For Max Stalling, rolling the dice was an inevitable
choice. Giving up a highly successful day job to follow the seductive,
unpredictable winding road of Country Music was, eventually, just
another one of his tough decisions proven out.
"I have to write songs," says the tall, 35-year old
Stalling, "I knew it right after graduate school - and even if I wasn't
in the music business - I'd still be writing songs." However, finding
success as a performing songwriter has changed Stalling's perspective
about all of it.
Stalling's country-folk style is always more
interested in the journey than the destination. A genuine voice - his
words are intelligent, simple, even transparent - allowing listeners to
see deeper roots and meanings in his songs. The variety of emotions and
characters in the stories seem to set a stage - giving listeners plenty
of room for their own endings and interpretations.
His third release on the Blind Nello label, One of the
Ways delves further into the experiences of life … always pondering the
"why and what if's" of the situation. "I never seem to know how all the
songs go together until after a record is finished," muses Stalling,
"but now, listening to the 11 songs as a group, it strikes me that they
are all about people relating to each other…cause and effect, if you
will."
Produced by Austin and Americana favorite, Bruce Robison,
the album directly explores personal relationships, emotional need, and
temptation. Similarities between Stalling and Robison extend beyond
their physical characteristics (both are well over 6' 5" tall) into
their laid back, smooth sounds and styles of writing. While heralded as
one of the genres finest songwriters, this is Robison's first attempt at
producing a full-length record of another artist's material.
When people familiar with Stalling are asked to
describe him, the terms "gentleman" and "nice guy" are quick to be used.
Asked about that perception Stalling replied, "Chris Wall once said
'nobody plays that Jimmy Stewart shtick better than you do', and I
didn't know what he was talking about. So I guess it's for real. I had a
good upbringing. I was exposed to a lot of good, quality people growing
up, and all through my life."
The youngest of six children, Stalling grew up in
Crystal City, Texas, a small farming and ranching community between San
Antonio and Laredo. By Stalling's account it was a wonderful place to
come of age. If San Antonio represents the big city and all that entails
(culture, affluence, retail) and the Mexican border towns of Eagle Pass
and Laredo represent the "frontier" (mystery, danger, provincialism)
then Crystal City represents that halfway point that Stalling
experienced. "I got the best of both worlds….a unique blend of being
close enough to San Antonio to get a bit of culture and far enough out
in the sticks to maintain it's rural quaintness. Growing up there was a
magical time for me. I had a great youth."
Another place Stalling got the best of both worlds was
where he fell in the birth order. Being substantially younger than all
of his siblings (his closest is six years older than he), Stalling, by
his own account, grew up "an only child in a big family." "By the time I
hit junior high all my brothers and sisters had either gone off to
college or had already graduated and started jobs. I had the run of the
place in high school." "But as a little-bitty kid, I was like a play toy
for my brothers and sisters. I can remember getting to stay up late and
be "bartender" at my brother's parties. Willie, Waylon, Johnny Cash on
the record player and people paying me a dollar to go find them a Lone
Star beer. If there wasn't any Lone Star, I'd pour some other beer in an
empty Lone Star bottle and take my dollar."
After high school Stalling went to college and earned
a master's degree in Food Science from Texas A&M. Stalling took the
corporate road to Dallas in 1991, working for Earthgrains Bread and then
in product development for snack food giant Frito-Lay. "Back then I
would sit and just pretend to write songs," says Stalling. Then, while
listening to Dallas community radio station KNON, Max discovered a whole
new chapter in his musical life. Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earl Keen, Guy
Clark, Lyle Lovett, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Jeff
Walker…singer/songwriters representing a musical heritage that he had
been oblivious to. And he discovered the emerging Dallas music scene at
the Three Teardrops Tavern, a now defunct, but very central part of the
Dallas and North Texas country music scene through the mid-90's. "Tommy
Alverson was kind to me. He listened to a tape I made, and it must have
worn him out. But he was kind enough to say 'Keep with it' and I'll
never forgive him for that," says Stalling with a grin.
Another face at the Three Teardrops Tavern was
singer/songwriter Mark David Manders, who he first met in 1993. "Mark
and I hung out until about 5 in the morning and talked about
songwriting. He got me my first gig at Naomi's, and I'll never forgive
him either," says Stalling. "Manders instilled in me the passion he has
for giving every word weight and making every line count. He has a
theory about looking at the line before and the line after and meshing
all of it together -- sometimes so subtly that no one else may ever
consciously recognize the tie-in."
In turn, Manders says Stalling "…is probably one of
the deepest writers I've known personally. Anybody can make words rhyme.
Max makes the words mean something, play off each other and have two or
even three different meanings."
Lot's of things have changed for Stalling since he was
"pretending" to write songs back in the early 90s. He and Mark Manders
have a small record label together, which includes Houston Marchman and
Kevin Deal. Stalling has become a well-respected songwriter and
performer as is evidenced by the fact Stalling has gotten to open for
some of his biggest influences (Robert Keen, Lyle Lovett, Guy Clark,
Willis Alan Ramsey). And lastly, he has been a very successful headline
act at most of the major music venues across the state of Texas to
include Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Billy Bob's in Ft. Worth,
Schroeder Hall in Victoria, Poor David's Pub in Dallas and Blanco's in
Houston.
Stalling's debut release, Comfort in the Curves,
reached #22 on the Americana chart in 1997, while Wide Afternoon climbed
to #3 behind Willie Nelson and Steve Earle in 2000. The success of those
records finds Stalling busy touring, playing over close to 100 dates per
year. At first, all I really wanted to do was write songs and let
somebody else sing them. Then I found that no one could deliver these
songs the way I envisioned them. That, coupled with the fact that I
found that I really enjoyed performing has really changed my
perspective."
In February of 2002, Stalling gave up his lucrative
corporate position at Frito-Lay. It was a move he had contemplated for a
couple of years, and one that really gelled after the events of Sept.
11, 2001. "It gave me a lot of direction. Life is way too short not to
pursue the things that are really important to you," says Stalling.
"It's not always easy…leaving behind the security of a
great job, with great benefits that I really enjoyed doing. But this was
something I HAD to do. "
Max Stalling has no regrets. "At the level I'm at
right now, just like in any small business venture, you get to call all
the shots - make all the decisions, spend all the money (yours or
whatever you can hustle up), marketing, booking, distribution, all the
way down to picking out which color T-shirts to have printed up. At the
end of the day, it's your name on your music, done the way you want it."
With two very successful albums in 5 years and brand
new one on deck, wide spread radio play and a growing number of fiercely
loyal fans, it seems his way works mighty fine. |
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