Kansas City Star (April 5th 2002)

Nashville naivete not the same old song

His story is cliche -- old hat, you could say. So old that, given the climate in Nashville these days, it's nearly a wonder that he has a hit on the country charts.

In the early 1990s, Blake Shelton did what a lot of guys with looks and a decent voice did: left home for Nashville in search of country stardom.

"I've been singing all my life," he said last week. "When I was 14, I started learning to play guitar. An uncle showed me some chords, and I took it from there. Then I tried writing songs and started doing local opry shows twice a week."

It probably mattered that Shelton is a native of Oklahoma (Ada, population 15,000), which is also the home state of Garth Brooks, who had already sold tens of millions of records by June 1994 -- the month Shelton moved to Nashville. He was 17.

Like Brooks, Shelton was as much a rock fan as he was a country fan -- "I like a little of everything, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, Hank Jr." -- so he was primed to produce what young-country radio was devouring back then: rock music dressed in fiddles and pedal steel guitars.

But unlike Brooks, Shelton, 25, had nothing going for him except good looks, a good voice and enough naivete to ignore reality.

"Moving to Nashville was a shock," he said. "I was scared. I was really young, but I think that worked to my advantage. I was so naive I thought I had it all figured out. If I'd waited until now I'd probably have thought a lot harder about things not working out. As young as I was, I never even considered it."

Here's how things worked out at first: He paid the rent by painting signs or making copies for publishing companies. His first "break" didn't come until 1997, more than three years after he'd left home, when he got some demo work, which amounts to modeling other people's songs for other performers.

"It took me awhile just to get some people to believe in me enough to let me sing their songs," Shelton said. "But I learned a lot. I learned to be fast in the studio because time is costly. That helped me develop better pitch."

That was also the year he recorded "Same Old Song," which eventually made it onto "Blake Shelton," his debut album released in June 2001 by Warner Bros. The four years between the first recording sessions and the album's release were scary and uncertain.

"There were some really lean years for country music sales," Shelton said, "especially 1998 and 1999." Nonetheless he and his producer/main songwriter Bobby Braddock persisted.

"Bobby is pretty much the sole person responsible for what's happened to me," Shelton said. "He's the reason this thing happened. He was looking for an artist to produce. We met each other, talked about where we both were headed musically, and we seemed to meet in the middle."

"Blake Shelton" peaked at No. 3 on the country charts; by mid-March it had fallen to No. 42, jogging in the middle of a logjam that included records by big-name artists such as Trisha Yearwood, Brad Paisley, Trace Adkins, Tracy Byrd and Chely Wright -- none of whom has yet cracked gold-record status.

The Top 50 may seem like a decent place for a rookie and his debut album (his latest single is in the Top 20), but a close review of the country charts proves that life isn't exactly fat and happy again in Nashville, especially for golden-boy crooners in black hats.

Of the top 20 country albums for the week of April 2, 2002, two are soundtracks ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Coyote Ugly"), two are singles compilations and three are greatest-hits compilations (Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney and Martina McBride). Of the remaining 13 albums, four were released well over a year ago, including the Dixie Chicks' "Fly," which is almost 3 years old.

Contrarily, only four albums released in the last 12 months have sold more than 1 million copies, and three of those are by megastars: Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw. (Toby Keith's "Pull My Chain" is the other.)

So what does the future hold for a guy like Shelton, who was bred to make music for a format that now seems on the verge of either complete renovation or near collapse?

"I see an upswing," he said. "Everyone seems to be excited again. Some new acts have a chance -- not necessarily to do what Garth did but to at least spark some interest and some record sales. Three years ago not many new acts were getting through the gates. The Wilkinsons had some success, but that was big news when they did. That was the exception."

Shelton is back in the studio again, laying down tracks for his next record, which he doesn't expect to release until sometime in 2003 -- half an eon from now, considering how quickly trends are changing.

Those album charts also reflect several ripple effects from the upsurge of interest in Americana/roots music and from the "O Brother..." soundtrack's commercial and Grammy successes: Records by Allison Krauss and Kasey Chambers recently jumped into the Top 20, and Nickel Creek's debut remains in the Top 25 more than a year after its release.

Shelton only says the next record will reflect his evolution as a singer and performer, not any perceived commercial trend: "I know what kind of music I like, but I can't say I'm absolutely sure who I am. I'm still figuring that out.

"But I do think that enough country radio stations are taking chances that a wider variety of people are having success. Some of the bigger hits don't sound exactly like each other anymore: I sound nothing like Cyndi Thompson who sounds nothing like Trick Pony. We're all unique."

And all that sounds like pure optimism from a guy who knows it's OK to be "unique" in Nashville and on country radio as long as you don't stand out too much.