Real Things, Joe Nichols' fourth album for Universal Records South, is thirteen songs about loss and victory, depression and transcendence, fleetingness and permanence, grit and grace, love and fighting. The collection presents the 30-year-old native of Rogers, Arkansas at the top of his vocal game.<br /><br />Founded in the neo-traditional country styles Nichols reclaimed on Man with a Memory, his 2002 label debut, the music -- produced by Universal Records South President Mark Wright and Nichols' longtime musical collaborator Brent Rowan -- restricts itself only to Nichols' own notions of the real and the right. This is classic country from a singer who loves to tap the style's capacities for deep seriousness and deep fun. These songs, rooted and free, are something to hear.<br /><br />"This is the only thing I cook," Nichols said recently, walking onto the front porch of his house in the country north of Nashville, carrying a glass of limeade he had just assembled with fresh limes. In t-shirt and workout shorts, he sat down on his porch swing, kicked off his Crocs, and began to talk about Real Things -- and his sometimes difficult five-year path to arriving at Real Things -- as his two Pugs and French Bulldog scampered around his feet. He was a relaxed guy on intimate terms with success, personal hell, and knowing how to sing country music right up there with the greatest people who ever have sung it.<br /><br /> "For the past year or so," Nichols said, "I've been kind of peeking at the next level." He mentioned "I'll Wait for You" and "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off," two hit singles from III, his collection from 2005. "But I don't think we've put it all together on an album like this before. I think we've flirted with it, but I don't think we've gotten it just right. Musically, we've done what we've wanted to do, and have been nominated for four Grammy's, but that doesn't automatically mean that it takes you to the next level. It's just musically where you are."<br /><br />After his success with III, Nichols' label underwent changes. The most significant involved the appointment to President of Mark Wright, whose work as a Grammy-nominated producer and label executive over the years has demonstrated an uncanny ability to combine fine songwriting and beautifully made musical immediacy with commercial health. "With Mark running the label," Nichols said, "we got the chance to do something like start over." Wright began to work in tandem with Brent Rowan (the wizardly guitarist and producer had worked on only some tracks for III) on what would become Real Things. <br /><br />"On the last album," Nichols said, "we had three different producers who didn't work with each other; we had three different production styles. Here we had Mark and Brent together, bouncing off each other, meeting in the middle on a lot of ideas. That was a huge difference, having this continuity yet also, at the same time, having their two different flavors. They are complete contrasts. One guy --Brent -- is about putting a fender on a car; the other -- Mark -- is about constructing the whole car. Mark listens like he would listen to the radio; to him, if it sounds good, it sounds good, and you do it that way. Brent is the exact opposite: he hears, and concentrates, on each individual part and sound. I think that having these extremes brought the music a little closer to the middle of each producer's own approach. It was cool."<br /><br /><br />On songs as different as "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking," the slyest country soul tune in which a man ponders the far recesses of feminine identity, and the stormy yet elegant ballad "My Whiskey Years," in which Nichols addresses the curse of addiction as though singing to an evil lover, Nichols is extraordinary. Along with his classic tonality and flow, he wields a terrific balance of power and restraint. "Often," Nichols said, "singers want to prove, on every song, that they are SINGERS. That's great, but at the same time, it's like 'Conway Twitty me -- talk to me.' Twitty was the best at delivering a song's essence. He could sing his tail off. But he didn't do it on every song." Nichols took a long drink of limeade before continuing to make his point. <br /><br />"From playing singing live, I've learned that when I look at people's faces when I'm singing, what touches them most -- what gets them to lean forward rather than lean back -- is when you show personality." Nichols mentions the Merle Haggard song "If I Could Only Fly," done as a duet with Lee Ann Womack. "When I sing 'I wish you could come with me/When I go again', lines like that offer the opportunity to let people get to know you, and really quickly. To expose the vulnerability in some of these songs, I've tried to do that. In my earlier recordings, there was probably a little bit of that. But then I would never have been as comfortable singing as I am right now."