Lee Brice performing, You, Me, and My Guitar. (Photo courtesy of Lee Brice.)

At 45, country music singer-songwriter Lee Brice is by no means at the finale of his journey as a musician. But he has had enough life experiences on and off the stage that he can look back and reflect on all that he has seen and done in his lifetime. That’s exactly what he did when came to JCCC’s Midwest Trust Center on March 1 and performed his You, Me, and My Guitar concert.

“The show is a journey of my life so it’s a different kind of Lee Brice show than you’ve ever seen,” Brice said in an interview with The Messenger before the concert. 

The concert was true to its name, as Brice performed stripped down versions of his hit songs such as “One of Them Girls” while alternating guitars between songs. Brice also covered a couple of other country artists’ songs, as well as singing songs he wrote, but other artists cut instead of him. 

Even though the show is called You, Me, and My Guitar, Brice also played the piano during the concert. He learned to play the piano when he was a child. At a young age, Brice knew he wanted to be a musician someday. 

“I was playing piano and having dreams of singing like the people on the radio when I was five, six, and seven years old,” Brice said. “I wrote my first song when I was ten. I moved to Nashville right in the middle of college, so [I’ve been wanting to be a musician] pretty much my whole life.”

He also had other dreams. 

“Music was my deepest, natural passion, but football is a really big deal for me too,” Brice noted. “I dreamt of playing football for Clemson. I feel like everything worked out the way that it was supposed to.  I love football and I played a lot of it. I played for Clemson, but that was kind of something that was here and then gone. When it was gone, it was gone. Music will be here the rest of my life.”

Brice has helpful advice for college students who want to pursue their own career in the music industry. 

“At that age especially you [are] kind of figuring out what you want to do,” Brice said. “If it is music, music has so many things that you can be a part of. Whether you are going to be a singer, a writer, a publisher, or someone who listens to music for a record label, or a business manager. There’s a million different things you can do in music. So get your degree and get something that you can use. If not, just get your degree anyway.”

Brice also admits there are certain locations that help artists get their foot in the door. 

(Photo courtesy of Lee Brice.)

“Then you gotta get out of town, you gotta go to a town where the music is, and just be there,” Brice said. “You gotta be in the heat of it. You gotta step in the ant bed and go in there. To me, a lot of people try to stay home and go ‘I want to be a singer, I want to be in the music industry,’ but they’re living in Rome, Georgia or Birmingham, Alabama. It’s like you gotta get out, you gotta go to Nashville, Austin, New York, or LA. Nashville is the king. It’s the place to be. You really do just have to get up and go try your hand.”

Patience is a virtue to Brice, as he credited the character trait as one of the reasons he was able to make it in the music world himself.

“When I first got to Nashville I had a record deal, but it was like seven years later before my first record came out,” Brice remarked. “Song by song on the radio; you get one song or two songs a year on the radio. Just being patient and letting the process happen. I think continuing to just press forward through all the ups and downs. Patience was probably a big deal.”

Brice also had some advice that he would give his younger self if he could travel back in time. 

“Remember the ride,” Brice said. “Enjoy it and be patient. I wouldn’t change anything because I’m so thankful for what I have in my career so far. I would say slow down and smell the roses, because 20 years goes by fast whenever you’re doing something you love.”

When asked what he would tell young adults who are trying to find their place in the world, Brice had this to say:

“You really gotta trust your heart, you gotta trust God, you gotta trust your gut feeling. If something’s not feeling right to you, it’s probably not right. Not because of laziness or anything like that, but if you have a true strong feeling about something, don’t ignore it. Sometimes that path that that [feeling] might take you on might seem like it doesn’t make any sense. But that is so strong and so powerful and usually so true. So you gotta trust that. You just gotta trust that sometimes and take a leap. And/or if you’re on the right path, you’ll know it, and you’ll feel it even if it’s hard and you stick with it. You just gotta trust yourself and trust that little instinct that sometimes is so easy to ignore.”

What actually counts as country music has been up for debate for at least the past decade. Brice pointed out that the genre has had multiple different subgenres throughout the years. He also listed a few of the subgenres that are currently present in country music. Despite what others may think, Brice isn’t afraid to go into those territories. 

“I feel like it’s like any other music,” Brice stated. “It’s just evolved. I’ve never really loved putting labels in genres on music. If you go listen to the earlier ‘country’ country music, a lot of that back in the day people thought was rock and roll. Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings and all that kind of stuff. It was the pop music of the day too. It was the most popular stuff out there. So I understand what people are saying when they say ‘country’ music and ‘pop country’ music, but really country music is music that people relate to. A lot of blue collar, a lot of love, a lot of loss, nostalgia, and the stories. To me, the music behind it, there’s a classic country sound, but there’s really a lot of genres in country music now. There’s soul country, pop country, rock country- Jason Aldean, [and] there’s rap country. There’s all kinds of country music, and so I say more power to it… It’s been great for the genre because I think country music is probably the biggest genre on the planet… I do love my classic country music, but also love to push the boundaries too.”

Although Brice admittedly has a hard time choosing a favorite out of all of his songs, “because they’re all my babies,” a big factor plays into his decision:

“I did realize that when I was a kid I always wanted to meet a girl and surprise her on our wedding day with a song,” Brice admitted. “That song would be on the radio and win awards and make her feel like a princess. That was kind of my little kid romantic thing my whole life. When I wrote ‘I Don’t Dance’ for Sara and surprised her on our wedding day, then it was on the radio, it did all the things I ever wanted out of a song. It’s the most personal song to me. I still love playing that every night today.”

At the concert on March 1, Brice gave the same heartfelt explanation as to why, “I Don’t Dance” is his favorite song, before launching into performing it on the piano. The concert really is a story of Brice’s life as he gave an anecdote about almost every single song that he sang.