David Nail

You might have noticed a nude young lady getting dressed in the music video for David Nail’s new sing, “Let It Rain.”  And ya might’ve also noticed that David doesn’t look over at her even once.

“That’s how I got away with putting a half-naked woman in my video,” says the now-married country singer, laughing.  “I didn’t ever see her.  To be honest, I only caught a glimpse four or five times through the night.”

“Let It Rain” is the first single from David’s brand-new sophomore album, The Sound of a Million Dreams- a happier, more settled album than his debut, for which David credits his 2009 marriage to his longtime girlfriend, Catherine.

“The first record is kind of a moody record.  And I wanted to move away from that.  I am married now,” he notes, “and I’m in a more positive place.”

David’s marriage also helped add real tension to that music video for “Let It Rain,” which is about the guilt that follows when a married man cheats.

“The girl, Lacey, in the video is just engaged and here I am married,” David says, “so there was a sense of awkwardness that I felt translated [to the video]…It worked out well.  I wasn’t having to act that much.”

And his marriage contributed in a very direct way to the new album- David’s wedding vows appear in the song named for his wife, “Catherine”: Promises ain’t never been my strength/ But you are all I’ll ever need, he sings.

“The first time I sat down [to write vows], I wrote the first thing that came to mind.  Guess it’s a subconscious thing to write it in song form,” he says.

How romantic, turning wedding vows into a song!  Catherine is thrilled, right?

“My wife often gets bored with things,” David allows.  “It’ll be exciting for her to pick up an album and see her name on it.  Until then, she’s over it.”

David wrote or co-wrote three of the new album’s 11 tracks, including “Let It Rain” and “Catherine.”  He claims he barely deserves credit for the third, “I Thought You Knew,” which he wrote with the men of Lady Antebellum, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood.

When they were all on the road together, the Lady A guys asked him to come on the bus and write with them.

Charles and Dave mentioned the idea “I Thought You Knew” but were about to move past it when David encouraged them to keep working on it.

“I felt there was really cool language I hadn’t heard before,” he says.  “Half-hour into it, I went to soundcheck, and they finished it.  But Charles was hell-bent [on giving David a writing credit.]  They said they would’ve moved on to something else had I not been passionate about it.”

Collaborations appear throughout the album.  David has special guest vocalists on three songs- “Let It Rain,” (Sarah Buxton), “Songs for Sale” (Lee Ann Womack, who also happens to be married to Nail’s producer) and “Catherine” (Nashville rocker Will Hoge).

“I just feel like the more the merrier… I hate eating alone, I hate going to movies alone.  And selfishly, I’m a huge fan of everyone involved,” David says.  “I’ve been in town for 12 years; I do have several friends.  I’ve been fortunate.  I feel like people have kind of respected what I do.”

Then again, everything’s better on this second album, he says.

He explains that when he made his first album, his head wasn’t in a good place: Not only was he still unmarried, but he had just lost a record deal.

“I went into a downward spiral trying to figure out why things didn’t work out. So the first record, well, it was just a big load off my chest.”

The second album came from a happily married man who also had a solid relationship with his record label.

“I was completely in a different place mentally.  I’m extremely happy [with The Sound of a Million Dreams].

And David has been in a different place on the touring circuit, scoring opening slots for bigger and bigger country stars.  This fall, he landed some dates with arguably the biggest country artist on the road, Taylor Swift.  That made him an overnight sensation…on his Facebook page, anyway.

“I’ll bet I had 35 messages on Facebook the next morning [after the shows were announced],” David says.  “Your [Facebook] friends are people you went to high school with, but you haven’t talked to in years.  Suddenly, someone who hasn’t’ said hello or congratulations or anything [asks], ‘Hey, it’d be great if I could get seven tickets and meet-and-greet passes to the Taylor show,’” he says, laughing.  “And, actually, all we get is seven.  I appreciate your modesty in only asking for seven.”