David Nail delivered a handful of songs from his new album, Fighter, at a shoulder-to-shoulder gathering at Ruby on Tuesday night (July 12).
Nail bantered with emcee Cody Alan prior to the performances and also chatted on stage with producer Frank Liddell and fellow songwriters Barry Dean, Jonathan Singleton and Abe Stoklasa. Fighter is scheduled for a release on Friday on MCA Nashville.
“It’s definitely the most I’ve written for a record,” said Nail, who wrote or co-wrote seven of the 11 tracks. He explained that Liddell and his colleagues started putting writing appointments on Nail’s calendar right after the holidays. Within 10 days, Nail had two important songs written – “Home” and “Fighter” – so he approached Liddell about recording some demos.
“That’s really when the whole thing was kind of born,” Nail said. “Frank’s a genius on a lot of levels, but right off the bat, Frank wasn’t going to entertain that we were going to go in and cut demos. He just said, ‘If we’re going to go in and cut, let’s do it the right way, let’s do it the big way, and let’s do it the expensive way.’”
Throughout the evening, Nail explained the background of songs like “Good at Tonight” (which he recorded with his buddies Brothers Osborne) and “Night’s on Fire” (which he nabbed by directly reaching out to Singleton). He said that people have complimented him on the solo-written “I Won’t Let Go” by saying it sounds like a Vince Gill song. Gill appears on the recorded version. Other guests on the project include Lori McKenna on “Home” (co-written by Dean, McKenna and Nail) and Bear Rinehart and Bo Rinehart of NEEDTOBREATHE on another Nail solo write, “Old Man’s Symphony.”
Nail will be a guest on the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday (July 19).
