Jack Ingram balances new fame, original style

Jack Ingram is in a Ricky Nelson state of mind.

In many ways, Ingram's career has never been better. Since signing with an independent Nashville label in 2005, Ingram has scored a Billboard No. 1 country single, won the Academy of Country Music's best new male vocalist award and, in general, has never been so successful. And yet...

"Obviously, the last five years have been fantastic for me, but artistically, it's been a bit of a struggle to figure out how to keep my own identity while fitting in in this other world, you know?" said Ingram, who'll headline Homer's Backyard Ball on Saturday in Amarillo.

So now, as he continues writing songs for his follow-up to 2008's "Big Dreams & High Hopes," Ingram can't get Nelson's "Garden Party" out of his head.

In 1971, Nelson famously got booed for singing his new, country-rock music in front of a nostalgia-minded audience at Madison Square Garden. His subsequent response, the famous 1972 single, got philosophical: "You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself."

"It's not complex necessarily," Ingram said. "It's actually very simple. To appeal to more people, I actually have to think of it as only pleasing myself.

"I've been in that other world. I've made those records that felt fantastic to make and they sold zero copies," said Ingram, who started making music in 1992 and, until signing to Big Machine Records, mostly found success in Texas country circles.

"I want to be wildly successful. I want to be mainstream. I don't want to go into the shadows by any means," he said. "But to ensure that, I have to go deeper into my own music.

"... Because of the success of the last four or five years, I feel like I can go back and make those records that feel great to me."

Even though Ingram doesn't have a current single to push, he's staying busy on the road. "I'm doing 120 to 140 dates this year," he said. "A lot of people say that's crazy busy, but it feels just right to me."

And it still leaves him plenty of time to write for his new album.

"People working 254 days a year ... work a lot harder and longer than I do. I just work three or four days a week on average," he said. "Yeah man, I have plenty of time to write.

"Not to mention, my work day is 90 ... minutes. Give me a break, man," he laughed. "Now whether I have time to write good (stuff), that's another question."