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Clint Black: Making his own way in country |
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Written by NEXTnc staff reports
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Friday, 07 September 2007 |
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 Even at age 5, Clint Black has memories of sitting by his father’s side while he showed his young son his 45 rpm singles and telling him who the singer, the writer and the producers were.
Black, who will appear Thursday at the Union Colony Civic Center in Greeley, is a talented musician. He plays everything, writes his own music and, of course, sings. He probably could have picked any kind of music to play, and he did like the rock records his older brothers brought home, including Deep Purple, REO Speedwagon and Steeley Dan.
But he calls himself his father’s son, and so Merle Haggard, George Jones, Willie Nelson and Waylan Jennings won out and helped form the kind of traditional sound Black introduced in 1989, when he put out his first album. The sound is what you would expect from a country star, and yet its traditional tone separates Black from the group of “new” country stars such as Toby Keith, Big and Rich and Shania Twain. Black’s sound is indeed your father’s country music — at least, it was his father’s music.
“Country music was important to my dad,” Black said in a phone interview. “He was always handing it to me, telling me to listen to this or this.”
It’s paid off for Black, one of the more successful artists of the past two decades. A third of the songs he’s written and recorded, more than 100, were hits on country stations, and Country Music Television lists “Killin’ Time,” his debut, as one of the greatest 100 albums in country music. He has since recorded a dozen other albums and won more Country Music Association awards than practically any other artist.
The non-traditional influences are there if you know what to listen for, Black said. He’s a fan of Kenny Loggins and the Eagles and loves the jazz rock group Steeley Dan, for the band’s sound as much as anything (he wanted his records to sound as good as Steeley Dan’s even though his music was much different, and he occasionally covers the band in his show).
Still, Black wasn’t much for the carnival kind of show that artists such as Big and Rich put on stage. He admires that kind of showmanship but prefers to let his music be the main attraction. In fact, he loves to feature his band and enjoys jamming on stage, rather than fireworks.
“Into my second and more into my third album, I started making room for the musicians to play more,” Black said. “I enjoy creating arrangements where the singer goes ahead and shuts up and lets the musicians play. We do more of that live, too, and I’m very comfortable with that.”
But as traditional as his sound and approach has been, Black has delivered it in non-traditional ways since 2003, when he formed his own label rather than renew his deal with RCA. The major labels, he said, were too big to change with the times. He still shakes his head at his own attempts to get them involved in the Internet way back in the early 1990s and being rebuffed.
“Musicians should be making music for one reason and one reason only, and that’s the music they want to make, without the influence of people in suits who don’t really love the music,” he said. “I really felt like there was a better way to do things.”
Equity Music Group, the company he co-founded, offers what he believes are more equitable contracts to artists. The artists own their own work, they are paid more frequently and once they sell a certain number of records, they gain shares in the company. Little Big Town, for instance, has equity in Equity, Black said. The label also splits its sales of downloads 50/50 with the artist.
“Downloads may kill the big companies in a way,” Black said. “They’re going to be dragged kicking and screaming into this new age. But I remember when CDs were going to kill us. CDs didn’t kill us.”
Black gave the label instant credibility by releasing “Spend My Time,” his first record in five years, in 2004. He’s released three since then and will release another, “Clint Black,” on Sept. 18. The first single from that album, “The Strong One,” is already a hit on country stations. He also supports the label by offering Laura Bryna as his opening act on this tour, which has him playing in more intimate theaters across the country, including the UCCC. She’ll release her first album on the label in January.
Black doesn’t run the company, but he is chairman of the board and meets with the label once a month. Most of the conversation at those meetings, he said, centers on whether the label continues to be the kind of business Black envisioned when he formed it.
“We’re really gearing toward where I hope music is going,” Black said.
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THE SHOW
Clint Black
7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13
Union Colony Civic Center, 701 10th Ave., Greeley.
Tickets, which are going fast, are $44, $37 and $27. Center Circle tickets are $75. Call 356.5000 or go to www.ucstars.com.
For more information, go to www.clintblack.com. | Only registered users can write comments.
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