The Daily News Journal (May 19th 2002)

CMA nominee Blake Shelton staying true to the music

Blake Shelton is "all over" country music these days, even though a year ago few had heard of the singer.

Today, after the release of three wildly successful singles -- "Austin," "All Over Me" and "Ole Red" -- Shelton finds himself nominated for the Academy of Country Music's Top New Male Vocalist award, along with Phil Vassar and Chris Cagle.

The 37th annual Academy of Country Music Awards will air at 7 p.m. Wednesday on CBS.

"'Austin' was just breaking into the 30s (on the Billboard country music charts) this time last year," recalls Shelton during a recent phone interview from a tour stop in California. "Nobody knew my name, but 'Austin' was getting ready to break wide open.

"Life has been a blur since then, but all my dreams have come true. I'm getting to live them right now and my music is actually working," his deep Oklahoma accent resonates over the phone lines.

"Working" is an understatement.

The last-minute addition of "Austin," a ballad about the reunion of a couple facilitated by an answering machine message, to Shelton's debut album is responsible for his almost immediate success. The song was an instant radio favorite and quickly climbed to the No. 1 position on Billboard's country music charts and stayed there for five weeks. When the singer's self-titled debut album was released, it earned the biggest first-week album sales for a debut country solo artist since 1992.

Shelton says he knew the song was special the first time he heard it, but he almost didn't record it. He wasn't sure it was his style.

"David Kent and Kirsti Manna wrote the song and 'Austin' was her first cut," explains Shelton. "They were having a hard time even finding people to listen to the song, and they were looking for a break and so was I. The first time I heard it, I flipped out over it, but I didn't think it would work for me because it was piano based. But we took the song and added guitar and made it my own. When I started playing it for people and I saw their reactions, it was undeniable that this song had to be the first single."

"Ole Red," Shelton's current single about a prison inmate and a hound dog struck him in much the same way.

"Hoyt Axton sang 'Ole Red' for me on his bus when I first moved to Nashville," he recalls. "I held onto it until I was able to record it. For me in my mind it was like a movie was happening in my head. When I heard it, I had to do it. People responded to that song more over the years than they did any of the other ones, and it was such a cool story. That's what appealed to me."

Even with the huge success Shelton achieved this year, the singer admits he was more than surprised when he was driving to Nashville from his farm in Centerville and heard the Academy of Country Music Awards nominations announced on the radio.

"They started announcing the ACM nominations and that's how I found out," he says with his voice full of excitement. "I started calling everyone I knew and I was screaming into the phone. It's cool to know that people are accepting you. It's fun to know you're nominated, but I'm not looking forward to the awards show at all because then I'm not going to be nominated anymore. It's really just fun to be nominated."

Shelton also says he feels the nomination puts a lot of pressure on him to release a song that will measure up to "Austin," and that's not something he is comfortable with.

"I never thought I would be here already," he says. "But when your first song is as big as 'Austin,' you sort of set a watermark for yourself. You create your own stumbling block. 'All Over Me' (the single released after 'Austin') just went to No. 16 on the charts, so I looked like a failure. I guess what I'm saying is that it would be cool as a new artist to be able to build. I have to recover now from a big record and build a steady career. My problem is going to be living up to such a big song."

Shelton is acutely aware of how fickle the music industry is, so he is doing all he can to stay true to himself and produce music that sells at the same time.

"This could end any day," he says. "I hate to think what'll happen when it does."