Jimmy Wayne’s New Album Fulfills Lifelong Dream

As his new album, 'Sara Smile,' hits store shelves today, Jimmy Wayne certainly has a lot to smile about. The North Carolina native recently finished the Brad Paisley American Saturday Night tour, while also headlining his own dates and seeing his new album's title track climb the charts.

In recording his new project, Jimmy finally had the chance to cut the song he refers to as "my sword and my shield," as he and producer Dann Huff went in the studio to capture 'Sara Smile.' The vintage Hall & Oates hit has played a crucial role in Jimmy's career, helping him land his first record deal on the now defunct Dreamwork Records label and proving a favorite with audiences during his live shows.

"When I heard 'Sara Smile' I just fell in love with it, and I wanted to learn how to sing it and play it," Jimmy tells The Boot, explaining that he first heard the song as a young child. "When I first moved to Nashville, I played it around town and three years after I moved here, Scott Borchetta heard me play it and offered me a record deal."

Since then, Jimmy has continued to perform 'Sara Smile' in his live shows and during radio station visits, and although he has two successful albums under his belt -- his 2003 self-titled Dreamworks debut and 2008's 'Do You Believe Me Now' for his current label home, The Valory Music Co. -- the timing was never right to record the song until now.

"I've been wanting to record 'Sara Smile' for as long as I've been singing it," says Jimmy, who was thrilled to have Daryl Hall and John Oates sing on his version of their classic hit. "That song has stood the test of time," he says with a big smile. "I just kept holding onto it and finally got a chance to record it. It's a symbol of perseverance and what happens if you believe in something."

Jimmy himself is a symbol of perseverance. By now, most country music fans know the story of his tumultuous childhood. He was in and out of foster homes and by his teens was homeless and living on the streets before an older couple took him in and helped turn his life around. He finished high school, went to college and earned his degree. He was working as a prison guard when he auditioned for a job at a Nashville tourist attraction. His soulful voice caught the attention of a publisher who encouraged him to pursue a record deal.

Jimmy feels his difficult background helped prepare him for the challenges he's faced pursuing his career. "It definitely helped prepare me for the music industry," he says. "The childhood experience and then working at the prison and dealing with all those personalities everyday. It's like a life long lesson. Then you get into the music business and I've met a lot of great people, but there's also all sorts of cutthroat sides of this thing. You've just got to understand that it's a business and if you take it personal, that's when you fail. I think when you understand it's a business, you learn from those experiences."

In recording the new album, Jimmy worked with three of the hottest producers in the business -- Mark Bright, whose credits include Carrie Underwood and Reba McEntire; Nathan Chapman, who produces Taylor Swift , and Dann Huff who has worked with Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts and many others. "He was so easy and nice," Jimmy says of Dann. "And he was nice to me when he first met me, like he is now. I didn't have anything going on then."

The veteran producer also encouraged Jimmy in the studio. "He allowed me to stretch out a little bit and allowed me to sing exactly the way I do on stage, to sing on the record that way," he relates.

Jimmy's last album, 'Do You Believe Me Now,' took the young artist to the top of the charts when the title tune became at major hit at country radio and spent three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs tally. Such a successful precedent places a high level of expectation on the new record, but instead of feeling nervous about creating his follow up, Jimmy embraced the challenge. "I think that also the longer you are in this business the more confident or less confident you become and I think in my case, I got to the point where I'm such a fighter, I'm just going to fight harder," he says. "I'm just going to do it and that's the way I felt going into it. I'm going to sing it exactly the way I sing it and I'm going to fight this thing out."

In gathering songs for the album, Jimmy recorded a song penned by Keith Urban and John Shanks titled 'Things I Believe,' and says he was surprised Keith didn't record it himself. Jimmy also wrote four of the album's stand out tracks himself, including the romantic 'Just Look at You' and the poignant song 'Elephant Ears,' about a little girl in a foster home who is afraid to say "I love you." "It's a very special song," says Jimmy. "It's a combination of my own personal experience, my sister adopting a little girl and then just thinking about what all the kids out there go through in foster homes. It's a song to bring awareness of how important it is for us to remember that those kids need our help."

Jimmy co-wrote 'Just Knowing You Love Me' with Brett Beavers and Tony Martin. "It's a song about dealing with the world and the ups and downs and the fact that just knowing that person is there ... just knowing you love me helps me get through all this stuff," he says. "I think it's a song people could relate to."

Fans will have a chance to hear Jimmy talk about the new album Monday night (Nov. 23) at 8:00 PM EST when Jimmy hosts his first-ever live video chat, available via Jimmy's MySpace, Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as The Valory Music Co. website and Ustream.tv. Jimmy and his band will also perform a special acoustic concert featuring previous hits as well as songs from the new album. Fans are invited to Twitpic a photo of their smile for a chance to talk to Jimmy.

Jimmy enjoys the opportunities that technology affords him to stay in touch with his fans. "I'm definitely making it personal," he says of his blogging, " and I think the tweeting thing is just genius to me because it allows you to stay in contact with people. It keeps them involved. You let them see different parts of the country. I use my camera and I take pictures and they may be places that they've never seen before. They get to see all kinds of cool places."

If there's one message Jimmy seems most anxious to convey to his fans is that he's grateful to have seen his dreams come true and he wants to encourage others to go for what they want. "I hope and pray that that's the legacy that I leave," he says. "My goal is to be successful in this career, never have to struggle again in my life and [that] my family is well taken care of and I want to leave a legacy behind so people hear the story and say, 'Man, that guy did it!' I want to encourage people to find something that you believe in and work hard at it and do not let anything get in your way!"