The nominees for the 46th Annual Grammy Awards were announced on Thursday, December 4, 2003, and congratulations are in order! Tim McGraw has been nominated for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for “She’s My Kind Of Rain.”
The song is from his current album entitled Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors, McGraw’s first collaboration with his road band. Originally thought to be a risky stretch from the Nashville norm, the album has proven to be another successful step for this ever-reaching artist.
"She’s My Kind of Rain," written by Robin Lerner and Tommy Lee James, was one of the first songs completed for the album. Tim anxiously brought the final mix in to share it with the band. "One of the best feelings was when Tim came back with the mix of ‘My Kind of Rain’ and he was really excited about it,” said co-producer and bandleader Darran Smith. Then Tim says “Byron [Gallimore, his producer] says he thinks this is the best record that either he or I has ever done” (McGraw, 2002, p. 125).
Granted, Tim and all the DHDs were already very excited about this record. The experience of making it together had already brought a sense of uniqueness to every song on the album. But McGraw already considered this one of his favorite projects, long before it was even mixed. The way it felt . . . the years of anticipation ... the struggles to finally reach this opportunity ... hearing the final product was more affirmation than confirmation.
“I remember Tim bringing us the final copy of ‘My Kind of Rain’ while were still on tour,” said keyboardist Jeff McMahon. He continued:
We were already stoked about what we had recorded, and little by little, the album was getting finished. But now we were on the road, finally performing the new songs we had recorded. That was a thrill in and of itself ... but we were anxious to hear the final mixes.
Tim brought in the mix for “My Kind of Rain” while we were on the road, and we listened to it immediately in his dressing room. We were so excited, and Tim was so proud of us and the project, he couldn’t wait to play it for us. We hadn’t heard any of the others yet; this was the first one. It was the first song completed for the record, and now it is the first song from the album to go number one on the charts!
“Rain” will always be a pivotal song for all of us.
McGraw is known to have a knack for finding exceptional material, and “Rain” was an early choice for the album. “It’s such a great lyric,” said McGraw, “such a great ode to a lover, and it's written in such an unconventional way.” But is it his favorite? “It’s hard for me to pick a favorite song from this record because I love all of them,” he said. “‘She’s My Kind of Rain’ might be my favorite thing that I’ve done so far; that was one that I could really sink my teeth into and feel good about singing. But all of the songs were fun to sing” (McGraw, 2002, p. 127).
A recent review of the album by James Hunter for Blender magazine gave both the album and Tim’s “smoking road band” high marks, regarding the album as Tim’s best and recognizing “She’s My Kind of Rain” as a standout on the record. In his words, “Rain” is “the creative apex of McGraw's seriously fun country (“Country Superstar Rejects Nashville Custom” (Blender. November 2002).
The song resonated with his fans as well, and “Rain” became the 20th single release to reach #1 in his career, the first being “Don’t Take the Girl” in 1994. Equally important to McGraw was his band’s participation in the project. “[To] know that it’s the first time I’ve recorded with my band (The Dancehall Doctors) makes me feel really good,” says McGraw.
