PIANO MAN

January 14, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

PHIL VASSAR DOESN’T FOLLOW THE COUNTRY MUSIC TRENDS

PIANO MAN

It’s cold out in Nashville and country artist Phil Vassar’s old iron gate won’t budge.

The good news is the piano- playing Music City singer-pianist-songwriter has been opening gates — or doors — that didn’t want to open for years.

“It’s weird being a singer-songwriter because you’re always pigeonholed,” said Vassar, calling from his Nashville home. “You can only do the same song twice before people say, ‘I heard that song already.’ So I think stylistically it’s good to be different. Also, being a piano player, it was always a point of difference, which was good or bad.

“I had label guys saying, ‘You better start playing guitar and wear a hat.’ I said, ‘Like everybody else?’ So different scares people, different is hard to break through. It’s always harder because I’d hear, ‘We don’t do piano players in Nashville. It’s a guitar town.’ You just have to embrace who you are and do what you do.”

In a nutshell, what Vassar does is simply write hit songs. Over the past 15 years, the songsmith has solo chart-topping hits “In a Real Love” and “Just Another Day in Paradise,” as well as top five tunes “Carlene,” “Last Day of My Life” and “American Child.”

He’s also written his fair share of No. 1 tunes for other artists including “My Next Thirty Years” by Tim McGraw, “She’s Right on the Money” by Alan Jackson, and Jo Dee Messina’s “Bye, Bye” and “I’m Alright.” Most recently, Vassar wrote David Nail’s “The Sound of a Million Dreams,” which Billboard named the No. 1 song in their Top 10 Country Songs of 2012.

Up next for the 50-year-old artist is the release of a new solo project, his first in five years. However, during that time Music City has changed — or regressed as some would say — into a bro country machine.

You can bet Vassar won’t be singing about drinking beer and driving a truck. That said, he already received pushback from the powers that be, which is why he’s currently recording the material on his own.

“That’s the thing about a record label, they say if it doesn’t sound like your other stuff [fans] aren’t going to recognize you,” Vassar said “And I think that’s a good thing but not for them. Labels are the guys who say, ‘Wait, you did ‘Day in Paradise. ’ That’s what they want. I said, ‘Dude, that’s not what I write every song. I’ve been divorced since then. That’s not what I am now.’

“So a lot of times, record labels are accountants. They don’t quite understand the creative process, they’re number guys.”

Fans looking to hear the new material can check out Vassar’s return to Northeast Ohio when he plays Saturday at the Dusty Armadillo in Rootstown. New tunes already in the mix are murder ballad “The Ballad of Pretty Mae” and the Eagles-esque “Second Avenue.”

“I think it’s very different,” Vassar said. “There’s always something stylistically that will remind you of what you do; hopefully, your vocal or voice is distinguishable, but I’m kind of back doing story songs and things like that.

“Instead of talking about drinking on my tailgate, this is different. That’s exciting. For me, it was nice to sit back and let that happen, and now it’s time for me to do some real songs instead of fluff. I wanted to get more serious.”