Clint Black
Drinkin' Songs& Other Logic

When a recording artist as accomplished as Clint Black says he wants to set aside everything he's learned, well, that's no small feat. The occasion of his tenth full-length studio album gave one of country music's most celebrated performers the chance to do just that, however.
Armed with a purposefully self-limiting album title and determined to recall the music of his formative years, Black embarked on a journey unlike any in his 16-year career. And despite being in the enviable position of having to conform to no one's rules but his own, he even managed to break those...but only once.
"From the very beginning I have pushed myself to grow as a musician, singer, writer and artist," Black says. "I learned music by ear and once I got the opportunity to work with great musicians I wanted to learn from them. I educated myself about theory and applied that knowledge."
Continually forcing new challenges on himself, Black succeeded in expanding his artistry, fueling and furthering his already remarkable out-of-the-box commercial success. He even branched into other forms including acting and, most recently, record production.
Following the early 2004 release of Spend My Time on Equity Records, a label with a groundbreaking new business model he helped launch, Black was back in the country music limelight after a five-year hiatus. But when the time came to follow that well-received release, he found himself considering how far he'd come with his music. And he very deliberately turned back -- all the way back.
"I went out and bought all the music I grew up on that I didn't already have and spent three months listening to only that," Black explains. "Only stuff from before I started making records, so it was pre-1989 Waylon, Willie, Buck Owens, Haggard, Don Williams, Jim Croce. And what I discovered was a simplicity in song that I had moved away from. It was quite an emotional journey, because these were all songs that moved me and inspired me to do what I've been doing ever since."
Energized to make what he calls a "barroom, honky tonk kind of album," Black's first order of business was choosing a title. "Drinkin' Songs & Other Logic was just a way to keep myself boxed in," he says. "I wanted the album to be exactly that."
Along with longtime co-writer and band leader Hayden Nicholas, Black determined that the album should be songs "about drinking, good for drinking or written while drinking," he says wryly. "We kept it all in house, literally. We recorded it in my home studio and used my touring band exclusively, with the exception of two guests -- Steve Wariner plays guitar on the title track and Little Big Town did backing vocals on 'Back Home In Heaven.'"
The album conforms to its creator's parameters in the dancehall swing of "Heartaches" and "I Don't Wanna Tell You," the western themes of "Code of the West" and "Go It Alone," in the lament of first single "Rainbow In The Rain," and in directly on-point numbers including "Thinking Of You (Familiar Drinkin' Song)," "Longnecks & Rednecks," "Undercover Cowboy" and the title track. As a writer, Black had a well of material to draw from going back to his days playing clubs as a teenager in his brother's band.
"I spent a lot of time in those bars, listening to that music and watching the people," Black says. "I love watching people anyway. That's the great thing about going to New York where I can put on a ball cap and watch folks without being watched. But I remember sitting in those bars and watching the little plays that happen between people. So much of it is predictable, but every now and then it's not. Those stories aren't lost on me."
The intervening years saw the youngest of four Houston-area brothers take a remarkable ride to stardom, leaving his honky tonk apprenticeship, breaking into the charts and becoming the face of a suddenly mainstream genre. He led country music's resurgence with his 1989 RCA debut album Killin' Time, and over the next 10 years enjoyed every possible measure of success -- album sales, critical acclaim, awards from his peers and dozens of chart-topping radio hits.
In a way, the songs speak for themselves: "Killin' Time," "A Better Man," "Walkin' Away," "We Tell Ourselves," "Summer's Comin'," "Like The Rain," "When My Ship Comes In," "Something That We Do" and so many more.
His decade-long run with RCA came to a close in 1999, and Black's career and life undertook a dramatic transformation. He relocated to Nashville from California, built a world-class home studio, celebrated the birth of his first child and became a founding partner in a record company bent on reworking the artist-label relationship.
Spend My Time was Equity's first release, and it put Black right back into the music business spin cycle, promoting and touring full bore. "I did everything I've always done with a new CD coming out -- media, lots of touring, and I'm doing that this year as well," he says. "It's just what I remembered. It's not something that can be planned in a way that's conducive to survival. We're sorry you've gotten less than five hours sleep, but we have to get going. I've never been able to shape it into anything reasonable."
Dry humor aside, Black can't hide how much he loves the position he's created for himself. Aside from producing his own Equity releases, he's also helming the debut Equity release for the group Carolina Rain. He's filming a concert at the Tivoli Theater in Chattanooga to be released in high definition for broadcast and DVD. And he's recording music for a western-themed Activision video game in which he plays one of the characters.
Most significantly, he's able to conceptualize a project like Drinkin' Songs & Other Logic, and bring it to fruition -- even if he was forced to break his own rules for one exceptional song.
"'Back Home In Heaven' is really more in keeping with other ballads I've done like 'Something That We Do,'" Black explains. "It's not a honky tonk song, but it has such special meaning we had to keep it. It was inspired by the death of Hayden's mother."
Being able to write and record a song that's so unexpected (see accompanying cut by cut), not to mention an album that took him on an important personal and artistic journey, keeps him engaged.
"A lot of people are misguided about the true source of happiness," he says. "It's not money or fame or awards. It's doing what you love to do." And that makes sense, whatever logic you use.