Geology of Scotland

The geology of Scotland is unusually varied for a country of its size, with a large number of different geological features. There are three main geographical sub-divisions: the Highlands and Islands is a diverse area which lies to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault; the Central Lowlands is a rift valley mainly comprising Palaeozoic formations; and the Southern Uplands, which lie south of the Southern Uplands Fault, are largely composed of Silurian deposits.

The existing bedrock includes very ancient Archean gneiss, metamorphic beds interspersed with granite intrusions created during the Caledonian mountain building period (the Caledonian orogeny), commercially important coal, oil and iron-bearing carboniferous deposits and the remains of substantial Palaeogene volcanoes. During their formation, tectonic movements created climatic conditions ranging from polar to desert to tropical and a resultant diversity of fossil remains.

Scotland has also had a role to play in many significant discoveries such as plate tectonics and the development of theories about the formation of rocks and was the home of important figures in the development of the science including James Hutton (the "father of modern geology"), Hugh Miller and Archibald Geikie. Various locations such as 'Hutton's Unconformity' at Siccar Point in Berwickshire and the Moine Thrust in the northwest were also important in the development of geological science.

## Overview

From a geological and geomorphological perspective the country has three main sub-divisions all of which were affected by Pleistocene glaciations.

### Highlands and Islands

The Highlands and Islands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland largely comprises ancient rocks, from Cambrian and Precambrian times, that were uplifted to form a mountain chain during the later Caledonian orogeny. These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and Skye Cuillins. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of the Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and in the Orkney islands. These rocks are around 400 million years old, and were laid down in the Devonian period. The Highlands are generally mountainous and are bisected by the Great Glen Fault. The highest elevations in the British Isles are found here, including Ben Nevis, the highest peak at 1,344 metres (4,409 ft). Scotland has over 790 islands, divided into four main groups: Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides, further sub-divided into the Inner Hebrides and Outer Hebrides.

The Hebridean archipelago outlier of St Kilda is composed of Palaeogene igneous formations of granites and gabbro, heavily weathered by the elements. These islands represent the remnants of a long extinct ring volcano rising from a seabed plateau approximately 40 m (130 ft) below sea level.

The geology of Shetland is complex with numerous faults and folds. These islands are Scotland's most northerly area of Caledonian orogenic rocks and there are outcrops of Lewisian, Dalradian and Moine metamorphic rocks with similar histories to their equivalents on the Scottish mainland. Similarly, there are also Old Red Sandstone deposits and granite intrusions. The most distinctive feature is the ultrabasic ophiolite peridotite and gabbro on Unst and Fetlar, which are remnants of the Iapetus Ocean floor. Much of Shetland's economy depends on oil and gas production from fields in the surrounding seas.

### Midland Valley

Often referred to as the Central Lowlands, this is a rift valley mainly comprising Palaeozoic formations. Many of these sediments have economic significance for it is here that the coal and iron bearing rocks that fuelled Scotland's industrial revolution are to be found. Although relatively low-lying, hills such as the Pentland Hills, Ochils and Campsie Fells are rarely far from view. This area has also experienced intense volcanism, Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh being the remnant of a once much larger volcano active in the Carboniferous period about 340 million years ago. As a result of ice age glaciers, drumlins were formed, and many hills have a crag and tail landform.

### Southern Uplands

The Southern Uplands are a range of hills almost 200 km (120 mi) long, interspersed with broad valleys. They lie south of a second fault line running from Ballantrae towards Dunbar. The geological foundations largely comprise Silurian deposits laid down some 4-500 million years ago.

### Post-glacial events

The whole of Scotland was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages and the landscape is much affected by glaciation, and to a lesser extent by subsequent sea level changes. In the post-glacial epoch, circa 6100 BC, Scotland and the Faroe Islands experienced tsunamis up to 20 metres high caused by the Storegga Slides, a series of immense underwater landslides off the coast of Norway. Earth tremors are infrequent and usually slight. The Great Glen is the most seismically active area of Britain, but the last event of any size was in 1901.

## Chronology

### Archean and Proterozoic eons

The oldest rocks of Scotland are the Lewisian gneisses, which were formed in the Precambrian period, up to 3,000 Ma (million years ago). They are among the oldest rocks in the world. They form the basement to the west of the Moine Thrust on the mainland, in the Outer Hebrides and on the islands of Coll and Tiree. These rocks are largely igneous in origin, mixed with metamorphosed marble, quartzite and mica schist and intruded by later basaltic dykes and granite magma. One of these intrusions forms the summit plateau of the mountain Roineabhal in Harris. The rock here is anorthosite, and is similar in composition to rocks found in the mountains of the Moon.

Torridonian sandstones were also laid down in this period over the gneisses, and these contain the oldest signs of life in Scotland. In later Precambrian times, thick sediments of sandstones, limestones muds and lavas were deposited in what is now the Highlands of Scotland.

### Palaeozoic era

#### Cambrian period

Further sedimentary deposits were formed through the Cambrian period (541–485 Ma), some of which, along with the earlier Precambrian sediments, metamorphosed into the Dalradian series. This is composed of a wide variety of materials, including mica schist, biotite gneiss schist, schistose grit, greywacke and quartzite. The area that would become Scotland was at this time close to the south pole and part of Laurentia. Fossils from the north-west Highlands indicate the presence of trilobites and other primitive forms of life.

#### Ordovician period

The proto-Scotland landmass moved northwards, and from 460 to 430 Ma, sandstone, mudstone and limestone were deposited in the area that is now the Midland Valley. This occurred in shallow tropical seas at the margins of the Iapetus Ocean. The Ballantrae Complex near Girvan was formed from this ocean floor and is similar in composition to rocks found at The Lizard in Cornwall. Nonetheless, northern and southern Britain were far apart at the beginning of this period, although the gap began to close as the continent of Avalonia broke away from Gondwana, collided with Baltica and drifted towards Laurentia. The Caledonian orogeny began forming a mountain chain from Norway to the Appalachians. There was an ice age in the southern hemisphere, and the first mass extinction of life on Earth took place at the end of this period.

#### Silurian period

During the Silurian period (444–419 Ma) the continent of Laurentia gradually collided with Baltica, joining Scotland to the area that would become England and Europe. Sea levels rose as the Ordovician ice sheets melted, and tectonic movements created major faults which assembled the outline of Scotland from previously scattered fragments. These faults are the Highland Boundary Fault, separating the Lowlands from the Highlands, the Great Glen Fault that divides the North-west Highlands from the Grampians, the Southern Uplands Fault and the Iapetus Suture, which runs from the Solway Firth to Lindisfarne and which marks the close of the Iapetus Ocean and the joining of northern and southern Britain.

