The Daily Times

A piece of country star Billy Dean’s past resides in Blount County, and with a little bit of luck, part of his future success might as well.

Sitting on the veranda of the main house at Blackberry Farm last week, Dean reflected on a range of topics, from his shared history with the Walland resort to the partnerships he’s made with various corporations — including, he hopes, a future one with Blount County-based Ruby Tuesday.

“My great-grandfather married into a Headrick family here in Maryville, and he built a cantilever barn on his property,” Dean said, guitar across his lap as the summer’s heat pushed fat white clouds over the tops of nearby mountains.

“My great-grandfather, William Smitty Dean, was the proprietor of the Headrick Farm here in Maryville. Well, Lamar Alexander is really into cantilever barns, and he purchased that particular cantilever barn and put it over here on Blackberry Farm.

“A few years ago, we had a Dean family reunion, and my family had traced the history of our ancestors, and they were able to find that barn over on Blackberry Farm. I told Lamar about it, and he was pleased to have a little bit of history behind that.”

This week’s visit wasn’t the first for Dean to Blackberry, recently ranked the No. 1 resort on the North American continent by Travel + Leisure magazine. Nor is he the only celebrity to take the scenic drive into the heart of the 4,200-acre property in the shadows of the Great Smoky Mountains.

However, he is one of the first visitors to sit down for an interview prior to his Thursday night performance for the inn’s guests, and he opened up to The Daily Times about a wide range of topics, from his country music heyday to his hopes that country radio still has a place for him.

Going corporate

“You can’t just sell music anymore — you have to sell a little bit of goodwill, and I think you have to reinvent yourself and partner with certain lifestyles,” Dean said of his approach to success these days. “I’ve found my music fits a very country, charming lifestyle — places like Blackberry, for example — where you can enjoy good food and good wine. We’re teaming up with lifestyle types of companies to bring our talents to their venues and in turn use their marketing arm to promote our music. It’s working out pretty well right now.”

Dean first rose to national prominence in 1990, after winning a couple of national talent contests — including “Star Search,” hosted by Ed McMahon — that led to his first record deal. Between the release of his first album, “Young Man,” and “It’s What I Do,” released in 1996, he charted 10 Top 10 country hits, including “Somewhere in My Broken Heart,” “Billy the Kid,” “If There Hadn’t Been You” and “It’s What I Do.”

Although he never had a No. 1, his career was successful enough that Capitol Records supported him for almost a decade, something that’s rare in country music these days, he pointed out.

“People were investing in long-term careers back then,” he said. “If someone had talent, they would stay with you through the peaks and the valleys. I feel very fortunate that I came out when I did. For five years, everything we put out went into the Top 5, and by today’s standards, that’s a long time.”

In 2004, he resurfaced with the album “Let Them Be Little,” and the family-oriented nature of the title track — which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard country singles chart — led to his first venture in partnering his music with corporate sponsorship.

“A good friend of mine was a former CEO of Sunkist, and they had a campaign going after healthy kid’s snacks,” Dean said. “We created a campaign (around “Let Them Be Little”), and I was able to talk about it while I was doing radio and touring for that album, my job was to show the heart of the company,” he said. “It worked so well that it gave us a model.”

Promotes family farms

Currently, Dean is partnering with Naturipe Farms, a farmer-owned cooperative of family farmers that produces fresh berries. The company is backing a five-song EP for sale on iTunes, “Earning Our Place on Earth,” and next month Dean will embark on an eight-city tour to promote the songs and the products. In the fall, “Earning Our Place on Earth” will be released as full-length, 10-song album, he said.

“It’s music honoring America’s family farms and bringing attention to local-grown produce and healthy eating and healthy living,” he said. “It’s an alternate way of marketing our music and helping corporations get their message out. The industry has changed quite a bit, so everyone is looking for the new music model; I see that music is more valuable as a marketing tool and a commodity.”

It may not be the career path his younger self envisioned 21 years ago, but it’s working for him — and besides that, it’s doubtful the Billy Dean of 1990, as well as his country music contemporaries, could have imagined how much the industry would have fractured over the next two decades.

Country is still a popular genre, but the dominance of digital music means that albums aren’t nearly as successful as they once were. When fans can go to iTunes and download one song, the rest get overlooked, and the artists are forced to come up with alternate strategies that allow them to make a living, Dean said.

“There’s a phenomenon that happens, a magic that happens, when there’s a hit song on the radio, and I think that’s still the way to go,” he said. “The problem is, you don’t get a return on that investment in album sales. These days, music is disposable, not collectible — and I’m guilty of that myself. I’ll wipe my iPod out and put new stuff on there all the time.

“But that makes record labels have to get into the business of not only selling records but managing artists and taking a part of their touring revenue and merchandising revenue. Radio is still very much vital in the phenomenon of a hit, but we feel like we have to find a component in our corporate partnerships to get back on the radio. And I think there’s still room for me on country music radio. We just have to think outside of the box.”

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