Phil Vassar Tempers Passion with Experience

Phil Vassar Tempers Passion with Experience
By Bob Doerschuk

Phil Vassar doesn't act like a star. Sure, nine songs that bear his credit as a writer have topped the Country charts. As a performer as well as writer, he lofted his first single, "Just Another Day in Paradise," to No. 1 in 2000 - a few weeks before Tim McGraw took its place at the top with another Vassar-penned song, "My Next Thirty Years." ASCAP has named him Songwriter of the Year twice. Billboard has hailed him as Top New Country Artist and Country Songwriter of the Year.

All that is true, but whether seen from a seat in an arena he's sold out on his recent "acoustic tour" or up close in conversation, Vassar comes across like an old college roommate, the friendly bartender who remembers your drink as you walk through the door, or one of the guys you call for a pickup baseball game when the weather warms up.

These are all roles that he has played or continues to play, though they have to now fit into his schedule as a world-class performer, an expressive singer, one of the best songwriters in the business and the hottest piano player in the Country Music spotlight. Still, it's the Regular Guy who opened the door to his rambling home and led the way past original artworks and handsome furnishings toward a seat near his Yamaha grand and the picture windows that overlook the play area he built for his daughters, Haley, 9, and Presley, 4.

When complimented on his digs, he laughed disarmingly. "Actually," he added, "I keep wondering when the real owner will come back and kick me out."

The Virginia native has come a long way since arriving in Nashville 21 years ago, with a degree from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., a few songs to sell and a determination to succeed. Within eight years he had saved enough to buy the restaurant that had booked him as its entertainment. A customer there took one of Vassar's demos to play for his father, the velvet-voiced crooner Engelbert Humperdinck, who cut one of those early songs, "Once in a While," for his 1996 release, After Dark.

Music Row took note. Signed to EMI Music Publishing, Vassar wrote hits for Alan Jackson ("Right on the Money"), Jo Dee Messina ("Bye Bye," "I'm Alright"), Collin Raye ("Little Red Rodeo") and others. In 2000 he emerged as an artist in his own right, issuing three studio albums and one greatest hits package on the Arista Nashville imprint before transferring to Universal Records South, who on April 22 will release Prayer of a Common Man.

From the politically charged "This is My Life" to "Love is a Beautiful Thing," which transforms the familiarities of marriage into something close to poetry, each track on this album confirms Vassar's mastery of Country Music, especially its sometimes tricky mix of musical sophistication and down-home credibility. "Three and a half years have passed since my last studio record," he explained. "That's a lot of water under the bridge. As you evolve as a human being, it changes your writing style. It changes what's important to you and what you want to write about. I really like where it's going, and I love where I'm going as a writer."

"This Is My Life" is a good indicator of where Vassar feels he's headed. "It's real life," he insisted. "When I didn't have kids or a care in the world, a lot of this stuff went right past me. It was more important to hang out with my friends, have fun with girls and stuff like that. But then you send your kids off to school, and you see [the massacres at] Columbine and Virginia Tech, and that sticks in your head. The world is a little shaky now, and that's going to come through in an artist's writing."

Vassar's recent work doesn't just echo what's in the news. His perspective has widened, taking him away from lighter romantic themes toward subtler insights into life. "I've experienced a lot of things, especially in the past few years," he explained. "I try to get them off my chest when I write. But I love the curveballs that get thrown at you all the time. They keep me on my toes. They're real. What isn't real now would be to write about going to a dance club or something like that; I wouldn't know where to start."

One good place might be "Baby Rocks," which proves that Vassar can in fact still pump plenty of dance-floor testosterone into his words, hooks and grooves. But this song, and his infectious romp with Los Lonely Boys through "Why Don't Ya," share space on Prayer of a Common Man with perspectives formed more from experience than youthful exuberance: nostalgia ("My Chevrolet"), the loss and rediscovery of passion ("Around Here Somewhere"), the despair and determination that come from facing daily challenges ("Prayer of a Common Man") and the realization that when you add it all up, all you can do is laugh it off and enjoy the ride ("The World is a Mess") and then embrace it, warts and all ("Crazy Life").

"Something I thought about when I was in the process of making this record was a conversation that Bob Dylan had with John Lennon," Vassar said. " He said, 'Man, you guys are on this platform! You need to say something in your songs!' And then Rubber Soul came out. That conversation changed them - it changed me. I kept thinking about how it's great to have hits and write songs that are fluffy. But you've got to really dig deep, get real and write about something. That's what I felt I needed to do with this album."

On the Web: www.philvassar.com