4 Runner More Than New Oak Ridge Boys

The Oak Ridge Boys comparisons are inevitable: four male vocalists (lead, bass, baritone and tenor) harmonizing on an album of country tunes with a pop sheen.

4 Runner, country’s first successful new vocal quartet in more than two decades, is already being called the Oak Ridge Boys of the ‘90s, and its self-titled debut album didn’t hit the shelves until this week.

But plenty has changed since the Oaks were singing about “Elvira” and “Bobbie Sue” in the ‘80s. You’d never hear the boys from Oak Ridge, Tenn., sing an atmospheric, haunting tune like “Cain’s Blood,” 4 Runner’s first hit.

“It (the song) just says we all have a good side and we all have a bad side, and it’s easier to be bad,” lead vocalist Craig Morris, 34, says by phone from the Nashville offices of Polydor Records, the group’s label.

At a time when country radio seems more hungry for threeminute ditties about “Refried Dreams” or “Bubba Hyde,” Polydor took a risk with a serious song to debut a new male quartet.

The story behind “Cain’s Blood” is even more sobering than the tune.

Written by singer-songwriter Michael Johnson and buddy Jack Sundrud about 10 years ago, it was inspired by Johnson’s time behind bars.

“Over 10 years ago, Michael Johnson was put in jail for DUI (driving under the influence),” says Morris, remembering the story as Johnson once told it. “While lying on his bunk in the jail cell, he looked up at the ceiling and saw scribbles of everything from devilworshiping to quotes from the Bible.

“He pondered what place he had in this life, and he came up with the chorus in jail.”

There’s nothing else on 4 Runner as chillingly absorbing as “Cain’s Blood,” although “Let the Good Times Roll” is more somber than the title suggests. What you will find is a fresh and crisp blend of voices recorded so you don’t miss a single vocal nuance or a shred of glorious harmony.

The idea for 4 Runner is a decade old. The members, all veteran vocalists of the industry and friends since the Oaks’ heyday, shelved the thought because they figured there was room for only one vocal quartet.

Last year, the subject resurfaced.

“We first sang together as a quartet in January of ‘94 at my house by a piano,” Morris remembers. “Everything seemed to click very quickly.

“We were all looking for a new project to work on. The day we handed them the demo tape, we had the record deal.

“This is the first time that I believe there is such a thing as destiny.”

Morris, married for four years and the father of two children, grew up in Piggott, Ark., a small town much like the one they croon about on “Ripples,” possibly the next single from the album. He has toured as a background singer with Ronnie McDowell, Marie Osmond and Dobie Gray. From 1988 to 1993 he was a staff background singer for cable TV’s “Nashville Now,” where he sang with performers as diverse as Roger Miller, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.

He’s not looking back, though. With bass Jim Chapman, baritone Billy Crittenden and tenor Lee Hilliard, Morris is spreading the ensemble’s four-part harmony.

“But besides musical chemistry, there has to be personal chemistry, too,” he says. “When you get on that metal tube with wheels and tour the country, you have to get along.”