Charles Esten is a versatile American actor, singer, and songwriter. Best recognised for his impactful roles as Deacon Claybourne on CMT’s ‘Nashville’ and Ward Cameron on Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks,’ Esten’s career spans various dimensions although new album, ‘Love Ain’t Pretty’ is, amazingly, his debut solo full length musical release despite the fact that he holds the Guinness world record for “Most consecutive weeks to release an original digital single by a music act” after delivering 54 original songs once a week for 54 straight weeks back in 2018. You can read our review of ‘Love Ain’t Pretty’ at this link here.
We were thrilled to catch up with Charles recently to talk all about the new album and the endurance in the hearts and minds of its fans of ‘Nashvllle’, the TV show.
Let’s start by saying thank you for your time today, Charles. We know what a tremendously busy guy you are.
Thank you very much, I appreciate you doing this with me.
Before we talk about your new album ‘Love Ain’t Pretty’, let’s talk about last year’s Nashville TV re-union tour. Why do you think the show, and the music from the show, endures in people’s hearts and minds so much?
In terms of gratitude, we are incredibly grateful that people still feel a love and a connection to the show. We rolled the dice and decided to head out on tour again over in the UK. It’s been five years or even more since we came last and we had no right to expect any kind of connection or crowds but there was such a fire and energy in the crowds.
It was just a show that everybody who worked on it really focused in to try and make it as real and as heartfelt as possible. You start with Callie Khouri, the writer of the original script and the creator of these characters and then you have T Bone Burnett on the music – man, that was huge. We started off with such a critical pedigree. T Bone said we weren’t ever trying to match Country radio, we were trying to beat it! We didn’t have to reflect what was being played on Country radio at that time, we able to go to deeper, more authentic places and that resonated with people.
Then you have your Connie Brittons, your Hayden Panettieres, Sam Palladio, Claire Bowen. Wow. You have these wonderful actors doing scenes that tug at people’s hearts and then you tie in some wonderful Country music on top! You’ve got something special that lasts right there.
For a man who once released 54 consecutive singles in a row it seems a bit strange that ‘Love Ain’t Pretty’ is your debut album! Why has it taken so long?
I guess it shows the esteem in which I hold the craft and the form of the album in! (laughing) I grew up with albums like Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ which was much more than just a collection of songs. To me, they were like movies for the ears. There’s scene after scene in the track list which are the songs and there should also be a unity and a narrative tracking through the piece too. Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’ is another album that does that.
By the time I was releasing those singles back in 2018 you didn’t have to release an album anymore, the industry had changed. Some of those songs held together but some didn’t so I didn’t feel like they would have fit on a unified project, I was just trying to get my juices flowing and create something original each week. On ‘Love Ain’t Pretty’ I wanted to explore who I am as an artist and what the through line of the album would be and I couldn’t be more happy with the way it has turned out.
I’ve grown up loving the craft and concept of the album too. I feel this album album really hangs together as a unified piece of work. It takes people on a journey and has a very definite over-arching narrative and a big, impactful ending. Was that always your intention?
You’re singing the same song that I want to hear! (laughing) Yes, that was always absolutely my intention. It’s tricky. You have to think carefully about what song goes where and even which songs to leave off too. Is this song too different than the others? Making an album is like looking at your extended family – everybody is similar in a way but sometimes you just can’t see how you are related to them at all! (laughing) But we all fit together and that’s what you need from an album.
I didn’t want to make 14 versions of the same song. I wanted to see similar themes and concepts and I also needed to feel that each song possessed the same DNA also whilst at the same time creating something diverse and interesting to listen to.
There’s Country on there, there’s Blues, Pop, Rock and even a little beach music too. It isn’t an album tied to any particular genre but there’s something for everybody on there with a binding theme running through.
I hope so. I always go back to acting and one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that people will always ask me what sort of characters do I like to play. Do I like to be in a comedy? Do I like drama? I like to be as human as possible and one of the things that make you more human is the amount of depth and the amount of facets there is to you. Nuance is the key.
Characters in TV and movies that are not well drawn are just characterised as ‘an angry guy,’ or ‘a villain.’ You know? That was the beauty of playing Deacon Claybourne on Nashville – you could never categorise him as any one facet or type. He wasn’t a one-dimensional character and that’s what I wanted to achieve on the album as well.
What’s the oldest song on the album and what made it on there by the seat of its pants?
(laughing) Oh man, that’s a great question, I really like that. I would say that it’s possible that ‘Down the Road’, which is almost the last track on the album, was one of the first that was written. I wrote that with Eric Paslay. I’ve been ending concerts with it for a while to say to folks, ‘see you on down the road guys.’
