Jack Ingram Interview

INTERVIEW WITH JACK INGRAM FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

DM) To me, country music can reach out to many other genres of music. It's no longer exclusively the stuff typical to "Hee Haw" and the style from 30 years ago. What do you consider to be country music?

JI) I can't define it for everybody, but for me it has to do with the lyrical content. I mean, you can get into beats or variations on the blues or "white man blues." I know that's what a lot of people say it is, but for me, it just comes down to the songs, and the heartache and the truthfulness of the lyrics.

DM) Have you heard any songs that were "non-country" that you listened to and thought, "That could be a good country song?"

JI) Yeah, there are bunches of songs like that ... I don't think of it in terms of, "That would be a good country song," but I do think of it terms of, "I could sing that song," and by that, I think it could be a good country song. I think that I'm a country artist even though I have influences all over the map that show up pretty loud and clear in my music, and it's pretty rocking stuff. But I think in my heart, I'm a country music artist, and I hear other songs, and I think, "Yeah, I could that song, man."

DM) Are you able to stay true as a country artist getting influences that are not country?

JI) Well, that's just it. For me, it's not a pedigree. I didn't grow up in a farm; I grew up in Texas, and so I don't really worry too much staying "True" to country music. I stay true to my music, and that's enough for me.

DM) Did you always grow up with a country style?

JI) When I picked up a guitar and wrote a song that's what came out of my mouth. I didn't really have a choice in that matter.

DM) Is there still a fine line of true country anymore?

JI) I don't think there is, man. I don't think there ever will be again. The defining style of country music was a long time ago, and there's not a whole lot that comes out of this town that sounds like that. It's just a different time.

DM) Why did it change?

JI) I think, probably just like anything else, it's an evolution. You've got so many influences coming through now that it just changes. Somebody dug Merle Haggard up, then they dug Willie, and then they dug John Connolly, and all of those influences were changed from what Hank Williams was doing. It just happens. You can be a purist about it, but it's just what goes on. And so what I call country music might be light years away from what Hank Williams called country music, but I don't think it's that far, and I think I know what he was writing about. It might not sound like the way he did it, but it's coming from my heart.

DM) Are you still influenced by that "old country style?"

JI) Yeah, I am. Some of those old songs affect me in that way whether I pick up a guitar and try to play along and ever try to sing that song ... songs that give you chill bumps are influences to people, and those old country songs do that to me. Which is the same thing to me as some of those old Rolling Stone songs that do the same thing to me, and because of that, I'm influenced by that.

DM) Somebody once said to me, "Country music was one of the hidden genres of music, while every other musical genre has hit the main stream, it's only the past decade that it's really infiltrated the mainstream." Why is country seemingly more hidden than the others?

JI) I don't think it is anymore. Part of it could possibly be, with the rock stuff and the hip-hop and the rap stuff, there are five different rock stations in any major city playing five different kinds of rock. With country, there's one station playing one kind of country with one kind of play list. It just hasn't been as wide open as other formats. So if you turn on the country station in your town and decide that it's crap, that's what you think country music is, but when you take a deeper look you realize that there's so much more to it. It's just as wide open as any other rock format.

DM) Do you think it's moving more in that direction?

JI) Oh yeah, man, I think it's definitely moving in that direction. Just by the number of bands that I see out on the road doing this stuff, and the number of great records that I get that you never hear on the radio. I think it's just going to take some massaging.

DM) What is your fan reaction when you play a typically non-country market like New York or L.A.? Is it the same reaction that you get in Texas?

JI) It's the same reaction, because what I do isn't campy, which a lot of the country stuff can be. In New York, some people would think it's kind of like going to the circus or carnival; it's like a shtick. My music isn't about that. There's no "aw shucks" and "aw gee" kind of stuff, which is what some people have been led to believe country music is, but that's not the truth. When I do get the opportunity to play New York or Chicago, and they get the opportunity to see that it's not campy, then you turn a whole new group of people on to country music.

DM) Do you find that at the end of a show you've gotten some more converts to country?

JI) Yeah, I get that every single night. Every single night that I play, I get somebody say, "I hate country music, but I love what you do." That's just part of the deal, it's just a much narrower format.

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