THE PILGRIMAGE BEGINS
Country fans head to Jamboree
Every time Adam Gregory saw someone else performing on stage in the last two years, it ate away at his very soul.
“I knew I had to be up there myself,” admits the Edmontonborn country singer from his home in Indiana, where he’s been taking a respite from close to two decades of recording and touring. “Once performing gets in your blood, it never leaves you.”
To be fair, Gregory never intended to leave recording and performing forever — just long enough to be around for his young daughter’s first few years and take a slight break from a career that started when he was 13 years old and had him releasing two records and a number of hit singles (including Horseshoes and Only Know I Do) on a major label before he was an adult. Now that his first-born is old enough, he’s feeling the pull again, unleashing a new single (Dirt Road Therapy, which, according to Gregory, climbed to 36 on the iTunes charts within hours of release) and working on his sixth album, with a projected 2018 release.
We talked to Gregory in advance of his mid-afternoon performance at Big Valley Jamboree about his long career, the perils of excessive touring and his plans for the future.
Q A lot of artists would balk at the idea of taking time off from a developing career; was it just time to take a break and rethink things?
A It was important to me to just step away for a second and focus on family. I wanted to be around for my daughter while she was growing up and not be off on tour.
Q Were there people around you telling you that you had to keep going and build career momentum?
A No, actually; I have an amazing team behind me, Porch Swing Entertainment, and they’re really family-oriented. They completely understood what I needed to do, and they’re helping out lots with my career. You know, I may have been out for a short period, but my music never went away. Radio still plays my songs, and my fans are quite loyal. They’re still there, and I feel there’s a wave of new listeners I can appeal to with this music I’ve been working on. Plus, I’m still young at heart.
Q Well, sure, you’re only 31.
A Actually I’m 32.
Q: Oh, 32. Sorry, that means you’re ancient.
A (Laughs) That’s right, I’m ancient. But, I kind of realized something when I was 31 and flipped the number around, because I was 13 when I started. I’ve been doing this for a long time. Now I feel like I’ve developed something with the new batch of songs we have, including Dirt Road Therapy, which I knew immediately would be the first single. I feel like I’m finding a niche for myself.
Q After all this time?
A Yeah, but then I’ve been developing through the years. We waited a long time to find the songs we wanted for this album, and we tried not to rush it. With Dirt Road Therapy, I had this feeling in my stomach, like, this is what I’ve been waiting for. It’s like the song Crazy Days (from 2008’s Crazy Days) — kind of a fun song for the summer, not uptempo, but a cool beat and basically about letting stress go, letting go of the crazy lifestyle and enjoying some peacefulness. When I heard that, I thought, “Yeah, I like that. I live off a back country road. I get this.”
Q You’re also familiar with the concept of slowing down.
A Sure, but you know, it can also be a good thing. Craziness means things are happening.
Q Though sometimes not slowing down can do damage, right?
A Yeah, especially back in 2008 when the band and I did 400 shows. Our manager at the time routed us in a completely crazy manner; from San Francisco to some place like New Orleans, and then back up around San Francisco again right away. We had maybe two days off in that time to do laundry or sleep in our own beds. Then it was back on the bus and out again.
Q That’s a pretty steep workload to take on.
A We were sometimes doing two shows a day, not including radio appearances. I was walking like a zombie, and while it was really fun to play that much, I think that by the end I wasn’t looking particularly healthy. I’m not complaining, because there are people who would kill for that schedule, but it did cause us to be sicker than normal from allergy attacks and other illnesses.
Q Probably at that point you were just looking towards the performances as a reward.
A Well, that’s the butter, right? Everything else leads up to that moment when you finally stand back, look out into the distance and listen as people sing along to your songs. It’s an amazing rush that I just can’t explain.
Q What’s the plan after Big Valley? A few shows here and there until the album comes out?
A That’s right; we’ll be back in the studio with (producer) Bart McKay at his place in Saskatchewan, putting it together. We’re taking our time, making sure we get it right. We’ve got a good game plan, and I’ve got a great team helping out behind me. Dirt Road Therapy is just the start; I’m going to get out there and conquer!
We waited a long time to find the songs we wanted for this album, and we tried not to rush it. With Dirt Road Therapy, I had this feeling in my stomach, like, this is what I’ve been waiting for.