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Country singer to open summer concert season with buddy Toby Keith at Blossom Music Center
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer
POSTED: 11:48 a.m. EDT, Jun 17, 2009
The voice is unmistakable: a deep, rumbling baritone that tickles the eardrum and resonates in the chest.
When applied to a fun uptempo song about the quality of badonkadonks one might find in a honky-tonk or what (or whom) he may have left turned on at home, it can inspire beer hoisting, knowing smiles and tingly feelings from country fans.
But when Trace Adkins applies that same deep voice to a ballad about leaving every light in the house on to help a stray lover find his or her way home or recounting the final moments of fallen soldiers in wars past, he can tug the strings of even the most hardened heart.
Just like a collection of good country tunes, Adkins has experienced the highs and lows of life, from becoming a country music (and television) star to surviving years of alcohol abuse and being shot in the chest by his ex-wife.
Currently, Adkins, 46, is getting ready for a summer tour that will open Blossom Music Center's pop concert season in Cuyahoga Falls with his buddy Toby Keith on Friday night after the busiest year of his professional life.
In 2008, Adkins surprised many fans by appearing on Celebrity Apprentice, a show usually populated with D-list ''celebrities'' and formerly notable has-beens aspiring to return to the D-list. When the show's talent booker Chuck LaBella, whom Adkins has known for a dozen years, first asked him, Adkins said he was not enthused.
''I said, 'Chuck, I'm not going to do it. No way,' '' Adkins said from his farm in Nashville. ''I don't need to. My career is fine. I don't want to give anybody the impression that I'm desperate or that I need to do this for my career.''
But after he turned down the opportunity twice, LaBella did what many smart business people do when they want to get a man to do something.
''Basically, he circumvented me and went to my wife [Rhonda] and said, 'Look, here's an opportunity for him to really raise awareness for the charity you guys work with,' and that was the end of the hunt,'' Adkins said. ''I was on the Celebrity Apprentice.''
The charity is the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), which promotes and advocates awareness of dangerous food allergies. The youngest of Adkins' five daughters, Brianna, suffers from severe peanut, eggs and dairy allergies that nearly killed her as a toddler.
Brianna and FAAN didn't just get Adkins on Celebrity Apprentice; she also provided the motivation to keep him on the show and remain a Southern gentleman, even when his co-stars did not reciprocate.
He came in second to Piers Morgan, a former British tabloid editor and judge on the TV show America's Got Talent.
''I had to remind myself hourly during that [time]. That was the one thing that wasn't reality,'' Adkins said. ''Just the amount of tolerance that I showed. I'm not normally like that in my day-to-day life. I don't have to tolerate and put up with people that I can't stand to be around. I just don't have to subject myself to that.
''But looking back, the positives far outweigh any negatives. I'm glad I did it, but I'm also glad to be done with it.''
In addition to appearing on the television show, Adkins, who has acted periodically throughout his career, appeared as himself and the Angel of Death in the movie An American Carol and was ''The Man'' in the indie film Trailer Park of Terror.
While his face was on television and movie screens, his voice garnered a No. 1 hit with You're Gonna Miss This, a tender ode to kids growing up too fast. In November, he released his 10th album in a baker's dozen years, the aptly titled X.
The album finds Adkins in full control of his vocal gifts and gives fans the two sides of his music they have come to know and love.
In the bold, bawdy and fun vein, there are tunes such as the album-opening country-rocker Sweet; the humorous honky-stomp ode to finding a good sugar mama, Marry for Money; the self-explanatory Hillbilly Rich;and the hip-sway-inducing ''funkabilly'' of Better Than I Thought It'd Be.
For fans of Adkins' more serious side, he offers up emotional songs such as All I Ask for Anymore, a ballad detailing how a family man's priorities change over time; the gospel-flavored power ballad Muddy Water; the semi-autobiographical, too-many-tears-in-way-too-many-beers lament Sometimes a Man Takes a Drink; and Till the Last Shot's Fired, wherein Adkins takes on the personas of soldiers from different wars in their final moments.
If there is a surprise on the disc, it is I Can't Outrun You, a minor-key ballad about a man unable to forget the one who got away. The song was recorded live with only Adkins' voice and a piano (a cello was added later) and it shows Adkins at his vocal best — powerful and emotional yet understated and elegantly simple.
Life experience
Creeping toward 50 and a recent grandfather, Adkins says that though he doesn't spend much time dwelling on his troubled past, he admits that his ability to sing songs such as Sometimes a Man Takes a Drink comes from 46 years of life experience. He said the things he looks for in a song (he seldom writes) have changed over the years.
