David Nail has played for many Fort Worth audiences during his successful 17 years as a Nashville recording artist, but usually in big venues like Billy Bob’s, where he last performed last spring, or for campus shows at TCU and its 12,000+ students.
This Thursday, Cowtown country music fans will get a unique treat as the multi-platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated artist with two No. 1 singles, “Whatever She’s Got” and “Let It Rain,” along with chart-toppers like “Red Light” and “Night’s on Fire,” visits Near Southside’s Tulips on his Down To The Studs tour, offering a far more intimate audience experience than Nail has delivered in the past.
I caught up with Nail as he was making a pit stop at Rudy’s BBQ on his way to a show in Houston before heading back north to Fort Worth for Thursday’s show. The Down To The Studs tour is a very different one for Nail, however, who is used to playing stadium shows, big festivals, and huge clubs like Billy Bob’s.
For this tour, Nail left the tour buses, band, and crew back in Nashville. It’s just him and his guitar traveling from one town to another at his own pace, visiting old friends along the way, eating what he wants where he wants, and getting closer to many of the places he once only saw from a tour bus window or a stage.
“I needed to do something different,” Nail told me. “I wanted to keep it small, intimate, laid-back, and casual. The thought of doing tours the same way for over 17 years didn’t fire me up. I asked as many people as possible, ‘What could we do different? How can we change it up?’ I didn’t know what in the world to expect. It was a classic case of coming up with something and then asking yourself, ‘What in the world did I get myself into?’ But the reception has just been amazing.”
Being comfortable with the vulnerability of playing solo acoustic shows in small venues with the entire audience right in front of him also brings Nail full circle after well-publicized battles with depression and anxiety early in his career.
Nail said he used to get really nervous before performing. Friends would tell him, “Everyone gets nervous, and if you’re not nervous, you don’t care.” Nail then laughed as he told me, “My problem was that I cared A LOT.”
Regarding his openness with fans and the media about his personal struggles, Nail said, “When I first started talking about it, it was like a release. Just be an open book.” Laughing again as he reflected on opening up about that time in his life, Nail said, “My friends told me I wasn’t fooling anybody all those years. I still get nervous, but for whatever reason I’m more comfortable and people say I’m more at ease.”
Nail lost his mom last November, and it felt, talking to him, like that was an influence on his decision to do Down To The Studs. After all, big life transitions are often accompanied by a healthy dose of self-reflection and introspection. Nail said he has enjoyed the alone time driving, reflecting, and doing things on his own terms without the chaos of a big tour. “At this point in my life, I felt like this is what I’ve needed to do, and there’s a peace with that,” he said.
DX will attend Nail’s show at Tulips this Thursday, April 9, to talk with him more about his Texas artist friends — including Randy Rogers and Mike Ely of the Eli Young Band — and why “Texas has a way of intimidating the heck out of me.”
David Nail’s Down To The Studs tour includes an April 9 stop in Fort Worth | Image courtesy of David Nail
What: David Nail “Down to the Studs”
Where: Tulips, 112 St. Louis Ave, Fort Worth 76104
When: Thursday, April 9. Doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m.
Tickets: davidnail.com or tulipsftw.com