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For three years, Steve Wariner went into songwriter mode. After 17 albums, 30 Top Ten songs,
and many, many years on the road he put aside performing. Instead he took pleasure in seeing
others succeed with music that he created. Maybe this was what he was supposed to do, he
thought.
He'd had a good run as a performer, and maybe it was time to put that part of his
musical life away. Maybe he was meant to be a songwriter. Maybe he'd go into producing for
other artists in the next phase of his career. Maybe that was the direction his life was suppose to
take.
Or maybe not.
"Holes In The Floor of Heaven" catapulted Wariner back onto center stage. He won two CMA
Awards (Song and Single of the Year) in 1998, and was nominated for two Grammy Awards.
"Holes" hit the top of the charts and became one of country radio's most-requested songs. More
importantly to Wariner, people wrote letters thanking him for the songs and telling him that it got
them through hard times. The reaction from his fans and peers to the song and to his album,
Burnin' The Roadhouse Down, reaffirmed that Steve Wariner was meant to work at every aspect
of music.
He does just that on Two Teardrops. Writing or co-writing all but one of the fifteen songs on the
album, Wariner explores a variety of musical landscapes, from traditional country to R&B to folk
to edgy pop. As producer he plays with music's colors and textures, layering tracks for a bigger
sound in some places, paring back in other places. As a performer, he radiates pleasure,
particularly when he pairs with Bryan White on "Talk to Her Heart" and with his brother Terry, on
"I'm Already Taken." And as a guitarist, he lets the instrumental, "The Harry Shuffle," give him a
chance to strut his stuff. "It's important for me to showcase that I'm a player," Wariner says of
the piece. "Chet Atkins instilled that in me - 'Do what you do. Do what brought you here.'"
Since the song that brought him here was "I'm Already Taken," Wariner included it on the album.
"I wrote it when I was 18, with Terry Ryan, and it's the first song I ever recorded with Chet Atkins.
I always get an incredible reaction to the song when I do it live, so I pulled it back out for this
album," he says.
Wariner had a few other songs tucked away that he pulled out for the record. "Tattoos of Life,"
written with Max D. Barnes, has an old country feel to it, both musically and lyrically. The
rollicking "Talk To Her Heart," written with Bill Anderson and Jim Weatherly, offers men some
friendly advice about wooing the ladies. "If You Don't Know By Now," written with Rick Carnes
and Janice Carnes, details the heavy-hearted thoughts of a man who realizes that his love is not
returned. All of these were songs that Wariner had saved for the right moment, but he didn't rely
on a stockpile of old songs to fill the album. He's continued to write songs, even as the success
of his last album has led to a more hectic schedule. "I love being a writer," he says. "I love
waking up every day thinking of songs and going up to my little studio to work on songs. I don't
ever want to get too far away from that."
His devotion to the art of songwriting is clear throughout the album. "Two Teardrops," the first
single from the album, gets the same emotional response from listeners as "Holes In The Floor
of Heaven." Told from the perspective of two teardrops - one happy, one sad - the song sweetly
illustrates the circle of life, from birth to death, through love and loss. The swirling "Cry No More"
is a completely different musical direction for Wariner and co-writer Marcus Hummon - edgy,
off-balance pop with a haunting melody. An undulating rhythm swings through "You Be My
Everything," giving it the flavor of lazy summer days, as it celebrates love over else. Hard-driving
"Hands of Time" and "So much" percolate with fun, while making dead-on lyrical observations.
"So Much" includes a guest appearance from Wariner's 15-year-old son, Ryan, on guitar. "He's a
good player, and I had been thinking about getting him to play on the record," the proud dad says.
"He's a little farther away from the country genre than he will be down the road, so I knew I had
to find the right song. He came in and nailed it. I was watching him as he did it. It's the first time
he played on a recording and he was so relaxed and casual about it. I'm sure it helped that the
studio is in our house."
Recording at his own home studio allows Wariner the freedom to tinker with songs at a more
leisurely pace, and that relaxed approach can lead to some great discoveries. "I don't have a
clock," Wariner says. "If I feel like singing at one in the morning, I can go up and do it. If I don't
feel like singing, I can go to bed. One night, after midnight, I was up there working on something
and picked up a guitar, just started having fun doodling around. All of the sudden this tune came
out. I turned on the machine and put it on tape. It's 'The Harry Shuffle.'"
No matter what tempo or mood Wariner takes on Two Teardrops, the same characteristics stand
out. You can hear the confidence of a performer at the top of his game, and you feel the
contagious joy of a musician doing what he loves to do. After more than 20 years in the music
business, Steve Wariner has it down, and enjoys every minute of the creative process.
"I just work when I feel like it," he says. "Usually I feel like it all the time."
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