Adam Craig Ready To Take On Country Radio with ‘Reckon’

Stoney Creek recording artist Adam Craig is finding out that there are several factors than make a radio tour a little bit unpredictable. “You’ve got weather, traffic, broken guitar string, and all sorts of crazy things can wind happen.” As we talked, he had just undergone a flight delay of a few hours. For the Washington state native, that gives him a chance to focus on the positive. “They always have pamphlets that say ‘Explore LaGuardia’ or ‘Explore Wichita,’ so you get a chance to get caught up on the city or airport that you’re in. You’ve got to always look at the positive.”

Not everything about flying the friendly skies is negative, though. The singer admits there are positive aspects of life at the airport. “I just found out about TSA Pre-Check. That is a game changer. That’s been the best thing I’ve found about an airport, is walking into and getting to fly through security. That does make a difference, for sure.”

All things considered, the radio tour behind his current single, “Reckon,” has been an experience he will never forget. “I’ve been kind of behind the scenes – my first twelve years of being in Nashville, and getting to write with a lot of artists. They would all tell me about their radio tours. Even at that, there was no preparation for how truly intense it is – in a good way. You get to get up in a different city, and I get to go out and sing my own songs. Then you drive three hours and do it again. The thing that has shocked me is how well received it seems to be going, and how nice everyone is. It’s an eye-opening experience of how the industry really works. It’s all pretty crazy. I was just talking about it with my Northeast regional. All these people we’ve met are literally the gateway to what the United States hears on Country Radio. That’s an amazing feeling.”

Craig says he has loved the format ever since he can remember. “I fell in love with Country Music when I was a young kid back in 1989. That was the time period that you are kind of at the mercy of what your parents listen to on the radio. I remember Garth [Brooks], Vince [Gill], Travis Tritt, as well as Brooks & Dunn all coming on board at the same time.”

He admitted that he was an advocate of those artists – and their fashion sense. “I went to school dressed like Garth Brooks. I had lacer cowboy boots on, pressed Wranglers, and those starched button-up Pearl shirts. I was completely made fun of. Then, in high school, things changed, and other people started to like Country Music as well. Finding a band was tough because everyone was into Grunge music. I told people ‘Look, if you just listen to Country, you’ll find it’s rock and roll with Country lyrics. I finally found some people who were my age who played. It was such a fun time of learning and finding my voice. I’m very thankful for all of those times.”

Needless to say, his love for the music only got deeper. “Then, Tim McGraw came along in 1994, and he was the soundtrack to my 90s. Then in 2001, I saw Keith Urban, and I saw that a front man could be a guitar player. That was when I started to want to take this dream, and chase it with every single bit of me that I had. I played guitar from sun-up to sun-down, and could have probably gotten better grades in college if I hadn’t played guitar so much, but I wanted to learn as much as I could. Then, this fellow came out to the west coast to hear us, and he was producing a big act in Nashville. He said ‘Hey, look man. We need some more west coast people singing Country Music so ‘if you want to do this, you’ve got to be present to win.’

Craig took that advice. “I did just that – I quit school and went to Nashville. I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing, but I worked as hard as I could, and twelve years later, I’m getting texts from buddies who are hearing my song on the radio. It’s such a crazy thing that is happening right now.”

As a songwriter, Craig has enjoyed cuts from Jason Aldean, Love & Theft, and Dustin Lynch. But, hearing his own voice on the radio is different, “It’s so unbelievable. I’ve been very lucky to have some people record my songs, and that is the coolest feeling in the world. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a Capricorn, and I’m always seeking acceptance. But, whenever likes a song that I had a hand in writing enough to want to put their voice on it, that is the ultimate compliment. I thought that was going to be the best compliment in the world. That was, until, I heard my own voice singing my song on the radio. I can’t even begin to express how cool that feeling is.”

The Love & Theft cut was their recent hit “Whiskey On My Breath,” which Craig says came about very organically. “Stephen invited a bunch of us to his cabin on Kentucky Lake. There were six or seven of us, and we split off into two groups for a morning write. We did that until lunch, mixed all the groups up, and split up again. We wrote another song in the afternoon. That night, we all had dinner, and maybe a little whiskey. I don’t know if it was Trent, but it was said ‘I know I’m gonna go, but when I do, I don’t want to meet Jesus with whiskey on my breath. So, we all decided to write it right at that moment. I was so thankful to get to be a part of that.”

And, he’s likewise glad that “Reckon” is the song that has given him his initial flight at Country Radio. He told Sounds Like Nashville the song provided him with a unique sense of irony. “We were at a song meeting with Benny [Brown], and I had brought in a bunch of songs. We had decided on about six that we were going to go in and finish. We had been listening for about three hours, and I was about to call up Derek George, my producer, and we were about to set up a time to go cut. Benny looks at me, and says he has one more song he wanted to play. I sat down, and I heard that kick-drum. I thought ‘Holy Smokes,’ I already love this. Then, I heard the voice singing, and it was Randy Montana. He’s one of my boys, so I was loving it. Then, we get to the chorus, where it does that little half-time deal, which you don’t really hear a lot of anymore. It sounded like it had all of the elements of a hit to me, so I told Benny ‘Yes.’ I called Derek, and told him about the song and that we had to cut it. This was going to be awesome. Then, there’s silence, and he says ‘Dude, I’m one of the writers on it.’ I’m really excited to see where it will go, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to continue to have as much success as I can.”

Make no mistake, Adam Craig is happy to be exactly where he is. As Gary Allan would say, “I’m ‘Right Where I Want To Be.”