"The Voice" Star Luke Wade Performs in Downtown San Angelo Tonight

On season seven of The Voice, you may have noticed one of Pharrell Williams’ understudies, Dublin native Luke Wade. Wade will perform Saturday night in downtown San Angelo.

We talked to Wade about his music, his experience performing on The Voice and his reality TV mentor, Pharrell Williams. Williams has been for many years a behind-the-scenes producer. For example, he produced the Britney Spears single, “I’m a Slave 4 U” and he composed the soundtrack to the animated film Despicable Me. The Grammy-nominated song “Happy” from Williams’ soundtrack to the sequel to Despicable Me gave him universal recognition.  That’s how his Voice understudy Luke Wade described who Williams was: “You know, the one who sings ‘Happy’?”

Wade, now based out of Fort Worth, doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional Texas musician. Though he can play lead guitar, he said his first job on stage is to be the performer, not the lead guitarist. And though he has rural Texas roots in Dublin, his sound is adult contemporary, not Texas country.

Wade said he learned from Williams that the most important ingredient to song writing and performing was not boxing yourself into a particular genre, but to find the melody, and lyrical hooks that emotionally connect with people. Williams moved up in his trade in the Hip Hop world, but “Happy” is far from a Hip Hop song. Just about every kind of music fan can identify emotionally with being “Happy.”

Below, Wade performs on NBC's "The Voice". Wade finished in the top 8 overall in season 7 of the reality TV competition.

Wade said Williams taught him that to make the emotional connection with audiences, one had to be authentic. “You’re not going to fake your way in there,” he said. “It’s got to be from your heart.” Williams helped Wade expose more of Wade’s soul in his performances, he said.

Dublin, southwest of Fort Worth on U.S. 67, was for many years known for being the “Home of Dr. Pepper.” In the summertime, like most moms in Dublin, Wade’s mom gave him a couple of bucks and he’d spend every hour riding his bike until sundown. One of the favorite stops was the Dr. Pepper bottler. “A Dr. Pepper was like 75-cents, but if you paid 50-cents for the tour of the plant, you’d get a free Dr. Pepper at the end of the tour, so it was like a discount,” Wade said.

Wade said he learned everything there is to know about Dr. Pepper, so when he was an adult college student at Tarleton State in nearby Stephenville, the bottler called Wade and said, “Come get your job!”

What is the most interesting fact about Dr. Pepper, according to Wade? “It was originally made as a ‘suicide’ drink,” Wade said. In the early 1900s, corner drug stores had soda fountains and there were 10, 20, or even 40 flavors you could choose to mix in your soft drink, since the drinks were made by hand mixing. “That’s what Dr. Pepper is, a mix of all of those concentrates, that today compose Dr. Pepper’s 23 flavors,” Wade said. What about prune juice? That’s the oft-cited rumor about Dr. Pepper. Wade said there is absolutely no prune juice in Dr. Pepper. “I know my Dr. Pepper!” he said.

Wade is a graduate of Tarleton State University where he became acquainted with the Texas music scene. At Tarleton, the Texas music scene is almost exclusively Texas country. Before The Voice, Wade won the Larry Joe Taylor songwriting competition at the regionally significant nearby music festival.

Wade sees the Texas country scene changing somewhat over the past three or four years. “In a positive way,” he said. “I think that the scene is not trying to be exclusively for one thing or the other. Wade said it’s allowing other musical influences to be introduced. Wade points to the playlist at Fort Worth’s The Ranch 95.9 FM. The radio station that used to brag about being the home of “Texans, outlaws and legends”, is becoming more diverse, he said. “They’re playing a lot of Americana stuff,” Wade said. The Texas music radio stations and music venues have recognized what people today want, and the Texas music scene is delivering, he said. “I don’t think Texas country is headed towards Nashville, but I do think the scene is inviting in other sounds to freshen it up,” Wade said.

Wade’s latest album is called The River that was released at the end of March 2014. As soon as the record was released, Wade was invited to compete on The Voice. The single “The Runaround” is getting pretty decent rotation on Contemporary Hits Radio right now, Wade said.

Below, the official video for the song "The Runaround"

For the first half of 2015, Wade and his band are touring nationwide. He’ll tour the East Coast in April and the West Coast in May. Wade is no stranger to San Angelo, either. He recalls late nights at the old Steel Penny Pub. But more recently he has become acquainted with San Angelo’s downtown live music scene, performing at The Office Bar and the House of Fifi Dubois while on more recent tours. “It’s an awesome thing you guys have going on there,” he said.

Saturday night (Jan. 31), Luke Wade brings his show to San Angelo at the House of Fifi Dubois. The show starts at 8 p.m. You can RSVP here.