Summer Dean's journey to Texas country's honky-tonk heart

Summer Dean is a Texas country veteran whose long, black coiffure sits under a white cowboy hat as she speaks with the Tennessean at downtown Nashville's 3rd and Lindsley venue. She's mastered a hairstyle equally as resistant to the heat of urban country days and windswept Western desert nights.

Such versatility is evident in Dean's ability to play bittersweet ballads and two-stepping anthems at the drop of a dime, anywhere or anytime.

The artist behind the June-released album "The Biggest Life" was named the Honky Tonk Female of the Year at 2023's Ameripolitan Awards.

"When I'm writing a song, I'm thinking about its creativity, not its title," says Dean about her latest emerging favorite, "She's in His Arms, But I'm in the Palm of His Hand."

A press release refers to the "palpable candor of her unvarnished truth," allowing for her recent increased acclaim.

Dean's unvarnished truth comes from her exposure to a never-ending catalog of country music that swirls and melds against her hard-lived existence.

Talk to her one second and it's Faron Young's legendary "Hello Walls." Next, it's Wynn Stewart's little-known 1976, pop-styled murder ballad "I'm Gonna Kill You." At another moment, it's her 2021 Colter Wall collaboration "You're Lucky She's Lonely."

The former schoolteacher also grew from time spent on the road alongside artists, including Country Music Hall of Famer Marty Stuart.

Her song titles like "Clean Up Your Act If You Wanna Talk Dirty To Me" teach the world about the timeless authenticity of dance-ready, inherently emotive and red-dirt-caked country music.

That's unquestionably different than most classroom offerings.

She views as her greatest asset an ability to separate the art of performing, singing and writing country music into separate talents.

Dean is aware that her stylings are best heard in honky-tonks where yesteryear's dust hangs off wooden ledges below neon signs advertising beer drank decades prior. She describes an inherent self-consciousness about lacking a powerhouse voice to ring throughout arenas and stadiums.

Coping with that has seen her gain control of how her motivational energy moves. As a result, she's much more of a take-charge person in direct control of how energy flows from her into the world via her style of entertainment.

Dean's power is only releasing the songs that feature her in the greatest control of the balance between her pride and vulnerability.

She cites her track "Lonely Girl's Lament" as reflecting the feelings at the core of her most honest humanity and then choosing the note-perfect words to connect with the listener emotionally.

"It's still a heavy heart without a ball and chain / No I don't drivе in the HOV lane / I don't wear a ring or a long white veil / And the grade on my report card as a woman is a fail," sings Dean.

"The best songs are written about things that are hidden in plain sight," she said.

She also cites her background as a Baptist-raised singer-songwriter born to musicians as a significant influence on her work. She depends more on what she's gained from listening to Merle Haggard, Roger Miller and Willie Nelson (the lesson often being to forget what you've learned), than solely the influence of social media as key to artistic development in country music.

"And also, I'm a gateway to Texas and attempting to remember authenticity in country music," she says, citing Johnny Bush, who played in Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys and wrote the the Willie Nelson hit "Whiskey River."

She then nods to the versatility that has become a calling card.

"That's the one that -- like what I am known for -- might pack that extra punch that makes you cry -- or in Johnny's case, get up and dance a two-step."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Summer Dean's talks 'The Biggest Life', country music idols, faith