<br /><br />According to Nichols, Real Things is the album he would have made from the beginning, if he'd had the skills time has helped him accumulate, and if he had not suffered from a personal detour of sorts that began to occur after his initial success -- a period during which he also experienced the death of his father. <br /><br />"Anything I do musically," he said, "is a reflection of what I am doing personally. When I released my debut, I was trying to get my foot in the door wearing a big old huge steel-toed boot. With Revelation, my second album, I had gotten stuck in a little bit of a party mode. I eventually failed at that party mode; it became a depression party, with drinking and substance abuse involved. It was a scattered place up there, in my head. My father had passed away. And that led to drinking. I became an angry person who felt sorry for himself. I was like, 'Aww damn it, I want to live balls-out, just to hurry it up.'"<br /><br />"I destroyed relationships that I really cared about. And I knew I was doing it! All because of that party mode. I was involved with people who I knew better than to be involved with. But I did it anyway, as a self-destruction kind of guide. On my second album there was a lot of God. I said, 'This is what I'm thinking right now'. But I was living the opposite. And I knew what I was doing was wrong. I had created an alter ego; I wished I could have been living like this godly character I'd created there. In the meantime, I was driving in the rain, going 100 mph. Life felt like I was wearing a 27-pound baseball cap."<br /><br />By the time of III, Nichols had had it with such a lifestyle. He had begun to work on, and solve, the daily complications that came from his party mode. "But the third album," he said, "wasn't like a healing. It was like me saying 'I'm OK, I'm OK, I'm OK.' Unfortunately, it was also a presentation -- and one where I probably went too far in the opposite direction. I was sort of laughing at my self-pity, self-destructive mode. I was like, 'OK, I gotta get back to my personality.' I had to remember how serious I was about having fun. 'Tequila' was an extremely serious record about having fun." <br /><br />"With Real Things, I think I've recaptured some of the little boy who moved to Nashville, who had no opinion about how he would present himself to people. It was a boyish kind of naiveté. This album’s not naïve. But it's getting back to the purity I had before I had ever made a record."<br /><br />A pay-off of all of this is the caliber of Nichols' singing throughout the album. His first hits introduced a voice brilliantly in the great tradition of classic male country singing; on more recent hits, Nichols applied all that grandeur, on "Tequila" especially, to songs that offered a deft idea of wit. On 'Real Things' -- summarizing the theme of the album on the title song, or country-rocking up a storm on "Comin’ Back In A Cadillac," or stating his prerogatives about living his life within the surprisingly untraditional country-rock of "It Ain't No Crime," or delivering the subtle ballad such as "All I Need Is A Heart," or gliding through the midtempo love groove of "Another Side Of You" -- Nichols goes further. It is a progression not unlike those made in the historic past by singers such as Willie Nelson, when he hit his natural stride on 'Red-Headed Stranger' or Aretha Franklin, when she teamed up in Muscle Shoals with producer Jerry Wexler.<br /><br />"A cool thing Mark did," Nichols said, "was to let just Brent and me do the vocals. Production is one thing, but trusting somebody to work with you on vocals, that's a more complex thing. Mark really respected that Brent and I have known each other for a long time in the studio. I trust him -- even the tone of his voice I trust. I can gauge myself by what he's saying and how he says it. Last time, I missed him creatively. It was so cool that Mark respected that."<br /><br />Nichols began to talk about how he sings as he does. "These things I sing about -- even the funnier, sillier ones -- are all like experiences; something I would say, want to say, or have said. And in the songs there are lines that really stick out, like 'You've got to hear this part, because I really mean this, you've got to hear this.' In particular, like the line ‘I’m gonna put you down' in 'My Whiskey Years.' You've got to hear that because that's the meaning of the song -- that I've got to get over you if I'm ever going to be happy; if I'm ever going to live the life I want to, I've got to stand up. And that's another line in the song, 'Stand up straight.' It's kind of like gritting your teeth -- God, I gotta stand up straight and walk away. Those lines, you really gotta hear them, because that's what I would say. It's like Roger Miller -- when he would say something funny, you'd notice a giggle or a smart-aleck tone, and when he'd say something sad, you sense a kind of a cry there in his voice.