Green brings country to Athens
October 12, 2005 by MICHELLE FLOYD
Filed under Variety
Some musicians come out of their mothers’ wombs singing, but not country artist Pat Green.
The singer/guitarist from Texas didn’t get into music until he was in college.
“I don’t think I knew what I wanted to do until I started playing music,” he said. “It got a hold of me and never let me go.”
Now the student-turned-singer, who will play his first of two shows tonight at the Georgia Theatre, has three Grammy nominations under his belt.
“I don’t think there’s a boy who’s picked up a guitar who’s never dreamed of being on the Grammys,” he said.
|
Although he’s had a few Top 40 hits, “Wave on Wave” has been his biggest one to date.
The song’s popularity helped him land a gig as an opening act for the 2005 tour with Kenny Chesney and Gretchen Wilson.
“You can’t get enough of getting that much exposure – getting in front of 20,000 people every night is a thrill,” he said.
He’s no stranger to big arenas – he plays at them in Texas – but usually plays smaller venues when touring on his own.
But he can’t choose which type of setting he likes playing in best – he said he gets just as much out of playing at both.
“It’s like dancing with two pretty girls,” he said. “There’s something about the energy of the big shows, but with the small shows, you get the intimacy.”
Even though he might not play arenas and amphitheaters outside of his home state, he sells enough tickets to book two nights of shows in Athens at one of the city’s biggest music venues.
The Classic City music scene doesn’t cater to the country music crowd, but he said he might just get the “live music crowd.”
“I don’t know if my music is way over-the-top country, anyway,” he said. “It certainly has influences from all over.”
One of those influences include pop-rock band Matchbox Twenty.
Green wrote five songs with lead singer Rob Thomas, but he will only release his latest single “Baby Doll.”
“I knew he could write with anybody,” he said, referring to Thomas’ work with Santana and Willie Nelson.
Green has also worked with Nelson on a few songs.
“Every time you go in there and work with him, you learn something new – a perspective you didn’t have before because he’s seen it all,” he said.
