Steven Noel "Steve" Wariner
(born December 25, 1954 in Noblesville, Indiana) is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has released eighteen studio albums, including six on MCA Records, and three each on RCA Records, Arista Records and Capitol Records. He has also charted more than fifty singles on the Billboard
country singles charts, including ten Number One hits: "All Roads Lead to You", "Some Fools Never Learn", "You Can Dream of Me", "Life's Highway", "Small Town Girl", "The Weekend", "Lynda", "Where Did I Go Wrong", and "I Got Dreams", and "What If I Said", a duet with Anita Cochran from her album Back to You
. Three of his studio albums have been certified gold by the RIAA for shipping 500,000 copies in the United States.
In addition to writing or co-writing most of his own songs, Wariner holds several writing credits for other artists, including Number One hits for Clint Black and Garth Brooks, as well as singles for Bryan White and Keith Urban. Other artists with whom he has worked include Nicolette Larson, Glen Campbell, Mark O'Connor, Asleep at the Wheel and Brad Paisley. Wariner has also won three Grammy Awards: one for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, and two for Best Country Instrumental.
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STEVE WARINER TICKETS
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Biography
Steven Noel Wariner was born in
Noblesville, Indiana on December 25, 1954.
[1] Influenced at an early age by
George Jones and
Chet Atkins, Wariner started performing in his father's band, and later moved on to playing in local clubs. By age 17, he had been hired by
Dottie West as a
bass guitarist, and played on her single "Country Sunshine".
He also worked with
Glen Campbell, whom he has cited as a major influence on his work.
Musical career
RCA Records
Wariner's first recording contract came in 1976, when he signed to
RCA Records.
His first single release for the label, "I'm Already Taken", peaked at #63 and was later recorded by
Conway Twitty.
[2] Following it were five non-album singles, one of which ("The Easy Part's Over") fell one space short of Top 40 on the
Billboard
country charts. His first Top 40 hit, "Your Memory", came in late 1980 and peaked at #7. It was the first of six singles from his self-titled debut album,
which also produced the #6 "By Now" and his first Number One, 1981's "All Roads Lead to You".
Wariner's debut earned favorable comparisons to
Glen Campbell for the low tuning of his guitar.
After the album's final single came "Don't Your Memory Ever Sleep at Night", which despite its #23 peak was not included on an album.
His second album for RCA, 1983's
Midnight Fire
, accounted for four singles, including Top Five hits in its title track and "Lonely Women Make Good Lovers". The final single fell short of Top 40, however, and after a Greatest Hits package which included two non-charting singles ("When We're Together" and "You Make It Feel So Right"), he exited RCA's roster, although the label also issued
Down in Tennessee
, which he had originally recorded for them in 1978 and which included "I'm Already Taken".
MCA Records
When Wariner signed to
MCA Records in 1984, he began a string of consecutive Top Ten hits that lasted into the 1990s. The first of these was the #3 "What I Didn't Do", the first of three singles from his 1983 album
One Good Night Deserves Another
. Following it were the #8 "Heart Trouble" and his second Number One, "Some Fools Never Learn". He also collaborated with pop singer
Nicolette Larson on her Top Ten country hit "That's How You Know When Love's Right", her only Top 40 country single.
His next album,
Life Highway
, accounted for two consecutive Number Ones in "You Can Dream of Me" and the title track, while all three singles from the next album (1987's
It's a Crazy World
) went to Number One as well: "Small Town Girl", "The Weekend" and "Lynda". Wariner also sang duet vocals on Glen Campbell's 1987 single "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle".
I Should Be with You
was Wariner's fourth release for MCA. Although none of its singles went to Number One, the album accounted for consecutive #2s in "Baby I'm Yours" and its title track. 1989's
I Got Dreams
produced the chart-toppers "Where Did I Go Wrong" and its title track, and by the end of the decade, Wariner had eight Number Ones on the country singles charts.
Laredo
, released in 1990, was his final release for MCA. Lead-off single "The Domino Theory" peaked at #7, followed by the
Mac McAnally co-write "Precious Thing" at #8 and "There for Awhile" at #17, his first single since 1984 not to reach Top Ten. After this single, he exited MCA.
Arista Records
1991 saw the release of Wariner's first album for
Arista Records. Entitled
I Am Ready
, this was also the first album of his career to be certified gold for shipping 500,000 copies in the United States. Singles from it included "Leave Him Out of This", "The Tips of My Fingers" (a cover of
Bill Anderson's 1960 single), "A Woman Loves", "Crash Course in the Blues" and "Like a River to the Sea". These first three singles were all Top Ten hits. In 1992, Wariner received his first
Grammy Award, for Best Country Vocal Collaboration, as a guest vocalist and guitarist alongside
Vince Gill,
Ricky Skaggs and fiddler
Mark O'Connor on the single "Restless", a #25-peaking single from O'Connor's album
The New Nashville Cats
.