Silurian rocks form the Southern Uplands of Scotland, which were pushed up from the sea bed during the collision with Baltica/Avalonia. The majority of the rocks are weakly metamorphosed coarse greywacke. The Highlands were also affected by these collisions, creating a series of thrust faults in the northwest Highlands including the Moine Thrust, the understanding of which played an important role in 19th century geological thinking. Volcanic activity occurred across Scotland as a result of the collision of the tectonic plates, with volcanoes in southern Scotland, and magma chambers in the north, which today form the granite mountains such as the Cairngorms.

#### Devonian period

The Scottish landmass now formed part of the Old Red Sandstone Continent and lay some 25 degrees south of the equator, moving slowly north during this period to 10 degrees south. The accumulations of Old Red Sandstone laid down from 408 to 370 million years ago were created as earlier Silurian rocks, uplifted by the formation of Pangaea, eroded and were deposited into a body of fresh water (probably a series of large river deltas). A huge freshwater lake - Lake Orcadie - existed on the edges of the eroding mountains stretching from Shetland to the southern Moray Firth. The formations are extremely thick, up to 11,000 metres in places, and can be subdivided into three categories "Lower", "Middle", and "Upper" from oldest to youngest. As a result, the Old Red Sandstone is an important source of fish fossils and it was the object of intense geological studies in the 19th century. In Scotland these rocks are found predominantly in the Moray Firth basin and Orkney Archipelago, and along the southern margins of the Highland Boundary Fault.

Elsewhere volcanic activity, possibly as a result of the closing of the Iapetus Suture, created the Cheviot Hills, Ochil Hills, Sidlaw Hills, parts of the Pentland Hills and Scurdie Ness on the Angus coast.

#### Carboniferous period

During the Carboniferous period (359–299 Ma), Scotland lay close to the equator. Several changes in sea level occurred and the coal deposits of Lanarkshire and West Lothian and limestones of Fife and Dunbar date from this time. There are oil shales near Bathgate around which the 19th-century oil-processing industry developed, and elsewhere in the Midland Valley there are ironstones and fire clay deposits that had significance in the early Industrial Revolution. Fossil Grove in Victoria Park, Glasgow contains the preserved remains of a Carboniferous forest. More volcanic activity formed Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh and the nearby Bathgate Hills.

#### Permian period

The Old Red Sandstone Continent became a part of the supercontinent Pangaea in the Permian (299–252 Ma), during which proto-Britain continued to drift northwards. Scotland's climate was arid at this time and some fossils of reptiles have been recovered. However, Permian sandstones are found in only a few places - principally in the south west, on the island of Arran, and on the Moray coast. Stone quarried from Hopeman in Moray has been used in the National Museum and Scottish Parliament buildings in Edinburgh.

At the close of this period came the Permian–Triassic extinction event in which 96% of all marine species vanished and from which biodiversity took 30 million years to recover.

### Mesozoic era

#### Triassic period

During the Triassic (252–201 Ma), much of Scotland remained in desert conditions, with higher ground in the Highlands and Southern Uplands providing sediment to the surrounding basins via flash floods. This is the origin of sandstone outcrops near Dumfries, Elgin and the Isle of Arran. Towards the close of this period sea levels began to rise and climatic conditions became less arid.

#### Jurassic period

As the Jurassic (201–145 Ma) started, Pangaea began to break up into two continents, Gondwana and Laurasia, marking the beginning of the separation of Scotland and North America. Sea levels rose, as Britain and Ireland drifted on the Eurasian Plate to between 30° and 40° north. Most of northern and eastern Scotland including Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides remained above the advancing seas, but the south and south-west were inundated. There are only isolated sedimentary rocks remaining on land from this period, on the Sutherland coast near Golspie and, forming the Great Estuarine Group, on Skye, Mull, Raasay and Eigg. This period does however have considerable significance. The burial of algae and bacteria below the mud of the sea floor during this time led to the formation of North Sea oil and natural gas, much of it trapped in overlying sandstone by deposits formed as the seas fell to form the swamps and salty lakes and lagoons that were home to dinosaurs.

#### Cretaceous period

In the Cretaceous (145–66 Ma), Laurasia split into the continents of North America and Eurasia. Sea levels rose globally during this period and much of low-lying Scotland was covered in a layer of chalk. Although large deposits of Cretaceous rocks were laid down over Scotland, these have not survived erosion except in a few places on the west coast such as Loch Aline in Morvern where they form a part of the Inner Hebrides Group. At the end of this period the Cretaceous–Palaeogene extinction event brought the age of dinosaurs to a close.

### Cenozoic era

#### Palaeogene period

In the early Palaeogene period between 63 and 52 Ma, the last volcanic rocks in the British Isles were formed. As North America and Greenland separated from Europe, the Atlantic Ocean slowly formed. This led to a chain of volcanic sites west of mainland Scotland including on Skye, the Small Isles and St. Kilda, in the Firth of Clyde on Arran and Ailsa Craig and at Ardnamurchan. Sea levels began to fall, and for the first time the general outline of the modern British Isles was revealed. At the beginning of this period the climate was sub-tropical and erosion was caused by chemical weathering, creating characteristic features of the Scottish landscape such as the topographical basin of the Howe of Alford near Aberdeen. The vegetation of the period is known from Palaeocene sedimentary deposits on Isle of Mull. The rich flora here included temperate-climate tree species such as plane, hazel, oak, Cercidiphyllum, Metasequoia and ginkgo.

#### Neogene period

##### Miocene and Pliocene epochs

In the Miocene and Pliocene epochs further uplift and erosion occurred in the Highlands. Plant and animal types developed into their modern forms. Scotland lay in its present position on the globe. As the Miocene progressed, temperatures dropped and remained similar to today's.

#### Quaternary period

##### Pleistocene epoch

Several ice ages shaped the land through glacial erosion, creating u-shaped valleys and depositing boulder clays, especially on the western seaboard. The last major incursion of ice peaked about 18,000 years ago, leaving other remnant features such at the granite tors on the Cairngorm mountain plateaux.

##### Holocene epoch

Over the last twelve thousand years the most significant new geological features have been the deposits of peat and the development of coastal alluvium. Post-glacial rises in sea level have been combined with isostatic rises of the land resulting in a relative fall in sea level in most areas. In some places, such as Culbin in Moray, these changes in relative sea level have created a complex series of shorelines. A rare type of Scottish coastline found largely in the Hebrides consists of machair habitat, a low lying dune pasture land formed as the sea level dropped leaving a raised beach. In the present day, Scotland continues to move slowly north.

