Jack Ingram: Country Musician To Perform Aug. 20

Finally.
When Jack Ingram won the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Male Vocalist award in 2008, the honky-tonker from Houston, Texas, surely shook his head.
It was about time for this singer who had been in the music business for years.
See Ingram for free on Aug. 20 in downtown Kingsport, Tenn., during the summer-long Twilight Alive concert series.
Hear a man whose career dates back to 1992, and yet his first chart-topping single, “Wherever You Are,” didn’t hit until 2006, which led to the aforementioned award.
“To radio fans, I was brand new when ‘Wherever You Are’ came out,” Ingram said by phone on Tuesday afternoon from Nashville, Tenn. “So, on paper [the award] kind of made sense.”
About as much sense as when the decidedly non-heavy metal Jethro Tull won a Grammy Award in the heavy metal category.
“Yeah, they beat out Metallica,” Ingram said, with a chuckle.
Anyway, despite the new artist award in hand, Ingram certainly was no overnight success. While radio fans perhaps hadn’t heard him beforehand, that sure didn’t mean that he wasn’t out on the road hawking one album after another.
“I think it takes 10 years to be an overnight success,” Ingram said. “I think that’s the truth.”
Ingram should know. Recording since 1992, Ingram’s first tiptoe toward national success came with 1997’s “Livin’ Or Dyin’” album. Produced by Twang Trust, Steve Earle and Ray Kennedy, the album struck critics as brilliant amid country music’s growing climate of mediocrity.
But it didn’t sell.
“Other than people listening to college radio,” Ingram said, “most people hadn’t heard the ‘Livin’ or Dyin’ ’ album.”
Skip ahead a few albums, including 1999’s excellent “Hey You.”
Ingram’s gradual career climb escalated dramatically when he signed with Big Machine Records, which issued the prophetically titled album “This is It” in 2007. He had recorded fine albums up to then, but Big Machine made the most profound impact on his career.
“It’s the difference between selling 30,000 records like I had been selling,” Ingram said, “and 100,000 records like I am now doing and the possibility to sell more.”
Bear in mind that before signing with Big Machine, Ingram navigated country’s waters with an edgy sound that reverberated on the outside looking in.
Not exactly an underground artist, but his songs from 1997’s “Flutter” to 1999’s honky-tonk paint peeler “Barbie Doll” simply didn’t register on the mainstream front.
And brother, that’s where records sell and bucks are made.
“Big Machine is a label that knows how to get it done,” Ingram said. “Hey, they have Taylor Swift. They let me do what I love to do.”
Now Ingram’s eighth album, “Big Dreams & High Hopes,” lands in stores on Aug. 25. Several singles, including “Barefoot and Crazy,” have already charted from the album, but it’s the title track that perhaps best describes Ingram’s lot in life.
“[The title track] describes the idea of discovering a passion and having big dreams and having high hopes and going after them, going through all the trials and tribulations,” Ingram said.
Though not about his career per se, the song could easily apply.
“My career would seem like a rollercoaster, but to me it’s more like a nice long incline,” Ingram said. “When I wasn’t having the commercial success, it wasn’t like I wasn’t doing well. I was filling clubs. I always knew [my career] was headed in the right direction.”

IF YOU GO
What: Twilight Alive Summer Concert Series
Who: Jack Ingram
When: Aug. 20, 7 p.m.
Where: Broad Street, downtown Kingsport, Tenn.
Admission: Free
Info: http://www.twilightalive.com
Web: http://www.jackingram.net
Audio and videos: http://www.new.music.yahoo.com/jack-ingram/tracks/

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at .