Frankie Ballard Talks ‘El Rio,’ Debuts ‘Good As Gold’ Music Video
"I'm making the album I want to make, the way I want to make it, the songs I want to cut, everything in this wonderful place..." says Ballard.
When Frankie Ballard set out to record his third studio album, he knew that he’d have to kick it up a notch. He earned three No.1 hit singles with his Sunshine & Whiskey record and didn’t want to stop his momentum. With that, Ballard packed up his bags and headed out west to El Paso, TX for a change in scenery.
“There’s a couple reasons why we went down to Texas, and primarily because of the place, the Sonic Ranch. It’s this amazing studio right on the Mexican border and you can stay there, and we were there for ten days,” the Michigan native explained to Sounds Like Nashville. “I wanted to take my time with this music and really pour a lot of love into it. Sometimes in Nashville I get really distracted.”
“You know I think this album needed to be a big thing for me,” he added. “I mean ‘Sunshine and Whiskey’ is really kind of the girl we brought to the dance, and we got some momentum, we finally got some people’s attention, and now it’s like, ‘Okay, you got our attention now what do you have to say?’ Well, this new album is what I have to say, and so we really wanted to refine what my sound was and continue to push that, because that’s really part of the dream. A big part of the dream is to have a unique sound that separates you from everybody else going on.”
His ten days in Texas were spent along the Rio Grand River with his producer and band members where they created the recently released El Rio. The process was one Ballard found as life-changing and eye-opening, to say the least.
“We were there for 10 days, and it was a spiritual experience to say the least,” said Ballard. “The Rio Grande River is right on the back of this property and that’s the border, and so here we are, we’re right on the border, and I, all of us on this side of the border, at the studio are living the dream. I mean I’m making the album I want to make, the way I want to make it, the songs I want to cut, everything in this wonderful place, and on the other side of the border there’s a lot of human being that are not living their dream, you know quite the opposite in some ways, and that pulled on my spirit a bit. I just felt so thankfully to be able to be doing what I’m doing, and it just made me think about things in a different way, so in a lot of ways it was a really cool experience.”
In honor of his new project, Ballard has been releasing music videos for several of the songs. This week, he released Vol. IV of the El Rio Video Series featuring “Good As Gold,” written by Mando Saenz and Justin Bogart. Check it out above. Fans can also see the videos for “El Camino,” “Cigarette” and “Sweet Time.”
El Rio is available for purchase HERE.