## Geologists in Scotland

Scottish geologists and non-Scots working in Scotland have played an important part in the development of the science, especially during its pioneering period in the late 18th century and 19th century.

- James Hutton (1726–1797), the "father of modern geology", was born in Edinburgh. His Theory of the Earth, published in 1788, proposed the idea of a rock cycle in which weathered rocks form new sediments and that granites were of volcanic origin. At Glen Tilt in the Cairngorm mountains he found granite penetrating metamorphic schists. This showed to him that granite formed from the cooling of molten rock, not precipitation out of water as the Neptunists of the time believed. This sight is said to have "filled him with delight". Regarding geological time scales he famously remarked "that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end".
- John Playfair (1748–1819) from Angus was a mathematician who developed an interest in geology through his friendship with Hutton. His 1802 Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth were influential in the latter's success.
- John MacCulloch (1773–1835) was born in Guernsey and like Hutton before him, studied medicine at Edinburgh University. A president of the Geological Society from 1815 to 1817, he is best remembered for producing the first geological map of Scotland, published in 1836. 'MacCulloch's Tree', a 40-foot (12 m) high fossil conifer in the Mull lava flows, is named after him.

- Sir Charles Lyell (1797–1875) was also from Angus and his Principles of Geology built on Hutton's ideas. Lyell's theory of uniformitarianism and his interpretation of geologic change as the steady accumulation of minute changes over enormously long spans of time was a central theme in the Principles, and a powerful influence on the young Charles Darwin. (Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, loaned Darwin a copy of Volume 1 of the first edition just before they set out on the 'Voyage of the Beagle'.) Lyell is buried in Westminster Abbey.

- Sir Roderick Murchison (1792–1871) was born in Ross and Cromarty and served under Wellesley in the Peninsular War. Knighted in 1846, his main achievements were the investigation of Silurian rocks published as The Silurian System in 1839 and of Permian deposits in Russia. The Murchison crater on the Moon and at least fifteen geographical locations on Earth are named after him.
- Hugh Miller (1802–56) from Cromarty was a stonemason and self-taught geologist. His 1841 publication The Old Red Sandstone became a bestseller. The fossils founds in these rocks were one of his fascinations, although his deep religious convictions led him to oppose the idea of biological evolution.
- James Croll (1821–90) developed a theory of climate change based on changes in the Earth's orbit. Born near Perth, he was self-educated and his interest in science led to his becoming appointed as a janitor in the museum at the Andersonian College and Museum, Glasgow in 1859. His 1864 paper On the Physical Cause of the Changes of Climate during Glacial Epochs led to a position in the Edinburgh office of the Geological Survey of Scotland, as keeper of maps and correspondence, where Sir Archibald Geikie, encouraged his research. He was eventually to become a Fellow of the Royal Society.
- Sir Archibald Geikie (1835–1924) was the first to recognise that there had been multiple glaciations, and his 1863 paper On the glacial drift of Scotland was a landmark in the emergent theories of glaciation. He became Director-General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom in 1888 and was also well known for his work on volcanism.
- Arthur Holmes (1890–1965) was born in England and became Regius Professor of Geology at the University of Edinburgh in 1943. His magnum opus was Principles of Physical Geology, first published in 1944, in which he proposed the idea that slow moving convection currents in the Earth's mantle created 'continental drift' as it was then called. He also pioneered the discipline of geochronology. He lived long enough to see the theory of plate tectonics become widely accepted, and he is regarded as one of the most influential geologists of the 20th century.

## Important sites

### Siccar Point

Siccar Point, Berwickshire is world-famous as one of the sites that proved Hutton's views about the immense age of the Earth. Here Silurian rocks have been tilted almost to the vertical. Younger Carboniferous rocks lie unconformably over the top of them, dipping gently, indicating that an enormous span of time must have passed between the creation of the two beds. When Hutton and James Hall visited the site in 1788 their companion Playfair wrote:

On us who saw these phenomenon for the first time the impression will not easily be forgotten...We felt necessarily carried back to a time when the schistus on which we stood was yet at the bottom of the sea, and when the sandstone before us was only beginning to be deposited, in the shape of sand or mud, from the waters of the supercontinent ocean... The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far back into the abyss of time; and whilst we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of these wonderful events, we became sensible how much further reason may sometimes go than imagination may venture to follow. —John Playfair (1805) Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. V, pt. III.

### Knockan Crag

The Moine Thrust in Assynt is one of the most studied geological features in the world. Its discovery in the 1880s was a milestone in the history of geology as it was one of the first thrust belts in the world to be identified. Investigations by John Horne and Benjamin Peach resolved a dispute between Murchison and Geikie on the one hand and James Nicol and Charles Lapworth on the other. The latter believed that older Moine rocks lay on top of younger Cambrian rocks at Knockan Crag, and Horne and Peach's work confirmed this in their classic paper The Geological Structure of the North-West Highlands of Scotland, which was published in 1907. A statue to these two pioneers of fieldwork was erected at Inchnadamph near the hotel there which played a prominent part in the annals of early geology. This area is at the heart of the 'North West Highlands Geopark'.

### Dob's Linn

Lapworth also had a prominent role to play in the fame of Dob's Linn, a small gorge in the Scottish Borders, which contains the 'golden spike' (i.e. the official international boundary or stratotype) between the Ordovician and Silurian periods. Lapworth's work in this area, especially his examination of the complex stratigraphy of the Silurian rocks by comparing fossil graptolites, was crucial in to the early understanding of these epochs.

### Skye Cuillin

The Skye Cuillin mountains provide classic examples of glacial topography and were the subject of an early published account by James Forbes in 1846 (who had become a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh aged only nineteen). He partnered Louis Agassiz on his trip to Scotland in 1840 and although they subsequently argued, Forbes went on to publish other important papers on Alpine glaciers. In 1904 Alfred Harker published The Tertiary Igneous Rocks of Skye, the first detailed scientific study of an extinct volcano.

### Strontian

In the hills to the north of the village of Strontian the mineral strontianite was discovered, from which the element strontium was first isolated by Sir Humphry Davy in 1808.

### Staffa

The island of Staffa contains Fingal's Cave made up of massive hexagonal columns of Palaeogene basalt.

