Phil Vassar 'Prayer Of A Common Man' album

Those who best understand Phil Vassar – good-time, whirling-dervish-on-the-piano, hardest-working-man-in-country-music Phil Vassar – also understand the ongoing evolution of his mostly self-penned music. And Prayer Of A Common Man, his fourth studio album and first for Universal Records South, adds several more layers of artistic expression to his deepening repertoire.

The Virginia-born singer, songwriter and musician took his seat as country's leading piano man with the success of songs like "Just Another Day In Paradise" and "Six-Pack Summer," and his penchant for pure musical escapism continues. Vassar's heart-swelling embrace of life's richest blessings is also apparent, especially on lead single "Love Is A Beautiful Thing." At the same time, his writing has grown more introspective and personal, as "This Is My Life" and the title track can attest.

Like light through a prism, the hues of Vassar's muse are both seamless and distinct. And those shades are a direct reflection of the many forces at work in the life of a maturing recording artist.

"I can look back on songs I've written, kind of smile and remember what I was going through at the time," Vassar says. "But it's a different life for me now. Experience changes you and affects what comes out in your writing."

As the cares of the world work on him, Vassar finds the pull of home growing stronger, which gave weight to the choice of "Love Is A Beautiful Thing" as his album's first single. "It reminds me of growing up back home in Virginia," he says. "It really paints a portrait of Americana. Every time I hear that second verse about giving away your daughter at her wedding it makes me tear up. In a way, the song reminds me of every family reunion or get-together we had in my family."

Devotion to family is one of the reasons Vassar has become increasingly contemplative and emotional with his music. He considered his place in the world with "American Child," addressed hard questions of faith in "This Is God" and explored that which truly brings meaning in his most recent smash, last year's "Last Day Of My Life."

As much as Vassar's muse has seen a logical expansion, he's the first to admit that recent events have pushed him to a tipping point. "Someone asked me the other day, 'What, are you angry or something?'" he explains. "I went, 'Hell yeah, I'm angry. Is it okay with you to be paying $3.95 for a gallon of gas? Is it okay that people send their kids off to school to get blown away?'"

As a single, involved father of two – daughters Haley, 9 and Presely, 4 – Vassar feels those concerns acutely. "It's easy to be a happy-go-lucky guy when you're young," Vassar says. "Having kids raises your level of concern about just about everything."

For instance, the tragedy at Virginia Tech, which hit home – quite literally – for the Lynchburg, Virginia native and James Madison University alum. "These are the kinds of things I'm concerned about," Vassar says. "Not getting drunk with my buddies. That's still fun...once in a while. But the world I'm raising my kids in is more important to me now." Vassar had the opportunity to take his increasingly pointed songwriting home in August 2007 when he was slated as one of four artists to headline the Concert for Virginia Tech (with Dave Matthews, John Mayer and Nas).

He may be an acclaimed performer and chief executive of a successful business venture, but he's also the son of a factory worker from a small, Southern, lunch pail town. "I grew up poor," Vassar says. "Not middle class, we were just poor. You don't really know it or understand it when you're a kid. I never had a car. I didn't have one even college. I'd have never even gone to college if I couldn't run fast or jump high."

The track scholarship to JMU gave Vassar a way out of a town where there were only two career options – both factories, and it was college where his musical passions first took serious hold. He moved to Nashville and banged out a living playing piano in local clubs while writing original music and pursuing an artist deal. His father's work-a-day ethos propelled him through the long-odds gauntlet Nashville poses for arriving aspirants.

"My dad worked at a GE plant, and even though I don't make minimum wage I still work my ass off," Vassar says. "Even today, I still have that work ethic where you feel like if you don't work hard you're not going to eat. That's something my dad instilled in me and my sisters. I'm not in that desperate place anymore where I'm wondering if I should buy gas or milk, but I can definitely relate to that guy."

Hard work paid off for Vassar, first as a songwriter. He scored hits with Alan Jackson ("Right On The Money"), Tim McGraw ("For A Little While"), Jo Dee Messina ("Bye Bye," "I'm Alright") and BlackHawk ("Postmarked Birmingham"). His self-titled artist debut bowed in 2000 on Arista/Nashville, and the hits continued to pile up: "Carlene," "Rose Bouquet," "That's When I Love You," "In A Real Love" and more. He was named ASCAP's songwriter or writer/artist of the year multiple times.

