STEVE WARINER

Listen to a clip of "Two Teardrops" [195 MPEG-3] or [165k WAV] (Courtesy Capitol Records)

May 28, 1999
Web posted at: 5:19 p.m. EDT (2119 GMT)

From Jim Moret
CNN Entertainment News Correspondent

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- One day, country musician Steve Wariner's writing partner came up with a new idea for a song.

"He said, 'Steve, you're going to think I'm either nuts or this is a really cool idea, I don't know which,'" Wariner recalls. The idea became "Two Teardrops," a story told from the perspective of two tears, one happy, the other sad.

"What struck me about this song, 'Two Teardrops,' from the start was the uniqueness," Wariner says. "I'd never heard it put as animated as that, with two teardrops actually conversing."

Wariner is considered within the country music industry to be one of the genre's most versatile performers, a talented vocalist, guitarist and songwriter. Since he signed with RCA Records in 1976, his career has grown slowly -- his first album wasn't released until 1982.

But as his personal style has developed, people have stopped comparing his sound to that of an early Glen Campbell. They've begun recognizing his work on its own merits. A dozen of his songs have hit No. 1, and 14 others have held Top-10 status on the country charts.

Wariner is no stranger to tearjerkers. This month, his ballad "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" -- a song in which a little girl's letter talks about how she misses her grandmother -- was named song of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards.

The song hit the top of the charts, and struck a chord with his audience. Grateful fans even sent him letters telling him how it helped them get through tough times.

"I'm touched still by letters, by e-mail, by correspondence. I was on the plane coming in just a few hours ago and I read some correspondence that I just got, and I was in tears on the plane. I just couldn't handle it," Wariner says.

Yet he says he feels his new album, "Two Teardrops," is his best work yet.

"The greatest compliment for me as a writer is when somebody says, 'Wow, how did you know? You wrote my life. That's about me,'" Wariner says. "That connection is the greatest compliment I could ever have and that's what I love. I'm so proud to be a part of country music, because of that."