The last one to be written was ‘Love Ain’t Pretty’ itself which I wrote with my producer. We had a kind of British stew going at that point (laughing) – you know, the potatoes and the meat had been in there a long time and we just needed some spice to finish things off. A lot of the songs on the album are about love and people’s journeys to wellness and happiness and we just needed one extra moment to tie everything up. That was the last song written but it became the statement for the whole album.
I hear hints of Elvis Presley in tracks like ‘Make Yo Happy’ and ‘I Ain’t.’ Was he a big influence on you growing up?
Oh, undoubtedly. I’ve not thought of that in terms of those songs at all but that’s funny. Now that you say it, it’s so clear to me, I can see that, especially on ‘Make You Happy.’ He’s in there, how could he not be?
My two favourite songs are ‘Candlelight’ and ‘Down the Road’ so I guess I must love it when you write with Eric Paslay then!
I’m so grateful for Eric’s friendship. He was one of the first people I met in Nashville. He, alongside Will Hoge, wrote the very first song ever played on ‘Nashville.’ It was sung by the Eli Young Band and played out as the helicopter came over the city! Keep on dreaming ‘Even if it Breaks Your Heart’ – what a statement and what a great song. That was where I first fell in love with Eric’s writing.
We have a real sympatico. We’re like-minded. We’re both positive guys too. We wrote ‘Down the Road’ with out friend Dylan Altman. We’ve actually written another song together called ‘Honky Tonk History’ which is one I might play on the tour in April when I come over to the UK.
When we wrote ‘Candlelight’ we got together with Kenny Alphin, Big Kenny from Big ‘N’ Rich. All three of us, as they say here in American football terms, out kicked our coverage on that song! We all did extremely well in the wife department! (laughing) We all married formidable, capable, strong women who arev there for us and provide warmth and light, which is where the metaphor for candlelight came from. My favourite line from that song is, ‘she could burn this town down if she wanted to.’ These are not just gentle, flickering lights, there’s a power there as well, which is fantastic.
I love the tone, craft and lyrics of a song like ‘A Little Right Now’ and I was wondering when you go into a writing room, what role do you take? What do you bring to a session? Do you bring lyrics, melodies or hooks or does it just depend upon who you are writing with?
I like to think I’m always bringing both. I keep all my ideas, songs, melodies and doodles in my phone. I’m pretty sure if you looked on there right now ‘A Little Right Now’ would be in there. There might even be a voice note with me humming the melody to it as well, which is something I do a lot.
Going into a writing room is like doing a quilting bee, which might not be something you folks over in the UK do? (It’s a social gathering for people to communally make a quilt) You show up on the day but you don’t come empty handed – you bring your rag bag of things that you can cut up and add to other people’s patches to make a quilt. I show up with patches. A lot of the time I like to sit back and let the other folks in the room step forward first. I have my ideas but I’m also very interested to see what the other people are bringing otherwise what’s the point of doing it if you are just going to stream roll over everyone else with your own stuff.
A song like ‘Somewhere in the Sunshine,’ for example, was not my title. I love the fact that Jon Nite brought that one into the room with him that day.
Somewhere in the Sunshine was never going to go anywhere but as the closer on this album, was it?
Somebody recently asked me how much thought I had to give to where that song should go in the sequencing. I replied, ‘About 30 seconds!’ (laughing) You understand the album, clearly. What am I going to do? Sing that song and then put ‘Make You Happy’ after it? How do you follow a song like ‘Somewhere in the Sunshine?’ The simple answer is that you dont!
‘Down the Road’ kinda feels like the end of the album to me, in a sense. It’s a goodbye song. It’s like reading a book, getting to the end and then finding out that there’s a really cool epilogue and that’s what ‘Somewhere in the Sunshine’ is.
Where’s it going in the live setlist, though? You can be a bit more flexible with it there.
It could really go anywhere. It’s that powerful. You can stop the show anywhere and say, ‘Here’s a song I want to play you,’ and talk about the meaning of it for a second. Inevitably, wherever it goes, you can then lift people back up again with an uptempo or lighter track and move on. I’ve toyed with also ending the shows with it – I’m not afraid to try anything. It would be unusual but sometimes unusual is what impacts you more.
We’ve got you back over here in April for the tour, which will be great. How on earth do you put a setlist together with the 54 singles, the Nashville songs and now this album to promote on top?!
Number one. This is the ‘Love Ain’t Pretty’ tour so it will be album strong and album heavy, first and foremost. Then I’m really going to try and shake things up and vary the songs. I’ve got a great band that will be able to react to me playing some spontaneous covers or some deep cuts that we haven’t played in a while. It’s going to be a whole bunch of fun. I do read my socials and try to react to requests online as well.
Check out Charles Esten’s superb ‘Love Ain’t Pretty’ album in all the usual places. Out now.
