Photo of Clay Walker

Clay Walker

Clay Walker Radio

Music

FEATURED SONG
Jesse James
  1. Play
  2. Play Next
  3. Add to queue
Jesse James
Album:
Released: Sep 17, 2012
Label:

General Info

  • Genre: Country

    Location NASHVILLE, Tennessee, US

    Profile Views: 5188536

    Last Login: 5/20/2013

    Member Since 9/13/2006

    Website www.claywalker.com

    Record Label Curb Records

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    “The things to me that last are things that are real,” Clay Walker says. “Realness is what draws people in.” Keeping things real has been a priority for Clay Walker. That may be why on his new album, She Won’t Be Lonely Long, his second for Curb Records, Walker sounds as fresh and hungry as he did when he released his first hit, “What’s It To You,” 17 years ago. And there have been plenty since. Of his nine previous albums, four are RIAA-certified platinum, two more are certified gold; among nearly three dozen singles, 11 have been No. 1. But Walker sounds like he’s just getting started. Like his 2007 Curb Records debut, Fall, Walker’s new album, She Won’t Be Lonely Long, was produced by Keith Stegall. The collection of songs is solid and includes a cover of Alabama’s immortal “Feels So Right,” with Randy Owen, the writer of the song and famed Alabama lead singer, performing it as a duet with Walker. It has special meaning for the singer, since the first concert he ever saw was an Alabama show in Beaumont, Texas, that Walker’s mother took him to see. “I remember them taking the stage, and the emotion that came over my mom. I just fell in love with their performance, as entertainers, they influenced my wanting to become an entertainer; I think that’s where the energy of my live show comes from. So the song has a special place in my life, and I’m proud to do it.” The album’s first single is “She Won’t Be Lonely Long,” written by Galen Griffin, Phil O’Donnell and Doug Johnson. But the story, about a woman walking into a club with the decisive purpose of finding at least a temporary replacement for the fool who let her go, is one Walker has seen transpire from many a bandstand. “I’ve played in bars my whole life,” he says. “As a singer, you have a bird’s eye view of everyone in the club. When a good looking woman walks in, you notice it. What makes it so real is that if a guy does a girl wrong, the first thing she wants to do is go out, look great, show him that you’re not the best I ever had, I’m the best YOU ever had.” Three of the tunes were written with longtime writing sidekick M. Jason Greene, who like Walker, grew up in the Beaumont area. “Summertime Song” is an easygoing pleasure, a song that began taking shape years ago when Walker was performing a solo gig and Greene bartending at a local Steak and Ale. It’s a song that evokes good times, good friends, and the dangers of forgetting what the merciless sun can do to your skin on Galveston Beach. Two of Walker’s new compositions are likely to stir conversation and perhaps controversy: “Double Shot of John Wayne” and “All American.” Walker makes it clear that the John Wayne reference in that roaring up-tempo song is not an embrace of machismo or a desire to return to simpler, more violent Western past, when men were men and settled disputes with six-guns at high noon. What inspired it was a nasty accident on a bike during an exercise stretch off the tour bus in Flagstaff, Arizona, a few years ago. “I shattered my helmet, I was bleeding from head to toe,” Walker said. “I had to go onstage that night, I never missed show.” Putting ointment on his torn skin made Walker ponder “the ruggedness of men,” as epitomized by John Wayne. “It’s not supposed to be about John Wayne, his tough persona, or being a man’s man,” he says. “It’s about how you live, not how you die; you don’t have to die to be a hero; being a hero is how you live every day.” “All American” is an attempt to quiet the dissonance and mutual disrespect that has characterized too much political discussion in recent years. As the song makes clear, “there’s blue collar, white collar, but we all bleed red.” The song is a rebuke to the racism Walker says he was exposed to growing up. “It’s about not being prejudiced or judgmental,” Walker says. In the song, Walker sings about having “a best friend with a funny last name/and a weird accent/and now he’s an astronaut.” Says Walker: “You can succeed in this country with a great work ethic, I really believe that. Everybody deserves a fair chance. Not everybody seizes it, but everybody deserves it.” A number of songs written by some of Music City’s finest allow Walker to cut loose as one of the finest voices in country music. “Keep Me From Loving You” is one of the songs that has what Walker describes as “a real country soulfulness.” Though he didn’t write it, he identified strongly with the story of parents who disapprove of the young man their daughter is dating. “I dated a girl in high school whose mother and father didn’t like me,” Walker said. “I never understood why they looked down on me. The song is bluesy and soulful; it gives me a chance to stretch out vocally. I’ve been blessed with the ability to stretch out with a kind of R&B style and still keep my country roots. I cut it a half step [octave] too high so I could express more vulnerability. I wanted to give this everything I had, the monitors were on fire by the time I was finished.” Another track with the same soulful intensity is, “Where Do I Go From You.” “Out of all the songs I’ve recorded since “What’s It To You,” my first record, this has that youthful energy I had on that first song. Production-wise it’s as modern as anything I’ve ever done. I’m pretty much considered a new traditionalist, but I do have R&B and pop roots mixed in.” “Sometimes I Feel Like Jesse James” kicks it up even a notch higher: It’s the most fired up country rock’n’roll Walker has ever recorded. “Sometimes I feel like Jesus, sometimes I feel like Jesse James,” the refrain goes. Walker explains: “It’s like when Tim McGraw sang, ‘I may be a real bad boy, but baby, I’m a real good man.’ I think most men are in that spot. It also reminds me of ‘Tombstone,’ with Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell, which is one of my favorite movies—I ad-libbed some lines from it at the end of the song.” Walker recalls that the first time he played it for his oldest daughter, MaClay, she said, “Dad, all the hairs on my arms are standing up.” Clay also has a daughter Skylor, and a son, William. Songs that tell stories without clear resolutions and unpredictable rhymes are especially meaningful to Walker, who likes the ambiguity of “Seven Sundays,” which could draw the interest of Christian radio, and “Like We Never Said Goodbye,” which has some pop possibilities. “It’s about having your ex-lover walk in (to a club or party or other social gathering) and you get butterflies, worse than butterflies,” Walker says. The lyrics change in the chorus as the song progresses, giving “Like We Never Said Goodbye” the feel of a short story. “The end of the song leaves it open; you decide whether they get back together again or not.” Another story song Walker finds intensely meaningful is “People in Planes,” which unfolds like a movie. “It’s very philosophical; it’s a huge risk, because its way outside the box for me, but it can be a game-changer,” Walker believes. It’s a simple set-up with complex emotions: The singer observes all kinds of people on an airplane, imagining where they are coming or going from. There is a sudden, nostalgic memory of a safe and happy moment from childhood. “You go from childhood to adulthood, losing that innocence, then it takes you back the other way, like a good movie, at the end, it gives you some release. “We’re all waiting on somebody we can’t see to land this thing,” one of the last lines goes. Walker explains: “Everybody is looking outside of themselves for help.” When it comes to helping others, Clay Walker is there. In 1996, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and since then has become a relentless advocate for a cure. “My first thought was I’m not going to be able to walk my daughter down the aisle. The other was that I thought my kids would be ashamed of me because I was incapacitated.” Walker, a competitive cut-horse rider and skilled golfer, is one of fortunate ones whose MS is for now contained by medication. But he carries the fight for a cure for MS with his charity organization, Band Against MS. “A good friend once said you should spend 10 per cent of your time on the problem, and 90 per cent on the solution,” Walker said. “It took me a couple of years to get over the shock of the diagnosis. Now my focus is not so much the mental or physical or spiritual damage caused by the disease, it’s all about the healing and conquering. Band Against MS is an organization I founded. It’s my promise to other people that just because I am doing well doesn’t mean that everything is OK. Arresting the disease is not enough, because there are a whole lot of people that don’t have the disease under control, that’s not acceptable to me. Only about 30 per cent of those diagnosed with MS get it slowed down or arrested. What about the other 70 per cent? That’s not fair. Band Against MS teams up with the National MS Society to raise awareness that this is a disease that needs research and needs a cure. We have a start, there’s a chance here, that there can be a cure for this disease.” For forcing him to reorder his priorities, Walker says that the diagnosis of MS was a blessing, making him “focus on the things that are really important.” Last year [2009], Walker gave a new tilt to his hat, as producer of the soundtrack to the film “Noble Things,” which features songs performed by Mark Chesnutt, Tracy Byrd, Dobie Gray, Pam Tillis, Tracy Lawrence, Bo Bice and others. The music on the soundtrack was published by Walker’s company, E L Music; it was shortened from its full name, Espiritu de Leon (BMI), Latin for “Spirit of the Lion,” a name suitable for a fictional, medieval-looking coat of arms invented for boyish pleasure by Walker and Greene. Walker has had some success with soundtracks before: Walker’s song “Chain of Love” appears on the Clint Eastwood film, “Space Cowboys.” “Imagine, Clint Eastwood calling you up personally to ask to use a song. Now that got my wheels turned,” Walker says. Walker continues to look at entrepreneurial opportunities for soundtracks and music publishing, among other options, while retaining his down to earth perspective. “I’ve worked for more than 16 years,” Walker says, pondering what lies ahead. “I have established a reputation, but have not established a ‘brand.’ It’s time to do that. That is the payoff for all the hard work. The music I’ve put out has been quality; everything else needs to be quality. Would I like to become an empire? Absolutely, I would love to see that happen. But Jack Burke Jr., who owns the Champions Golf Club in Houston, he won the 1956 Masters tournament, he told me, ‘All these people who come up, they all want a clothing line. You’re very successful, but you should never chase the money. If you chase money, all your fans will go always. If you follow the music, all the rest will follow.” As always, Clay Walker follows the music. “One of the things that I have learned through experience is that if you are able to sustain a career in this business you will have the opportunity to reflect on your past, especially the songs you have recorded and hopefully realize which ones worked for your audience and try to figure out why they did,” Walker says. “There are very few career songs and we have been able to put out one or two. The Fall album was the first “true” album I’ve done since my first one. It really put me on track to the future I’ve been wanting for several years. She Won’t Be Lonely Long is a HUGE step in that direction as well. I’ve never been more proud to say, “Here it is!”

  • Members

  • Influences

  • Sounds Like

Videos

Login

Forgot password?

Need an account? Sign up