David Nail

Conversation Corner with David Nail

By Andrew Vaughan

Some names just stick. When David Nail’s record company offered their debutant up for interview and review I felt sure I knew the name. Sure enough, there on my haphazardly organized bookshelf was a 2002 promo CD labeled, David Nail - an advance album that contained at least two memorable tunes. I guess David himself can solve the mystery.

“Well, that’s cool that you have that still. I made that album in 2001, 2002 when I first came to Nashville from Missouri. But there were some record company changes and some politics and it never came out.”

In actual fact, the album that never was spawned a single, "Memphis," which did pretty well in the Top 100. But when producer Keith Steagall was fired from Mercury, the David Nail project lost its main instigator and Nail was lost in the shuffle.

“It happens in this business. I don’t remember being devastated - I always thought I’d get another deal. I think at the time things had happened so fast for me. I’d only been in town a couple of months and I had a publishing deal and then a record company signed me right after that. I had no idea as a young kid in town that record deals were hard to come by and that it would take me several years to get back to where I wanted to be in this business.”

While Nail claims to have never been disillusioned, he did leave musical pursuits for a while to coach a baseball team, but, naturally enough, he turned to music when the time was right.

"I never lost my love for music. I was always writing and playing somewhere, but it took me a while to deal with the business side again. That’s a whole different ball game and it has to be dealt with separately to the music. But, you know, I had faith that God had a plan for me, and that the plan involved music."

David Nail, raised by a high school band director, first fell in love with the music of Elton John. “Elton John was one of the main reasons I started singing, and is still a tremendous influence. I think he and the Beatles are probably two of the greatest melody makers of all time. I ‘discovered’ country music in the early 90’s along with everyone else my age, but I guess I kind of got more obsessive than everybody else. I found myself looking back as far as the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, exposing myself to some of the biggest stars of that era. It was then that I fell in love with Glen Campbell, who is still one of my all-time favorites.”

When MCA finally came knocking and the album I’m About to Come Alive became a reality, Nail was determined to make the most of this second chance.

“I told the label that I will do everything it takes to get this album on the radio. I’ll be there for radio tours, signings, promo events; whatever they think will help my career I will do. I really want this album to work ‘cause I think it’s a great record. People ask me all the time how I’d describe my music and I say, 'Well, I hope it’s good.’ Hopefully people will just enjoy it for being good music and take from it whatever it makes them feel. We have some wonderful musicians on here, and I’m hearing that folks like the songs. So all we can do now is wait and see and be ready to do whatever needs to be done to take it to the next level."

Looking at the current condition of country music, I wonder if David Nail feels he’s part of a new wave of artists ready to replace superstars like Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. “I don’t know about replace! There are definitely some great young artists out right now. I think they are all different. You know, Miranda Lambert is fantastic. Blake Shelton. There’s a bunch of us around the same age who have a new country sound I think, but it’s not like a movement stylistically - just a generational change I guess. I’m just focusing on maybe getting a great support slot on a big tour this year and breaking this album across America. I’ll worry about selling as many records as Kenny Chesney later!"