hear it, I’ll know it. That’s how I came to “How They Grow ‘Em Down South.” It’s got tempo but it also has great lyrics. It’s a cool little tune. So maybe it’ll see the light of day sometime.
Matt: Perhaps it’ll be another “Too Much Fun”…
Daryle: Yeah, I’d love that (laughs)…For sure.
Matt: You know, I’ve known of “If I Ever Get Her Back” for a while because I’ve had Billy Yates’ records as well and I’ve always wondered why nobody ever cuts his stuff…
Daryle: Well, Billy’s such a great singer, and I’ve sometimes run into this problem as a demo singer and writer too. Sometimes when you’ve got a singer like Billy, he intimidates other singers. You can easily be intimidated by a great demo singer and think, “Hell I can’t do anything with that!”
One of the most flattering things that I’ve had happen to me, I was at a show in Virginia and we had gotten in a day early and Gene Watson was singing and he didn’t know I was there and Gene Watson sang “The Note,” but somebody requested for him to do it and he said “I know I’ve gotten a lot of requests to sing ‘The Note,’ but, you know folks, I won’t sing it because Daryle Singletary had sung the song and now it’s been done.” It was one of the most flattering things someone could say because he’s one hell of a singer and I’m a huge fan and thought it was cool that he said that.
Matt: Well, that’s like Billy Yates…
Daryle: Yeah, that’s like that and you think “Shoot, that’s done, it’s hard to sing that.” Tim Mensy is the same way. They sing those demos so well that it’s hard not to ‘steal’ their licks. They really record a demo.
Matt: What draws you to a song first, the melody or the lyric.
Daryle: The melody gets me first. If I listen to a song and like the melody, I live with it and then it grabs me. I’m not a guy who listens to a song the first time and get what it’s saying immediately. But after a few listens, if the words hit me the way the melody hits me, then I’ll think “yeah, this is the deal, right here.” A song like “Love You With The Lights On,” it’s easy to understand what that song’s saying. It’s about a guy who’s trying to show his wife or whatever that she’s a sexy woman no matter what, in spite of her thinking he’s crazy by telling her that. It could probably be a handbook for guys to treat their women by. I think that’s what gets people to relate to it so easily.
Matt: The internet has been a great tool for many artists, what has it meant for you, perhaps when you didn’t have a record out from 2002-2007?
Daryle: I think the internet is even good now, no matter if you have a current record or not. It’s amazing to me how many people can keep up with you; even with me, a guy who’s from Georgia and has been lucky to have a 14 year career. I’m not internet savvy and all of that stuff but it just blows my mind that people can go online and type in my name and know things about me that I don’t even know (laughs). It’s great that fans can get to my website and find out about some shows I am doing or whatever.
It’s particularly cool for artists like me who may not get radio airplay all that much can still get information or contact with the fans.
Matt: What would you like to say to fans that may be learning about you for the first time?
Daryle: I’m a singer and have been very fortunate but I’m a country music fan first and I think that’s what keeps me out there. I love great songs, and It’s probably the reason that keeps me going because I used to sit out there, I still go to shows, I recently saw George Jones in Atlanta as a fan and I hope I never lose that because It’s what brought me to Nashville and that love has been returned to me and it is fortunate for me.
You can read the reviwe of "Rockin' In The Country" by clicking here.
You can find all of Daryle Singletary's albums for sale digtially at iTunes and Amazon.
For more information about Daryle Singletary and his tour dates, you can visit his website (click here).
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