Joe Nichols. Photo: David “Doc” Abbott
For the first time in four years, Joe Nichols is releasing a new full-length project. Now with a new label home at the newly-formed Quartz Hill Records, Nichols released his tenth studio album, Good Day For Living, on Friday (Feb. 11).
Nichols joining Quartz Hill was a homecoming of sorts, as it reunited him with Benny Brown, who runs the label alongside Paul Brown and award-winning songwriter Jason Sellers. Nichols and Benny enjoyed two big hits, “Yeah” and “Sunny and 75,” together while Benny was at the helm of Broken Bow Records.
“It feels incredible to be back,” Nichols says. “It feels great to be back on the road, it feels great to be playing music for people. Recording new music has been amazing.”
Good Day For Living includes lead single, “Home Run,” written by award-winning songwriters Ashley Gorley, Dallas Davidson and Ross Copperman. The tune features Nichols’ signature baritone singing about needing to “hit a home run” after going through life’s less-than-celebratory moments.
Pictured (L-R, standing): BSB Management’s Shawn Pennington; Quartz Hill Records’ April Rider and Paul Brown; (L-R, seated): Quartz Hill Records’ Jason Sellers, Joe Nichols, Quartz Hill Records’ Benny Brown
Nichols says that leading with “Home Run” was key. “It has a strong melody that sticks in your head, but it also has a great message for right now. Everyone is feeling a little crazy, a little lost.
“It’s been wonderful working with Benny Brown again. He’s always been a believer in me. That’s another reason we chose ‘Home Run,’” Nichols adds. “Benny and I are back on a team again, and we’ve brought several people into the fold. We feel like we could all use a home run right now. We could all use something great to happen.”
In addition to reuniting with Benny, Nichols’ new project also finds the country singer working with producers Mickey Jack Cones and Derek George, for his 2013 album Crickets containing the Gold-certified hits “Sunny and 75” and “Yeah.”
“We had a great time together on Crickets,” Nichols says. “Those guys have such a great chemistry. They compliment each other very well. They have a good sense of my overall history of music and my catalog. They can say, ‘That doesn’t sound like you. This sounds like you.’”
The chemistry between Nichols, Cones, and George is heard on tunes such as “Brokenhearted,” an ironically hooky lament about modern country music, as well as the title track and next radio single, “Good Day for Living.”
“We started with great songs, we have great producers, and my job is not to screw it up,” Nichols quips.
Now, more than 25 years after his debut, Nichols has a well-rounded perspective on the music industry and how it has changed over the years.
“Some things have stayed the same. There’s still a need to go to radio and present them with hits, something they can play on their radio stations and have success with themselves. That’s still king,” Nichols says. “What’s changed, though, is you have a lot of guys and girls that for whatever reason don’t have what radio wants to hear or won’t give what radio wants to hear. But they’re finding success via all the other avenues, and having great careers. They’re selling a lot of tickets, streaming a lot of music, and building their brands in other ways.
“In a world where we have thousands of country singers that want to compete for 30 country radio spots, [having different avenues other than radio] is a great thing. You have so many other avenues that can give you a great career.”
But Nichols doesn’t think all change is good when it comes to country music.
“The music has changed quite a bit. Even in 2002, we could see that coming. In my opinion, one of country music’s greatest gifts was that it always had an identity of its own. It always was something you could identify out of all things,” he offers. “Along with that identity came this inferiority complex that we weren’t as legitimate as other genres, say rock or pop.
“So, either by leadership, musicians, [and/or] people who wanted to make money in country music, they stepped into country music and pulled it towards the other genres a little bit to try to fit in,” Nichols explains. “[Since then] country music has dominated a lot of categories in the music spectrum. It’s probably been the No. 1 format in a lot of ways with radio, sales, tickets, the number of artists, and more. So it’s certainly been successful, what has happened. But along the way, a little bit of that step-child mentality caught up with us. We’ve tried to mold into a lot of different genres at one time.
“That’s my rant, I hope it doesn’t offend people,” Nichols says with a laugh. “I should point out, too, I’m not innocent of this. I’m not standing on the perch going ‘Look what all of you have done.’ If it were up to me and I had no business sense whatsoever, I would make records that nobody would ever hear. I would make a record that would wind up in the 99 cent bin at Walmart or truck stops everywhere.”
Like many artists, the country traditionalist has found it hard to walk the line between art and commercialism.
“The hardest thing [I’ve dealt with] is how do you make peace with not only you artistically, but what people expect of yourself artistically? My experience has been that a lot of country fans feel like they get to know you, and they expect a certain kind of consistency of you,” Nichols says. “There’s a lot of pressure that comes from trying to be as consistent at possible with who I am artistically and who the fans expect me to be artistically, because I think they’re right. You have to find an acceptable compromise.”
Despite the challenge, Nichols mixes both quite well on Good Day For Living, out today (Feb. 11).
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