South Bend Tribune (Sept. 2nd 2007)

Shelton ready for concert high notes

For the last several years, country singer Blake Shelton has been working on various aspects of his performance, from his stage show to his vocals.

The effort has been paying off, making him a well-rounded entertainer and a popular draw at local events, including today's ABATE/MDA Ride for Jerry's Kids.

Shelton, who is more of a traditional country musician, has a laid-back style, but because of tough competition in the music industry, he's revamped his stage show in recent years to give it more energy, which was evident last summer when he played the Berrien County Youth Fair. That concert was one of the better country music shows in the area in 2006 in terms of audience enthusiasm, the performer's vocal quality and overall energy of the performance.

"You get up there and your adrenaline gets going and you kind of get lost in the show," he says by phone while on tour.

But what about hitting those high notes while running back and forth on the stage? He's got a lot of high notes in songs off his latest album, "Pure BS," his fourth studio album and the one he considers his best work so far.

"After the 'Barn and Grill' album came out with 'Goodbye Time' and 'Nobody But Me' and a couple of other things on there, I started hearing people comment on my singing," Shelton says. "They didn't realize I could sing like that and didn't realize I had a range like that, you know, and it got me thinkin', 'Hell, I didn't know I could, either.' And I just kind of wanted to explore that a little more with this particular record with the writing I was doing and the songs that were being brought to us by other writers. I was just looking for those songs that really pushed me as a vocalist."

A couple of those songs, including "Back There Again" and "What I Wouldn't Give," are both meaningful ballads that are at Shelton's higher range. Add to that the emotional element that he recorded this album while going through his divorce, and it might seem like a particular set of challenges for the singer during live shows.

"From night to night, when I'm onstage I'm going, 'Why in the hell did I do this?' But it's good for you to push yourself, I think," he says. "You get better, learning more about my voice and what I can do with it."

As to the emotional element, Shelton, who is currently dating country music's Miranda Lambert, is pretty upfront about it.

"I didn't hold any of that stuff in (about his divorce) and not deal with those emotions; it makes it a little bit easier," he says. "It's better to sing about things you know about. You put more heart into it. I know about that stuff now, and people can see that and they can hear that."

There are a lot of goodies on his current album. Shelton's wry sense of life remains present, even on his ballads. The word choices and thought processes are similar but slightly more understated than the bizarre but campy sense of humor found in much of Brad Paisley's music.

"The More I Drink" is a perfect example of this: "The more I drink, I'm the world's great lover and dancing machine."

Another goody is "She Don't Hate Me Anymore," a song Shelton says is his favorite on the album. Stylistically, it has a Johnny Cash feel to it both lyrically with such lines as, "Not only she don't love me, she don't hate me anymore," and vocally, because he includes a spoken verse.

Then there's the last track, "The Last Country Song." It's a song co-written by Shelton, featuring the vocals of John Anderson and George Jones. It's Shelton's ode to country music in a way, signifying his intent to continue along a mainstream country music path rather than get sucked into the peer pressure from the music industry to be more of a country/rock crossover artist.

"I got to be honest with you about me and the music industry, and maybe this will ultimately be my downfall," Shelton says and takes a breath. "I could give a crap about what the industry pressures me to do, especially when it comes to somebody's idea of what I should do as an artist and what I should sing about. That's a good way for me to not want to work with somebody ever again. I didn't get into this to sing songs that somebody else wanted me to sing. I got into this because I had something to say as a person and as a singer, and when that's not cool anymore, then this will be over. I'm OK with that."