''I've gotten to a point in my life where I steer away from the stuff that seems . . . kind of juvenile — first-time love and those kind of songs,'' he said. ''I'm just not going to do that kind of stuff anymore and I've had a lot of life experience, so I can sing that stuff with conviction.
''When I talk about Sometimes a Man Takes a Drink, that's personal experience. I Can't Outrun You, that's personal experience. When I sing of heartache, I'm in a position to sing about it as bad as it gets, with children involved and property settlements, I mean as awful as it gets.
''That song expresses loneliness and I thought the best way to be lonely is to be alone. It's not the only way, but it just seemed to me to be an easier way to express utter loneliness was to be by yourself with a piano and just sing it, and I like the way it came out.''
Adkins said he chooses his songs carefully, but as his reputation as a singer who will take on bawdy songs that make other singers blush has grown among the Nashville songwriting community, he has become the de facto first stop for all of Music City's dirty songs.
''I've had songwriters actually tell me this. They'll be a couple of guys that'll sit down one day and write the nastiest song they've ever written and they go, 'I guess we have to send this to Trace, and if he won't do it, then we might as well forget it, it's just too nasty.'
''I get a lot of funny stuff, too, but it's the incredibly nasty stuff that always amuses me,'' he said laughing.
The album, which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard country charts, has given Adkins a reason to get back to the world in which he knows best and feels most comfortable: the road.
Adkins also has teamed up with old buddy Keith and the pair of big, burly ex-football-playing, ex-oil-rigging, country-music baritones will be having a good ol' time together.
Onstage, Keith keeps the atmosphere light and fun, extolling fans to have a good time. Though Adkins' set list could easily be filled with tear-jerkers, he said he plans to keep the party going and expects a good time for everyone, as he is also good buddies with many members of Keith's touring organization.
''I may do two ballads. That's probably going to be it,'' he said. ''I'm probably looking forward to this tour more than any I've ever done just because of the hang factor. It's going to be really cool.
''I rest on the road. I've got five kids and a farm, and when I'm at home, I'm working hard, so the road is where I recover,'' he said, chuckling.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Blossom schedule
Blossom Music Center is at 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls. Ticket information at http://www.livenation.com. or 800-745-3000 or http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Toby Keith with Trace Adkins - 7:30 p.m. Friday. $34 lawn, $74 pavilion.
News Kids on the Block with Jesse McCartney and Jabbawockeez - 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Gbc june 23 Gec $20, $39, $59, $79, $125; four-pack lawn tickets $40.
Def Leppard with Poison and Cheap Trick - 7 p.m. June 25. $29-$125.
No Doubt with Paramore - 7:30 p.m. June 29. $39.50, $59.50, $80; $10 lawn tickets.
Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd - 6:30 p.m. July 10. $26, $46, $56, $86, $151; six-pack lawn tickets $99.
Crue Fest 2 - 5 p.m. July 21. Featuring Motley Crue, Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman, Drowning Pool, and Charm City Devil's. $49.50, $75, $95; six-pack lawn tickets $99.
Dave Matthews Band - 7 p.m. July 29. $36 lawn, $66 pavilion.
Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival Featuring Marilyn Manson and Slayer - 2:15 p.m. July 31. With Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Bullet for My Valentine, Cannibal Corpse and more. $25 lawn, $39.50, $49.50 pavilion.
Lil Wayne - 7 p.m. Aug. 6. With Drake, Young Jeezy and Soulja Boy Tell 'Em for the America's Most Wanted Music Festival. $25 lawn, $49.75-$79.75 pavilion. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Rascal Flatts with Darious Rucker American Living Unstoppable Tour 2009 presented by JC Penney - 8 p.m. Aug. 7. $31 lawn, $71 pavilion.
Nickelback with Hinder, Papa Roach and Saving Abel - 6 p.m. Aug. 14. $36 lawn, $63.50-83.50 pavilion.
Creed - 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26. $29.50 lawn seats; $39.50-$65 reserved seats; and $85 Gold Circle seats.
Brad Paisley - 7:30 p.m. Aug. 28. With Dierks Bently and Jimmy Wayne. $25 lawn seats; $53 reserved seats.
Blink-182 with Weezer - 6:30 p.m. Sept. 2. With Taking Back Sunday and Chester French. $20-$69.
Aerosmith with ZZ Top - 7:30 p.m. Sept. 10. $29 lawn seats; $53.50-$119 reserved; and $189 Gold Circle seats.
The voice is unmistakable: a deep, rumbling baritone that tickles the eardrum and resonates in the chest.
