Experience? It definitely helps. Success? That's good too. But when it comes right down to it, enthusiasm matters most. And Steve Wariner still gets just as excited about making music today as he did when he was in grade school and his mom had to pull him away from his guitar to make sure he ate lunch.
His focus on playing then led to a professional career at age 17 and recognition as one of country music's best guitar players. Next he concentrated on songwriting. With hits like "Longneck Bottle," for Garth Brooks and "Nothin?But The Taillights" for Clint Black, as well as his own award-winning "Holes In The Floor of Heaven" Steve has built a reputation as a top songwriter too. Now, on Faith In You, he shows off his talents as a producer, putting together the most musically diverse album of his career.
"I really wanted to be all over the map with musical styles," Wariner says. "I let myself experiment with things I'd never done before. It's my intention to showcase a collection of great songs, to be interesting musically all the time, with something different and fresh. I feel that I really stretched as a producer on this album. And we had a lot of fun."
The fun comes blazing through the speakers in songs like "Make It Look Easy," a free-wheeling, name-dropping, toe-tapper, and "I Just Do," an old-fashioned swing tune that lets the players strut their stuff. Steve describes "Katie Wants a Fast One," his duet with Garth Brooks, as "mambo meets Hank Sr. - definitely a different kind of song for me." Another departure is the haunting "Longer Letter Later," co-written with Rodney Crowell. The title song and first single, "Faith In You," offers poetic imagery that simply and beautifully extols the faith that one person has for another.
"I approached this album as a whole project - I wanted it to have a musical thread run through it to bring it all together," says Wariner. "There isn't a theme to the subject matter of the songs, but my goal was to have all the songs work well with each other." He went through a process of trial and error ?switching guitars, changing the groove or even cutting a song in a different key ?to achieve that goal. He also pushed himself as a writer to explore different paths.
Wariner wrote or co-wrote all thirteen songs on Faith In You. He teamed with Bill Anderson, Marcus Hummon, Annie Roboff, Rick Carnes, Joe Barnhill and others. "Every writer has their own strength," says Wariner. Bill comes in with lines, bits and pieces of verses ?like poetry. Marcus leans more to the musical side of the process. I love it because it makes it a different type of challenge for me every time."
Those challenges keep Wariner going. He started his career as a bass player for Dottie West when he was just 17 years old. Six years later he had his own "singles" deal, with Chet Atkins as his producer. He went on to chart more than 30 Top Ten singles and over a dozen #1 songs, including " Some Fools Never Learn,""The Weekend," "I Got Dreams" and "Holes in the Floor of Heaven."
In fact, "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" marked a professional surge for Wariner. Released in 1998 after he had taken a three-year hiatus from performing to focus on songwriting, the song became a huge hit. It won Single and Song of the Year honors at the 1998 CMA Awards Show and Song of the Year at the 1999 ACM Awards Show. Wariner also received two Grammy nominations for "Holes" in 1999. Burnin?The Roadhouse Down, the album containing the song, was certified Gold, as was his follow up album, Two Teardrops.
As he reaches a new stage in an established career with Faith In You, Wariner has an up-close reminder of what it was like when he was just starting out. His sons, 12-year-old Ross and 16-year-old Ryan, each play guitar on different tracks. Ross, who favors grungy rock, contributes "power guitar" to the first track, "High Time," while Ryan duets with his dad on the instrumental "Bloodlines."
"I've ruined these kids," Wariner jokes about their guest shots on the record. "It makes me proud though, to watch them. I see myself so much in both of them. As a young guy, all I wanted to do was play guitar. My mom would have to make me quit. I used to come home for lunch when I was in grade school, and as soon as I got in, I'd go straight to the bedroom and start playing the guitar. Every day, my mom would have to yell at me, 慪ou better eat this sandwich and get back to school.?Every day I could not wait to get back to the guitar. As soon as I was home in the afternoon, I'd be back playing. That's all I did, and I see that with these guys - that same fire."
It's that same fire ?that unbridled love of making music ?that continues to burn inside Steve Wariner.
