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Andy Griggs

When you first hear a snippet of Andy Griggs' self-titled debut album for RCA Records, you stop in your tracks, taken by a voice you can't quite categorize. You listen again - really listen, consciously letting every phrase, every nuance, every inflection penetrate your senses. That's when you realize Andy's voice is distinctive and ear-catching, brimming with profound feelings and tinged with a raw, heart-wrenching power.

The Monroe, Louisiana native is cut from a cloth vastly different - more textured, more rough- hewn - than many of his contemporaries. He didn't dream of a career in music as a child, yet he understood the power of music early on. He had to. Music helped him grieve.

"My daddy had this old Merle Haggard album, used to listen to it a lot," Andy recalls, eyes fixed on a spot far distant. "When he died, me and my brother Mason went in his room. We never said a word, but we played that whole album. That was the last time we played something on his record player. We just sat in the room, not speaking, and played it." He becomes silent, lost in that moment, re-living it as it if happened yesterday. "Eight years down the road, Mason died. I went in his room, and I played that same album. That's what music is.

It was then, in 1991, that Andy felt the power of music infusing itself into his life. He was 18. "My brother played guitar, wrote, sang, had his band. He was the talent of the family. I was the athletic, outdoors kind of guy. It wasn't until he passed away that I wanted to learn how to pick and sing. That was my way of being close to him still. That was my cry, to learn how to play his songs. For about a year, that was all I did. I wouldn't let anybody hear me - not even Mama. I started to become haunted with the music.

Then something started to change in Andy. He wasn't playing music just for his brother any more. He started playing songs by Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, let a few friends hear him. And most importantly, he started believing in himself.

"Something started progressing in me, took me away from my little scared closet. I ended up getting with my brother's old group, standing in his place, singing lead and playing rhythm. That's where that started. It was almost like I could feel him saying, 'Go on and play, hoss. Don't be scared."

Seven years later, Andy is ready to share his music with the world. The tragedies that hit him early in life have given him a worldly-wise perspective. "I guess if you can find some good in those sad times, it's that the music made me alive, my soul. It's made me real."

The evolution from self-taught beginner to self-assured performer was gradual, as Andy took over his brother's band and began playing festivals and churches. At first unsure of his talent, he found encouragement from Jerry and Tammy Sullivan, the famed gospel duo. "They really believed in me, and when my band wasn't playin', I'd go out on the road with them."

He also found his soulmate, Stephanie Sullivan. Her belief in his talent was the catalyst that brought him to Music City. "She's definitely my backbone. It was Stephanie, telling me before we got married,' think you can do it.' That's the first time I really thought about it seriously. When she said it, I listened. We got married in February '95, took a four-day honeymoon, loaded everything up in a truck, and moved up. Didn't have a job, didn't have a place to stay. I was scared to death.

He did, however, have a goal. "I wanted to make art. I wanted to share my art. I had little confidence at all. Maybe there was a slingshot's chance in hell that anything would happen, but I never thought anybody would ever hear it or understand it. I guess the one person that did was God. He helped make it a ride.

Upon arriving in Nashville, Andy signed with manager/producer J. Gary Smith and soon joined forces with famed producer David Malloy. Smith and Malloy put Andy to work singing demos for several months while searching for a musical direction to match his distinctive voice. When Malloy and Smith deemed the time was right, they steered Andy to the office of Joe Galante, chairman of the RCA Label Group RLG/Nashville.

A few weeks later, Andy was at work at a local greenhouse when he got the call telling him he had a record deal. "On the way home, I bought a dozen roses and wrote on the card,'We did it.' When I got home, I gave them to Stephanie. She just looked at me. She didn't even read the card. She just said,'Andy, we can't afford roses.' I wouldn't tell her what happened. We were goin' grocery shopping. We pulled up at Kroger, and she's saying,'Andy, is there any way we can take these roses back' So I told her, and we sat in the truck and cried together.

If the defining moments in Andy's personal life are rooted in the personal losses he weathered early on, perhaps the defining moment of his professional life was that moment in Joe Galante's office. "I was supposed to sing this little soft love ballad," Andy recalls with a sly grin. "But that seemed too safe, too much like what everybody else was singing. I didn't want to be molded too much. Instead, I sang 'em something that no one would have expected, 'Arms Of Cocaine'. It was a hard-headed, stubborn, rebellious thing to do. I probably shouldn't have done it. But it proved a point. Either they would get me, or they wouldn't."
In that instant, confidence became deeply ingrained in Andy's character. "l'd been singing that song for a long time. When I sing it, it's really, really me. Not in subject matter, but it just suits my voice. Why sing something that's not you?"

As he prepared to head into the studio, Andy started writing songs, discovering yet another dormant talent. "I wasn't a songwriter, not when I moved up here. My style of singing is so different that I could not find enough songs for my album, so I started writing my own. That's not near as easy to pick up as a guitar. It's either in you or it's not. Even if it's in you, you've gotta learn how to do it. Pretty much, you learn how to open your soul up just right."

Even though he says, "I still don't consider myself a songwriter," Andy co-wrote four of the songs on his debut album. He struts his rebellious nature in tunes like 'A Side Of Me" (one of his compositions) and "Waitin' On Sundown", which gives a distinctly '90s twist to the oft-told dream of a knight in shining armor.
Another Griggs tune, "Ain't Done Nothin' Wrong", is a tawdry tale of temptation which showcase the raw, honest emotional nature of Andy's voice. He switches musical gears with "She's More", a delicately crafted ballad about finding the. girl of your dreams, and goes on to sing of love lost on "I Miss You The Most".

On tunes like the rollicking toe-tapper with a driving beat "You Made Me That Way" and "I'II Go Crazy", with its true country rhythms and banjo accents, Andy demonstrates his vocal versatility. He puts his heart on the line on "You Won't Ever Be Lonely", another self-penned song that promises everlasting love.

The husky-voiced singer spells out a neatly-worded response to those searching for the secret to love in "I Don't Know A Thing", and pays homage to true love in "Shine On Me", a soaring duet with the legendary Waylon Jennings.

As a singer and songwriter, Andy has succeeded in opening his soul, holding back nothing from those who will listen. "I really want to touch somebody," he affirms. "I want to touch someone the way Merle Haggard touched me. That is the essence of light. There are more opportunities in music when you create magic. It can be a doctor. It can break your heart. It can be universal. That's what I want to share. That's the heart of it."

Of his own musical appeal, he says, "it's really bold and aggressive. It's in your face. It's somewhere in between the old country and the rock and roll. Sometimes I can't define me, so God knows I can't define my sound."

Once you hear the music of Andy Griggs, you'll be able to define it, even if he can't. It's intense It's heartfelt. You'll turn up the volume. You'll listen to each song time and again, finding deep meaning in every lyric. This is music that is deep and alive, music that fulfills your emotions. It doe exactly what music is meant to do - and more.

Andy Griggs. Music from the soul to the soul. This is the future of country music.

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