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Tim McGraw has never been one to do things halfway. Growing up, he maintained an equal devotion to music and athletics, but was irrevocably drawn to the former while attending Northeast Louisiana University. He cut his teeth playing solo in local nightspots then he decided to try his luck in Nashville.
After signing with Curb Records and releasing his self-titled debut album in June 1992, McGraw achieved his commercial breakthrough with his second album, 1994’s Not A Moment Too Soon, which became the year’s top-selling country album and spawned a pair of trademark hits, including the sensitive ballad “Don’t Take the Girl,” which became his first Number One hit, winning Academy of Country Music awards for Album of the Year and Top New Male Vocalist later that same year.
Tim’s third album, 1995’s All I Want, debuted at Number One on the Billboard country album chart. The album was followed by the Spontaneous Combustion tour, which becomes the year’s top-drawing country tour. The tour also featured opening act Faith Hill, whom McGraw would marry in late 1996.
McGraw’s 1997 release Everywhere, which the Country Music Association named Album of the Year, yielded no less than five Number One singles, including “It’s Your Love,” which became the most-played single since Billboard began monitoring airplay; and “Just to See You Smile,” which became Billboard’s longest-running modern chart single, spending 42 weeks on the chart.
1999’s A Place in the Sun debuted at Number One on both the Billboard Pop and Country charts, producing four more Number One singles and won the Country Music Association’s Album of the Year and Male Vocalist awards.
In 2001, McGraw took home the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year award and five Billboard Music Awards, as well as his first Grammy, for Best Country Vocal Collaboration on “Let’s Make Love,” his duet with wife Faith Hill.
But, as Tim McGraw sees it, his massive past successes are merely the foundation for the exciting new musical phase that commences with Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors. “I see this record,” he says, “as a step towards getting on the path that I want to be on musically, making great records as a band and then being able to go out and play the same stuff that we played on the records.”
“My previous albums were done in pretty much the Nashville way-the session guys came in and laid down their tracks and then I sang,” McGraw explains. “I’m proud of all of those records, but I wanted to capture some of the feel and groove that I loved in my favorite records when I was growing up. It’s almost unheard of for a country artist to record with his road band, but my guys have been with me for a long time, and they’re an important part of what I do. And it was time to get that on a record.”
“It’s also the only country record I can think of that has a mellotron on it. We may get run out of Nashville for that-either that or everybody will start using them.”
“I feel pretty confident in saying that this is the best record I’ve ever done. It has every element I’ve always wanted to have in my music. It sounds real and it sounds soulful, and it’s a lot more me than any record I’ve ever made.”
Here are the Dean Markley strings that Tim McGraw and The Dancehall Doctors band uses:
Tim uses PhosBronze Acoustic, MED.
Darran uses Blue Steel Electrics, LT.
Denny uses Blue Steel Electrics, REG.
John Boy uses SR2000, LT.
Deano uses Blue Steel Acoustic, ML
Bob uses Alchemy GoldPhos ML and MED for his acoustics / Dobro.
Ron Lashley uses Pedel Steel Stainless, E9 and C6 tunings for his extra lively steel guitar; and for his MeloBar, he usesa custom gauge.
Be sure to visit the Tim McGraw and Th website at:
www.TimMcGraw.com.
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