When applied to a fun uptempo song about the quality of badonkadonks one might find in a honky-tonk or what (or whom) he may have left turned on at home, it can inspire beer hoisting, knowing smiles and tingly feelings from country fans.
But when Trace Adkins applies that same deep voice to a ballad about leaving every light in the house on to help a stray lover find his or her way home or recounting the final moments of fallen soldiers in wars past, he can tug the strings of even the most hardened heart.
Just like a collection of good country tunes, Adkins has experienced the highs and lows of life, from becoming a country music (and television) star to surviving years of alcohol abuse and being shot in the chest by his ex-wife.
Currently, Adkins, 46, is getting ready for a summer tour that will open Blossom Music Center's pop concert season in Cuyahoga Falls with his buddy Toby Keith on Friday night after the busiest year of his professional life.
In 2008, Adkins surprised many fans by appearing on Celebrity Apprentice, a show usually populated with D-list ''celebrities'' and formerly notable has-beens aspiring to return to the D-list. When the show's talent booker Chuck LaBella, whom Adkins has known for a dozen years, first asked him, Adkins said he was not enthused.
''I said, 'Chuck, I'm not going to do it. No way,' '' Adkins said from his farm in Nashville. ''I don't need to. My career is fine. I don't want to give anybody the impression that I'm desperate or that I need to do this for my career.''
But after he turned down the opportunity twice, LaBella did what many smart business people do when they want to get a man to do something.
''Basically, he circumvented me and went to my wife [Rhonda] and said, 'Look, here's an opportunity for him to really raise awareness for the charity you guys work with,' and that was the end of the hunt,'' Adkins said. ''I was on the Celebrity Apprentice.''
The charity is the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), which promotes and advocates awareness of dangerous food allergies. The youngest of Adkins' five daughters, Brianna, suffers from severe peanut, eggs and dairy allergies that nearly killed her as a toddler.
Brianna and FAAN didn't just get Adkins on Celebrity Apprentice; she also provided the motivation to keep him on the show and remain a Southern gentleman, even when his co-stars did not reciprocate.
He came in second to Piers Morgan, a former British tabloid editor and judge on the TV show America's Got Talent.
''I had to remind myself hourly during that [time]. That was the one thing that wasn't reality,'' Adkins said. ''Just the amount of tolerance that I showed. I'm not normally like that in my day-to-day life. I don't have to tolerate and put up with people that I can't stand to be around. I just don't have to subject myself to that.
''But looking back, the positives far outweigh any negatives. I'm glad I did it, but I'm also glad to be done with it.''
In addition to appearing on the television show, Adkins, who has acted periodically throughout his career, appeared as himself and the Angel of Death in the movie An American Carol and was ''The Man'' in the indie film Trailer Park of Terror.
While his face was on television and movie screens, his voice garnered a No. 1 hit with You're Gonna Miss This, a tender ode to kids growing up too fast. In November, he released his 10th album in a baker's dozen years, the aptly titled X.
The album finds Adkins in full control of his vocal gifts and gives fans the two sides of his music they have come to know and love.
In the bold, bawdy and fun vein, there are tunes such as the album-opening country-rocker Sweet; the humorous honky-stomp ode to finding a good sugar mama, Marry for Money; the self-explanatory Hillbilly Rich;and the hip-sway-inducing ''funkabilly'' of Better Than I Thought It'd Be.
For fans of Adkins' more serious side, he offers up emotional songs such as All I Ask for Anymore, a ballad detailing how a family man's priorities change over time; the gospel-flavored power ballad Muddy Water; the semi-autobiographical, too-many-tears-in-way-too-many-beers lament Sometimes a Man Takes a Drink; and Till the Last Shot's Fired, wherein Adkins takes on the personas of soldiers from different wars in their final moments.
If there is a surprise on the disc, it is I Can't Outrun You, a minor-key ballad about a man unable to forget the one who got away. The song was recorded live with only Adkins' voice and a piano (a cello was added later) and it shows Adkins at his vocal best — powerful and emotional yet understated and elegantly simple.
Life experience
Creeping toward 50 and a recent grandfather, Adkins says that though he doesn't spend much time dwelling on his troubled past, he admits that his ability to sing songs such as Sometimes a Man Takes a Drink comes from 46 years of life experience. He said the things he looks for in a song (he seldom writes) have changed over the years.
''I've gotten to a point in my life where I steer away from the stuff that seems . . . kind of juvenile — first-time love and those kind of songs,'' he said. ''I'm just not going to do that kind of stuff anymore and I've had a lot of life experience, so I can sing that stuff with conviction.
