courtesy photo
by Chance Solem-Pfeifer
Watch a video of Craig Morgan performing at Grand Ole Opry in 2002 and you see a confident, young country crooner dressed to the nines.
He does not know — by Morgan’s own admission — that he’s in line to become one of pop country music’s biggest stars in the next 10 years with songs such as “International Harvester” and “Redneck Yacht Club.”
But even at the same time as the singer celebrates his pop success with a new greatest hits record called The Journey (Livin’ Hits), Morgan is not so very different from the younger man just about to break out with the song “Almost Home,” his first to reach the Top 10 on the U.S. country charts. For one, Morgan insists that he’s the same person he was when he began his music career, and he credits this to finding fame past 35, having already spent a decade in the United States Army.
But musically, Morgan now stands at a turning point, just as he did when he donned the colorful clothes and Uncle Sam guitar strap in 2002. Where once he bid farewell to more traditional country music and embraced rodeo crowd-pleasers, now, he turns away from those, as well. With its four new songs, he says he hopes The Journey (Livin’ Hits) can help acclimate his fans to a new Craig Morgan.
This new man and musician will meet fans like those at tonight's free UNL Homecoming Concert on the East Campus Mall at 8. And even if it won’t be easy, Morgan will forge ahead.
“Sometimes it’s hard to venture away from what people expect, and when you do, if you’re not careful, they won’t want to hear that,” he says. “You can’t go from singing ‘International Harvester’ to something with a loop.”
The compilation wasn’t Morgan’s idea, but rather that of his label, Black River Entertainment. And although he says he didn’t like the idea of releasing previously recorded material initially, capturing this transition period on an album was appealing in hindsight. The first snapshot of his new and perhaps more earnest rock-flavored songs is “Wake Up Loving You,” the first single from The Journey (Livin’s Hits). Morgan has trouble articulating exactly what struck him about the song — which was written by Josh Osborne, Matt Ramsey and Trevor Rosen — but when he first heard it, his decision to lend his brash, aching voice to the lamenting tune was immediate.
“‘Wake Up Loving You’ is one of those rare jewels that comes along every once in a while and you just have this feeling,” Morgan says. “It’s like what makes a great artist: nobody really knows, we just know when it happens.”
If Morgan had to attach an emotion to the song — which presents the voice of a man utterly preoccupied by love lost — it would be unadulterated heartache.
“That guy in that song is beyond words hurt, he can’t even hardly explain how hurt he is,” Morgan says. “It’s an emotion moreso than a moment. Usually, you sing a song a bunch and the feeling goes away, but I still feel like I’m hearing it for the first time when I sing it.”
This is a new level of emotional distress conveyed in this song from a military veteran, a devoted hunter and outdoorsman and a man who made his living singing about angry drivers shoving it in the face of his combine driving. Preconceptions about the machismo of his public image aside, Morgan says the vulnerability expressed in his new single is a window to his real self.
“I’m a guy’s guy,” he says. “I like doing guy stuff. If there’s a chance you can hurt doing it, I’ll try it. But as much as I am that guy, I’m also real and as emotional as anybody else. I could be that guy singing that song. I know I would be if something happened to my wife.”
Given his blue-collar roots (Morgan’s grandfather was a life-long farmer), Morgan is regularly portrayed in the media as being a man of the people. He is painted in the public eye as being an everyman, but one with seven Top 40 country hits to his name. Even despite four seasons of his television program Craig Morgan: All Access Outdoors and palling around with his friend and actress Angie Harmon in the music video for “This Ole Boy,” Morgan insists there is no clash between his personal and celebrity identities.
“What I have learned by being in this business is … just because I’m a singer, doesn’t mean I just get my own TV show,” he says. “If you work hard enough, you can do what you want to. The outcome will be what it’s supposed to be.”
The journey toward being a Top 40 country star indeed started late for Morgan who is now 49. Still, he’s certain that finding fame as a mature adult made him better equipped to deal with his music’s turning points, but also expand his amiable personality into pop music and television.
“Beyond a shadow of a doubt, being older and having the experiences that I’ve had, I still have an advantage in my opinion,” Morgan says. “I have a different level of appreciation because of how good I have it as an entertainer. Even a bad day in this business is better than a good day in a lot of other businesses.”
Chance Solem-Pfeifer is Hear Nebraska’s staff writer. Craig Morgan isn’t a forensics expert. He just sometimes plays one on TV. Reach Chance at chancesp@hearnebraska.org.