Luke Bryan is flying his own country flag
New album ‘What Makes You’ completes a musical journey
If Luke Bryan had tried out for American Idol as a teenager, he gives himself a 50/50 shot at making it to Hollywood. He said he was a “little ole country bumpkin” who was trying to sing like George Strait.
“I was such a country music geek and coverband guy. … I was trying to sing too much like them,” Bryan said. “So many of these kids can sing like Ariana Grande. But can they make you want to cry when you hear Amazing Grace?”
At 41 and a decade after the release of his debut album, I’ll Stay Me, Bryan is still a pace-setter in country music. The Georgia native is a multi-platinum-selling stadium headliner who has not only found his voice but also a passion for helping young singers achieve their dreams as a judge on American Idol. His sixth studio album, What Makes You Country, new in stores, is a 15-song celebration of his country roots that showcases his growth as a singer and songwriter over the past 10 years.
“It says he knows a lot about living life, and he knows how to write about it and he knows how to sing about it,” said Bryan’s producer, Jody Stevens. “I hope that people will see that he’s a very real, thinking guy. The fact that he shakes his (butt) and has fun, that shouldn’t take away from the fact that he makes music that moves people.”
Wearing his signature tight jeans and ball cap, Bryan sat sideways with one leg folded under him on the couch in his dressing room after his rehearsal for the 51st CMA Awards last month. He was relaxed and chatty, all traces of “bumpkin” gone. But the country hangs on every drawl of his unmistakable Georgia accent.
The singer’s career launched with songs like All My Friends Say and Country Man, but since Bryan’s hip-shaking breakthrough moment with Country Girl (Shake it for Me) at the 2011 CMT Music Awards, critics have lined up to declare Bryan not country. Six years of criticism of his music and an ongoing debate over what constitutes a country lifestyle inspired the title track for What Makes You Country.
Written by Bryan, Dallas Davidson and Ashley Gorley, the song’s lyrics include:
Might be from a city or a little farm town, whatever kind of square that you drove around / Do you wear it on your sleeve or keep it deep down? / You know you’ve got to let it out.
“We sat around and were just tired of these different segments of people judging what makes you country and what doesn’t,” Bryan said. “We get so wrapped up in stereotyping people and judging them for whatever segment they are. If you’re just a little bit country, allow people to be proud of that. Let ’em fly that flag.”
But it’s Land of a Million Songs, which he wrote with his producers Jeff Stevens and Jody Stevens, that he believes is the best song he has ever written — and may ever write. The song is a real-life look at the struggles of building a career as a songwriter in Nashville.
Bryan and Jeff Stevens believe Most People are Good, written by David Frasier, Ed Hill and Josh Kear, could be the singer’s future contender for song of the year. Jeff Stevens felt so strongly about the song that when another artist had it on hold to record, he worked for six months to get it for Bryan.
Bryan sings: “I believe if you just go by the nightly news, your faith in all mankind would be the first thing you lose.” And, “I believe you love who you love, ain’t nothing you should ever be ashamed of.”
“There is a lot of depth and wisdom on this album,” said Cindy Mabe, president of Universal Music Group Nashville. “Luke made an album about the inclusiveness of who we are as humans. It’s a statement on unity.”
There’s much distance between the lyrics in Most People are Good and Bryan’s other staple hits with catchy lines about rain makes corn and big, black, jacked-up trucks. But the songs show his growth and diversity as an artist. Mabe said Bryan still has songs that will make people get up and dance, but that more than any other album, What Makes You Country is insight into the man behind the microphone.
Charlie Cook, vice president of country formats for broadcasting company Cumulus Media, said it’s Bryan’s everyman appeal that attracts fans and keeps them coming back. Cook remembers a time when Bryan was visiting a Los Angeles radio station and took text questions from listeners. At the end of the radio show, the singer asked for a list of telephone numbers from the texters so he could call them personally and thank them.
“That’s the day I knew that he would be entertainer of the year in short order,” Cook said.
Now Bryan is funneling his decade worth of knowledge into the hopeful contestants on American Idol. The singer said it was difficult for him at first to share unflattering critiques with contestants, many of whom are teenagers. But he discovered quickly that if he wasn’t boldly honest in the audition phase, the mediocre singers “get eaten alive” by their competition.
“You might as well let them down, but encourage them,” Bryan said, explaining that many of them over-sing. “When you’re a 16-year-old kid, you’ve got all of these people who are saying: ‘You’re the best singer in the world. You’re like a bird because you can do all of these tricks.’ And then you land your butt in front of me, (fellow judges) Lionel Richie and Katy Perry, ain’t nothing slipping by us.”