### Schiehallion

The Munro Schiehallion's isolated position and regular shape led Nevil Maskelyne to use the deflection caused by the mass of the mountain to estimate the mass of the Earth in a ground-breaking experiment carried out in 1774. Following Maskelyne's survey, Schiehallion became the first mountain to be mapped using contour lines.

### Rhynie

The village of Rhynie in Aberdeenshire is the site of an important sedimentary deposit - Rhynie chert. The bulk of this fossil bed consists of primitive plants that had water-conducting cells and sporangia but no leaves, along with arthropods: Collembola, Opiliones (harvestmen), pseudoscorpions and the extinct, spider-like Trigonotarbids. This fossil bed is remarkable for two reasons. Firstly, the age of the find (early Devonian circa 410 Ma) makes this one of the earliest sites anywhere containing terrestrial fossils, coinciding with the first stages of the colonisation of land by plants and animals. Secondly, these cherts are famous for their exceptional state of ultrastructural preservation, with individual cell walls easily visible in polished specimens. For example, stomata have been counted and lignin remnants detected in the plant material.

### East Kirkton quarry

A disused quarry at East Kirkton in the Bathgate Hills is the location where the Carboniferous fossil of Westlothiana lizziae (aka 'Lizzie') was found in 1984. This lizard is one of the earliest known ancestors of the reptiles. The specimen was purchased in part by public subscription and is now on display in the National Museum of Scotland. The site was originally discovered in the early 19th century and has also provided fossil eurypterids, sharks and a variety of primitive acanthodian fish.

### Wester Ross bolide

In 2008 the ejected material from a meteorite impact crater was discovered near Ullapool in Wester Ross. Preserved within sedimentary layers of sandstone, this is the largest known bolide impact from what are now the British Isles.

## See also

- Geography of Scotland
- Geology of the British Isles

\* Geology of Ireland

\* Geology of England

\* Geology of Wales

- British Geological Survey
- Geological groups of Great Britain
- Geologic timescale
- Coal measures
- Old Red Sandstone
- New Red Sandstone
- Geology of Orkney

Overview of the geology of Scotland


Steve Wariner

Steven Noel Wariner (born December 25, 1954) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Initially a backing musician for Dottie West, he also worked with Bob Luman and Chet Atkins before beginning a solo career in the late 1970s. He has released eighteen studio albums and over fifty singles for several different record labels.

Wariner experienced his greatest chart successes in the 1980s, recording first for RCA Records Nashville and then MCA Nashville. While on these labels he sent a number of singles into the top ten of the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and received favorable critical reception for the amount of creative control he held over his body of work. Upon moving to Arista Nashville in 1991 he had his most commercially successful album I Am Ready, his first to be certified gold, but followups were less successful. After a period of commercial downfall, he experienced a second wave of success in the late 1990s which was spurred by co-writing the number-one singles "Longneck Bottle" by Garth Brooks and "Nothin' but the Taillights" by Clint Black. These songs led to him signing with Capitol Records Nashville and achieving two more gold albums with Burnin' the Roadhouse Down and Two Teardrops by decade's end. While his commercial success once again dwindled after these albums, he has continued to record independently on his own SelecTone label.

Ten of Wariner's singles have reached the number-one position on the Hot Country Songs charts: "All Roads Lead to You", "Some Fools Never Learn", "You Can Dream of Me", "Life's Highway", "Small Town Girl", "The Weekend", "Lynda", "Where Did I Go Wrong", "I Got Dreams", and "What If I Said" (a duet with Anita Cochran). Wariner holds several writing credits for both himself and other artists, and has collaborated with Nicolette Larson, Glen Campbell, Diamond Rio, Brad Paisley, Asleep at the Wheel, and Mark O'Connor among others. He has also won four Grammy Awards: one for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, and three for Best Country Instrumental. In addition to these he has won three Country Music Association awards and one Academy of Country Music award, and is a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Wariner's musical style is defined by his lead guitar work, lyrical content, and stylistic diversity.

## Early life

Steven Noel Wariner was born on December 25, 1954, in Noblesville, Indiana, but grew up in Russell Springs, Kentucky. As a teenager, Wariner taught himself how to play several instruments, including acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums, banjo, and steel guitar. Wariner performed locally in his father Roy Wariner's band, drawing influence from musical acts his father listened to such as George Jones and Chet Atkins. When Wariner was 17, country singer Dottie West heard him performing at the Nashville Country Club in Indianapolis and recruited him to play bass guitar in her road band. Wariner completed his education through a correspondence course with his local high school, and went on to play in West's band for three years; he also played on her 1973 single "Country Sunshine".

Wariner also began writing songs at this point, and West attempted to secure him a record label contract by submitting demos of his work, but was unsuccessful. He then left West's road band to put a greater focus on songwriting, and began touring with Bob Luman after he cut some of Wariner's songs. While in recording sessions with Luman, Wariner encountered guitarist Paul Yandell, who was also working for Atkins at the time. Yandell submitted some of Wariner's demos to Atkins, who was also vice-president of RCA Records Nashville at the time and was thus able to sign Wariner to a contract in 1976.

## Musical career

### 1978–1984: RCA Records

His first single release for RCA was "I'm Already Taken", a song that Wariner co-wrote. It peaked at number 63 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in 1978. This was followed by five more chart singles, none of which appeared on an album at the time due to their limited success. These singles were primarily covers of songs by other artists, including Charley Pride's "The Easy Part's Over". Record World magazine published a positive review of this cover, which stated that it was a "slow, sad ballad" in which "Wariner continues to show a whole lotta vocal talent." Atkins also hired Wariner to be a bassist in his road band, which led to a nomination by the Academy of Country Music for Bassist of the Year in 1979. Also, Atkins served as his record producer on his first single releases, but later encouraged him to find a different one. As a result, "The Easy Part's Over" was instead produced by Tom Collins, known for also producing Ronnie Milsap and Sylvia.

His first major chart hit came in 1980 when "Your Memory" ascended to the number seven position on the country charts. Due to the song's success, Atkins fired Wariner from his band. "Your Memory" was the first of six singles from his self-titled debut album, which was also produced by Collins. After it came his first number-one single, 1981's "All Roads Lead to You", followed by the top 15 hit "Kansas City Lights". Both of these songs were written by Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan. The album's last two singles, "Don't It Break Your Heart" and "Don't Plan on Sleeping Tonight", fared less successfully on the charts. Al Campbell of AllMusic stated that Wariner's "sophisticated country-pop sound was already perfected, and it showed by the quality of the material." In 1980, the Academy of Country Music nominated Wariner for Top New Male Vocalist.

