Building From The Ground Up

Pat Green's Cannonball Finds The Country Star Working The Grass Roots And The Mainstream

originally published September 5, 2007

Pat Green releases a successful record in 2006: Cannonball. But doing so wasn't easy, and the album only came out after some bumps in the road were smoothed out. The last time he put out a record - the 2004 release Lucky Ones - things seemed to be in place for him to make some major upgrades in his career. The CD was getting traction, with a single, "Baby Doll," moving up the charts, and a tour with country superstar Kenny Chesney was set to start. Then everything skidded off track.

"'Baby Doll' was 19 with a bullet, and I felt like we were coming into the Chesney tour, and the Lucky Ones project was still selling plenty of records as far as I was concerned," Green says. "And the New York side of our record label [Republic/ Universal] pulled the plug on the project. I just thought that was the most irresponsible thing I'd ever seen done to a single, to a band. We were on the number one tour on the planet that summer, for 50 dates, and we had a song that was moving up the charts and selling records. Our label pulled the plug. There was nothing more infuriating than that."

Universal's decision to abandon "Baby Doll" prompted Green to ask for - and receive - his release from his record contract. It was a stinging setback for an artist like Green, who up to then had built one of the more unique, but geographically limited, success stories in contemporary country music.

The Texas native started his career in the mid-1990s. He released a string of six independent albums and developed a huge grass-roots following in Texas and the surrounding Southeastern states, reaching the point where he could sell out arena venues and was considered as big a star as a much better-known Texan, George Strait. He's been no stranger to Athens, either, consistently selling tickets priced upwards of $20 at the Georgia Theatre over the years.

Green finally signed to a major label, Republic/ Universal, in 2001, and for a time, it looked like he might be ready to translate at least some of his remarkable Texas success to the rest of the United States.

The title song from his 2003 album Wave On Wave became a top-five country hit and sent sales for the CD past 500,000. But that was where the CD stalled out. Green quickly followed that album with Lucky Ones, and once again seemed to have a chance to make a major impact as the Chesney tour loomed.

But Green has emerged from that setback with his prospects appearing better than ever. After splitting with Republic/ Universal, Green was signed by BNA Records, home to Chesney and part of the biggest record company there is, Sony/ BMG. Green's first CD for BNA, Cannonball, has so far spawned a Top 15 hit in "Feels Just Like It Should," while a second single, "Dixie Lullaby," reached 24 on the Billboard country singles chart.

Cannonball is a more polished, poppier take on the heartland rock and rough-hewn balladry of Green's earlier albums, particularly on tunes like "Cannonball," "Finders Keepers" and "Lost Without You." The sound is more in tune with current trends in country radio.

Green, though, resists the notion that he tried specifically to create a more radio-friendly CD with Cannonball. "This is the best way to put it," he says. "If I hadn't ever made a record before last year, that's what that record would have sounded like anyway, because that's where my musical tastes are now."

Another contrast that pops up in discussions of Cannonball is that the album boasts a little more lyrical depth than past Green outings, and more of a focus on romantic fare. Green says the extra attention to detail in the lyrics might be a function of a freak kitchen accident in which he severely cut two fingers on his left hand. "I was making breakfast in bed for my wife on her birthday, and I was opening a box of kitchen knives that we had gotten for Christmas," he says. "Her birthday's on Dec. 30. It just got away from me, man. Yeah, it was a bad kitchen accident."

The injury prevented Green from using one of his main songwriting tools - the guitar. As a result, he relied more than ever on outside writers for songs, while all eight original songs on Cannonball paired Green with other writers. In collaborating, Green had to concentrate more than ever on aspects of his craft, including writing lyrics, that didn't involve an instrument.

"I wasn't able to play guitar during the entire writing and recording process for this record," Green says. "It was all residing between my ears. So every time I went to a songwriting session, somebody else had to play the instrument. I was really forced to write with other people. There was no way I could write one single song by myself on this record, because I couldn't play guitar. That really did put a new focus on the lyric side of life."

Green says he'll continue in the future to apply some of the songwriting skills he sharpened by not having the guitar available for songwriting: "It was a great exercise. It's something I plan on duplicating in the future, just to see what happens. I don't think I'll cut fingers off, but I'll sit there and pretend I've got no hands."

Alan Sculley

WHO: Pat Green
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Wednesday, September 5
HOW MUCH: $27