Country up-and-comer Brett Eldredge has always been attracted to

Country up-and-comer Brett Eldredge has always been attracted to

Country up-and-comer Brett Eldredge has always been attracted to singers, a fact that
should come as no surprise to anyone who’s heard the Illinois native’s soulful,
distinctive baritone. “I always gravitated towards big voices, because as a kid I had this
big voice coming out of me,” says Eldredge. “I was hooked on the story that somebody
would be telling through their voice.” With his debut album slated to be released August
6th on Atlantic Records and new single “Don’t Ya” at radio now, Eldredge is finally
getting the chance to share a story of his own.
The Eldredge family wasn’t particularly musical. Distant cousin Terry Eldredge is a
member of seminal bluegrass outfit the Grascals, but closer to home, Brett’s talent was
the exception. The little kid with the big voice grew up listening to records from Ray
Charles, Ronnie Dunn, and, of course, the greatest of them all: Frank Sinatra. His
parents bought a guitar and a small sound system for Eldredge when he was a teen,
and while he didn’t immediately take to the instrument – “I never could sit still long
enough to learn it,” he admits – the sound system and its wireless microphone became
a cornerstone of his early musical training. “I used to be nervous to sing, but once I got
that thing, I would play a Sinatra track and try to hit it exactly right,” Eldredge
remembers. “I lived on a lake, and I would sing in my backyard. The speakers would
blare out towards the water and my neighbors would all be listening.”
Soon, those informal backyard concerts grew into something more, and by age 15,
Eldredge was a performer in demand for local functions. “We’d take the sound system
and load into my mom’s minivan. My dad and brother would unload the sound system,
I’d grab the wireless mic and my mom would run sound. I’d be singing, and these older
ladies would be putting dollar bills in my pockets. That was kind of my intro into the
music biz.” An interesting intro into music, but the way it shaped him is clear. “I went
from staring at the floor to moving with the music,” Eldredge says. “I really grew to love
the feel of the crowd. I live off that energy.”
Eldredge says there was no question that his passion for performance would carry him
to Nashville. He had no Plan B. “I have a one-track mind with music always going
through my head.” His move to Music City after college made one thing clear: He was
going to have to pick up that abandoned guitar. “I saw people on stage playing these
songwriter nights, just them and a guitar,” he says. So Eldredge locked himself in a
room practicing cover after cover, eventually writing some songs of his own, which he
remembers being “pretty crappy.” “It took me a while to finally get a hold of the guitar,
but once I did I was hooked,” he says. “I like to get up there and tell my story with some
chords and my voice. I think being a student of singers works to my advantage,
because it taught me how to phrase things. I didn’t know how to write songs at the
beginning, but I had melodies all over the place in my head.”
He has since moved on to writing with some of Nashville’s greats, including the
legendary “Whispering” Bill Anderson, who taught him that one of the tricks to being a
great songwriter is to “just keep writing,” Eldredge says. “You never know when you’re
going to land on that awesome song that speaks to people.” Two singles he’s released
so far certainly prove his range: His 2010 debut, “Raymond,” told the gut-wrenching
story of a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s, and was inspired in part by Eldredge’s
own grandmother. His current single “Don’t Ya” hits the opposite end of the spectrum,
an up-tempo flirtation that ponders the ongoing mystery of romantic relations, and
showcases the sexy baritone in Eldredge’s voice. “We’ll never have the girls figured out,
but that’s the beauty of it all,” he laughs. “I feel great that ‘Raymond’ gave me the start
that it did, and now I’m able to branch out and show my fun side.”
Opening for some of the biggest names in country music has taught him plenty, too. “I
remember going to fairs as a kid, being the guy in the cheap seats listening to
somebody sing,” he says. “I was playing some shows with Brad Paisley last summer,
and after I was done, I’d go up in the crowd. Paisley looked so small from up there, but I
still felt connected. I felt like I was that kid again.” During his own high-energy live
shows, Eldredge goes out of his way to connect with every member of the crowd.
“That’s the place I feel more alive than anywhere,” he says. “Everything it takes to get to
wherever I’m going to play – every airplane and car I ride in – is so worth it once I’m
able to get up on that stage. It’s always been that way for me. I want everybody in the
crowd to feel the energy that I’m feeling from them.”
His relationship with fans is just as strong off-stage: Eldredge often posts webisodes
called “The Couch Sessions,” performing covers as well as new songs he may have just
written that afternoon, and remains amazed when fans arrive at shows knowing every
word. “That’s cool to me,” he says. “If I feel the passion from one person in the crowd
singing along, that gives me a reason to keep writing.” He also has a habit of visiting the
parking lots before shows, communing with the tailgaters, a corn-holing tribe of which
he is very much a member. “I grew up with that kind of stuff,” Eldredge says. “Just like
the shows, I remember being those people at the tailgates. So I get out there and do
whatever they’re doing, whether it’s playing a game of flip-cup or just hanging out and
talking. I’ve even taken my guitar out there.”
While his mother’s tenure as his sound operator may have come to an end, that doesn’t
mean Eldredge has forgotten where he comes from. “I had a show back in my
hometown, as a thanks to them,” he says. “My mom and I were backstage, and we had
a weird moment where we locked eyes and it kind of came full circle. I remembered
being at the same backstage at this fair, I remember being nervous as heck to go on
stage, I was just a little kid with 200 people in the stands, and now there’s 2000.” And as
he continues to work hard at the craft of songwriting, there’s no question his talent will
grow along with his audience. “You can create something from nothing, and that’s the
coolest thing in the world to me,” he says. “This new music is me, and it’s taken every
song I’ve written up to this point to get to where I am. I feel better about my music now
than I ever have felt, and I can’t wait for people to hear it.”