RCA released his second studio album Midnight Fire in 1983. Tony Brown and Norro Wilson co-produced the album except for the last two tracks, for which Collins stayed on as producer. Contributing songwriters included Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, Jerry Fuller, and Richard Leigh. The closing track was a duet with Barbara Mandrell titled "Overnight Sensation", which also appeared on Mandrell's 1983 album Spun Gold. Wariner said that he chose to switch producers as a means of introducing more uptempo material, and both Wilson and Brown were working for RCA at the time. The lead single "Don't Your Memory Ever Sleep at Night" faltered on the country charts, but the title track was more successful, reaching a peak of number five. Following this was a cover of Luman's 1972 hit "Lonely Women Make Good Lovers", which in early 1984 matched the original version's Hot Country Songs peak of number four. The album's next two singles, "Why Goodbye" and "Don't You Give Up on Love", were less successful. Joy Lynn Stewart of the Red Deer Advocate praised Wariner's "fine, textured vocals" along with the combination of upbeat songs and ballads.

### 1984–1987: MCA Nashville

When Wariner's contract ended in 1984, he chose to follow Brown to MCA Nashville. His first album for the label was 1985's One Good Night Deserves Another, which Brown co-produced with Jimmy Bowen. The album included three singles: the top-ten hits "What I Didn't Do" and "Heart Trouble", and his second number-one hit "Some Fools Never Learn". The Academy of Country Music nominated "Some Fools Never Learn" for Song of the Year in 1985, and Wariner later remarked that he considered it his favorite single. In the process of making the album, Wariner said that Brown and Bowen allowed him more control in the creative process than previous producers, by asking him to find his own material and then explain to them why he liked each song that he had chosen. The song selection process also allowed for a number of songwriters not typically found on albums of the era. These writers included Dave Gibson, Ronnie Rogers, Wood Newton, Paul Overstreet, and Steve Earle. Stewart wrote that "Wariner takes a fresh approach to traditional country and melds a unique, winning style", highlighting the ballad "You Can't Cut Me Any Deeper" and the "grand pace" of "Your Love Has Got a Hold on Me" in particular.

His next album, Life's Highway (1986), produced two consecutive number-one Hot Country Songs peaks: "You Can Dream of Me" and the title track. This was followed by the number four "Starting Over Again". Wariner co-wrote five songs on the album including "You Can Dream of Me", which he wrote with John Hall, then of the band Orleans. As with the previous album, Bowen and Brown requested that he have input on song selection and production processes; one such decision made by Wariner was not to have a string section on the album because he would not be able to include one in a live setting. Al Campbell of AllMusic reviewed the album favorably, stating that it "showed him moving into a more mature musical direction. The best moments here outshine anything Wariner had recorded up to that point". In between the releases of "Life's Highway" and "Starting Over Again", he was also a duet vocalist on Nicolette Larson's "That's How You Know When Love's Right", which was nominated for that year's Vocal Event of the Year from the Country Music Association. Wariner gained further exposure in this timespan for singing the theme to the television sitcom Who's the Boss?, which used his rendition from 1986 to 1990.

Overlapping with his first two MCA albums, RCA promoted two compilations of material. The first of these was a Greatest Hits album, issued in 1985. The following year, RCA compiled eight previously-unreleased songs into an album titled Down in Tennessee. RCA also issued promotional singles from each compilation: "When We're Together" from Greatest Hits, and "You Make It Feel So Right", a duet with Carol Chase, from Down in Tennessee. Also featured on Down in Tennessee was an instrumental track called "Sano Scat". Ron Chalmers of the Edmonton Journal gave Down in Tennessee a mixed review, finding Wariner's vocals stronger on the ballads than on the uptempo material. His next MCA release was 1987's It's a Crazy World, which was his first to be issued on compact disc. The title track was written by Mac McAnally, who originally had a pop hit with it in 1977. All three of its singles topped the Hot Country Songs charts: "Small Town Girl", "The Weekend", and "Lynda". In between "The Weekend" and "Lynda", Wariner was also a guest vocalist on Glen Campbell's top-ten hit "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle". This song accounted for Wariner's first Grammy Award nomination in 1987, in the then-new category of Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Also in 1987 he was nominated by the Academy of Country Music for Top Male Vocalist. Tom Roland of AllMusic reviewed It's a Crazy World positively, stating that "Wariner's in charge vocally, and seems to glide through the album effortlessly. He's received more responsibility for his own direction, and—with one or two exceptions— has upgraded every aspect of his record, particularly in song selection and musicianship." Wariner supported It's a Crazy World through a headlining tour that also featured Hank Williams Jr.

### 1988–1990: End of MCA years

In 1988, Wariner issued I Should Be with You, his fourth release for MCA. It accounted for the top-ten singles "Baby I'm Yours", "I Should Be with You", and "Hold On (A Little Longer)". Wariner noted that the album contained a more country rock influence than its predecessors, particularly in the selection of session musicians such as Leland Sklar and Russ Kunkel, as well as Little Feat cofounder Bill Payne. The album continued Wariner's trend of writing his own material, as he wrote or co-wrote all three singles and three other songs on the album; he also co-produced for the first time, doing so with Bowen. I Should Be with You received a positive review from Cash Box magazine which stated that it was "a tightly crafted package, showcasing both contemporary and traditional country tunes." Wariner supported the album in 1988 by touring with Reba McEntire.

I Got Dreams, also co-produced by Wariner and Bowen, followed in 1989. Wariner wrote nine out of ten songs on the album, with collaborators such as McAnally, Roger Murrah, Mike Reid, and husband-and-wife duo Bill LaBounty and Beckie Foster. McAnally and LaBounty both sang backing vocals on the album, with the former also contributing on acoustic guitar and percussion. At the time of the album's release, Wariner noted that the chart success and positive fan reception of "I Should Be with You" inspired a continual growth in his songwriting. He also observed that, while he had not received strong record sales or industry awards, radio performance of his singles inspired him to "make the best records". I Got Dreams charted three singles on Hot Country Songs in 1989: "Where Did I Go Wrong" and the title track both went to number one, followed by "When I Could Come Home to You" at number five. The Ottawa Citizen writer Susan Beyer reviewed the album with favor, stating that "the more control Wariner gets over his recordings, the better they get...the sounds run the gamut, but elegantly, from acoustic country to rock-edged to adult contemporary."

