Country artist Tracy Lawrence grew up close to the Oklahoma border in Foreman, Arkansas. Once upon a time, did he have reason to sneak across the border? Of course.
Details?
First, let’s share some more “modern” news. Lawrence, whose body of work includes 13 million in album sales, is coming back to Oklahoma. He’s scheduled to perform Saturday, May 26, in Skiatook as part of the Osage Casino’s free outdoor concert series. The series began with a May 12 concert by Joe Nichols in Hominy and continued with a May 19 show by Colt Ford in Bartlesville.
A recent phone interview with Lawrence ended with a question about whether he used to make his way across the Oklahoma border.
“I grew up in a dry county, and Oklahoma was 7 miles away and the liquor store was right across the line and they would sell it to you if you had the money,” Lawrence said.
People are also reading…
“I grew up in the wettest dry county on the planet, I promise you. The culture down there, all of us kids started drinking at a very young age. There was nothing else to do. We had gravel pits we would go party at, so I mean at 14 or 15 years old, we were all out until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning burning bonfires and drinking beer. That was my experience living on the Oklahoma line.”
Lawrence thought he was grown up when he was that age. He looks at his teen children now and they seem like such (and he means this in a nondisparaging way) babies.
“They live such a different life with a different home structure than what I grew up with, and it’s just amazing the difference in the way they are growing up compared to the way I grew up,” he said. “I hope they are not going to run into the pitfalls and struggles in life that I have had to overcome.”
In addition to revisiting the good old days, Lawrence answered questions about “Good Ole Days,” a new album of duets in which he partners with guest artists to put a fresh spin on some of his biggest hits (six No. 1 songs, two No. 2 songs and a song that peaked at No. 4).
Guest artists include Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Justin Moore, Luke Bryan, Luke Combs, Dustin Lynch, Kellie Pickler, Chris Young and Easton Corbin. The album also features two new tracks — one with Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down and Big & Rich, plus another with Craig Morgan.
Lawrence’s discography includes 22 top-10 songs, including 19 consecutive top-10 hits in the ’90s. Tougher to pick songs for the duets album or tougher to pick the guest artists?
“Basically, it all started with the artist,” Lawrence said, adding that the first people he called were McGraw and Aldean, who chose “Time Marches On” and “Can’t Break It to My Heart,” respectively.
As the process continued, guest artists picked songs and were matched with songs.
“We were trying to get Brad Paisley on to do ‘Better Man, Better Off,’ and he was over in Europe touring at the time and we never could make that happen,” Lawrence said.
“My favorite song, which is ‘I See It Now,’ never got tracked. We never found a home for it, so it didn’t all shake out completely the way that we thought and there were still a couple of songs left in the can that didn’t get used.”
Asked how the idea for a duets album originated, Lawrence said he had been managing himself for many years. He had so many irons in the fire that he was wearing himself out.
“I was still doing 100 days a year on the road and coming home and going to the office every day,” he said. “And I really felt like I was one of those carnival people spinning plates on sticks, and I had about 10 of them going — and they were all going — but I felt like everything was about to come crashing down, so I decided I needed to make some life changes.”
The changes included hiring a manager (Fitzgerald Hartley) and looking at creative ways “to kind of get my brand value back up.” Because Lawrence had cultivated relationships with other artists over the years, he was able to easily secure duet partners.
“So we felt like this was a good way to get my momentum going again,” Lawrence said.
“Good Ole Days,” released late last year, hit the No. 1 position on the iTunes country chart and debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard country albums chart.
Corbin tackled “Paint Me A Birmingham” on the album, which seems fair because Lawrence once tackled “Paint It Black” on an album where country artists paid tribute to the Rolling Stones. It’s cool to hear a different take on someone else’s material, right?
“It really is,” Lawrence said, adding that it was fun to cover “Paint It Black.”
“That’s a very dark song. ... The Stones really have a very dark side to a lot of the stuff that they do, so it was kind of fascinating to dive down into that. But on the other side, I don’t think I could have found a better person to do ‘Paint Me A Birmingham’ than Easton. What I really liked about it is, in little soul ways, he made it his own, but it was still really good. I just really like his voice. He reminds me of a young George Strait, just the timbre and texture of his voice. It was really a fun collaboration.”
If Lawrence could record a duet with a legendary artist no longer with us, who would he pick? He didn’t hesitate before naming Merle Haggard and Keith Whitley.
“They would have been definitely on the top of my list,” Lawrence said. “I have been a huge Haggard fan since I was a kid. I loved Keith Whitley. He was a huge influence on me.”
Lawrence said Haggard was “the foundation of everything that I know is country.” He said he learned to play guitar and sing country music to Haggard songs.
“A lot of the stuff that I gravitated to, it was simple structure, so as a 12-year-old kid learning to play the guitar and trying to find his voice, they were a great place to start because I had a natural baritone voice even at a young age.”
Lawrence said he performed Haggard’s “Big City” the first time he got on stage and sang in public in front of a lot of people.
“But my country roots go back even further than that,” he said. “I loved Glen Campbell when I was a kid. I grew up with Charley Pride and all those things. But when I really started to realize I had a voice and a passion for it was really through Haggard.”