The Gazette (April 8th 2005)

Mr Sand Man: Shelton’s gimmicky ‘Some Beach’ single puts him on the charts

The last time we spoke with Blake Shelton he seemed cautiously optimistic.

It was August and he was preparing to release his third album, "Blake Shelton's Barn & Grill." Shelton was praying for a breakthrough.

Well, if you've listened to a country music radio station lately, you already know the rest of the story. Shelton struck a gold mine with "Some Beach," a single that plays off a line that sounds like profanity but isn't. It catapulted to the top of the country charts, and helped the album hit No. 3 on the country charts.

"It just shows you the power of a song and what it can do for somebody," Shelton says. "In this case, it's just a goofy song about a guy having a bad day and I don't think I realized just how big of a hit that was going to be."

It's been a great year for Shelton, but he says he's not ready to rest on his laurels.

"I think we still have a long way to go," he says. "People in country music have a lot longer careers. You know, you don't have nearly as many one hit wonders, (or) bands that break up after one album. I think you'll see a lot more 10- and 15- and 20-year careers in country music. I think it takes that long to build it."

For now, Shelton says he's concentrating on making "Blake Shelton's Barn & Grill" even more successful. He hopes new singles, such as "Cotton Pickin' Time," will help boost sales and solidify his place in the music business. He already has hits including "The Baby" and "Austin" to build off of, and his new material has helped to diversify his appeal -- displaying him as a more edgy, rocking artist, rather than the sensitive balladeer he was previously known as.

"I think this album's got a lot more lighthearted stuff on it -- stuff you don't have to think that hard about, (but) you just find yourself singing along with," he says. "To me that's important music."

Although he says his success with the album hasn't made him feel infallible, Shelton does think his growing maturity has made him a more appealing artist.

"I think I finally feel like I have control over my life," he says. "I think you get to that point that you know everything that happens are decisions that you've made, you know, and so I've started just listening to my gut, you know, and my instinct as far as music goes and that's what's coming through."

Shelton hopes that new confidence will make his next single as big of a hit as "Some Beach." In the meantime, he's winning over his fans one night at a time as he continues to tour the country playing gigs. He'll be in Colorado Springs to play Cowboys on Saturday.

Shelton, who's been touring virtually nonstop since summer 2001, says he misses his farm back in Tennessee and has grown tired of squeezing his 6-foot, 5-inch frame into a tiny bunk every night.

"I'll be honest with you, it gets old after a while," he says. "The one thing that makes it all worth it is that hour and a half or two hours I'm on stage every night, and that's why I started doing this to begin with. I still get a rush off of that, you know.

But the travelin' and, you know, being on a bus with 12 other people, and one of us is always sick so it makes the rest of us sick, and you can imagine being in a cramped up area and travelin' every day of the year almost. That's tough, you know, but we all get on stage and we're a family."