The Free Lance-Star (Aug. 9th 2010)
Shelton flexing his new 'six pak'
If life these days seems like a blur for Blake Shelton, it's no surprise, considering how fast he's moving.
The Oklahoma native has been hitting the road hard this summer, including a performance in July at Celebrate Virginia Live.
Unfortunately, he rarely gets to enjoy the sights, Shelton said in a recent phone interview from a tour stop in Oregon.
"Every time we roll into a town we kind of get into it and get back out before we have a chance to take in anything."
Shelton will release his latest album -- an EP, or "six pak" as his label, Warner Bros., calls it -- tomorrow. The album, "All About Tonight" follows closely on the heels of his first six pak, "Hillbilly Bone," which was released in March.
At $5 a pop, the album costs less than most six packs. The idea, said Shelton, was his label's way of encouraging fans to buy physical albums again instead of downloading them.
"I've been doing this for, I think, 10 years now and 'Hillbilly Bone' was the highest debuting album I've had, so I guess their plan worked."
Another recent shift for Shelton has been to a sound that is lighter and more accessible than on past hits like "Austin" and "The Baby."
"As far as the attitude of the [new] record, it's a lot like the 'Hillbilly Bone' album," he said.
"Even the ballads, you know, it's all 'singalong-friendly' is the way I try to put it, because it's not stuff that you have to think to hard about. The songs are just -- they're fun. They're simple country songs, and that's kind of what I'm into right now."
The title track for "All About Tonight" is already receiving considerable airplay and stands poised to be another big hit for Shelton, who has six No. 1 singles to his name so far.
But one song that could garner even more attention is "Draggin' the River," a rollicking, foot-stomping track about a defiant young couple, in which Shelton duets with his fiancee, Miranda Lambert.
The song didn't start out as a duet, but Lambert just happened to be present when it was first pitched to him, said Shelton. He'd seen past success dueting with a very different vocal partner, Trace Adkins, on "Hillbilly Bone." But this one, he said, was a no-brainer.
"With Miranda and I, collaborating it just seems natural. We know what each other's gonna do and how to follow it and things like that," said Shelton.
"It's definitely different from getting in there with the likes of Trace or somebody else, because we're constantly singing together, so it's really easy."
It also may be the best way for the power-couple to spend quality time with one another.
Though they were engaged May 9, due to the couple's busy schedules the wedding isn't set to happen until spring according to People magazine. Even so, the celeb magazine planned to run a four-page spread on the country-fried Brangelina's engagement party in an issue that hit stands last week.
Though he didn't seem to know much about the engagement spread, the low-key Shelton said when it comes to love, he has no problem basking in all the glitz and glamour.
"I love that stuff, man I'm very proud of my relationship with Miranda -- and hopefully she is, too. That's part of the fun for us is to be engaged and to be able to celebrate it -- and if they put it in a magazine, that makes it that much more special."
As for those who detect a certain mischievousness in the words to "Draggin' the River," you needn't worry about a brawl breaking out between Shelton and his future father-in-law come wedding day. In fact, he and Lambert get along wonderfully with each other's parents, said Shelton.
"We joke [that] my family likes her more than they like me and vice versa -- we all hit it off right off the bat."