Charles Esten is an actor, musician, humanitarian, loving father and husband and overall great guy! For the past four years he has played Deacon Claybourne on Nashville, which resided on ABC for it’s first four seasons before being cancelled and then rescued by CMT. Since the inception of the show, “Chip” as friends call him, has become a bonafide superstar. He has grown a legion of fans who watch the show, attend his concerts and follow his every move via Twitter. This summer, Esten played to a packed crowd at the Wolf Den inside of Mohegan Sun but before he took the stage he sat down with NECM for an exclusive interview.
The second he walks in the room Chip makes you feel like you’ve known him for years. We briefly chatted about how great it was to have him play the first ever New England Country Music Festival back in 2015. The fan response to his performance was incredible and he’s only added to his song catalog since then. Over on his Twitter account (@CharlesEsten) he has been releasing new music to his fans every Friday and dubbed it #EverySingleFriday. Charles spoke about how this came about,
“Initially when I got to Nashville I had been a songwriter my entire life and I wanted to continue doing that. When you sit in the Bluebird, that’s the heart of Nashville’s songwriting community as that’s where songwriters get to play the songs that turn out to be hits later. Sitting there I realized with the songs I had written before that I needed to up my game. I started writing with these people and I also ran into some of the best musicians I’ve ever met in my life who played Rayna James band on the show, called Sixwire headed up by Steve Mandile. Both of these things gave me the opportunity to record a whole bunch of this music and I didn’t know what I was going to do with all these songs. A few seasons of Nashville went by and after the third season I released a single called, ‘Hot One.’ Was right around the Summer and were getting a great response from the crowd and we had a ball with it. After the fourth season I started to say to myself should we do an EP but had too many songs for an EP. Every time I went to assemble an album it wasn’t really what I wanted to put out. Think I was trying to hop on the path everyone walks down, which was generally an album and I realized my ultimate goal was the share these songs with the world. Made sense to me that’s 2016 and maybe an album isn’t necessary for me right now. People are used to getting me in weekly doses as on Nashville so maybe they won’t mind hearing me once a week. There’s a million reasons not to do this as constantly stepping on your last single but again, just for me it’s an unusual situation with the fans I have from the show and my social media following. I wanted to say thank you to all of them and get these songs out to them and anyone else who wants to hear them. It’s been great as I can already see people singing along at the shows, responding on social media and buying the music on iTunes.”
This approach to releasing his music is an unorthodox one but in this current age of social media and fans wanting to have music instantly, it works. People are able to create their own playlists from Esten’s songs and not be left to just listen to the same 12 off of a single album. This fact isn’t lost on him, “I wanna put all this music out there and you go make your playlists. All of the songs are exclusively on iTunes for a week and then it’s available everywhere. I might be on someone else’s playlist or you might do all my sad songs or all the rockers but I let them create the albums.” Charles doesn’t have a favorite song that he’s released so far but did admit that with a few online polls, the fan favorite (and NECM’s) seems to be, ‘I Love You Beer.’
#EverySingleFriday wouldn’t be possible without the enormous amount of fans that follow Charles Esten on social media. He is easily one of the most active actor/musicians when it comes to making time for their fans as they mean the world to him, “I’ve been doing all of this for a long time and that’s probably why I don’t take any of this for granted. If someone is moved by my performance onscreen or onstage I’m very thankful for that. Social media is a great way for me to say that in a short way as a quick thank you doesn’t take too long. Also, it’s a great way to keep in touch with fans of the show and they are very interested in checking out all the new music. They’ve created their own community as well as I believe there are 25 “Nashies” here tonight for the show.” One fan had even flown in from Australia for the chance to see the show at the Wolf Den and meet the man himself- now that’s some dedication.
