True Story, Swear To God

Jefferson's Brantley Gilbert Gains Country Cred, Keeps Ego In Check

originally published June 6, 2007

If you had to pick a single word to describe the music and personal outlook of Jefferson-based troubadour Brantley Gilbert, look no further than r-e-a-l. Gilbert, at barely more than 20 years old, has recently been getting some pretty impressive attention from Nashville labels and talent scouts, while a version of his song "G.R.I.T.S." - girls raised in the South, natch - is scheduled to appear on the next album by slick country performer Chris Cagle. No matter how many subsequent offers might come knocking, though, Gilbert says he's bound and determined to keep a level head.

"Everything that's happened to me in music so far has just been luck of the draw," insists Gilbert. "I'm by no means the greatest singer or anything like that out there. The people that come to my shows, most of them are just like me. When I started out playing music, I wanted to write songs that people in my town could relate to, songs that would make both them and me feel better about things.

"Now, it is what it is, and I'm extremely thankful for any success I've had or ever will have. I do consider myself a musician, because it is my job, but other than that, I'm about as normal as it gets. I work my ass off every day putting in cabinets or loading hay during the week. My fallback plan isn't supported by a degree or anything else. Anything I've ever done, I've worked my tail off till I've got it."

Gilbert originally began playing music around Jefferson-area hangouts in his teens and under the tutelage of fellow Jeffersonian Corey Smith. Gilbert still calls Smith his biggest influence to date and credits the down-to-earth singer-songwriter for Gilbert's entrance into the music biz.

"I walked into a place called Mike's Grill when I was about 15 years old and Corey Smith was there playing," remembers Gilbert. "He recognized me and invited me up to play a couple songs and, really, we've been close ever since. I think pretty much all I've learned about the music industry and any good advice I ever got about music as a career came from Corey. We spent three years of touring together, five guys riding around in a Ford Explorer from gig to gig - me, Corey, Jason Chastain, Jason Kinney and a merchandise guy. Pretty much what Corey did is something people don't often do for one another: he gave me my introduction and, later, when he began drawing bigger crowds and blowing up, he took me along with him."

Much of the recent attention focused on Gilbert has sprung from his debut release, last year's autobiographical Modern Day Prodigal Son. With the exception of the anthemic "G.R.I.T.S.," the album traces Gilbert's life from a green, small-town teen growing up in the city about 15 miles northwest of Athens, all the way to the present. Gilbert says that most of his songs - "Live It Up," for instance, and the album's therapeutic title track - have sprung from personal or life-altering situations and that, Nashville-bound or not, he plans on keeping it that way.

"The songs on [Modern Day Prodigal Son] go all the way back to stuff I started writing when I was 15 that got polished up along the way," says Gilbert. "From a songwriter's standpoint, I think your first album is always going to be your best, just because that's a document of your life, what you do, what you think about and what you develop - it all stems from those songs. 'G.R.I.T.S.' actually is an exception because it's just a fun song, pure and simple, and one that gets the room moving when we play it live. What sucks about a second album, though, is feeling like you have to live a whole other life to have anything that compares to what you did before. I currently have a publishing deal with Warner-Chapel and everything that anybody writes with me will be strictly for publishing purposes.

"When I get ready to do a second album, it may take two years, but it will be personally written just like the first one. If I ever put out a nationally distributed album, there will still always be something coming out locally that I will sell off my personal website. There will always be an album coming out locally for the people around here that have supported me, have been my longtime friends and have come to the shows through the years. Their support means a lot to me and I try to never burn a bridge."

Throughout Modern Day Prodigal Son, Gilbert draws on such memorable events as a bad car crash that he was lucky enough to survive, along with other vivid remembrances - some happy, others not so much. His gritty Southern twang and personable approach to the material have translated well, both around and outside of the Southeast, so much so that Gilbert's MySpace page was recently ranked in the top 10 nationally for unsigned country/ Southern rock acts. Pretty impressive, considering just about anyone with a kazoo, tape deck and basic knowledge of web design now has a MySpace page.

At press-time, Gilbert was scheduled to join Nashville songwriters Gene Cook and Vince Trocchia on the hallowed Bluebird Café stage for an early songwriters-in-the-round showcase. If a Nashville recording contract looms in his future, it's such craftsmanlike songwriters as Cook and former Garth Brooks bassist-songwriter Jimmy Lee Sloas that Gilbert would rather pattern his work ethic after, he says, rather than the beaming, blemish-free mugs that routinely populate the CMT universe.

"To hear those guys like Gene Cook or Wendell Mobley play right there in front of me is so much of an honor, I can hardly think straight," says Gilbert. "There's so many different kinds of personalities in Nashville. There are people who, if they feel compelled to write a song, they do so and it most always turns out a killer song. Other people, like Wendell Mobley, can ask an artist what they want in a song and manipulate the words and melodies into a masterpiece. Then, there are others who are more egotistical and rely on who they are, more than what they write, to carry them through.

"Pretty much, I'm the people that come to the shows, except I'm playing guitar and singin'. I'm a North Georgia boy who loves his mama and loves his friends. I play music because it makes me happy, not for a dollar and not for big publicity. If a label contract is necessary for me to support myself and keep doing this, then I guess that's what it'll take. Other than that, I'm no different than anybody else."

Michael Andrews

WHO: Brantley Gilbert, Brandon Scott Sellner
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Friday, June 8
HOW MUCH: $10