His early success as a writer led, last year, to one of the most unique hits packages to come out of Nashville in recent years. With only three studio albums under his belt, Vassar offered up Greatest Hits Vol. 1, which was split between hits he's had as an artist, as well as new recordings of the smash singles he'd written for others.

The release closed a chapter for Vassar, with Prayer Of A Common Man opening another. "I loved Arista," he says. "When I first started out it was the renegade label, but with all the mergers it has been through there are a lot of artists over there now. I was always the guy who wrote his own songs and produced his own records so it was kind of, 'Well, he's okay. Let's worry about the other artists who need more help.'

Vassar asked for and was granted his r elease, and quickly signed with Universal South."I love everyone at over at Arista, but it was time to move on. Being an artist isn't easy, so you need a lot of focus from everyone around you, and I've got that now."

Co-produced with Universal South President and noted producer Mark Wright (Gretchen Wilson, Brooks & Dunn, Lee Ann Womack), the new album may show Vassar's serious side, but he hasn't forgotten how to have fun. "My Chevrolet," "Why Don't Ya" and "Baby Rocks" rank among his best toe-tappers and are already getting warm receptions at his heralded live shows.

Even on the love songs, Vassar shows his uncommon charm, wit and playfulness, be it "Around Here Somewhere" or "It's Only Love." And he's not shy about taking strong emotions head on with "I Would" or on the stunningly raw "Let Me Love You Tonight."

His songwriting is fueled by his hard-charging touring schedule. "People ask me why I still do so many shows, but you work your whole life just to get to the point where people want you to come play," he says. "Plus, I've gotten in a groove the last few years where I can write on the road, come back and go straight into the studio with the band and cut demos.

"I'm actually more creative on the road. You're tired and your defenses are kind of down. Some of the best songs I've written have come when I was so exhausted that it kind of cleared out my head."

The ulterior motives in this grueling work pace are his children. "Now when I come home, I just want to be home," he says. "I want to immerse myself in that. If you can find a balance between those you love and work, you're doing pretty good."

And so the concerns on Vassar's plate very much mirror those of his fans. "I'm just like everyone else," he says. "My payments are just a little bigger." His response, likewise, is what you'd expect of someone who prays the prayers of a common man: He'll laugh a little, dance a little, cry a little and, this time around, he's not afraid to speak up a little, too.

At this point, music fans should expect nothing less.

cut by cut
THIS IS MY LIFE
Phil Vassar/Tom Douglas
This really came out of paying $86 for a tank of gas. Then you fill up a tour bus a couple of times at a grand a pop and...I'll tell you what, that's not fun either. I wrote three songs with Tom on this album. I've known him for years, our kids go to the same school. We finally hooked up and wrote five or six songs together. On this one, we got together and talked about what concerns us – Virginia Tech, all this stuff happening. It's like, are you kidding me? Especially coming up on an election. We're a year-and-a-half out and I'm so sick of all the candidates I could puke. We're inundated with all this crap about stuff that doesn't matter, and they pay no attention to so many of the important things. I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, just do something you said you were going to do. There's always the chic issue or the Hollywood charity of the moment that gets all this attention, and there are people all around us who can't afford basic necessities and nobody really does anything.

AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE
Phil Vassar/Charlie Black/Tommy Rocco
There are certain songs I've written where the timing just has never been right. We wrote this a long time ago and I've wanted to cut it forever. It really felt like it fit the project. I played it for Mark Wright and he flipped out. This is something everyone has experienced after being in a relationship for any length of time. You can get to the point of just going through the motions. And it's like, hey wait. Weren't you the girl that used to drag me into the backseat of my car? What happened? At this time in my life, this song was something that really described things I had gone through recently.

MY CHEVROLET
Phil Vassar/Tim Ryan/Billy Alcorn
We were talking about cars, parking with girls, riding with friends. Jenny was my girlfriend. There was a place called Timber Lake we used to drive out to and park. Drive-in movie theaters. Those were great days. When we go home I'll drive some roads and smell fresh cut hay and it'll bring back memories. I was back not long ago and something hit me and for some reason I started thinking about the first time I ever dipped tobacco. It's funny how those memories come back.

LOVE IS A BEAUTIFUL THING
Craig Wiseman/ Jeffrey Steele
I fell in love with this song the very first time I ever heard it. It reminds me of growing up back home in Virginia. It really paints a portrait of Americana. Every time I hear that second verse about giving away your daughter at her wedding it makes me tear up. In a way, the song reminds me of every family reunion or get together we had in my family.

PRAYER OF A COMMON MAN
Phil Vassar/Tom Douglas
Tom and I can get into some really deep discussions. Like, people having to choose between a tank of gas and milk. That's what I remember about growing up. That's how it was at my house. In my hometown there was a paper mill and GE. Everybody worked at one of them. Nobody got rich on my side of town.
I think about some of those moments that can define you, and I've got a lot of them. It's Thanksgiving and I'm eating a Wendy's hamburger. The power's not on. Whatever. You laugh when you think about it, but it also gives you the creeps. Common Man comes from that. The braces conversation came out of talking to my guitar player Jeff. Both our daughters got braces at the same time and it's expensive. Wow. We wrote it at the last minute and it really came out well.

I WOULD
Phil Vassar
I was in Las Vegas for a show around Christmas and met a guy while I was killing some time. I met this old man who was talking about his life and kept saying “If I could do this over again….I would. If I could do that…I would.” It made me think about all that has happened in my life recently and I went back to my hotel room and wrote this song in about 30 minutes. It’s a song about hopelessness and regret and wishing you could fix something you can’t. It just sort of flowed out. When I got home we went in and recorded it on a whim and I just felt like it was something that had to be added to this record. It says a lot of what I have been feeling.

WHY DON'T YA
Sean Sahm
Sean is Doug Sahm's son – from the Texas Troubadours. Los Lonely Boys are on the record with me. One of my old friends is their lawyer and Mark Wright produced them so we had the idea to ask them to come in. It turned out really cool. I love the accordion. There's a guy in my band who plays accordion and he flipped out, because how many songs can you have with an accordion in them? "American Child" and now this one. That's it.

IT'S ONLY LOVE
Phil Vassar/Rodney Clawson/Julie Vassar
That's another breakup song of course, but it's more my tongue in cheek way of looking at it. Hey, it's only love. No big deal. It's only everything. Writing this was a good time. I've almost put this on my last two records. I've got a few of these songs where it takes a few passes before it clicks in. I've got one song I've cut, Tim McGraw's cut, Jo Dee Messina's cut, I think Faith Hill has cut it. Four or five of us have cut it and it's such a great song, but it's never made a record because nobody's nailed the cut yet.

LET ME LOVE YOU TONIGHT
Phil Vassar/Jeff Smith/Julie Vassar.
If I have a favorite performance on the record, that's it. It's a pretty bleak song, but we've all been in that place. As far as writing, performing and playing, it all came together on that song. I had a melody and that chorus came out and started a flurry of ideas. We were just thinking about being in that place where you're face to face with someone saying, "I know, I get it, we're done." That's where the real songs come from.

BABY ROCKS
Phil Vassar/Billy Alcorn
That was just silly and we had a great time writing it. Every once in a while you have to let go a little bit. I'm a Rolling Stones fan, Jagger and The Beatles, The Who – all that British Invasion stuff. This was just goofy and fun. As the album goes, that's my brainless one. It was really fun to record, too.

THE WORLD IS A MESS
Phil Vassar/Tom Douglas
I told Tom, "I've got this idea: The world is a mess, I feel like dancing." He just looked at me and said, "That's great! Let's write it." Tom's that guy who I'm in the zone with right now. I can just go to him with the most bizarre idea and he runs with it. He's not afraid of anything. That's easy to do when you write by yourself, but it's hard with a co-writer. He's that guy I can go to who doesn't think I'm out of my freaking mind. My kids love that song. Dad, play it again! My three year old loves it.

CRAZY LIFE
Phil Vassar
I wrote that song about 10 years ago in the middle of one of the most horrible, defining days of my life. I remember coming home, sitting down and writing. I kept thinking about my day, what happened and how screwed up it all is. But you know, it's a crazy life. This is just the time for that song. And it needed to be the last song on this album.

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Phil Vassar - Prayer Of A Common Man