<br /><br />"Also, Brent will ask me, 'Would you talk to me that way? And if you were talking to me, would that be part of the sentence that you'd throw away? ' This is true of every song: certain lines, he'd say, you can't throw them away, just like in conversation. Otherwise, people would take them the wrong way."<br /><br />Real Things should stand very little chance of being taken the wrong way. A honky-tonkish song as up-front and witty as "Let's Get Drunk And Fight" offers the same sort of serious clarity as does a song such as "If I Could Only Fly," which works in an area beyond wit. <br /><br />"As intimate as I've ever wanted to be with people I don't know -- a.k.a. an audience -- this is that," Nichols said, looking out into the various greens of the trees beyond his porch swing. "I've wanted to let little parts go, and at times I've wanted to let it all go. But showing the restraint singing 'My Whiskey Years,' for example, without bawling, that's part of my growth. I'm just describing a story, and I know all the good parts. The whole album is like that. It's not like I'm over-sensitive or stoned-face. It's just that I'm telling a story, speaking from experiences that I know very, very well." http://www.imeem.com/joenichols Delta 0 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss NEW SINGLE TO RADIO IN APRIL<br><br>Joe Nichols recently launched his first Australian tour. He stayed for a full 10-day run, which prevented him from attending this years Country Radio Seminar in Nashville. "So," he sent a message to U.S. programmers, "might I offer a big ‘g’day, mate’ from Down Under?" The first single from his next album ships to those same broadcasters in April. Check out joenichols.com for more info! Joe Nichols Cool Stuff http://www.imeem.com/joenichols/blogs/2009/03/16/f7rMuHNn/new-single-to-radio-in-april Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:48:05 -0000 OM_ZMV7gP4 DON'T MISS JOE LIVE IN '09<br><br>Check out the latest tour dates to see Joe Nichols LIVE in concert! Don't miss your chance to see one of country music's best. Check www.joenichols.com for more info. Joe Nichols Cool Stuff http://www.imeem.com/joenichols/blogs/2009/03/16/7HLVt1nA/dont-miss-joe-live-in-09 Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:45:17 -0000 lJn9gyJpaw Nashville, TN March 2, 2009 -- Universal Records South recording artist Joe Nichols kicked off a multi- city tour of Australia February 27 at the Empire Theatre in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia and will spend a total of 10 days touring the country. These dates mark the artist's first ever tour of Australia, and has affectionately been dubbed the Size Matters Tour.<br><br>"I've always been told that Australians love country music, and this is a great opportunity for me to present my music in a live setting to the country music fans there," Nichols said. "Of course because of the timing of the tour, I am unable to attend the Country Radio Seminar this year, and will miss seeing all of my friends in radio. So might I offer a big g'day mate from down under?"<br><br>In addition to Toowoomba, Nichols will also appear in Sydney and at the popular CMC Rocks the Snowys in Thredbo.<br><br>Shortly after his return to the States, Universal Records South will release the debut single from Nichols' fourth studio CD. The highly anticipated first single will hit radio in April, and will be complemented by a tour of the US. Please check joenichols.com for updates. Joe Nichols Cool Stuff http://www.imeem.com/joenichols/blogs/2009/03/02/x-KRi3mH/joe-nichols-tours-australia-artist-also-releases-new-single-in-april Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:27:23 -0000 1nb1BZyQSa Hello Everyone!<br /><br />Tomorrow morning at 9:00 (EST)/10:00 (CST) Joe Nichols will be up against Montgomery Gentry on CMT's Power Picks!<br /><br />Here's how it works. Two videos battle it out online and the winner with the most votes gets played on the TV. Tell CMT that you want Joe Nichols!!<br /><br />All you have to do, beginning at 9:00 (EST)/10:00 (CST), log on to CMT here: <a href="http://links.imeem.com/24AO23cyb_" title="http://www.cmt.com/shows/dyn/cmt_power_picks/series_about.jhtml">http://www.cmt.com/shows/dyn/cmt_power_picks/series_about.jhtml</a> and when you see Joe pop up the screen vote as MANY times as you can! Remember, that link is only good for the time the show is on air.<br /><br />If you miss the show, head on back to CMT.com to see who won.<br /><br />Cheers!