Blake Shelton will appear at two Oklahoma CD signings and give acoustic performances on Tuesday. He will be at Hastings in Ada from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at the Wal-Mart in Moore from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. To confirm appearances, call Hastings at (580) 436-0272 and Wal-Mart at (405) 790-0021.
For the past several weeks, country music fans have become acquainted with a chart-climbing song named after a Texas town and sung by an Oklahoma man.
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Pictured is the CD cover of Blake Shelton's debut, self-titled album. It will be in stores Tuesday.
Courtesy Photo
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"Austin" may be the beautiful ballad everyone is singing, but it also marks the debut for another Oklahoma singer who couldn't be more excited about his breakthrough in the industry.
Blake Shelton, who hails from Ada, has grabbed listeners' hearts with "Austin," which is at No. 4 on this week's Billboard charts. It's just part of the flurry of recent accomplishments for Shelton, who has been paying his dues in Music City for the past seven years.
"I have to pinch myself every now and then," Shelton said during a telephone interview last week. "It's not really soaking in yet. It's pretty wild, really. Things have happened so fast from the time the song came out until now. I just want to keep my momentum up."
"Austin" is the first single from Shelton's self-titled debut album, which will hit store shelves on Tuesday. Shelton will return to his hometown for a Tuesday morning CD signing at Hastings, then on to Moore for another in the evening.
The ballad "Austin" tells the story of a couple's second chance at love through the messages they leave on each other's answering machines. Shelton almost didn't record "Austin" and initially wasn't quite sure it was for him.
"We had already finished the album and turned it in when I first heard 'Austin,'" he said. "When I heard it, I wasn't sure if it was for me, if it fit my style or not. They told me to go home and learn it on guitar, and when I did, I was surprised that I liked it. I recorded it, and after that I knew it should be the first single."
Like most people, Shelton said, the song's melody lured him. But he also was captivated by the story and its theme of getting another shot at love.
"I felt people would identify with the song. Everyone wants a second chance, and in 'Austin' it happens," he said. "Happy endings don't always happen, but it gives people hope."
Shelton also recently recorded a video for "Austin," and it should be hitting CMT in about a week and a half, he said. The video was shot on a Nashville street that goes under a railroad track and creates a tunnel type of look, he said. The street was closed and a video screen added to show images of a beautiful woman.
"Austin" is among a variety of songs on the album, including four of Shelton's own compositions. The record was three years in the making, which gave him a little more time to make sure the songs were right, he said.
Shelton's songwriting talents are showcased on "That's What I Call Home," "Every Time I Look at You," "Problems at Home" and "All Over Me," which he co-wrote with his musical hero, Earl Thomas Conley.
"Songwriting has always been an important thing for me. For the past three years, that's how I've made my living, at Sony Tree Music," he said. "I really enjoy writing. I tried writing some when I was in Ada, but I was only 16 or 17 years old. But after I'd been here (Nashville) a while, I just got it."
The album is produced and features two songs by Bobby Braddock, who co-wrote the standards "He Stopped Loving Her Today," "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and "Time Marches On." Shelton cites Braddock has a driving force behind his career.
But for sheer excitement, nothing can beat the thrill of working with Earl Thomas Conley, Shelton said.
"I met him two-and-a-half years ago and we wrote two songs together, the second of which was 'All Over Me,'" Shelton said. "If my career is over tomorrow, the things I wrote with Earl will always mean the world to me."
In addition to Conley, Shelton cites Travis Tritt, Dan Seals and Hank Williams Jr. as influences. But it was Conley's music that most frequented his stereo growing up.
"He was ahead of his time as far as his records go," Shelton said of Conley. "The emotion in his voice was my favorite thing about him. He had so much emotion in his vocals that he would tear your heart out when he sang."
Shelton also has been able to count two Oklahoma talents as career boosters, the late Mae Boren Axton (co-writer of Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel") and her son, Hoyt Axton. Shelton said he first met Mae when she came to Ada for a tribute show in her honor. Shelton was part of the event's entertainment, and the two visited after he performed.
"She told me that if I'd move to Nashville, she thought I had a chance," he said. "When you're 17 years old and someone in the music industry tells you that, that was all I needed to hear."
In 1994, two weeks out of high school, Shelton moved to Nashville, where he turned 18 a short time later. His first job was painting Mae Boren Axton's house. It was a start earning money, but it also led to an encounter with Mae's son, singer-songwriter Hoyt, who at the time was living in his tour bus parked in his mother's driveway.
Hoyt encouraged the aspiring singer and on his 18th birthday gave him a long Bowie knife that a fan had made for him. He also introduced Shelton to the song "Ol' Red," a clever tune about a prison guard dog that he included on his debut album.
Since the success of "Austin," Shelton has made his debut on the Grand Ole Opry, which he has described as a "religious experience." He also continues taking his music across the country, playing mostly club dates now, he said, but soon to have some shows with Clay Walker and Jo Dee Messina.
He performs songs from his album and does some covers from songs he grew up listening to, from artists such as John Anderson and, of course, Earl Thomas Conley. About halfway through his shows, Shelton performs an acoustic set, he said, which provides a unique sound.
"It's a lot of fun for me because it's what I've been doing in Nashville for the last seven years, playing at places like Douglas Corner and the Bluebird Cafe," he said. "I wanted to keep doing it."
But the icing on the cake is the fans -- from the people at home in Ada, to those across the state and the world -- who are supporting his music and his dream.
"The fans mean everything to me," Shelton said. "I recently did a little run in the southeast part of the United States, and when I'd get to the last chorus of 'Austin,' the crowd was singing so loudly along with me that I couldn't hear the note. That's pretty amazing to me."
