David Nail: "The Sound of a Million Dreams" Cut-by-Cut

David Nail's no newcomer to the country music scene, having been working in and around Nashville for most of the past decade. Here's your chance to read his thoughts about this, his upcoming follow-up album to "I'm About To Come Alive."

Grandpa’s Farm (Written by Adam Hood, Brent Cobb and Jason Saenz)

“ I wanted a song that was right out of a honky-tonk. ‘Grandpa’s Farm’ is funky and raw, and it comes from a live, intense place. I think it sounds like a Black Crowes song, or like ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ by the Stones. People say I have a soulful quality to my voice, and I wanted the rawness of ‘Grandpa’s Farm’ to balance that out.”

Songs for Sale (Written by Scooter Carusoe and Billy Montana)

“People sometimes mock the waiter or the person working in the mall who call themselves a songwriter. The next questions are always, ‘But what do you really do? And what do you do to make money?’ If there was ever a more well-written song about what we do for a living, I haven’t heard it. It’s got a really cool groove. While we were doing preproduction at Frank Liddell’s house, his wife Lee Ann Womack was listening in and suggested I sing it in a lower key. I listened! And she ended up singing on it with me.”

Desiree (Written by Keith Urban and Vernon Rust)

“This is one of Keith Urban’s songs from The Ranch album. There are a couple of records that really influenced me when I first moved to town, and that is one of them. ‘Desiree’ starts out like a ballad, but ends up a bona fide up-tempo song. I don’t write a lot of tempo, and I don’t want to cut a tempo song just for the sake of it. It wouldn’t really speak to me. But this feels like it fit the sound of the record. It’s a song that bridges some of the more produced stuff, like ‘Let It Rain,’ with the more loose songs like ‘Grandpa’s Farm.’”

She Rides Away (Written by Eric Paslay and Phil Barton)

“After we recorded this and I listened to it, I texted my producer and said it may be the coolest thing we’ve ever done. It’s really fresh sounding, and feels like we’re painting outside the lines. The chorus references an El Camino and Laredo, Texas—two things that never in a million years did I ever think I’d sing about in a song. I’ve never been to Laredo, never driven an El Camino, but it has that imagery that is so important to me. It sounds like it should be in a movie.”

Let It Rain (Written by David Nail and Jonathan Singleton)

“This song came from the first time Jonathan Singleton and I ever got together to write. He started playing this guitar part that was almost like a John Mayer lick and when he’d get to the chorus, he just keep singing, ‘Let it rain.’ I suggested we use those words as a metaphor for a guy who screwed up and wants to make up for a misdeed. And in 45 minutes, it was done. It just came so easily. One of my favorite lines is something I blurted out: Seven years of good can’t hide the one night I forgot to wear that ring. It shows how you can spend your whole life having the most beautiful marriage in the world, and all it takes is a slip-up to ruin it all. It’s a cheating song, but if there is ever a guy you want to root for, it’s this guy, because he is willing to do whatever it takes to make it right.”

I Thought You Knew (Written by David Nail, Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood and Monty Powell)

“I was on tour with Lady Antebellum and they were fiddling around with this melody on their bus. Charles was mumbling random things, which I found out is how he writes. They were getting ready to move on to something else, and I said, ‘That’s really cool what you’re doing. You should keep at it.’ So we worked on it for an hour and then I went to do my show. By the time I came back, he and Dave had finished the song. A couple of days later, we did a demo. It has a ‘Boys of Summer’ feel to it, really smooth and steady in tempo. But what I like about the song more than anything is, as a guy, we often think we’re doing a lot in relaying our love and appreciation to our partner, but in reality, we’re doing a really lousy job.”

Catch You While I Can (Written by Scooter Carusoe and Jedd Hughes)

“I always loved the song ‘Strangers on a Train’ on my first record. I love that sentiment, where you see someone across the room, have a little moment together and start to wonder ‘what if?’ This song is similar to ‘Strangers’ in that it reminded me of when I’d go out in my 20s, playing that game of ‘I noticed you, do you notice me?’ When I heard it, I was right there, back to being 26 in a bar, before I got married. I thought there was something innocent, but also sexy, in how we recorded this. It’s velvety, with this rich, lush sound.”

Half Mile Hill (Written by Rick Brantley, Tia Sillers and Mark Selby)

“I think this is a life song. It’s reflective—about a guy’s parents splitting up, but also about all he’s dealing with. It reminded me of when I was going through a bout of depression. You’re crying out, drinking too much, putting on weight, in an effort to get somebody to recognize it and pick you up. This guy says, ‘I’m lost. I need somebody to help me through this. I’m up on this hill, looking down below. Is anybody listening out there?’ I remember being there. I would go home to Missouri because that’s where I felt the most normal. My life had gotten so complex and I wanted to be back in that simply structured town, where everything was the exact opposite of where I was. I was trying to force this simple quality back into my life. It was a no-brainer to record ‘Half Mile Hill.’”

That’s How I’ll Remember You (Written by Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally and Madeleine Slate)

“I was really attracted to the imagery here. I’m a huge baseball fan and I thought it was awesome that baseball was referenced in a love song: Summertime in Brooklyn, mustard on your lip, I knew I loved you by the bottom of the fifth. I was sold. But this is about remembering the good things from a relationship. We’ve all had relationships that ended badly, where you have that final, ugly ‘I hate you, you hate me’ conversation. This song is about not choosing to let those moments be your last memory. We’ve played this one live before and people became familiar with it. The fans wanted to make sure it was going to be on this record.”

The Sound of a Million Dreams (Written by Scooter Carusoe and Phil Vassar)

“I used to make mix tapes and CDs and title them by the month or the name of the city I was going to visit. I still do it. Before a show, I make a playlist of songs I want to listen to and title it with the city we’re playing. And this girl who used to drive me to school before I was 16 always had mixed tapes too. So when I heard this song, it reminded me of that, just driving and listening to Bob Seger, Merle Haggard, Elton John, Glen Campbell, Garth Brooks, and the Wallflowers—all on the same record. I eventually moved to Nashville and had all these aspirations: a million different times I pictured myself moving to Nashville or singing on the Grand Ole Opry. I feel like that’s what this song says. These are the sounds of a million dreams.”

Catherine (Written by David Nail)

“I wrote this song about my wife. When we were planning our wedding, we wanted to write our own vows. When Catherine went to bed one night, I wrote hers, just the first things that came to mind. They didn’t end up being exactly our vows, but they were the basis for them. This wasn’t supposed to be a song, but it became one. It’s a very honest, personal lyric. As a sidenote, I wrote out the lyrics by hand and framed them for my groomsmen. It’s symbolic of our wedding day and has become one of my favorite songs, obviously for personal reasons, but also because it came so organically, in lyrics and in music. It starts as a ballad, but then becomes just a wall of sound. It almost transforms into a jam-band song by the end.”

 

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