<br />www.joenichols.com<br /> Joe Nichols Cool Stuff http://www.imeem.com/joenichols/blogs/2008/12/11/9Z_DlXXw/joe-nichols-vs-montgomery-gentry-tomorrow-at-900-am-est-on-cmts-power-picks Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:05:51 -0000 m1SCDTNeiW Great American Country wants YOU, the fans, to decide the GAC Top 50 Videos of 2008, and Joe Nichols has been nominated! “It Ain't No Crime” is among the 133 videos nominated. Voting runs now through Dec. 1. You can vote for your favorite video once a day! <br /><br /><br />Vote here now:<br /><a href="http://links.imeem.com/247O2Bn8a_" title="http://www.gactv.com/gac/pac_ctnt/text/0,,GAC_26058_53997,0.html">http://www.gactv.com/gac/pac_ctnt/text/0,,GAC_26058_53997,0.html</a><br /><br /><br />GAC's Top 50 Videos of 2008 on-air countdown kicks off on Dec. 29 at 8 pm ET and runs each night through Jan. 2. GAC is offered on Ch. 167 on DISH Network and on Ch. 326 on DIRECTV; check your local cable listings. Joe Nichols Cool Stuff http://www.imeem.com/joenichols/blogs/2008/11/17/aXu2IUzz/vote-for-joe-on-gacs-top-videos-of-2008 Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:39:25 -0000 ecgMsAlf3f Great American Country wants YOU, the fans, to decide the GAC Top 50 Videos of 2008, and Joe Nichols has been nominated! “It Ain't No Crime” is among the 133 videos nominated. Voting runs now through Dec. 1. You can vote for Joe right here: <a href="http://links.imeem.com/247O2SFsY_" title="http://www.gactv.com/gac/pac_ctnt/text/0,,GAC_26058_53997,0.html">http://www.gactv.com/gac/pac_ctnt/text/0,,GAC_26058_53997,0.html</a><br /><br /><br />AC's Top 50 Videos of 2008 on-air countdown kicks off on Dec. 29 at 8 pm ET and runs each night through Jan. 2. GAC is offered on Ch. 167 on DISH Network and on Ch. 326 on DIRECTV; check your local cable listings.<br /><br /><br />www.joenichols.com Joe Nichols Cool Stuff http://www.imeem.com/joenichols/blogs/2008/11/10/WaSMng_C/vote-for-joe-on-gacs-top-50-videos-of-2008 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:28:51 -0000 sMH1Bb49PF We are very excited! Joe Nichols' "It Ain't No Crime" has been nominated for GAC's Top 50 Videos of 2008! We need your votes so Joe's video gets in the countown!<br /><br />Please vote now here: www.gactv.com/top50<br /><br />Thanks so much for the support!<br />www.joenichols.com Joe Nichols Cool Stuff http://www.imeem.com/joenichols/blogs/2008/11/04/9H7mCqIU/it-aint-no-crime-gac-top-video-of-2008 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:36:08 -0000 u9taOVH8WL WIL sponsored the 13th Annual Bikers for Babies Motorcycle Parade this past Sunday. It is the biggest motorcycle ride in Missouri with over 3,000 riders. The March of Dimes raised over $300,000 for the children. Joe Nichols performed for the bikers after the ride. Here he is after the show with Danny Montana-MD of WIL, and a shot of Joe performing. Great cause and great time! <br /><br /><a href="http://links.imeem.com/13I816RU" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30260337@N08/2947424804/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3247/2947424804_875c396db9_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="-2" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://links.imeem.com/13I846RU" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30260337@N08/2947424554/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3198/2947424554_5479d31b03_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="-1" /></a><br /><br /> Joe Nichols Cool Stuff http://www.imeem.com/joenichols/blogs/2008/10/16/yx9oQYJO/joe-performs-at-the-13th-annual-bikers-for-babies-motorcycle-parade Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:06:54 -0000 83SSnFcu54 Hey guys!<br /><br />Country Weekly's got a new poll about which star should be the next member of the Grand Ole Opry--be sure to vote for Joe!<br /><br /><a href="http://links.imeem.com/23-_86QfT" title="http://www.countryweekly.com/next_member_goo/vote/survey/513">http://www.countryweekly.com/next_member_goo/vote/survey/513</a><br /><br />Thanks! Joe Nichols Cool Stuff http://www.imeem.com/joenichols/blogs/2008/09/29/Mg8ezLYZ/country-weekly-vote-for-joe Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:21:35 -0000 o1q3_8Sa8l Joe Nichols Reduced to Syphoning Gas!<br><br>While Texas area oil refineries recover from the devastation of Hurricane Ike, gas supplies to Nashville all but dried up last Friday. Caught in the crunch, Joe Nichols was forced to do something a bit unpleasant-- syphon gas. As Joe tells it, he was scheduled in the studio to record some new material for his next album, but the gas tank on his "good car" was on empty. Throughout Nashville the story was the same -- no gas to be had. So what's a resourceful guy to do but syphon some out of his beloved farm truck, a 1975 orange Chevy Silverado, with no windows, large rust holes in the sides and no air conditioning. But the truck, aptly named 'Rusty,' had some gas. <br><br>"Usually I wouldn't mind driving my old truck into town," Nichols explained. "But with the gas shortage in Nashville and all the Triple A people tied up rescuing stranded motorists with no gas, I couldn't risk running out of gas AND the sides of the truck falling off on the interstate. She's called 'Rusty' for a reason-- the rust is about all that's holding her together!"<br><br>Nichols made it to the studio, and performed last night on the opry!<br><br>www.joenichols.com<br><br> Joe Nichols Cool Stuff http://www.imeem.com/joenichols/blogs/2008/09/24/a2-lejUl/joe-nichols-reduced-to-syphoning-gas Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:50:53 -0000 p3CnuoIw5C