Actor Luke Grimes reintroduces himself as country musician
There are countless reasons to self-title an album. It can be an introduction, an assertion of some definitive work, an easy avenue to labeling a collection of songs that feel otherwise impossible to classify. In the case of Luke Grimes, best known for his portrayal of the complex cowboy character Kayce Dutton on the hit show “Yellowstone,” it is also an invaluable tool.
Grimes’ debut country album, “Luke Grimes,” now available, is a declaration that speaks volumes: Think you know him? Guess again. The actor-musician hopes his album establishes “who I am, and where this music is coming from — and I’m trying to be honest here, I’m trying to do this the right way.”
“Country music is at its greatest, I think, when it’s really honest. So that was important to try to accomplish on this first album,” he said.
Though this is Grimes’ debut album, he’s no novice. Music has always been a part of his life — from listening to worship music and playing drums in church at age 11 to discovering the outlaw greats through his dad and on country radio. Later, he’d play drums in a Wilco-inspired
Americana band in Los Angeles, and in 2012, write a country song for the film “Outlaw Country,” in which he also acted.
“I’ve never not played music,” he says. “I always have a guitar. It keeps me inspired, too. And any time I’ve prepared to do anything creatively, music has been a huge part of that.”
Produced by Dave Cobb, “Luke Grimes” the album is diaristic at times, an open-book record with songs about love, loss, God and rural living, universal topics from an artist with a knack for articulating truths, warts and all.
Grimes says there are a lot of songs about love, heartbreak and hometowns in country music, and “Oh Ohio” — with its textured riffs, pedal steel and late-breaking percussion — accomplishes all of that while flipping the common conceit on its head: It’s not so flattering about where he comes from.
“I didn’t maybe feel like I totally belonged there,” he said of the state. “I just hadn’t heard that in a lot of songs. Usually when you hear songs about people’s hometown, it’s kind of a love letter. And this was more of a breakup letter.”
As for those who might not consider Ohio a hotbed for country music: “People sometimes confused ‘country
music’ with ‘Southern music,’ ” he says. “For me, country is rural ... it’s more roots, people of the land. And there’s plenty of that in Ohio.”
On the upbeat “Ain’t Dead Yet,” with its singalong chorus (“I’m gonna love you till I die/ And I ain’t dead yet”), clap-along percussion, campfire harmonica and hazy guitar pedals, Grimes demonstrates a kind of creative range associated with veteran artists.
“We were saying, Wouldn’t it be funny to write a song, just as an exercise, if (Nirvana frontman) Kurt Cobain was country? Like, if he would have been born in a holler in Kentucky somewhere and hadn’t died early and lived to be an old man and had a wife and kids, like, what would those songs sound like? And that literally was how that idea
started,” Grimes says. It’s impossible not to hear the connection in the opening power chords.
“That’s kind of the magical part of the whole process, that there are no rules,” says Grimes.
The other magic? Getting to reveal more about himself to his listeners — and, in the process, connect with them.
“Certain albums that have stuck with me through the years, it’s just kind of made me feel like there’s someone out there that I can relate to,” he says. “Whatever this feeling or emotion is that I don’t know how to articulate, someone else has articulated it really well and through music, and in a way that I feel like a connection to. And so, if I could just do that for some people, then I think that’d be mission accomplished.”