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Gary Allan
It Would Be You

"Now I'm on the fine line,
walking between the music I love and
the music that seems to work in the machine.
They run on one thing, and I run on another...
The good news is: I still believe
there's room for hard-core honky tonk.
The fans let me know it every night -
they just can't get it a lot of places and they're starved for it,
so I'd like to fill that void."

Gary Allan represents an important intersection in modern country music. At a time when country's at a crossroads, the tenor with the raw ache in his throat knows exactly where he's headed. With a strong reverence for classic country and honky tonk, he's not afraid to be hard-core.

But rather than merely resuscitate time-honored sounds, he wants to bring a spark and an electricity to the mix. When Gary Allan sings, it's the sound of someone who's thrilled by what this music was, is and can be - and his exuberance is contagious.

"Country music is about what happens during the week," he says with a wry smile. "And the rest of it is about what happens on the weekend. It's real life...and real emotions. It's the whole deal. And when you're playing in the bars, all you're worrying about is getting the people to come in and have fun.

"They don't much care whether the songs make 'em cry or make 'em laugh or even piss 'em off. Just as long as the songs make 'em feel something, you know you've connected. And since I've come to Nashville, that's been the bottom line when it comes to making records."

The outspoken Californian must be onto something. Used Heart For Sale, his critically-acclaimed Decca debut, was singled out as "Best of the Month" in Stereo Review with Alanna Nash proclaiming, "At a time when country music inches so close to the middle-of-the-road that it's violins, not fiddles on many of Nashville's assembly-line records, Gary Allan scrapes off the layers of goo and delivers a classic," Playboy raved "Gary Allan embraced the honky tonk tradition of Bakersfield...Used Heart is the way country used to be."

With It Would Be You, the pride of Long Beach proves his roots are deep and strong. Building upon the West Coast-steeped sounds of his debut, It Would Be You is riddled with pools of steel, fluid fiddles that weep and reel, plinking, slinky piano and the kind of honesty that will stop the listener in their tracks.
Unapologetic, unadulterated, unbridled, unabashed, unfiltered and occasionally unruly, It Would Be You draws upon the emotional tides of real people in everyday lives, making do, making love and making believe that it's all gonna be okay. For Gary, it's the kind of dignity he believes real life warrants.
"It bothers me when songs don't take the heat for what they're saying," he explains. "You look at (Allan's breakthrough)" Her Man": it says, "I've been an SOB right down to the letter..." That song owns up to the bad part, too. That's real life. There's always that other part most songs seem to gloss over."

Whether it's the steel-soaked ache of "It Would Be You", the spare, sexy cocktail slink of "Baby I Will", the stompin', honky-tonk raver of "Don't Leave Her Lonely Too Long" or the turning away from temptation drama of "No Man In His Wrong Heart" which opens "On the inside of a matchbook cover/ she made me an offer/ No man in a weak state could have run...," Allan's song selection is dead-on the pulse of how we feel in those moments that define our lives.

"I think it comes from all the shit I've been through. Being married, getting divorced - music and those lyrics were my refuge. It was my sanity...(Getting up and singing) every night was a way to disappear into the songs. I'd transfer my life into it, so I could deal with my stuff. I know it works.

"I've been married. So, I know what forever feels like when it's not right."

Which isn't to say that Gary Allan is bitter or ready to give up on love. While he owns his caution, he also concedes he's not ready to toss in the towel. And that flame of hope he clings to imbues his music with an honesty that's as real as the best of the West Coast music that's forged his sound.

"You look at the acts that've come out of the West Coast and you'll see they're all more full-tilt, more hard-core. Dwight Yoakam, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, even Highway 101 all had a point of view and they made their music without getting caught up in what they thought "would work."

"The thing about California country, and even the great Texas/Oklahoma stuff like Waylon and Willie and Ernest Tubb, is that it was far enough from Nashville that it didn't get caught up in the business. None of those folks were second guessing what would work, they were making music for its own sake, music they felt, music that would connect with the fans...and it's strong.

"Out there, it's all raw will and music."

Allan has a point. With a live show that's been honed over years of bar gigs, a show that's been hailed by the Dallas Morning News' Mario Tarradel as "the surprise of the evening was Gary Allan, whose Bakersfield-influenced country comes from maverick Merle Haggard" and The Chicago Sun-Times' Dave Hoekstra who wrote "Gary Allan represents an oasis in the country desert," Allan's invested years of field work learning what connects.

"People always say we sound so traditional, no matter what we're playing. I grew up listening to this music, playing it in bars since I was 13. The clubs are a training ground for what connects with people...and you can't replace that."

"When I was 15 and offered a record deal, my Dad said, "You can do this, but you won't have a chance to develop your own sound." And as bad as I wanted that deal, I knew he was right. So, I passed and worked and waited.

"Now when we're in Texas, I have all kinds of people coming up to us who say,"Who'dve thought it'd take a bunch of guys from California to come here and play us some good hard-core country music?!"

"I'd be playing music whether I had a record deal or not. That's not what it's about for me. The fact that I make records means I can reach a lot more people on the road, and that I can turn people onto my kind of country."

To that end, there's the romping Jerry Lee-esque song of romantic betrayal "Red Lips," the tragic weeper song of love grown indifferent "Gone But Not Forgotten" and the simply gorgeous pledge of eternity in the face of an old flame "I'll Take Today."
As Allan says of the songs, "These things happen to lots of people every day. They've happened to me or to my friends. They're real stories, whether they hurt or help...and I want that for my music.

Look at "I'll Take Today," Any time you're anywhere you think you want to be, you'll constantly run into reminders of the past. To me, to be able to see those things and know you're in the right place, that's all you can ask for.

It's the same thing with "I Ain't Runnin' Yet." That's got me all over it! I'm real cautious 'cause I've been through so much crap. I haven't told anybody I've loved 'em for four or five years-even though a couple of times it's how I felt. You're there and you're not running, but you just can't quite say it, either."

It's in those tentative moments that our humanity plays itself out.
"I think you get a lot more respect and more out of life being who you are," Allan offers. "When I was growing up, the guys I surfed with were all into punk and alternative, so I listened to a lot of Black Flag and Agent Orange on the way to the beach. But they knew when they got in my truck, they'd be listening to Merle Haggard or George Jones.

"The funny thing is now they think I rock. And you know what? When it's the pure stuff like we do, it really does rock. Country music's as hard-core as anything out there...and maybe one day, some kid will say, "I want to play real country music like Gary Allan' kinda like the way I feel about George Strait.

"Country music, pure and simple, no gimmicks. What's hard about that?"

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