Wariner released two albums in 1990, the first of which was Laredo. It accounted for three charted singles: "The Domino Theory", "Precious Thing", and "There for Awhile". LaBounty and Foster wrote "The Domino Theory", while Wariner co-wrote "Precious Thing" with McAnally. Production duties on the album were split, with Garth Fundis and Randy Scruggs producing three tracks each, and Tony Brown returning to produce the other four. Marc Rice of the Associated Press called Laredo a "safe, likeable album", praising the clarity of the production along with the "clever" lyrics of "The Domino Theory". Kay Knight of Cash Box magazine stated that "Wariner shows us a very basic and intimate look at his music and his life...this project should definitely bring Wariner into the spotlight of country radio." His second release in 1990, and final for MCA, was the Christmas album Christmas Memories. In the process of recording the album, Wariner said that he wanted it to have a "timeless" feel. It included traditional Christmas songs such as "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", "Do You Hear What I Hear?", three original songs written by Wariner, and collaborations with The Chieftains on renditions of "Past Three O'Clock" and "I Saw Three Ships". Wariner promoted the album through a radio special titled Steve Wariner's Acoustic Christmas, which also featured Emmylou Harris and Mike Reid. A year later, he performed in a television special on The Nashville Network also titled Christmas Memories which featured selections from the album.

While his tenure with MCA was ending, Wariner contributed to two cuts on Mark O'Connor's 1991 album The New Nashville Cats. The first was a cover of Carl Perkins' "Restless". It featured O'Connor on fiddle, with Wariner, Vince Gill, and Ricky Skaggs alternating on lead vocals and guitar. A number 25 entry on Hot Country Songs, it won all four artists that year's Vocal Event of the Year award from the Country Music Association, along with Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Wariner also co-wrote, sang, and played guitar on "Now It Belongs to You", another cut from the album which also made the country charts.

### 1991–1996: Arista Nashville

Wariner left MCA amicably in 1991 and signed with Arista Nashville later that same year. His debut for the label was 1991's I Am Ready, which was produced by Tim DuBois and Scott Hendricks. The album's title came from a song that he had selected but ultimately chose not to include on the album, calling it "left field". The lead-off single, "Leave Him Out of This", achieved a top-ten peak on Hot Country Songs list in early 1992. It was followed by a cover of "The Tips of My Fingers", which was written and originally recorded by Bill Anderson in 1960 and was also a hit for Roy Clark in 1963. Wariner's version, featuring a backing vocal from Vince Gill, was the album's most successful single. It achieved a Hot Country Songs peak of number three in 1992, and the number-one position of the country music charts published by Radio & Records. The next single "A Woman Loves" also went into the top ten, but followups "Crash Course in the Blues" (featuring O'Connor on fiddle) and "Like a River to the Sea" were less successful.

I Am Ready was met with largely positive critical reception. Brian Mansfield reviewed the album favorably on AllMusic, stating that "Wariner, a master of the subtle touch, builds this album's impact quietly and methodically", highlighting the vocal and instrumental performances on the singles in particular. Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly rated the album "B−", concluding her review with "if Wariner lacks a zippy repertoire, he nearly makes up for it with believable readings and deft vocal shadings". Jay Brakfield of the Dallas Morning News thought that the album had "contemporary lyrics" and "shows a more aggressive Wariner. He's doing the same thing, but now he's doing it better and doing more of it." I Am Ready became Wariner's first album to receive a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States. The corresponding tours for I Am Ready were the most commercially successful of his career to this point. In late 1991, the Takamine guitar corporation issued a limited-edition acoustic guitar model named after Wariner.

His second album for Arista Nashville was 1993's Drive. Its lead single was the top-ten "If I Didn't Love You". After it came the Top 30 hits "Drivin' and Cryin'" and "It Won't Be Over You", while the album's title track stopped at No. 63. Wariner told Cash Box magazine that he intended for the album to be representative of the energy present in his live shows. He also wanted it to be more upbeat than I Am Ready, which he felt contained too many ballads. Once again, Jarvis, Gill, and McAnally were among the musicians contributing; bluegrass singer Carl Jackson co-wrote and sang harmony on "The Same Mistake Again", while electric guitarist Brent Mason and steel guitarist Paul Franklin played on "It Won't Be Over You". He promoted the album throughout 1993 with a tour comprising the United States and Canada, sponsored by General Motors Canada. Also featured on the tour were Toby Keith, Larry Stewart, and Canadian country singer Cassandra Vasik. Despite the success of the lead single, DuBois (who was then the president of Arista Nashville) observed that the album sold poorly due to negative reception of the following singles by radio programmers. Patrick Davitt of The Leader-Post rated the album 3 out of 5 stars, praising the lyrics and arrangements of "It Won't Be Over You" and "Drivin' and Cryin'" as well as the "simpler country tunes" "(You Could Always) Come Back" and "The Same Mistake Again", but criticizing "If I Didn't Love You" as "repetitive" and several other album cuts for their "unbearably thick and heavy" sound.

Although he did not release any albums in 1994 and 1995, he appeared on collaborative works in the timespan. The first was Mama's Hungry Eyes: A Tribute to Merle Haggard, on which he joined then-labelmates Diamond Rio and Lee Roy Parnell on a cover of Merle Haggard's "Workin' Man Blues". Credited to "Jed Zeppelin", this rendition was also made into a music video, and charted at number 48 on Hot Country Songs. A year later, he contributed a cover of The Beatles' "Get Back" to the compilation Come Together: America Salutes the Beatles.

An instrumental album, No More Mr. Nice Guy, followed in 1996. Wariner told Guitar Player magazine that he had wanted to record an instrumental album for much of his career, but had considerable difficulty in getting permission from his labels: MCA executives would only allow him to do one instrumental song on an album, while he had to "beg and plead" Arista to allow him a full album. No More Mr. Nice Guy included various country and bluegrass musicians such as Atkins, O'Connor, McAnally, Gill, Sam Bush, Béla Fleck, and Diamond Rio lead guitarist Jimmy Olander; it also included folk guitarist Leo Kottke and Bon Jovi lead guitarist Richie Sambora, and a spoken-word intro by Major League Baseball player Nolan Ryan. While the project produced no singles, the track "Brickyard Boogie" (featuring Jeffrey Steele, Bryan White, Bryan Austin, and Derek George) was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance in 1997. Chuck Hamilton of Country Standard Time noted the variety of musical styles present on the album, concluding that "if you appreciate good guitar playing by some of the best in the business, this one's a good pick." Also in 1996, Wariner was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