Eventually the conversation would turn to what brought all these fans together in the first place… Nashville! The show always seemed to have nine lives as it’s original home over at ABC never seemed to give a full vote of confidence when each season ended. After the fourth season it was announced that that the show would cease filming and the cast was left in limbo. Thankfully CMT swooped in to save the day and pick up the show for a fifth season and it seems it’s right where it should’ve been all along. Esten let us in on what was going on after that fourth season ended,
“We’ve never known any single season that we’d definitely have another one. We’d finish up a season and say maybe we’ll see you next year. Heard we wouldn’t be getting picked up by ABC and that was tough but I was first and foremost grateful for the four years we had. Then someone called pretty quickly and said that something might be happening so don’t go into mourning. It’s like getting a call that your best friend had died and then you get a call saying hold on…they might not be dead. So for awhile we were in a holding pattern but our fan base got us through that with the noise they were making to bring the show back. Even if none of it works it would be a wonderful way to have ended with that kind of show of love. Having said that, we heard CMT was coming in around CMA Fest and I got to announce our return on the stage with the Mayor of Nashville.”
Charles is very excited for fans to see the new season of Nashville but couldn’t say too much. He did make sure to leave us with a few tidbits to wet fans appetite for the return of the show on January 5th,
“We have new show runners and it’s going to have a different tone, a new tone but probably an old tone harkening to the pilot in the first season. Marshall Herskovitv (one of the new show runners) and Callie Khouri (creator of the show) want to let the show breathe. There are so many great interpersonal relationships on the show that sometimes we had so many scenes they would get short as had to handle so much story. Never really had the chance to let a scene take it’s time and unfold. They are writing the show in a way that will happen and you’ll find some of that earlier lyrical quality that allows some of that subtext and those quiet moments. There will certainly be all the excitement you could ever need but I find just like music, if the volume is always way up than it doesn’t even start to sound that loud but sounds vaguely like noise. If you take it down for a little while in the music and you let it get quiet than when you kick it back up it has more of an effect, it seems louder somehow. I’ve enjoyed so many of the scenes our previous writers have given us and I’ve enjoyed being on ABC but we’re also going to enjoy being on CMT and these new writers. I think this season could be real magical.”
Being on a hit show such as Nashville has given him an inside view into how much the music from the show and his own singles can touch people in different ways, “I’m finding that different songs move different people. That one (‘I Love You Beer’) might move you or me but someone else tonight was telling me that, ‘Through the Blue’ means a lot to them as they are in a tough spot. I’ve learned a lot from being on the show in regards to the healing power of music, the celebratory power of music. the escapism of music and the dealing completely with the truth you can do with music. To have it that way with my songs has blown me away.”
Now being on a show that relies on it’s cast to be both singers and also handy with an instrument provides challenges of it’s own. It’s akin to when the makers of the movie Miracle found it easier to take hockey players and turn them into actors rather than vice versa. This is what make Esten’s musical accomplishments all the more impressive as he has strived to learn the craft Deacon loves so much, playing guitar.
“I’ve played guitar my whole life but what was intimidating was having to look like the best guitarist in Nashville. There have been a number of guitarists who have sat across from me and showed me what it is that is being played. Generally on the recording that’s not me playing as it’s Colin Linden, when you see me singing that’s me singing but when you hear the guitar that’s Colin. There’s no better way to learn guitar than sitting across from someone showing you a specific piece as they will show you the easy way to place something that seems impossible. Hopefully I get it enough that I can play along to the track when we’re recording it. If you turned the music off you would hear my playing and I get it close but not as beautiful as those guys. Fortunately, I was able to also work with T Bone Burnett who taught me more in a day than I had known the rest of my life.”
Huge thanks to Charles Esten for taking the time to speak with us and being so cordial. Make sure to follow him on Twitter, buy his music on iTunes and have your butt glued to your couch when Nashville returns to christen it’s new home at CMT on January 5th! FYI…if you ever need lessons on how to take a proper selfie than he is your man!
This interview was conducted by NECM contributing writer, Mike Sullivan. You can follow me on Twitter and Facebook.