Pat Green gets lucky
By Jeffrey B. Remz, November 2004
Pat Green is another in a long line of Texas musicians putting out their own albums instead of owning big dreams about striking it rich with one of those huge record companies in Nashville. The type of artist who can make a living just getting in the van and touching down at clubs throughout Texas, which unlike most every other state, is large enough to support the cottage industry known as Texas musician.
But something went "awry" with Green's plans. So much so that he has even occasionally left his home state where he is a bona fide superstar playing to thousands on a regular basis to touring around the country on more than one occasion and perhaps more importantly having a hit record last time out with "Wave On Wave."
Now, the talkative Green is trying to see if he can take his roots-based country one step further with the release in October of "Lucky Ones," his third for Republic/Universal.
With eight albums already under his belt, Green may find it hard to do something different, but he made it clear doing so was very important to him.
"I think more than anything else, we don't ever recreate a record that we just did," he says on the phone from Winston-Salem, N.C. where he is on tour. "There are a lot of fans out there that listen to music of a band and want them to recreate the same thing. I want (my fans) to go with me. We're not going over the deep end. I think we're making good stuff. I'm very proud of the band we have. I think the record is very accessible and (true) to the make up of this band."
So what's different about the 12 songs on "Lucky Ones?"
"There are definitely some guitar tones that are different, that are a little bit richer. I think song-wise, the songs are a little more thought out, a little more crafty. But in a general sense, it just doesn't feel the same as 'Wave on Wave,' and that's kind of what we're going for. I get tired of watching the same Julia Roberts movies over and over...She gets the guy, and there's a child on the way."
Confident in his abilities, Green says, "That's the kind of forward thinking we're talking about. All we have to do in the music business is entertain people and get people out of their heads for a little while. If we can find better ways to do that every time, we're going to be all right."
After all this time - Green made his first album, 1995's "Dancehall Dreamer" while still a student at Texas Tech University - doing so isn't so easy.
"Sure it's difficult to do that, but if we're going to be worth (it), we have to be able to perform under that pressure. We're definitely up to the challenge. We're not shy."
Not only did Green perform under pressure, he also wrote under pressure.
Writing started about six months before recording the album, but Green only went into the studio with four songs for producer Don Gehman (he also produced "Wave on Wave" and has turned the trick for John Mellencamp, Hootie & The Blowfish, Nanci Griffith and Tracy Chapman).
"No, I wanted it to be completely different this time around," says Green of the recording process. "In reality, I only had a few songs done. I wanted to do most of the creation in the studio. It was a little dicey for a few days."
"I didn't think it presented much of a problem really," he says of being forced to write under pressure. "I wanted it to be a little more of a spontaneous attempt at making a record because that's kind of the way I live my life. I thought why don't I give it a shot?"
Green has done a lot of songwriting on his own, but not this time around. "Wave on Wave" contained three Green compositions; its predecessor, "Three Days," contained six.
"Lucky Ones" zero.
"That kind of surprised to me," says Green of the writing. "I didn't see that coming, but it happened...when it did, I'm down with that."
Taking a jocular look at the situation, Green says, "I think every time I sat down to write, there was probably somebody there."
"Lucky Ones" stretches it out songwriting-wise for Green. He penned two songs - "Baby Doll" and "My Little Heaven" - with Rob Thomas, the lead vocalist of very popular rock group Matchbox 20.
"I had to convince him for a ' long time," says Green of Thomas. He and Green have the same music publisher, which made it easier to get together.
"I was nervous for the first bit, but after the first few moments, it was all downhill and easy," says Green. "I thought he'd show up with a whole entourage and all the trappings of a rock star, and he came out of a cab with a guitar. It was cool."
The two apparently made the most of their day together writing five songs in New York. They kept two saying that "made the most sense (instead) of something that was going to take us two years to sift through and make a song of it."
Why write with Thomas, especially since Green's songwriting was confined to country folks?
"I take a page out of the old Willie Nelson book," says Green. He relates a story about Nelson golfing with former University of Texas football coach Darryl Royal until he told him he had to leave to go into the studio to record with some foreign guy who sold millions of albums and was a hit with the women. Royal supposedly didn't understand the need, but the result was "To All the Girls I've Loved Before," the big hit for Nelson and Julio Iglesias.
"Why would I record with Rob Thomas?" Green asks rhetorically. "15 million records sold, you know. He's a master of his art."
Another change is that unlike most previous albums, Green toned down the story songs on this collection mainly of love songs. Green indicates that was not done on purpose.
"That's a reflection of where I am as a person," says Green without being too specific. "My life is changing all around me. I'm in an emotional place right now where that stuff is just bunching up on me. That release (songwriting) is so much fun and so right at times. Just to get it off your system - to put it on the plate and see what happens, see what sticks."
"My motto is don't fight the song. If the song is coming out, write the song. If a story song is coming out, write it."
On the country side, probably the most unforeseen collaboration would have been Green with ace guitarist and traditional country singer Brad Paisley.
Green and Paisley came up with "College," the only particularly humorous song on the album and the type of song you could definitely hear the college frat boys - a key component of Green's Texas following - singing with gusto.
The song is about a father giving his son, who had been caught buying a six pack with a fake ID, some sage advice - "he said son there's a time and place/for just about everything/It's called college."
But college turns into empty pizza boxes stacked around the beer "a couple of beers on a Tuesday and one in the afternoon/Hey college/Those were the best days of my life/I found my friends myself my wife/I learned almost everything that I know/without ever gaining knowledge."
