Country singer Lee Brice is more of a backwards baseball cap kind of a guy than a Stetson dude. One of his first songs is called “Upper Middle Class White Trash,” about a NASCAR-and-chicken-wings fan who gets lucky making a routine pit stop. “One day I stopped to pee, got some gas and won the lottery,” he sings.
Brice is from South Carolina. He played on the Clemson football team. But he decided to make it as a singer and songwriter, fine-tuning skills he’d been cultivating since his boyhood in church.
He has scored hits with other country megastars like Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw. Brice can crank out songs about tailgate parties, about getting the girl and losing her, and about downhome pride. He’s got a sense of humor that pokes through, as with titles like “Don’t Believe Everything You Think.”
But if you want to hear Brice at his tear-jerking best, listen to “I Drive Your Truck,” about a particular kind of mourning that’s aided by burning some fossil fuel. You might think it’s corny, or you might get misty.
His new single, “Boy,” finds Brice again in a pensive mode, singing one of those words-of-wisdom songs to a child, preparing them for heartache, impulsiveness, love and loss, struggle and work, and the joys of parenthood.
Lee Brice and Justin Moore play at the Grand Theater at Foxwoods, 350 Trolley Line Blvd., Mashantucket, Friday, Aug. 11, at 8 p.m. $35 to $75. foxwoods.com.
