It seems that good ol’ boys and girls
are everywhere country fans look these days. And while that rough-hewn
sound and image has clearly established its place in the genre, it’s
refreshing to encounter an artist who stands apart from the crowd—in
look and style, but especially in his music.
Enter David Nail. With Sinatra-like
levels of poise and class, the rare gifts of natural melody and soul,
and a voice as enveloping as a Cumberland River fog, the Missouri native
is a modern-day country gentleman. He’s Jim Reeves crossed with Elton
John. Garth Brooks meets Stevie Wonder. Glen Campbell blended with
Michael Bublé.
The musical result of those mash-ups
is a rich sound that hearkens back to Nashville’s Countrypolitan days,
when artists like Campbell—one of David’s heroes—added a dash of
sophistication to country music.
“My father was a band director for 31
years and he listened to all sorts of music, including a lot of
old-school Elton John. I just loved the big, lush feel of those
records,” David explains. “Glen Campbell was a huge influence on me for
the same reason: the arrangements, the elaborate production, the
dramatic songs. Those influences all come out in what I do.”
This is specifically true on David’s vibrant new album, The Sound of a Million Dreams.
“A lot of the sounds that I try to emulate and use for inspiration are
from a time when pop music was called that because it was popular,” David says. “And who doesn’t want to have popular music?”
The Sound of a Million Dreams is Nail’s follow-up to 2009’s I’m About to Come Alive,which yielded the Top Ten hit “Red Light” and was also listed by Esquire Magazine
as one of 50 Songs Every Man Should Be Listening To. David also
received an Academy of Country Music nomination for Single Record of the
Year for “Red Light.” Furthermore, Nail scored a Grammy nomination for
Best Male Country Vocal Performance for “Turning Home.”
Much like I’m About to Come Alive, The Sound of a Million Dreams is
cinematic in its scope, with lyrics and melodies awash in imagery. In
the evocative “That’s How I’ll Remember You,” it’s snapshots of
baseball-game dates in Brooklyn with an ex-lover. In the swirling “She
Rides Away,” the titular girlfriend makes tracks in a rusty El Camino.
And in the album’s yearning first single “Let It Rain,” a contrite
husband seeks forgiveness for “the one night I forgot to wear that
ring."
“Imagery is so much a part of what
draws me to the songs I record. I pick songs with cities in their lyrics
or the names of girls because I want you to know exactly where I’m
coming from and what I’m talking about,” says David. “I love painting
those pictures.”
And with the album’s title track, he
just may have painted a masterpiece. Written by Scooter Carusoe and Phil
Vassar, “The Sound of a Million Dreams” expertly sums up David’s belief
in the power of music, namely the power of a song, to create memories.
It references classics by Seger, Springsteen and Haggard, all pegged to
different milestones in the narrator’s life.
Nail connected with the message so deeply that he chose “The Sound of a Million Dreams” to represent the album.
“I’ve always felt that an album’s
title was the most important thing besides the music. It automatically
gives someone an idea of what to expect,” says David. “If you had to
tell the story of me to this point, that song really sums it up.”
But the lyrics on The Sound of a Million Dreams,
whether David’s or those of his co-writers, only tell part of the
story. The rest unfolds thanks to David’s incomparable voice.
Bourbon-smooth, full of emotion and always in control, it’s an
instrument in and of itself. And the singer-songwriter knows when to let
it loose or rein it in.
“I don’t want somebody to think I’m a
great singer because I can sing a Stevie Wonder hit and do all the
licks,” he says modestly. “With this record, I wanted to find the best
songs that I could sing as best as I can, but at the same time, songs
that I could sing effortlessly. And by ‘effortlessly,’ I mean
emotionally, not technically. There’s a difference between singing a
song on key, and singing a song that makes a person instantly feel
something.”
Still, David views the album as a
stepping stone of sorts—he hopes his recorded work will draw listeners
out to his live show, where the real vocal magic happens. While
recording The Sound of a Million Dreams, he paid close
attention to how the songs might sound when performed live. It was a
pivotal difference from the way he and co-producer Frank Liddell
structured I’m About to Come Alive, and an approach partially
adopted from being on the road with Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum.
(Lady A’s Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, incidentally, contribute a
song to the album, the soaring “I Thought You Knew,” co-written with
David and Monty Powell.)
“I had the chance to see some bigger
productions and the art of putting on a show,” David says of those
high-profile tours. “I learned how songs are so much bigger live and I
had that in the back of mind while making this record. When people hear
these songs, they’ll anticipate how grand they’re going to sound
onstage.” This is proved with the album opener “Grandpa’s Farm,” a
sultry honky-tonk shuffle that is equal parts Little Feat and the
Rolling Stones.
Ironically, the record’s first song could end up being David’s concert closer.
“That’ll be a song that you wouldn’t
want to follow with another,” he declares. “With ‘Grandpa’s Farm,’ we’d
leave as big as an exclamation point as we can.”
The same can be said for The Sound of a Million Dreams as
a whole. It’s a definitive statement that David Nail has arrived and is
committed to releasing his brand of mature country music—songs that are
built around personal stories, transcendent vocals and a sense of
class.
“That will always be the basis of
what I do on a record and what I try to do live. If you’re looking to
get rowdy and hear a lot of screaming and hollering, you’ll be
disappointed,” he says with a laugh. “This record yields a different
kind of enjoyment. And there are all kinds of songs. It really does
epitomize the sound of a million dreams.”
And for fans of sophisticated country music, it’s a million dreams come true.