Ira Dean has had a remarkable career and after spending years writing for other artists, he's stepping back into the spotlight with new album ‘I Got Roads‘.
After rising to fame as part of Trick Pony, Dean has worked with the cream of the Country music genre's talent. Now, he's enlisting them on ‘I Got Roads', which boasts an all-star line-up that few artists would be able to assemble. The album features the likes of Ronnie Dunn, Vince Gill, David Lee Murphy and Ted Nugent, to name a few.
I caught up with Ira recently to talk about the album's arrival, dig into the making of the record, and find out how he kept his own voice in the mix when working with such huge names…
The last time we spoke, you were putting together ‘I Got Roads' and now the album is here. What's that journey been like for you?
Oh God, every emotion possible. We took two years to make this album and to, first of all, write these songs with my good friends. These guys that have been with me forever and ever. I've always written songs for other people, about 90% of the time, and for once to write songs for my album about my life was a whole different thing. I wanted to make sure they were the right songs and told the story I wanted to tell; all the chapters in my life – the good, the bad, the ugly, the blessed, the broken… every bit of it. The songwriters out there that stuck with me, that was a great emotional moment, and then to call all my friends that I always wanted to record with – Vince Gill, Ronnie Dunn, Ted Nugent, Steve Ferrone, Gary Allan, David Lee Murphy, Gretchen Wilson, Uncle Kracker – all these great musicians, and they all say yes. Ronnie was like, ‘it's about time you made a record, you know?' and David too. I remember I was on the fence about making one beforehand and I talked to Ronnie and I talked to David and they were like, ‘do it man, do it'. I was scared to put myself back out there but man, it's been great. It's been awesome. I hate to use the word ‘closure' but, but I needed to do this record.
One of the things I love about the record is that musically it's all over the place, in the best way. You have songs like ‘WWCDD (What Would Charlie Daniels Do?) ‘ and then something more vulnerable like ‘Everything'. Which song is the most special to you?
Um, God, they're all my babies. I don't wanna say that one of 'em wears the helmet. I want 'em all to be great. The most emotional one that I wrote and is the most sentimental to me is probably “Missin' How It Used to Be”. I wrote that with Dave Turnbull right after my mother passed, and I did not wanna write (at the time). I canceled pretty much all my writes for a long time, and Dave, I love himman, he's one of my dear friends, wouldn't take no for an answer. He's like, ‘no, you're gonna come over here and we're gonna write'. A lot of people go to psychiatrists and sit on a couch and pay him 250 bucks an hour and me, I write songs. That cleans my attic out. When Dave called me up, it needed to happen. I was at a weird place. Some people write to get the stories outta their head, but to me, it's a healing process. I write things to get over it. We wrote “Missin' How It Used To Be” about my mom. After my mom and dad got divorced (she listened to) Neil Diamond, Elvis and Kenny Rogers, but I couldn't find anything that rhymed with Rogers, so I had to throw Kenny out.
As we mentioned earlier, there are so many big names on this album. How did you manage to make sure your voice wasn't lost in the mix and that you still stood out among them?
That didn't even occur to me. If I was gonna have a chance to make an album, I wanted to make an album of songs that were real to me. I wanted somebody to press play and listen to this album and know exactly who I was. There's nothing fake about this. (I also wanted to) record with the guys that musically change the path of my (life) and helped me. I remember the first time I heard a Brooks and Dunn song when I was going on the road in 1990. I heard Ronnie Dunn sing and I was going, ‘I gotta record with that guy'. I remember watching a VHS tape when I was a kid of Vince Gill playing Austin City Limits, and I'm like, ‘one day I gotta record with that guy.' I just flooded myself with the music. I remember my brother came home with ‘Double Live Gonzo!' from Ted Nugent and it changed my musical compass of the path I was on. Everybody I put on this record helped me grow musically, whether it was when I was a kid or later on in life. David Lee Murphy, we've written a lot of songs together and he helped hone my craft so I had to have him on this record. Uncle Kracker was my old drink buddy back in the day when I was drinking like a fish. Thank God I'm sober now and we're still great friends. He still drinks, I don't, but we're still pals. If I was gonna cut songs about back in my drinking years, who else to call but Uncle Kracker 'cause we spent a lot of time in Vegas together getting crazy. Not only are these songs about my life, but people that are on this record are about my life. I've known Gretchen Wilson since I was in college. All these people have definitely put their fingerprint on my musical soul, so I wanted to make a record with these guys. I did not even think about if I was gonna stand out in the mix. I was just gonna make great music with 'em and hope to God it came across like I was hoping it would. The only time I listened to something and went, ‘oh man, maybe I need to resing that' was when Ronnie Dunn sang ‘Tele-Man' and I listened back to my verse and I listened to his- he sings so dang good. I'll never be able to sing like Ronnie Dunn. He's the best singer, in my opinion, the best country singer that I've ever heard since Merle Haggard. It is what it is. I just put it out there.