### 1997–2001: Capitol Records

Wariner began writing songs for other artists in the late 1990s per the suggestion of his wife, Caryn, who also ran his publishing company and fan club. She had suggested doing so following the diminishing success of his previous albums. He wrote two songs that topped the Hot Country Songs charts between late 1997 and early 1998: "Longneck Bottle" by Garth Brooks (which also featured Wariner on background vocals and lead guitar at Brooks's request) and "Nothin' but the Taillights" by Clint Black; Bryan White also had a top-20 hit in this timespan with "One Small Miracle", which Wariner wrote with Bill Anderson. In addition to these, Wariner sang duet vocals on Anita Cochran's single "What If I Said". In early 1998, this song became not only Wariner's tenth number-one single on Hot Country Songs chart, but also his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 59. According to Wariner, some radio stations played these four songs consecutively, a move which he felt helped draw greater attention to his body of work. Based on the success of these songs, Wariner expressed interest in issuing another album, but said that Arista Nashville executives were reluctant to do so after the commercial failure of Drive and No More Mr. Nice Guy. In response, Brooks suggested that Wariner terminate his contract and sign with another label. In January 1998, Wariner underwent negotiations with multiple labels including Giant Records and Asylum Records before choosing Capitol Records Nashville, to which Brooks was also signed at the time.

His first Capitol album, Burnin' the Roadhouse Down, came out in April 1998. Leading off the album was the single "Holes in the Floor of Heaven", which spent two weeks at the number two position on Hot Country Songs. The album's other singles were its title track (a duet with Brooks), "Road Trippin'", and "Every Little Whisper". Wariner wrote or co-wrote and produced every song on the album except for "What If I Said", which was included as a bonus track due to its earlier success. Country Standard Time published a mixed review of the album, praising most of Wariner's lyrics while criticizing the title track as "predictably sappy". Thom Owens of AllMusic wrote of the album that "His music may not be as fresh as it was in the early '80s, when he was at the beginning of his career, but he's become a masterful craftsman, and that's why the album shines." By year's end, Burnin' the Roadhouse Down had become Wariner's second gold album. "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" won the 1998 Song of the Year award from the Academy of Country Music (where he also received Song of the Year and Video of the Year nominations for the same song), and Vocal Event of the Year nominations for both "What If I Said" and "Burnin' the Roadhouse Down". In addition, "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" received the 1998 Country Music Association awards for both Single of the Year and Song of the Year, and was nominated in the 1998 Grammy Awards for both Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song.

Wariner's second album for Capitol was Two Teardrops. Released in 1999, it was certified gold as well. It produced only two singles: its title track, which Wariner co-wrote with Bill Anderson, and a re-recording of his debut single "I'm Already Taken". Respectively, these reached numbers two and three on the Hot Country Songs charts that year; they were also successful on the Hot 100, where they respectively reached numbers 30 and 42. Once again, Wariner produced the album himself. His brother Terry provided background vocals on "I'm Already Taken", and son Ryan played guitar on "So Much". The album also included a duet with Bryan White on "Talk to Her Heart" and an instrumental called "The Harry Shuffle". Nash rated the album "B", stating that "he continues to shape his persona as the hopeful but dashed romantic, and veers from country lopers to affecting philosophical ruminations. But in serving as his own producer, he fails to get his stronger emotions off the page." Owens said of the album that "It may not be the stunner Burnin' the Roadhouse Down was, but Two Teardrops proves that Wariner can continue to make winners." In addition to this, Wariner was one of several musicians contributing to "Bob's Breakdown", a song from Asleep at the Wheel's 1999 album Ride with Bob. The same year, he received a second Grammy Award out of three nominations: both "The Harry Shuffle" and "Bob's Breakdown" were nominated for Best Country Instrumental Performance, with the latter winning that award, while "Two Teardrops" was nominated for Best Country Song. By the end of the 1990s, Wariner had also played lead guitar on albums by Bryan White, Lila McCann, and Collin Raye.

His last Capitol Nashville album was 2000's Faith in You, which charted its title track (also co-written by Anderson) and "Katie Wants a Fast One", another duet with Brooks. Faith in You once again featured Ryan, this time as a lead guitarist on the closing instrumental "Bloodlines", and his other son Ross on "High Time". In addition to his usual guitar work, Wariner also contributed on lap steel guitar, mandolin, and the papoose (a higher-strung guitar manufactured by Tacoma Guitars). "Bloodlines" accounted for another Best Country Instrumental Performance nomination at the 2000 Grammy Awards. William Ruhlmann reviewed the album favorably in AllMusic, stating that it was "another consistent, craftsman-like effort from an artist who has made the most of his second chance in country music." Also in 2000, Wariner co-wrote, played lead guitar, and sang duet vocals on Clint Black's 2000 single "Been There" from his album D'lectrified; one year later, Keith Urban had a top-five hit with "Where the Blacktop Ends", which Wariner wrote with Allen Shamblin. Wariner's contract with Capitol ended when the label's president Pat Quigley exited.

### 2003–present: SelecTone

In 2003, Wariner founded his own record label called SelecTone Records. His first album for the label was Steal Another Day. It accounted for the charting singles in "I'm Your Man" and "Snowfall on the Sand". Wariner recorded the album at a studio he had built behind his own house. In addition to its two singles, the album featured re-recordings of "Some Fools Never Learn", "You Can Dream of Me", "The Weekend", "Where Did I Go Wrong", and "Small Town Girl", along with "There Will Come a Day", a song that he wrote about his stepdaughter, Holly. Wariner promoted the album with a concert at the 2003 Indiana State Fair; he also made appearances at Walmart stores around Indianapolis to promote the chain's childhood literacy program Words Are Your Wheels. Wariner made an appearance at an 80th-anniversary celebration of the Grand Ole Opry in 2005, which included him and various other Opry members as part of a two-day concert. He also performed with The Grascals at the 2006 International Bluegrass Music Association awards.

In 2008, Wariner played guitar on two tracks from Brad Paisley's instrumental album Play: The Guitar Album: the multi-artist collaboration "Cluster Pluck", which won that year's Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental, and "More Than Just This Song", which Wariner and Paisley co-wrote. One year later, Wariner released the instrumental album My Tribute to Chet Atkins. The album's track "Producer's Medley" won him another Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. Jeff Tamarkin of AllMusic reviewed the album positively, stating that "Throughout the album, Wariner's guitar work is crisp, sharp and smart–he never attempts to imitate Atkins but he manages to embody him nonetheless." For this album, Wariner referred to himself as "Steve Wariner, c.g.p.", indicating the title "certified guitar player" which Atkins had bestowed to guitarists whom he respected. Other guitarists to receive this title from Atkins include Tommy Emmanuel, John Knowles, Marcel Dadi, and Jerry Reed. Wariner promoted the album through special concerts in Nashville, whose proceeds were donated to the Chet Atkins Music Education Fund.