He also collaborated with O'Connor on the #71-peaking "Now It Belongs to You" on the same album.
His second album for Arista was 1993's
Drive
. Leading off this album was the Top Ten "If I Didn't Love You". After it came the Top 30 hits "Drivin' and Cryin'" and "It Won't Be Over You", although the album's title track stopped at #63. Wariner, along with
Lee Roy Parnell and
Diamond Rio, recorded a cover of
Merle Haggard's "
Workin' Man's Blues" as the fictional band Jed Zeppelin for the late-1994 tribute album
Mama's Hungry Eyes
.
[3] This cover peaked at #48 and was made into a
music video. A year later, Wariner contributed a cover of the song "
Get Back" to
Come Together: America Salutes The Beatles
, a tribute album which included country music covers of songs by
The Beatles. His rendition charted at #72 on the country charts.
An instrumental album,
No More Mr. Nice Guy
followed in 1996. His final Arista release, it produced no singles, although one of the tracks, "Brickyard Boogie", was nominated for Best Country Instrumental at the 1997 Grammy Awards. This track was a collaboration with
Bryan White,
Jeffrey Steele,
Bryan Austin and former
Pearl River guitarist Derek George.
[4] Depsite exiting Arista in 1997, Wariner made a guest appearance along with Mac McAnally in the music video for
Sawyer Brown's 1997 single "This Night Won't Last Forever", a cover of the
Michael Johnson song.
Capitol Records
Although he was not signed to a recording contract since 1996, Wariner had found success as a songwriter in Nashville, including several singles between late 1997 and early 1998. Among these were the Number One hits "
Longneck Bottle" for
Garth Brooks (a song on which Wariner also sang backup vocals and played guitar) and "
Nothin' but the Taillights" for
Clint Black, as well as
Bryan White's #15 "One Small Miracle".
He also sang duet vocals on
Anita Cochran's single "
What If I Said", from her
Warner Bros. Records debut album
Back to You
. This song became a Number One in early 1998. Several radio stations in the United States began to play the singles that Wariner co-wrote along with the Cochran duet in special airplay blocks.
[5] The success of these songs led to him signing with
Capitol Records Nashville in 1998. Leading off his Capitol releases was the #2 single "Holes in the Floor of Heaven", the first of four releases from the album
Burnin' the Roadhouse Down
. This album, his second to be certified gold, produced three more singles: the title track (a duet with Brooks) at #26, "Road Trippin'" at #55 and "Every Little Whisper" at #36. Also in 1998, "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" earned Wariner his first
Country Music Association awards, winning both Single of the Year and Song of the Year.
Burnin' the Roadhouse Down
was also his highest peak on
Top Country Albums, at #6.
Wariner's second album for Capitol was entitled
Two Teardrops
. Released in 1999, it was certified gold as well.
It produced only two singles: its title track, which Wariner co-wrote with Bill Anderson, and a re-recording of "I'm Already Taken". Respectively, these singles reached #2 and #3 on the country charts. Like
Burnin' the Roadhouse Down
before it,
Two Teardrops
peaked at #6 on the country albums charts.
He reached Top Ten on the country charts for the last time in early 2000, duetting with Clint Black on the song "
Been There" (which the two also co-wrote), the second single from Black's 1999 album
D'lectrified
. Also that year, Wariner won his second Grammy Award, this time for Best Country Instrumental as a guest musician on the
Asleep at the Wheel song "Bob's Breakdown".
Following "Been There" was the #28 "Faith in You", the first release from Wariner's 2000 album of the same name.
After this album's only other single — the #22 "Katie Wants a Fast One", another duet with Brooks — Wariner exited Capitol. He continued to write, however, and in 2001
Keith Urban charted in the Top Five with "
Where the Blacktop Ends", which Wariner co-wrote with Allen Shamblin.
2003-present
Wariner formed his own label in 2003, called Selectone Records.
His first album for this label,
Steal Another Day
, accounted for low-charting singles in "I'm Your Man" and "Snowfall on the Sand", both of which peaked in the fifties on the country singles charts. Another album for Selectone, 2005's
The Real Life
, produced no singles, and Wariner ended his label soon afterward. In 2008, Wariner won his second Grammy for Best Country Instrumental, and third Grammy overall, as one of several guitarists featured on the track "Cluster Pluck" from
Brad Paisley's 2008 album
Play
. Wariner also co-wrote and played guitar on the track "More Than Just This Song" from this same album.
Discography
References
- Steve Wariner biography
- Steve Wariner biography
- Steve Wariner, Lee Roy Parnell, and Diamond Rio Gather to Make a Video Tribute to Merle Haggard
- Babyface Tops Grammy Nominations
- Suddenly Steve: After a dry spell, Steve Wariner is back… in a big way