Were you at any point intimidated to be working with these incredible talents?
I was never intimidated. I think a couple times I was emotionally overwhelmed. I've always had the emotional intelligence of kindergartner. I shut down around situations like that until afterwards and I look back on it and go, ‘man, I did that', but at the time I'm just numb. I've been trying to record with Vince Gill my whole career. I remember my grandfather, even at the peak of my career when I was nominated for a Grammy and won an ACM and an AMA, I go to my grandpa and I go, ‘ I won an AMA' and he was like, ‘that's awesome. Did you play with Vince Gill yet?' That was my grandpa's hero and also mine so for that to come full circle and finally get to record with Vince and check that box off my bucket list… When we were shooting the video of ‘Tele-Man' and I just looked in the room, and there's me and Ronnie Dunn and Vince Gill and John Osborne and Brent Mason. I did get emotional. My heart was full that day. In this business you record and you just hope to God that you left a small fingerprint in this town and that people will realize who you are. Maybe that's insecurity? Maybe that's being an artist? I don't know, but I always worry after all these years I spent in town, did I leave a mark? When we were shooting that video and those guys took their whole day off, and we were all sitting around laughing, my heart was full. I was like, ‘yeah, I think I left a fingerprint'. I felt like I've done what I needed to do. I still got more to do, don't get the wrong idea.
These guys don't just work with anybody. It must be validation for you that they recognise your talent and what you bring to the table?
Yeah, the emotion of having the whole album done and listening back to it, once I got through the eye of the hurricane of making it and listening back to it, it's a damn good feeling. Knowing that those guys didn't have to do all that and everybody (who is) on this record… it wasn't by accident. If I'm doing one last record, I've gotta do it with all these people and they all said, yeah. If I never make another album, I can hang my hat on this one. I finally made an album I don't hit fast forward on. I listen to every song and I'm like, ‘yep, that came out great'. Sonically and lyrically… all the guys that played on this record… there were a couple of pinch myself moments in there.
Gary Allan features on ‘I Got Roads'. How did that song end up becoming the album's title track?
Me and Gary are kindred spirits. We came up through town together and we've written a lot of songs together. Me and him belong on the little island of misfit toys. We're dented soup cans on the bargain bin shelf that have been beat up our whole lives. When we wrote that song – me and Gary and Jeffrey Steele – we were talking about all these times in life where we could have turned left, but turned right and where that led us in life. One right turn or one wrong turn changes the trajectory of your whole life. When we wrote that song, I knew we had something special. I love that song. It really reflects my life, man. I've been through some bumpy roads and some dead ends and had to make U-turns and go back and I've been lost and found myself in a place I could not imagine. When I wrote that song with Gary, Gary's lived the same life (as me) . When I called him, I said, ‘man, I'm gonna cut that song on my record. I'd love for you to do it with me'. He's lived it. I've lived it. It'd be different if I called somebody else that it was kind of outta character for them, but we've through the light and the darkness together. What a great way to put it down in a studio, you know?
Is, it's one of my favourite tracks on this record but the song that I come back to the most is ‘Wreck Me'. What's the story behind that one?
Me, Justin Weaver and David Lee Murphy wrote that song and when we had written it, it sounded totally different. It sounded more like a Jason Aldean song, the way we wrote it, and I always loved the song. I played it for Noah Gordon who produced this album, and he's like, ‘man, I love the song but it sounds like a Jason Aldean song'. I had just called Steve Ferrone from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and he was flying in to record, and that song was on the ‘maybe record' list. Me and Noah were sitting there and I picked up a guitar and started playing it just with the acoustic, without all the bells and whistles, and it sounded more like a Tom Petty kind of thing when you stripped it down like that without all the big guitar pushes and the guitar riffs. He was like, ‘that's how it has to be recorded right there. That' s you. That doesn't sound like Jason. That sounds like you Ira',. It had that Tom Petty vibe when I wrote it and I wanted to capture that, but it didn't come across that way. When Steve Ferrone came in and I played it, man he laid that groove down and the whole song just took a turn for the better. It just became its own animal. I love that song. He also played on ‘I Got Roads'. When he played the drum part on that I got the same feeling.
There's a real 90s vibe to that song that I love. It takes me right back to being a teenager…
Yeah! Well the nineties was such a great era for music. I'm no spring chicken either. I remember the nineties really well and love that era of music. Music always grows. We're all just links in a chain and it's come this far, but when I listen to music, I tend to go back earlier and listen to earlier stuff 'cause I relate to it better. When we cut this record, I didn't wanna play in everybody else's sandbox and become something I'm not. It would have been really easy to make a record like that and try to be like everybody else, but I'm the best Ira I can be. I'm just gonna make music the way I hear it. I'm gonna sing things the way I hear it. I wanted to make a great Ira record. I didn't wanna try to be something I'm not.
