Jack Ingram realizes "Big Dreams" in Nashville By Ken Tucker Ken Tucker Fri Aug 14, 7:43 pm ET
NASHVILLE (Billboard) – Not content with being a regional star in Texas, Jack Ingram signed with Nashville's Big Machine Records in 2005 and never looked back.
His first album for the label, "Live: Wherever You Are," sold 84,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and his second, "This Is It," sold 152,000. He also has achieved a half-dozen top 20 airplay hits, including the No. 1 "Wherever You Are."
His new record, "Big Dreams & High Hopes," will be released August 25, and the first single, "Barefoot and Crazy," is No. 11 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.
Billboard: Your success, especially in terms of radio and national visibility, has increased dramatically since signing with Big Machine. What changed?
Jack Ingram: If you're going to have a successful record, you have to be with a record company that knows how to be successful. And the decision-makers at that company have to believe in you as an artist and know you intimately as an artist. I finally found a record company that was willing to invest not just money, but time and interest and energy and money in me. And the same can be said for my manager and my booking agent.
Billboard: Do you feel more pressure now that you're having more success?
Ingram: I'm a father, there's a business that has my name on it, there's a lot of things going on that create that pressure, but I love it. There's an element to making my music now that wasn't there before. I love the fact that we have a target that we can shoot for. Before it was, "Let's make a huge piece of art." Now it's nice to say, "This needs to be this way because it will be a single. This is a song that people will sing along to with their arms in the air." That's artistic, and it feels fantastic to be able to chase that.
Billboard: There were five producers on this record -- Jay Joyce, Radney Foster, Jeremy Stover, Doug Lancio and you -- which isn't something that usually happens on a country record. Why did you work with so many people?
Ingram: As great as things are going, I always want to improve. I didn't want a record with four singles and seven almost singles. Songs are still important to me, no matter what happens with the long-play formats. I wasn't concerned with who was producing as much as I was concerned with getting the record right. These guys filled different roles on the record.
Billboard: "Barefoot and Crazy" is your fastest-climbing airplay single to date. How does that feel 17 years into your career?
Ingram: It's just a lot of fun to have a hit song. (Laughs) That's a ride that I want to get in line for every time. There's nothing like hearing your song on the radio. It's exactly like the first time every time.
There are certain songs that play out immediately and when you go into them live you can feel the energy in the room change. The higher it gets on the chart, the more intense it gets. This last week people started throwing their shoes onstage. Three weeks ago people started holding up their flip-flops.
Billboard: Why did you rerecord "Barbie Doll," which first appeared on your 1999 album, "Hey You?"
Ingram: For an artist who for a long, long time knew what my hits were by what people wrote on napkins and dollar bills at the front of the stage, that was probably my biggest hit. It was never a single. I've been playing it in this new world I'm in, and the song plays out whether I'm playing in a bar or in front of 15,000 Toby Keith fans. I fought for the opportunity to record it again.
(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)
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