David Adam Byrnes Scores SEVEN No. 1 Hits in Texas
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For most people whose eyes are set on a country music career, their pivotal moment happens when they arrive in Nashville. For David Adam Byrnes, it was when he left Nashville.
Now, with seven back-to-back No. 1 songs on the Texas Regional Radio charts and a hot album, Byrnes obviously made the right decision, putting Nashville in his rear-view mirror.
In addition to having a great set of pipes and a magnetic stage presence, Byrnes (sometimes known simply as DAB) is a prolific songwriter with a writing career in Music City that seemed about to hit the big time. He had penned five song that were on hold or were about to be released by recording artists, only to have all those potential cuts evaporate. To put it another way, the cuts had ‘healed’ but not in a good way.
Byrnes has learned to be philosophical about those setbacks
“You know, I’ve kinda had to learn to take the good days and accept the bad,” he told me when we had a chance to sit down and catch up during Country Radio Seminar (CRS) in Nashville. “There are days of growth and there are days where you take steps backwards.”
Thinking back to those dashed hopes in his songwriting journey in Nashville, he said, “Honestly, at that point in my career, I was still pretty young and you battle and battle, then this is the first hint of ‘this is going to work!’ And then it’s gone. But it was the biggest blessing in disguise because I love real traditional country music and all those cuts that I was going to be getting was not music I would have been proud of. What it did, it forced me to get out on the road and start touring and quit playing the Music Row game. To go build a fan base and gain fans the old school way. Every time God has closed a door, He’s opened up another. It all worked out in the end.”
Indeed, it has worked out well for DAB since moving to Texas and rediscovering his true country passion.
“Man, it’s awesome!” he enthused. “Once I got there, it’s kind of funny because I realized why this whole thing in Nashville didn’t work for me. Every artist I grew up listening to was Texas. It really helped me understand why I embraced that type of country and that type of deal so much. Once I got there it was just like a glove that fit perfectly. I love the culture, I love the scene. You know me. I always counted the days until I could move back to Arkansas, but I finally found myself in Texas and I think I’m good there.”
Which brought us back to those major moves in Byrnes’ life: first leaving his home in Arkansas to move to Music City and then leaving Nashville and moving to Fort Worth, Texas.
“People ask, ‘Were you terrified when you moved to Nashville?’” he told me. “I don’t think so, because I was too young to even realize what I was doing! It was a lot scarier at twenty-nine, or whatever I was, to leave here. But you’ve got to take chances. That kind of goes back to ‘Beer Bucket List’ and that first single. If you’re not happy where you are, you’ve got to figure out where that place is and go after it.”
DAB has kept going after it. I asked him to pick his favorite tracks from his new album, Keep Up With a Cowgirl.
He said it was hard to pick a favorite track – like picking your favorite child – but added, “I have to say ‘I Find a Reason,’ as that was the very first release to be put out off of the album. We experimented with that record and it’s what we are carrying into the one we’re now moving onto. It’s a digital world, so our new record is already old. We’ve experimented with this deal where we are going to put out a new song every month. My thought was, well, I’ll put out a record album with B-sides that people might not hear, so if we release each song, one per month, everybody’s going to hear each song. But “I Find a Reason” was a special song and I’d waited so long to record that.”
As for another favorite track, he said, “One that’s opened up a lot of doors is the title track, ‘Keep Up With a Cowgirl.’ I remember the day we wrote that song. I remember telling the guys, ‘I don’t have any cowboy songs. All my heroes have one and I want to write one.’ And of course, it morphed into ‘Keep Up With a Cowgirl,’ not a cowboy! It’s been amazing since that song came out. You’re seeing more and more people at the shows, you’re seeing more people knowing the words.”
He said that when he starts to play that song during his set, “You see people light up. It’s been really, really cool to watch the growth just from one song and what it’s done for us.”
I asked Byrnes about a song that has a personal connection for him and his fiancée Amanda.
“It’s a song we put out recently called ‘She Don’t’,” he told me. “I wrote it with Billy Montana and Frank Myers. I was definitely the low one on the totem pole on that write but I’m glad I had it!“
He admitted that, at the time they wrote the song, he didn’t really connect to it.
“I was still living here [in Nashville] and love wasn’t really something I was about,” he explained. “A lot has happened in past year, two years, and so I thought it was the right time as I’m getting married in the Fall.”
We talked about the inspiration for “She Don’t.” “It’s real easy in a relationship for someone to point out everything that you do wrong and constantly be on you,” he said, “But this song talks about how she doesn’t do that; she embraces you.”
Sharing how closely the song’s lyrics reflect his relationship with Amanda, he admitted, “She’s my biggest cheerleader. She’s a critical care nurse and she’ll literally get off work after working horrible shifts and she’ll come out on the road and help me out. She’s just always got my back so I thought that song was a ‘thank you’ to her most of all, but it was time to finally record it. I finally had a reason to record it. We have actually just shot a music video for it that’s got me and her in it. We shot it at the property where we’re getting married. It’s kinda cool how it’s all come to life.”
For David Adam Byrnes, Texas is his new home, both personally and professionally. Find music and more at his website and follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Watch his music videos on YouTube. Find his music on Spotify here.
About Preshias Harris
JournalistPreshias Harris is a music journalist who has interviewed everyone from Alabama to ZZ Top for articles and stories published in numerous music magazines. She is the author of longest-running monthly country music column in America and authored The College of Songology™ 101: The Singer/Songwriter’s ‘Need To Know’ Reference Handbook. As a music career development consultant with special emphasis on emerging and aspiring artists and songwriters, she focuses on ‘chasing the dream’ while understanding the realities of the music industry. She maintains a writers’ room on Music Row – named The Sangtuary – for her clients and their co-writers. She is a member of ASCAP (as a publisher), BMI, The Country Music Association (CMA), The Recording Academy, The National Association of Talent Directors (NATD) and a life member of Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI).
You can find out more about Preshias at https://www.collegeofsongology.com and find her blog at www.nashvillemusicline.com