Paisley and Green trade off lines, each doing the fun song justice.
Some would say it's interesting that Green and the traditionally-minded Paisley joined forces, especially considering the pair certainly approach their view of country music from different perspectives.
The two met while preparing for the Grammys a few years ago when both were nominated for best country song, but neither won.
"He's such a great artist," says Green. "He's a museum piece of a guitar player. He's a Grammy-nominated several times over songwriter."
"I'm trying to model myself after what Willie was - if you can sing with someone else, do it (Willie has done a ton of singing with others for decades). I'm doing this as music for me and the guys in my band as much as anybody else. Just like Willie, I owe it to everyone to leave no stone unturned and go as far as I can. Throw caution into the wind if you will."
Green indicates that the two didn't write under the easiest of circumstances, especially since the album was done.
"I was so tired that night," Green recalls. "I think it started with something Brad said. That was the very last day in the studio. He had also been touring... We were both so tired. It was really a labor of love. I think we were both real happy when the day was done...That song was a total add on...It's me to a T."
When questioned if life at Texas Tech was about guzzling beer and inhaling pizza and not getting an education, Green says, "in a great many ways, yeah."
But Green did graduate with a general studies degree in 1997, 7 years after he started.
"It was a gray area," Green jokes about graduating. "I'm still not sure what it was about."
"I got a degree," he says seriously. "I was very proud of that. I don't care what anybody says. If you've got a degree, you've done some work. You've done your work. I see a lot of people cussing themselves because they didn't take the opportunity."
Green wrote with Ray Wylie Hubbard for the first time ever and came out with the dark acoustic-based "Sweet Revenge," which closes the disc. Radney Foster contributed the title track and co-wrote "It's Time" with Green.
Green was born in San Antonio, but grew up in Waco.
He apparently got the musical bug from his father, a stockbroker, who acted in regional theatre musicals throughout Texas and mother, who also acted.
"I think it was within me to begin with," says Green of performing. "Watching my dad work the crowd was fantastic for me. I loved that experience. I loved (the idea) of having that power over people."
"It was just a neat thing to have - seeing your parents perform on the weekend and being creative. It was just a wonderful environment for a child to see some passion from their parents. They didn't get any money out of it."
Green played music in his younger years, but his instrument of choice was drums in a high school band. "We played all kinds of stuff, rock music, AC/DC to the Pointer Sisters."
Green apparently knew his days as a drummer were limited. "I decided when I was a senior in high school (that) when I was a freshman at Tech, I decided I was going to learn to play guitar. When I got $100, I bought a guitar."
Green attended Texas Tech for three years and took two years off to further his musical career (this is when he released "Dancehall Dreamer" thanks to money borrowed from family and friends) before returning and finishing two years later.
Songwriting apparently came quickly for Green. "Really, I guess by about eight months into playing guitar, I started writing. Probably within about two years of that, I had my first record. It was a natural progression."
Green put out four more albums on his own, including "George's Bar" (1999), "Here We Go" (a live album from 1999), "Songs We Wish We'd Written," a duets album with fellow Texas musician Cory Morrow (2000) and "Carry On" (2001). The five albums sold more than 200,000, a huge number for an independent artist without the deep pockets of a major label.
After graduating Tech, Green soon pursued a musical career full time, in part thanks to his dad.
Asked when he knew he was going to do music full time, Green says, "when my dad fired me."
"He said, 'get out of here. Go do your thing'."
Green soon played honky tonks, dance halls and various clubs throughout Texas.
A big break came when he played at Nelson's annual July 4th picnic in 1998, leading to a wider audience and bigger bookings like Billy Bob's in Fort Worth.
Green had to make a decision about his career - either try to get bigger or maintain himself as a Texas artist.
"It didn't matter what we did at that indie label," he says. "We couldn't get any better (in Texas). There was nothing left to accomplish. It was either quit trying to grow, let it be and move on and just kind of live our life that way, or go out there, and hit the brass ring, and do it for Texas musicians and people that I loved."
While one would have suspected a Nashville label for Green, he opted for Republic of New York, which has Mississippi rockers Three Doors Down and hard rocking group Godsmack.
"They came to me and said, 'you just give us the tape, we'll promote the record'. They didn't want to come in the studio or change me."
"They don't even give me songs to listen to," says Green of a situation typical for many artists.
The label released "Three Days" in 2001 before hitting it with "Wave on Wave" and its spiritual title track becoming a hit single.
Green is going where few from Texas seem to want to go - spreading the word around the U.S., but Green is quite happy and surprised with how far he has come.
"It's the next natural step, and I'm happy to take it. You know, I think the music deserves an ear. I think Texas music is just as cool is as any other music in the world. I have no regrets at all."
Why the success? "We fulfilled the need. People were wanting music that didn't sound like country music on the radio that didn't sound like the country music on the TV. I definitely was not going to win any supermodel awards. I'm not very slick."
Being a star in Texas and now trying to do the same outside of the state, is it hard playing in 600-person clubs in Boston and elsewhere? "In some respects, I find it easier outside of Texas because there are expectations out here," he says.
Green doesn't take his success for granted. "Yes, it's very surprising considering how many people like country music and how strong the country music world was when I started playing," he says. "At the same time, we had a good band, and we had a lot of fun onstage, and we weren't pretentious about it, and we're still the same guys. You catch the flying star, and you get routed on up."
Green makes it clear he's not some vehicle of star making machinery. "No way you can look at us and (say) the record label signed us and did a good job. We did it on our own
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