Texas singer-songwriter Summer Dean performs at Barleycorn’s on Wednesday.
She’s amassed an impressive audience in her home state and beyond through her three albums and constant touring. Wednesday’s performance is part of a short run of dates that will offer her a break from working on her next studio album, which she says will be a slight departure from past recordings while remaining true to the elements listeners have come to expect.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I understand that you were a teacher for a while. When did it become apparent to you that music was going to be your main pursuit?
I went to college and played that scene in the early and mid 2000s. But I had confidence issues. At the time, we didn’t have Instagram and things like that to see what was out there. All I knew was what was on the radio, and I knew I wasn’t anything like that. Part of not pursuing very hard very early was thinking, “I don’t know where I would fit in. That mainstream world doesn’t exist in my head, so I don’t see how I could do this.”
Another layer was that I thought I was supposed to get married and have kids [and I wondered how I’d] be able to be a musician and do that. So I went and got my teaching certificate and did that, because that’s what good southern girls do. God just never directed me on that path, and so I started playing out more and writing more, and I got to the point where I was so busy with music that I was taking a nap under the kids’ desks while they were at P.E. — George Constanza-style, under my desk — until finally I just jumped off, got the cajones and went full time. It’s done real well for me. We’re doing good.
When you started writing. was it what we hear from you now — more a traditional, classic sound?
That’s always been my first love as far as genres go, really very traditional Texas dancehall type country. The next album, I’ve taken inspiration from other things. It’s been really fun. I’m excited for people to hear it.
You’re such a wonderful lyricist and know how to turn a phrase. Where did you hone that? Did that come from listening to records, writers that you admired?
Creative turns of phrase are nothing new in the traditional country world. There’s been a lot of plays on words, double entendres, turns of phrases in country music for a whole long time. Part of it is just kind of in my DNA, based on what I grew up listening to. When I was younger, I was in FFA. I was a public speaker, so performing and being on stage and talking in front of people was always pretty natural to me. I think some of that comes out in my writing, I think I feel ballsy enough to be creative.
You can only break the rules if you know the rules. I think a lot of times artists get caught up in interpreting what they’ve heard their whole lives instead of taking it and molding it into their own and then putting it out.
I’m grateful to have spent a lot of time doing that. But it just kind of comes natural I think. I like being silly and clever and witty with my lyrics.
I think people like it, too, when they feel like someone’s speaking to them at their level.
Real life stuff again. That’s pretty country music standard. Lyrics for the people, songs for the people, for the working man and the working girl. I’m one of them. I don’t have a lot of experience in a love life and no experience with divorce or anything like that. They say, “Write what you know,” so that’s what you do.
You have experience playing Texas dance halls, and I think that’s an interesting world. People are going out to hear music, but there’s an art to entertaining them when you know that they’re there to dance. What are the tunes for fast dances, slow dances, giving people a chance to catch their breath?
We change our set based on that. Around here, we ask a lot. “Is this a dancing venue? Is this a sit down and listen venue? Is this a venue that likes to party?” We change our set based on that. We always will stick to our guns in terms of what we do.
But this is show business and this is the entertainment business, and so we want to give the people what they want. If it’s a dancing crowd, we’re going to play you dancing music. If it’s a listening crowd, we’re going to give you stories. That’s a big part, to me, of making a good show, the balance of doing what you do and staying honest to what you do but also serving the crowd with what they want.
You mentioned that you’re working on a new album. As you’re going out and playing shows, are you including some of those songs in your sets?
We are, and this is the first time we’re road testing any of these outside of Texas. We’ll see. That’s always really strange but really fun. I’ve been making the album in Fort Worth at a studio called Niles City Sound. They got on the map making and breaking Leon Bridges. A lot of Texas musicians use that studio. I’m also using a producer who is a really great musician, Robert Ellis. He’s so great.
In the past, I’ve taken a lot of influence from country music, of course. I have an album called “Bad Romantic,” and my whole kind of branding vibe for that was Girl Haggard — like what would a girl Merle do? That was my vibe for “Bad Romantic.”
For the next album, I focused on songwriting. It was an analog album. It was really visceral and very lyric-driven and narrative-driven.
This album, I don’t know what spark started it. but I was really influenced by the ‘80s and Roseanne Cash and Juice Newton. All the way down to divas like Cardi B. Certainly not sonically [but more in the confidence]. I was tired of being a lonely girl songwriter and tired of being a sad girl and tired of trying to carry a flag for country music.
There’s such an argument of what “real” country is. I finally had a thought one day that it doesn’t matter. A 20-year-old is going to think that traditional country is way different than a 55-year-old. Somebody in Tennessee is going to think it’s something different than somebody in Texas. What does it really matter to pound the pavement on what traditional country is? I don’t have anything to prove anymore. I know that I love it. and I know that it’s my number one favorite music, and I also know that I have this other side. I’m excited for people to hear it.
You’re going on the road at a difficult time. It’s at a point where the difference in just a few ticket sales can make or break a show.
It really can. Now we’re getting to the point — and you well know this, but maybe listeners don’t — where if presales aren’t great or even good, there’s a chance that that show’s going to get cancelled. Everybody’s afraid to lose money because we can’t anymore. We’ve lost enough. Presales are very important to me. I don’t blame the ticket-buyer, the show-goer. So many things are getting canceled [that they might say], “Well, I don’t know if I want to spend all this and then wait until next year. Are they going to cancel it all the way?”
It’s a crazy, crazy world right now as far as live music goes, but the ones of us that are going to stick around are going to stick around and make it through it, but it’s a crazy time and presales and ticket sales are what’s going to drive everything, and the midsize bands, like me [are going to have a tough time]. The big shows, everyone’s going to those, and for good reason. But it’s really hurting the midsize venues and midsize artists out there. I’m just grateful to the people out there who buy tickets and buy merch and show up tell their friends. It’s a business. We’ve gotta keep it going.