You've said a few times that this might be your last solo record. Please tell me that isn't true as surely this process has made you hungry to explore more in the future?
I'm extremely hungry. I mean, if it was up to me, I would make records till I pass but in this business, I've been humbled a lot of times where I thought I would make another album and then there's been some lulls in my career. If I get another one, great, but (with this record) I'm gonna make the best album possible. God willing, and I leave it all up to the man upstairs, if it's his will for me to make another one, I'll make one. Hopefully people will love this album and they'll want another one, but right now I'm just taking it day by day. I'm just really happy about the album I made. If the label and the good lord… if all the stars line up and they say, ‘let's make another one' i'll be the first one in the studio I've still got a lot to say. There was a time where I didn't know if I had a lot to say, but I definitely got a lot to say and I still wanna say it.
In a time when music is made by committee and algorithms, I love that you just pour your whole self into what you do. I enjoy that I can listen to your record and learn about you. It's so honest and raw…
When we grew up, you grabbed the album and you listened to it, and you really learned a lot about the artists. You knew where they stood. You knew their struggles and their happiness. I think, in my opinion, a lot of music is lacking that, and I just wanted to make an album that when you listen to it, you know my struggles and know my happiness and where I stand. I think that's the beautiful thing about making music is being honest and throwing it all out there and taking your heart and your soul and your passions, and just laying it on the table and sharing it with other people 'cause you don't know the struggles that other people are going through. You might touch somebody and change the roads they're on. In my opinion, it's the responsibility of an artist to make music that reaches out and lets everybody know they're not alone. I try to do that on this (record). I want songs on there that make people get a speeding ticket and have fun and go crazy, but I also want songs on there that let people know, ‘oh, he's going through that too. I'm not so unique in this problem'.
You're on the road with Brooks and Dunn right now, playing in their band. What has that experience been like?
It's surreal. I mean, I wasn't planning on doing that. I was at the house and Ronnie called and he's like, ‘how busy are you this year?' I' d just changed agencies so my tour dates don't start till later on in the year. I had the summer off. He's like, ‘you planning on coming out and writing?' and I was like, ‘God, yeah, I'll be out there'. I remember his quote was, ‘I'm either gonna make your day or break your day' and I was like, ‘what?' He goes, ‘do you wanna come out and play bass? I need a great bass player that can sing harmonies'. I was like, ‘are you kidding?' I asked him to send me the dates 'cause I didn't want to commit and then all of a sudden say, ‘I can't do this one and I can't do this one'. They need somebody to commit full time. Thank God that all the dates lined up. I can still do all my dates and still do theirs. It's only 33 shows. I've known all those guys in his band for as long as I can remember, and they're all great musicians. They're incredible players and great guys, and we all get along. You get up on stage and play 90 minutes of just number one hits back-to-back.
In my opinion, since I came to town many years ago, Ronnie's the best country singer I've heard live in my life. I get to stand behind Ronnie and sing harmonies to him all night. The chemistry between Ronnie and Kix… Kix is a hell of a songwriter, and he's a hell of a singer too. There's a reason why those guys have been on top of their game this long. The chemistry and all the sold out shows… we just set the record in Houston at the Livestock Rodeo and there were 72,000 people in the arena. I felt like a Gladiator. I expected them to let lions loose to eat us. They are bigger now than they were back when they first came out. The places are selling out and I'm having a blast.
I got these Meta glasses that you can video and take pictures. I wear 'em during the show 'cause I've never taken pictures of my whole career. I've never got video of anything, it's like I almost don't exist. My wife bought me these glasses and I just hit the side and videotaped through my eyes all the time. After the shows I'll watch the videos and just take it all in, 'cause when it's going down, you're kind of on autopilot trying to remember the songs and stuff. It's awesome. I send those videos to my wife and my daughter. What's not to like? I sit up there and just listen to great music for 90 minutes and play the bass parts and hope I don't hit wrong notes.
What an incredible thing to coincide with the release of your own album as well. Talk about being busy…
I love busy because I got one of those brains that downtime is not good for me. If I have nothing to do and I'm sitting in my house thinking – that's not a good place for me. I'll think myself into depression. I love being busy and I love being able to think of stuff other than myself and what I need to do that day and what I haven't gotten done and all that stuff. Busy is my friend. Load me up.
Ira Dean's new album ‘I Got Roads' is available now. Watch the video for ‘Everything' featuring Gretchen Wilson below:
