{"id":1309276,"date":"2019-04-24T14:29:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T20:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1805750"},"modified":"2019-04-24T14:29:18","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T20:29:18","slug":"darryl-worley-the-comeback-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/darryl-worley-the-comeback-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Darryl Worley: The Comeback Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Alison Bonaguro<\/a><\/span> 8m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

It was just about ten years ago when Darryl Worley<\/a> had a tough decision to make. Either keep on keeping on in his country music career, or take a beat and put his family first. He chose the latter, and put his work as a well-known recording artist on hold.<\/p>\n

The work\/life balance that is so elusive for so many had become an impossible feat for Worley as a touring country artist. So he put his music on hold, just temporarily, and now he\u2019s back with a brand new compilation album Second Wind: Latest & Greatest<\/em>. The 15-track project is a combination of new versions of his older hits like \u201cHave You Forgotten,\u201d \u201cAwful Beautiful Life,\u201d \u201cI Miss My Friend,\u201d \u201cIf Something Should Happen,\u201d plus seven new songs. It\u2019s Worley\u2019s first studio album in eight years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so rewarding for me as a father to learn how to do that job and to do it right,\u201d Worley told CMT.com when he stopped by to talk about his family, his work hiatus and his return to the studio and the stage. \u201cI spent quite a few years just loving that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is the condensed version of our conversation:<\/p>\n

CMT.com: What was it like for you to make the decision to leave the music business behind?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Worley: My daughter was born in 2008, and for the first couple of years of her life, I wasn\u2019t even there. And as she started to grow and mature, I saw that she needed her dad\u2019s influence in her life a little bit more. That was about the time when I backed off a little bit and tried to put more of my energy into her.<\/p>\n

While you were home, not in some studio on Music Row and not on the road constantly, was there anything about the music business that you really missed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I missed collaborating with the other songwriters that had helped me all along the way. And I missed the road. That\u2019s always been something that can be a void in my life, because I\u2019m just a traveler. I\u2019m a wanderer. And I love to go out there and meet new people and just play the music. I don\u2019t know why, I guess from an early age I dreamed of it, and it\u2019s always been part of my life. So I certainly didn\u2019t miss being away from my family, but at the same time when we were slower I missed the road quite a bit.<\/p>\n

But there had to be so many moments in your daughter\u2019s life where you were like, \u201cYep. I made the right call.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every day. I immediately saw things change with her. When I was home, she wasn\u2019t as uneasy or anxious about all kinds of things. My wife told me, \u201cNo matter what you think, when you\u2019re out there, she knows that that guy who is supposed to be taking care of things here at home is not here.\u201d So all those things changed for the better, and I\u2019m not going to let it go back like it was. She\u2019s only 11, so I\u2019ve still got some years to go. I think that it\u2019ll be fun for all of us now because she\u2019s old enough that it won\u2019t be difficult to travel with her. And we\u2019ve even talked about having a year where we home-schooled her, and just let her learn what it\u2019s like to be on the road. My wife absolutely loves being out there with me, so it wouldn\u2019t bother her at all. You just never know what the future will hold.<\/p>\n

So why now? How did you land on this particular timing for your comeback?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part of it \u2014 without a doubt \u2014 was that my daughter is at an age where she understands more about why daddy\u2019s gone some. And the other thing was, we\u2019d moved out of Nashville a little over a year ago, and we moved back to my farm down in Southwest Tennessee. We made that move based on our daughter. So it\u2019s ironic that that move has changed so many things in our life. That\u2019s been a little tough in some ways. But the cool thing is that unbeknownst to me, I was moving myself back to the farm for lots of different reasons: it put me within 30 minutes of the studios that I used to work in in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. And so I just kind of transferred all of my writing and recording there. I recorded all of this new album in Muscle Shoals. It\u2019s been an unbelievable transition, and these kinds of things happened without us even seeing it coming.<\/p>\n

Does that mean you\u2019re back where it all began for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, because these are the places where I went 25, 26, or maybe even 27 years ago, when I was starting out as a beginner and as a songwriter. Now I\u2019ve come full circle. I\u2019m back there now and it\u2019s never felt better. My creativity there is through the roof. There\u2019s no pressure. We just write songs and record tracks and do what we love to do. And we get to make the decisions on things like which songs will make the album and which ones won\u2019t. There\u2019s just a ton of freedom, and I think some of that laid-back vibe is showing up in the music.<\/p>\n

The country music scene today is very different from the country music scene you left all those years ago. Have you noticed that shift? How \u201ccountry music\u201d means something very different now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I started off as a songwriter in Muscle Shoals, I gave up several different careers. I let go of part of a business that was doing well. I passed on the opportunity to go med school. I had several other things that kind of fell by the wayside because of my passion for the kind of music that was on mainstream country radio.<\/p>\n

And I said, \u201cI would kill to have the opportunity to just live in that zone for a little while.\u201d I told my dad, I said, \u201cI can\u2019t lay down and pass from this world without having given this a chance.\u201d So from that time until now, yes, the music has changed so much. There\u2019s so much influence from other genres, that to me, it kind of compromises the country art form a bit.<\/p>\n

I think a lot of people would agree with you on that. But then there are listeners who see all those changes as progress. Do you listen to country radio much?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Country music is one of the most beautiful art forms that Americans have ever come up with. But when my wife and I go out, and we get a moment together, and we\u2019re cruising around and I say, \u201cHey, let\u2019s turn the radio on.\u201d We turn on country radio, and then we have to go looking for a different station because we miss that classic country sound. We miss traditional country music. And I know that we\u2019re not the only ones. I feel like there\u2019s kind of an audience out there that\u2019s been alienated a bit with this newer music. I just miss that era of great music, you know?<\/p>\n

If you could, what would you change about the way country radio makes up their playlists?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well I\u2019m thankful for the new songs out there, because that\u2019s what keeps the music and the format and the genre alive. But I sure wish that they would think about that music from the 80s and the 90s that made us all just country fanatics, and work a little bit of that stuff into the format. Because a lot of us guys are not really willing to say, \u201cI\u2019m done with this. I\u2019m through. I don\u2019t do that kind of music so I guess my day is over.\u201d I don\u2019t feel that way at all. I think I\u2019m as creative and artistic as I\u2019ve ever been, maybe more so.<\/p>\n

Worley\u2019s new album, Second Wind: Latest & Greatest<\/em>, is due out on Friday (April 26).<\/p>\n

Track list:<\/p>\n

1. \u201cWhen You Need My Love\u201d
2. \u201cGood Day to Run\u201d
3. \u201cSecond Wind\u201d
4. \u201cFamily Tree\u201d
5. \u201cTennessee River Run\u201d
6. \u201cI Miss My Friend\u201d
7. \u201cAwful Beautiful Life\u201d
8. \u201cHave You Forgotten\u201d
9. \u201cLonely Alone\u201d
10. \u201cWhiskey Makes Me Think About You\u201d
11. \u201cThe Night (Sure Looks Good on You)\u201d
12. \u201cIt\u2019s Good to Be Me\u201d
13. \u201cDo Something Good\u201d
14. \u201cRunning\u201d
15. \u201cWorking on a Love Song\u201d<\/p>\n

Embedded from www.youtube.com<\/a>.