Songoftheday 4/2/22 - I was ten years old the day I got caught, with some dime store candy that I never bought...

 

 

"Lessons Learned" - Tracy Lawrence

from the album Lessons Learned (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #40 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 2

 

Today's song comes from country music singer Tracy Lawrence, who was born in eastern Texas and grew up in Arkansas. Dropping out of college to start a music career, Tracy moved to Nashville, where he was relatively quickly signed to Atlantic Records. His debut single, "Sticks and Stones", went all the way to #1 on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart at the start of 1992, and his first album of the same name, released the previous November, landed at #10 on their Country Albums list and #71 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a million copies.  Three other songs from the record also made the country top ten, and he was set for his sophomore effort, Alibis. Not only did the record make it into the Billboard 200 top-40 at #25 in 1993, selling over two million copies, but all four of its singles topped the radio charts: "Alibis" (which also was his first appearance on the crossover pop Hot 100 at #72), "Can't Break It To My Heart", "My Second Home", and "If The Good Die Young". 

Lawrence's third release, I See It Now, came out the following year, and was his third consecutive million seller, reaching #28 on the Billboard 200. This time one song, the ballad "Texas Tornado", topped the country singles chart, while the other three stopped at #2, which ain't bad at all. The title track and lead single "I See It Now" also made the Hot 100 at #84.

After a Live album that made the albums chart at #151, Tracy returned in 1996 with Time Marches On, which was his second set to sell over two million copies. Title track "Time Marches On", released as the second single, spent three weeks at the top of the Country Singles chart, his career best. The following year Lawrence released The Coast Is Clear, which just missed the Billboard 200 at #45. Not only did it become his first to fail to spin off a #1 radio hit, the best being "Better Man Better Off" which took a week at #2, but "The Coast Is Clear", released as the third single, broke his streak of top ten hits, stalling down at #26.  It was ominous that Atlantic put out a Greatest Hits album after, which a lot of times signaled an ending to the "sweet period" of a music career. 

But luckily for Tracy, he had another trick up his sleeve. In 2000, Lawrence came back with his sixth album Lessons Learned. The title track, written by Tracy with Larry Boone and Paul Nelson, was promoted as the first single. The song has him tell two stories about growing up and getting wisdom passed down by family, whether it being a dad's corporal punishment for shoplifting or the death of a grandfather finally showing the light that he should've paid more attention to him. It's old-school country, and in a Nashville scene that was started to get inundated by emulating rock music, it's a welcome return...

Even though "Lessons Learned" didn't make it to the top of Billboard's Country Singles chart, spending three weeks at #3, it got enough radio airplay to make the song his first and only top-40 crossover hit on the Hot 100 in April of 2000. Internationally, the single also got to #3 on the Canadian Country chart. The Lessons Learned album, released in February of that year, rose to #69 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #9 on the Country Albums chart.

The second release from Lessons Learned, "Lonely", stopped at #18 on the country radio chart, while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #106. That was followed by "Unforgiven", which stopped at #35 on the country chart. 

At the time of the recording of Tracy's next album, a self-titled affair, Atlantic was beginning to close up shop in Nashville, and it's probably reflected in the poor performance of the set, with lead single "Life Don't Have To Be So Hard" stalling down at #36 at country radio, and the album spending a solitary week on the Billboard 200 at #169 (and his first to miss the Country Albums top ten at #13). Soon after, Tracy and Atlantic parted ways. 

Moving to the short-lived Dreamworks label, which at the time was led by his longtime producer James Stroud. There he put out Strong, which became his highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 at #17, as well as the Country Albums chart at #2. Lead single "Paint Me A Birmingham" nearly scored Tracy a second top-40 crossover hit, stopping just short at #42 (it'll be a future "robbed hit"), while making it to #4 on the Country Singles chart. 

With Dreamworks shuttered, Lawrence started his own indie label, Rocky Comfort, and released his ninth studio set For The Love in 2007. The first single from the record, "Find Out Who Your Friends Are", featured Nashville A-listers Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, and the buzz over their inclusion helped the song go all the way to became Tracy's eighth (and so far last) #1 hit on the Country Singles chart in 2007, while placing at #61 on the Hot 100. The album got to #6 on the Country Albums chart, his most recent top tenner there (and #53 on the Billboard 200). Follow-up "Til I Was A Daddy Too" was his last top-40 hit as of now on the country chart at #32. A second record on the Rocky Comfort imprint, The Rock, which spun off his most recent minor radio hit, "Up To Him", which peaked at #47 at country radio in 2009. Nevertheless, the record did give Lawrence his first Grammy nomination, for Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel album, which was won by Jason Crabb for his self-titled album. 

Since then, Tracy has released seven more albums on his second indie start-up, the Lawrence Music Group. One of them, 2017's Good Ole Days, sold enough to place on the top half of the Billboard 200 sales chart at #87, while getting to #16 on the Country Albums list. His most recent is the third of his set of re-recorded previous hits, Hindsight 20/20 Vol 3, which came out this past January.

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Here's Tracy performing "Lessons Learned" live on TV in 1999...

Up tomorrow: This Latin lover requests some company.