''When I talk about Sometimes a Man Takes a Drink, that's personal experience. I Can't Outrun You, that's personal experience. When I sing of heartache, I'm in a position to sing about it as bad as it gets, with children involved and property settlements, I mean as awful as it gets.
''That song expresses loneliness and I thought the best way to be lonely is to be alone. It's not the only way, but it just seemed to me to be an easier way to express utter loneliness was to be by yourself with a piano and just sing it, and I like the way it came out.''
Adkins said he chooses his songs carefully, but as his reputation as a singer who will take on bawdy songs that make other singers blush has grown among the Nashville songwriting community, he has become the de facto first stop for all of Music City's dirty songs.
''I've had songwriters actually tell me this. They'll be a couple of guys that'll sit down one day and write the nastiest song they've ever written and they go, 'I guess we have to send this to Trace, and if he won't do it, then we might as well forget it, it's just too nasty.'
''I get a lot of funny stuff, too, but it's the incredibly nasty stuff that always amuses me,'' he said laughing.
The album, which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard country charts, has given Adkins a reason to get back to the world in which he knows best and feels most comfortable: the road.
Adkins also has teamed up with old buddy Keith and the pair of big, burly ex-football-playing, ex-oil-rigging, country-music baritones will be having a good ol' time together.
Onstage, Keith keeps the atmosphere light and fun, extolling fans to have a good time. Though Adkins' set list could easily be filled with tear-jerkers, he said he plans to keep the party going and expects a good time for everyone, as he is also good buddies with many members of Keith's touring organization.
''I may do two ballads. That's probably going to be it,'' he said. ''I'm probably looking forward to this tour more than any I've ever done just because of the hang factor. It's going to be really cool.
''I rest on the road. I've got five kids and a farm, and when I'm at home, I'm working hard, so the road is where I recover,'' he said, chuckling.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Blossom schedule
Blossom Music Center is at 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls. Ticket information at http://www.livenation.com. or 800-745-3000 or http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Toby Keith with Trace Adkins - 7:30 p.m. Friday. $34 lawn, $74 pavilion.
News Kids on the Block with Jesse McCartney and Jabbawockeez - 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Gbc june 23 Gec $20, $39, $59, $79, $125; four-pack lawn tickets $40.
Def Leppard with Poison and Cheap Trick - 7 p.m. June 25. $29-$125.
No Doubt with Paramore - 7:30 p.m. June 29. $39.50, $59.50, $80; $10 lawn tickets.
Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd - 6:30 p.m. July 10. $26, $46, $56, $86, $151; six-pack lawn tickets $99.
Crue Fest 2 - 5 p.m. July 21. Featuring Motley Crue, Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman, Drowning Pool, and Charm City Devil's. $49.50, $75, $95; six-pack lawn tickets $99.
Dave Matthews Band - 7 p.m. July 29. $36 lawn, $66 pavilion.
Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival Featuring Marilyn Manson and Slayer - 2:15 p.m. July 31. With Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Bullet for My Valentine, Cannibal Corpse and more. $25 lawn, $39.50, $49.50 pavilion.
Lil Wayne - 7 p.m. Aug. 6. With Drake, Young Jeezy and Soulja Boy Tell 'Em for the America's Most Wanted Music Festival. $25 lawn, $49.75-$79.75 pavilion. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Rascal Flatts with Darious Rucker American Living Unstoppable Tour 2009 presented by JC Penney - 8 p.m. Aug. 7. $31 lawn, $71 pavilion.
Nickelback with Hinder, Papa Roach and Saving Abel - 6 p.m. Aug. 14. $36 lawn, $63.50-83.50 pavilion.
Creed - 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26. $29.50 lawn seats; $39.50-$65 reserved seats; and $85 Gold Circle seats.
Brad Paisley - 7:30 p.m. Aug. 28. With Dierks Bently and Jimmy Wayne. $25 lawn seats; $53 reserved seats.
Blink-182 with Weezer - 6:30 p.m. Sept. 2. With Taking Back Sunday and Chester French. $20-$69.
Aerosmith with ZZ Top - 7:30 p.m. Sept. 10. $29 lawn seats; $53.50-$119 reserved; and $189 Gold Circle seats.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Canton, OH
Posted 11:56 AM, 06/17/2009
I'll be there Friday Night. . .
Ravenna, OH
Posted 12:41 PM, 06/17/2009
Wish I was going
Canal Fulton, Oh
Posted 09:20 PM, 06/17/2009
I saw Trace Adkins at the Wayne Co.Fair.EXCELLENT show!!!!He's very sexy too!!
NE, Oh
Posted 02:12 PM, 06/18/2009
wish i could go...
