Change is a double-edged sword. It can emotionally charge, excite, and uplift. It can also enervate, devitalize, and debilitate. In other words, some things need changing and some things don’t.

For country artist Tracy Byrd, a change - in record labels - has sparked creativity and renewed his passion and enthusiasm for making music. At the same time, stability - in musical vision, lifestyle and family has been equally enabling.

Country music has embraced much change in the last decade. It’s fortunes have swelled and retreated.

“In 1993, it was beginning to change,” Byrd said. “There was a surge of new listeners, people who’d never been exposed to country music and that was good. Business was good. The road was good. The whole industry got kind of big-eyed. Labels started branching out. MCA brought Decca back. Lyric Street opened up. Disney started a label, Dreamworks opened. Record labels were signing any act that walked in the door.”
Much of the new country music of the' 90s was recorded by artists who cited influences such as KISS, Billy Joel, the Eagles, and Eric Clapton as well as country legends Merle Haggard, George Jones, and Waylon Jennings.

“People who grew up listening to rock ‘n’ roll and pop found a niche,” Byrd continued. “They found a corner in country, and cut what they called country records. To me they’re not country at all. It changed the whole scope of radio.”

Crossover country music was drawing crossover listeners and, more and more, radio stations were hiring DJ’s and program directors whose background was pop and rock.

“Naturally, those people, if a song sounds pop or rock, they’re going to play it because it sounds good to them,” Byrd said. “They wouldn’t know a country song if it ran over them.

“ I thought it would come back around to a more traditional sound but it hasn’t. It’s gotten progressively more pop, more than it should have, and it might very well stay that way. It almost seems like it ought to separate. There ought to be pop country radio and traditional country radio.”

Byrd does see some glimmers of hope, though.

“I have noticed a lot more oldies stations, and a lot more stations splitting their format into oldies and new country,” he said. “It’s almost 50-50 on some of these stations. You’ll hear Shania Twain, then Conway Twitty. It’s a direct result of listeners asking for it. That’s what they’ve told me. Many of them (program directors) don’t like doing it, but the listeners are asking for country music.”

Tracy Byrd, himself, remains ever the traditionalist. When asked about covers of older songs he would like to do, Byrd responded, “There’s still another (Johnny) Paycheck I would like to cover,''Satin Sheets.' I’d love to cover several old Ray Price songs especially, 'The Other Woman.' I’ve always wanted to do ‘Things Aren’t Funny Anymore,' which is an old (Merle) Haggard song. 'Friday Night Blues' by John Conlee, 'Fire and Smoke' - I love that one. 'Good-by Time,' by Conway Twitty.....”

Byrd, a Beaumont, Tex., native first signed with MCA-Nashville in the early 90s and released six albums, including a greatest hits compilation. His songs were continually at or near the top of the charts. Among his hits were the No. 1 singles, “Keeper of the Stars,” and “Holdin’ Heaven.” Other successful singles included, “Watermelon Crawl,” “Walking to Jerusalem,” “I’m From the Country,” “Love Lessons,” written by current Virgin Records artist Jerry Kilgore, “Lifestyles of the Not So Rich and Famous,” “4 to 1 in Atlanta,” and many more.

Byrd is grateful to MCA for signing him and he still has many friends there. However, as the years and albums went by, Byrd perceived an increasing lack of interest on the part of MCA in promoting his music. He also felt the sting of lack of artistic control.

“I feel like some of my best songs were left on the albums,” Byrd said. “'Getting Me Over Mountains' (I’m From the Country CD) was one of those songs. I ran into Tony Brown (MCA producer) the other day and he told me he’d been driving, listening to a radio station, when it started playing ‘Getting Me Over Mountains.’ He told me, ‘Man, we should have released that. It sounded great on the radio.’ I just laughed and said, ‘Yeah, I know, ’cause I wrote it’”

“There was another song on that album called ‘Back to Texas’ that should have been a single,” Byrd added. “There was ‘Why’ and ‘Hat Trick’ on my first album that I thought should have been singles. ‘If I Stay’ on the Big Love album could have been huge. ‘Redneck Roses,’ was a song people were begging for.”

Byrd’s most recent album, It’s About Time and successful single, “Put Your Hand in Mine,” have been released by his new label, RCA.

“When I was new, I was very excited,” Byrd said. “As I got older, it got less exciting and I just needed to go somewhere else. RCA has been great. They made me feel welcome. I have artistic freedom. They believe in me and that’s all I can ask.”

Byrd, who co-produced the new album, also has a voice in selection of singles for release to radio.
“I sing songs,” he said. “I listen to them probably more than anyone else. I sing them to real people, record buyers, fans. I don’t see how any judge could be better than that.

Byrd, a lifelong sportsman, is a spokesperson for TNN Outdoors. Another recent RCA project of his is the Wonders of Wildlife album, a compilation of songs by various artists, including Andy Griggs, Montgomery Gentry, Kenny Chesney and Alabama.

“I’ve been wanting to do this album for many years,” Byrd said. “I learned how to hunt and fish from my grandma. She taught me my love of the outdoors. We have to conserve and protect our wildlife. Hunters and fishermen are the ones willing to do that. They were the original conservationists. I want to shed a positive light on us and bring about awareness of the need for more conservation and education about the outdoors.”

The future of country music and country music’s traditionalists is hard to map.

“I’ve tried, and you have to, to ride the wave,” Byrd said. “I’ve tried to make traditional country songs and make them hip enough or cool enough or whatever, that radio wants to play them.

When people look back on his career, Byrd notes, “I hope they would say that I was a good, traditional country singer. I hope they’d say that I didn’t sell out - that I kept cutting country records. That I’m an old wreck that wouldn’t go down.”

Most country fans would be glad to hear the above words and most would definitely agree - Tracy Byrd is one of those things don’t need changing.

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