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Country singer looks to redefine his career Amazing Gracin
By John Benson
In terms of his place in country music, Josh Gracin isn’t concerned about becoming a great one. Instead, the hard-working, blue-collar Michigan native is looking — just like all of us — to keep his job.
After finishing fourth on the second season of “American Idol,” the singer completed his stint in the Marine Corps before signing a major label deal in Nashville. His 2004 self-titled debut yielded three top 5 singles — “I Want to Live,” “Stay With Me (Brass Bed),” and the No. 1 hit “Nothin’ to Lose.” His 2008 follow-up effort “We Weren’t Crazy” did well but not well enough to keep him from being dropped.
Now Gracin returns with his independently released third album “Redemption,” which the 31-year-old not only hopes will redeem himself but redefine his career.
“It’s very different from my past albums,” said Gracin, calling from Nashville. “I chose all the music myself through writing. And as producer, what you hear on the record is stuff I wanted. It was the stuff I heard in my head while we were building the parts, whereas the first two albums it had producers. All of those old songs were written by
Nashville songwriters. The whole process is very different, and if you put the albums side by side you could see there’s definite sound difference.”
Gracin said his earlier material was so compressed it lacked any of the live-in-the-room studio magic heard on “Redemption.” Something else different is the songwriter’s affinity for exploring different musical directions. Instead of focusing on quintessential Music City country-pop sounds, the new effort explores everything Gracin the musician is about.
“I love all types of music, and I didn’t want every single song to be country,” Gracin said. “The song that defines that the best is ‘Lie to Me,’ which is a power ballad with the story or content being country music but it’s like you’re listening to something played on Top 40 with a big huge sound. And ‘Different Kind of Crazy’ has rock stuff all over it, an Aerosmith kind of groove vibe, but you have a lot of country flavors and elements within the song as well.”
Part of Gracin spreading his creative wings is exploring different worlds, which is what happened when his single “Long Way to Go” cracked the top 20 on the adult contemporary chart. Now with that door open and Gracin’s foot squarely inside, he’s hoping to crossover more often.
In the meantime, Gracin is touring incessantly, returning to Northeast Ohio for a Saturday show at the Dusty Armadillo in Rootstown.
Gracin said he’s found success playing in Youngstown, despite his allegiance to the dark side of college football.
“Ohio has always been great,” said Gracin, a diehard Michigan Wolverines fan. “I think it’s a Midwest thing.”
When it’s pointed out that over the past decade many Ohio State Buckeye fans had nearly forgotten the “Go Blue” school still had a football team, Gracin quipped, “Oh, that’s a great one.”