On April 20, -- 28 years ago today -- Tim McGraw released his self-titled debut album. Tim McGraw hews closely to the hard-edged honky-tonk sound popular at the time, courtesy of slick co-production from Byron Gallimore who has gone on to work with McGraw for years and contributions from Nashville session players such as guitarist Larry Byrom and drummer Paul Leim. McGraw didn't exactly come out of nowhere, but he did have a few lucky breaks.
Soon, he decided to quit school and try his luck in Nashville. His father told him to finish school first, but McGraw reminded him that he had quit college for baseball.
So even though it was kind of scary, I wasn't giving up much. I thought I could make it. But the industry was ripe for smooth, handsome male vocalists, and he managed to line up gigs in Printers Alley clubs.
Within a year and a half, he cinched a contract with Curb Records. His first self-titled album came out in April of , but sank into oblivion. To drum up attention, the label sent McGraw on the road with his band, the Dance Hall Doctors, and his live act went over big. With power ballads and party hits like Steve Miller's "The Joker," he found his audience. In February , McGraw released the single "Indian Outlaw," and it quickly raced up the country charts and became a radio hit.
However, it also earned him unwanted status as a novelty act, and attracted a bitter backlash from many who found it offensive to Native Americans. McGraw responded by stating that he had meant no harm, and that he had simply used the tribal names and other words for their rhyming qualities.
The outcry also came as a surprise to the singer, since he had been closing his stage show with the tune for four years. Despite McGraw's explanation of his intentions, Cherokee Nation leader Wilma Mankiller sent a letter to stations claiming the song exhibited "crass exploitative commercialism at the expense of Indians," stating that it "promotes bigotry," according to a Billboard article by Peter Cronin.
As a result, some radio stations in Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Minnesota started refusing to play it. Shortly after this brouhaha, McGraw's second album was released. Not a Moment Too Soon became the number one country hit in its first week on the charts. Also, three more singles off the effort topped the charts in addition to "Indian Outlaw. McGraw was also named best new country artist by Billboard and others.
Not a Moment Too Soon hugged the top spot on the country album chart for 26 consecutive weeks and sold about eight million copies over the next few years. Immediately, McGraw was catapulted from playing honky-tonks to embarking on a major headlining tour. Though it was an attempt to show more serious musicianship, the first single released was the jaunty "I Like It, I Love It. In the song, the young Taylor Swift lists all the things that would remind her of an old boyfriend, with an unnamed song by Tim McGraw topping the list.
Nashville, last night was the first time I got to headline that stadium. I first came to this city in search of a record deal when I was 11! It was an aesthetic that served him well as he got older, as it offered him the opportunity to subtly shift with the times without losing sight of his core strengths as a singer and without sacrificing his maturity.
McGraw 's ability to be reliable yet different is why he reached the top of the country charts with regularity for over 20 years, building a songbook containing such modern country perennials as "My Next Thirty Years," "Live Like You Were Dying," "The Highway Don't Care," and "Humble and Kind. Though he didn't know it until years later, his father was baseball player Tug McGraw, a star relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets who'd had a brief affair with McGraw 's mother.
He attended Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship, studying sports medicine, and it was only then that he started playing guitar to accompany his singing. McGraw played the local club circuit and dropped out of school in , heading to Nashville on the same day his hero Keith Whitley passed away.
He sang in Nashville clubs for a couple of years and landed a deal with Curb in His debut single, the minor hit "Welcome to the Club," was released later that year, and his self-titled debut album appeared in but failed to make the charts.
McGraw 's fortunes changed with the lead single from his sophomore effort, Not a Moment Too Soon. Despite some radio stations' refusal to air the song, it reached the country Top Ten and even crossed over to the pop Top All the publicity helped send McGraw 's next single, the ballad "Don't Take the Girl," all the way to the top of the country chart; it too made the pop Top The album kept spinning off hits: "Down on the Farm" hit number two, the title track went to number one in , and the novelty tune "Refried Dreams" also reached the Top Five.
Not a Moment Too Soon was a genuine blockbuster hit, eventually selling over five million copies and topping both the country and pop album charts; it was also the best-selling country album of the year.
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