Trace Adkins exclusive: 'Whippoorwills and Freight Trains'

Over the past few years many of country music’s male stars have hit the charts with songs that celebrate beer, girls and trucks. Pretty much all of them focus on the moment, like snapshots taken at a wild party, heated by bonfires and cooled by swimming holes.

Trace Adkins knows that life well. But on his new album, the 55-year-old superstar takes us to a quieter place. Something’s Going On is more about reflection that revelry. There’s plenty of romance in the title cut, heartbreak in If Only You Were Lonely and redemption in the triumph of love over pain in Whippoorwills And Freight Trains. But each tells its story with a depth that’s rare in any kind of popular music.

“Whether I wrote it or it’s something one of my friends wrote for me, these songs are about maturity,” he says from his Tennessee farm on a rare day off from his 80-date concert tour. “I’ve reached the age where I can’t sing a lot of those lyrics that the younger guys are singing. Nobody wants to hear me sing about sitting on the tailgate with my girlfriend, because it’s not realistic. Some people did say to me, ‘Come on, you can sing that stuff!’ Well, I may be able to sing it, but I’m not going to because I don’t feel good about it. Sorry!”

Adkins chuckles, his voice a warm rumble. “I love the lyric on Watered Down,” he continues, referring to his latest single. “‘We still fly like gypsies, just closer to the ground. We still love our whiskey but it’s just a little watered down.’ In other words, I’m still gonna go the party, but I’m not be the guy that’s swinging off the chandelier.”

Whether as a writer or as an interpreter of someone else’s lyric, Adkins brings the lessons of a sometimes turbulent past into play. He’s sold 11 million albums, acted in high-profile films and earned $1.5 million for the American Red Cross as a winner of All-Star Celebrity Apprentice. He’s also been injured twice while working on an oil rig, shot in the chest by a soon-to-be ex-wife and survived a fire that destroyed his house six years ago.

That’s more highs and lows than most of us could handle. For Adkins, though, it only enriches what he achieves as an artist. More than most singers with similar ranges, he doesn’t use his low notes for pure effect — at least not most of the time. The song that he says most moves him on Something’s Going On, Whippoorwills and Freight Trains, is also the one whose  last note digs down to where few singers have dug before.

“That’s probably the lowest note I’ve ever sung,” he agrees. “It’s from Buck Owens because he told me once, ‘Son, put that low note in every song you record because it’s what you’ve got going.’ But what’s more important to me is how much the lyrics mean. I was about halfway through recording the master vocal when I just had to step away from the microphone. I looked at Mickey (Jack Cones, producer) and said, ‘You’ve got to give me a moment. This song is killing me.’”

After a second, Adkins adds, “I’m really glad that a song like that can still stop me in my tracks and tear me up. I guess that’s because I don’t stress out anymore about a single coming out and becoming a hit, because it’s out of my hands. All I want to do now is make the best records I can, trust everyone else will do their jobs … and let it go.”