Pat Green brings his ‘Home’ with him even when he leaves Texas

Pat Green recorded all of the songs for “Home,” his upcoming album, about three years ago. So why is it taking so long for the country music veteran to get these songs out there?

“The label paid for it at first, but I just wasn’t satisfied with the way that they were going to put it out at the time, so I bought it out of my contract and then right after that is when we started shopping,” Green explains.

Green shopped the album to major labels, but when he was unable to secure the type of deal he wanted, he decided he’d just put out the album himself. In describing his financial rationale for his decision, he uses Texas country terms.

“In this market, if you’re not going for coast-to-coast big-time radio, you’ll make more hay with your record,” he says of putting it out independently. The 43-year-old performer got his start putting out his own records anyway.

“My first five records were all independent, so it doesn’t bother me,” he says. “I know the business side of it really well.”

As for the artistic side of “Home,” Green says the album continues to combine his country sensibility with rock roots and features duets with legends like Sheryl Crow and Delbert McClinton and up-and-comers like Marc Broussard.

“Whenever anybody puts out a record they always say, ‘oh, this is my greatest record ever,’ but as an old guy,” he pauses to laugh at his choice of words before reconsidering, “or as a seasoned veteran, I have no problem saying it.”

He reconsiders again.

“I would never say ‘best record,’ actually, because you always want to leave room for the next one, but this is my best record since at least ‘Wave on Wave.’”

“Wave on Wave” is Green’s 2003 album, the title track of which recently saw a wave resurgence after Craig Wayne Boyd, winner of “The Voice” sang it during the show’s Battle Round in October.

“Home” will also feature Green’s recent single “Girls from Texas,” a duet with Lyle Lovett with a sing-along refrain of “girls from Texas are just a little bit better.” Lyrically, the song plays like “California Girls,” but just a little bit bigger. After all, everything’s bigger in Texas.

Green’s home state is a well-tread topic for his songs. And his tourmates for this round of shows, Hudson Moore and Josh Abbott, are all hometown boys as well.

“We’ve all come up in the same place and all been doing the same scene, so why not take it on the road and get out of town for a while?” Green reasons. “Hudson is a great player and he puts on a hell of a show and Josh is the hottest thing in town right now. He is on fire within the state of Texas especially.”

Green will have the comforts of home with him as well as the comforts of “Home,” but he says he is really looking forward to playing the Northeast.

“I’m excited to see the snow,” he says. “But I know people there are probably excited to see it leave.”

A little bit country, and a lot rock ‘n’ roll

Though Pat Green identifies himself as a country singer, there is something undeniably rock ‘n’ roll about his delivery.

The deluxe version of Green’s previous full-length release, 2012’s “Songs We Wish We’d Written II,” features covers of songs by Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen in addition to the more conventional country choices.

“I have nine brothers and sisters, so the taste in music in our house was all over the map. Just walking down the hall, you’d hear six different bands,” he says. “I was the second-to-youngest kid, so I was just a sponge! I listened to everything from Motown to Bruce Springsteen to ’80s hair bands to classics of ’70s rock ‘n’ roll to Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Everything you can imagine.”