(Warner Brothers) The decade of the 90's got off to a strong start with the promising 'Class of '89' (Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks and Travis Tritt) going strong, and a young, new crop of neo-traditionalists that came in right on their heels (Mark Chesnutt, Tracy Lawrence, Sammy Kershaw, Tracy Byrd). However, the unexpected success of Garth Brooks that brought not only unprecedented popularity to country music, but also unprecedented sales and 'crossover' success, caused an unfortunate backlash within the genre. Every record label was now scrambling to find the next 'Garth Brooks' while the iron was hot. This resulted in labels cranking out an assembly line of copycat 'hat acts' in tight jeans who all looked the same and who's songs all sounded the same in an effort to capitalized on country music's newfound popularity and reel in the 'crossover' audience. 

Sadly, by 1994 both mainstream country music and country radio had become stagnated with an indistinguishable parade of hunky looking males in tight jeans and big hats, singing antiseptic 'safe' songs that weren't 'too country' which were being targeted at the crossover audience. Then one day that same year, while listening to the radio, we all heard a joyous sound we'd thought we'd never hear again. One that opened with the unforgettable line: "Yes, I AD-mit...I got a thinkin' prob'lem..." It was pure unadulterated honky tonk. The hardcore kind. With a touch of Tex-Mex in the beat. It wasn't a perfect, 'purty' voice, but a well worn one- and it belonged to someone over the age of 30!! We all picked our jaws up off the floor while waiting for the DJ to announce the name of this bona fide country singer singing this stone country honky tonk song. Finally we had the name...David Ball.

Both "Thinkin' Problem," and North Carolina native, David Ball were an oasis in what had become a desert of bland, homogenized country music. This unexpected single went on to become a huge unexpected hit...and the song earned David a Grammy nomination for best male performance. The song's opening line became the catch phrase of the year for trad fans everywhere, and is still one of the most recognizable songs ever. The story didn't begin and end with the single. When the album was released, it was brimming over with one straight up honky tonk song after another- filled with fiddle and steel everywhere, front and center, not pushed way in the background. The CD produced a few other hit songs for David, though sadly, none was as big as "Thinkin' Problem."

With the exception of one, "A Walk On The Wild Side Of Life" which is a classic honky tonk shuffle penned by Wayne P.Walker, David wrote all the songs on Thinkin Problem. Besides the title track, heartbreak and trying to lose old memories abound in the honky tonkers "Look What Followed Me Home," Blowin' Smoke," and "Honky Tonk Healin'." "Don't Think Twice" is delivered as straight up Bakersfield honky tonk. David adds a touch of rockabilly to the honky tonker "Down At The Bottom Of A Broken Heart."

Thinkin Problem was made for hittin' the hardwood (at long last making it a line dance free zone! ), and the disc contains but three ballads. "What Do You Want With His Love" is a dreamy mid-tempo, retro sounding slow shuffle. "When The Thought Of You Catches Up With Me" is a poignant, fiddle driven ballad, with a pretty melody that's radio friendly enough, but steers far from the sappy 'sensitive guy' ilk that started surfacing around this time. The piano driven "12-12-84" tells the sad story of a breakup, and the heartbreak and regret that followed.

By the time his follow up, Starlight Lounge was released in 1996, David and his brand of real live honky tonk didn't stand a chance as the pendulum had already swung, and teen acts and pop-country divas were ruling the airwaves. The disc produced no hits. BMG released an album of his previously unreleased songs in 1998, and still nothing happened for him. He released his next album Play in 1999 on the Reprise label, and still had no luck. He left Nashville and headed to Texas. In December of 2000, the soundtrack to a movie was released that would shortly thereafter become the single most important factor in causing a shift in country music's landscape. The title of that soundtrack was O Brother Where Art Thou, an album full of old time roots/rural music. Country music fans long fed up with what Nashville was passing off as country music embraced this album full of real music that was a far cry from the pre-fabricated, pro-tooled 'faux country' music being heard on the radio. The album was proof that real music still existed and prompted country music fans to seek out the music they weren't hearing on the radio. Just as O Brother was taking off sales-wise, David had signed with an independent label, Dualtone, and released his next album Amigo in 1991. Later that year another event occurred that would further shift mainstream radio, though temporarily. That event would be the tragic events of 9/11. Country music had become so emotionally shallow and lacking in substance, it found itself very short on current/recent songs that reflected the nation's emotions. Partly a matter of being in the right place at the right time with the right song, David released "Riding With Private Ryan" as the first single off of Amigo. Both the song and the album immediately touched a chord and connected with people, and "Private Ryan" rode all the way to #1, unheard of for an artist on an independent label, and span of 7 years between #1 hits on mainstream radio for David. So far, none of the other singles released off of Amigo has scored on the mainstream charts, however the album itself has sold well as more and more people are turning away from what mainstream has to offer and are searching out music that's real and they can connect to.

However, in the days before the internet, Web radio stations and alternate music charts, David Ball gave us Thinkin' Problem, one of the few glimmering treasures providing us three chords and the truth in what had become a vast wasteland of bland sameness, and one of the few albums to come out of that era that truly deserves to be considered a classic.

AnnMarie Harrington TakeCountryBack June 2003