Another instrumental album, Guitar Laboratory, followed in 2011. Contributors on the album included David Hungate, Aubrey Haynie, and Paul Yandell, along with Wariner's touring drummer Ron Gannaway and son Ross. JP Tausig of Country Standard Time noted the variety of musical styles on the album, particularly a jazz influence on some tracks. 2013's It Ain't All Bad returned Wariner to a vocal album after several instrumental ones. Chuck Yarborough of The Plain Dealer rated the album "A", noting rockabilly and bluegrass music influences on the album's sound, also highlighting the lyrics of "Arrows at Airplanes" and "Bluebonnet Memories". Following in 2016 was All Over the Map, on which Wariner played guitar, drums, upright bass, and steel guitar. The album included a mix of instrumental and vocal tracks, among which was "When I Still Mattered to You", a track that he wrote with Merle Haggard in 1996. It also included a collaboration with Ricky Skaggs on "Down Sawmill Road".

In 2019, Wariner was one of many artists inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.

## Musical styles

William Ruhlmann of AllMusic wrote that "in the beginning, the low-tuned guitars and wide range of his singles brought frequent comparisons to the early Glen Campbell hits." Richard Carlin of Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary similarly compared the RCA catalog to that of Glen Campbell, calling such songs "a pop-country backup that really wasn't suited to him". Carlin found the MCA albums more "progressive" and comparable to pop rock. Thomas Goldsmith of The Tennessean noted that many of Wariner's mid-1980s hit singles were "personal, down-to-earth songs of daily life." He also wrote that by the release of Life's Highway, Wariner had developed a "leaner country style" compared to the "pop-oriented tunes" of his earlier days. In a review of Faith in You also for AllMusic, Ruhlmann described Wariner's style by saying, "his abilities as a guitarist, understated but always apparent in the style of his mentor, Chet Atkins, provide a basic level of enjoyment no matter what else is going on." Brian Wahlert of Country Standard Time stated that "most of the time he releases pleasant music that is neither offensive nor exciting." Writing for the Dallas Morning News, Jay Brakefield contrasted Wariner's style with that of Vince Gill, saying that "like Gill, Wariner has a reputation as a superb guitar player and a teriffic vocalist." Wariner noted that Atkins was influential in his early days as a recording artist, as Atkins encouraged Wariner to play his own lead guitar parts, and to emphasize the quality of a song over who wrote it. Despite this, Wariner also said that he only chose to include his own guitar solos on songs where he felt that they were necessary. Some of Wariner's songs employ scat singing over his solos, most notably "I Got Dreams".

Wariner's guitar playing style includes fingerstyle guitar and classical guitar, both of which he claims were inspirations from the work of Jerry Reed. In his early days when performing with Atkins, he recalls that Atkins would lend him a Gretsch guitar on which he was allowed to play solos. Nash wrote of Wariner's vocal and lyrical style that "the majority of Wariner’s sweet-sad songs about lost opportunity forego front-page passion for little nuggets of long-term longing" and "his creamy tenor audibly caresses a lyric." An article in The Los Angeles Times noted of Wariner's musical image in the 1990s that, unlike his peers, he did not wear a cowboy hat; the same article described him as "just plain good...Wariner has an angelic voice, some solid songs and a staggering facility on the guitar." Many of his projects have been recorded in only one take, including Burnin' the Roadhouse Down, the track "I Just Do" from Faith in You, and the Atkins tribute album.

## Personal life

Wariner fathered his first son, Ryan, with Caryn Severs in 1984, although the two were not married at the time. After marrying in 1987, they had a second son, Ross. He also has one stepdaughter, Holly, who was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. He has one sister, Barbara, and three brothers: Kenny, Dave, and Terry, the last of whom was a longtime member of his road band. His mother Geneva Ilene Wariner died on June 19, 2012, followed by his father, Roy Monroe Wariner, on July 7, 2017.

For much of the 1980s, Wariner developed an interest in stage magic, and would often include magic acts as part of his concerts. He also took up watercolor painting, and named his song "Like a River to the Sea" after one such painting.

## Discography

Studio albums

- Steve Wariner (1982)
- Midnight Fire (1983)
- One Good Night Deserves Another (1985)
- Life's Highway (1985)
- It's a Crazy World (1987)
- I Should Be with You (1988)
- I Got Dreams (1989)
- Laredo (1990)
- I Am Ready (1991)
- Drive (1993)
- No More Mr. Nice Guy (1996)
- Burnin' the Roadhouse Down (1998)
- Two Teardrops (1999)
- Faith in You (2000)
- Steal Another Day (2003)
- This Real Life (2005)
- My Tribute to Chet Atkins (2009)
- Guitar Laboratory (2011)
- It Ain't All Bad (2013)
- All Over the Map (2016)
- Feels Like Christmas Time (2021)

## Awards and nominations

American country musician


Naoum Mokarzel

Naoum Mokarzel (Arabic: نعوم مكرزل / ALA-LC: Naʻūm Mukarzil, sometimes spelled "Naʿum Mukarzil"; 2 August 1864 – 5 April 1932) was an influential intellectual and publisher who immigrated to the United States from Mount Lebanon in Ottoman Syria.

Mokarzel established his first daily publication, Al-ʿAsr (The Epoch) which floundered less than a year after its first issue. He attended medical school for two years before dropping out and became notorious within New York's Arab-speaking community for his aggressive character and controversial demeanor. He engaged in libel and disputes with other immigrants that often became physical and violent. He was arrested on several occasions but was never jailed; his actions stoked politico-sectarian animosity within the Arab-speaking communities of the US.

In 1895 Mokarzel was accused of adultery with a married woman; the two got married and eloped to Philadelphia where, on 22 February 1898, he published the first issue of his second newspaper Al-Hoda (The Guidance). Al-Hoda would grow to become the largest and longest-running Arabic daily newspaper in the United States. In 1902 Mokarzel got divorced, he moved with his brother Salloum back to New York where they set up the newspaper's office. Naoum collaborated with Ameen Rihani who published a regular section in Al-Hoda and he married Rihani's sister, Saada, in 1904. The two men fell out when Mokarzel and Saada divorced and because of political values differences. Mokarzel claimed that his publication was secular but his writings often showed religious bias; he used his publishing house to print and circulate Maronite politics and Lebanese nationalism.

In 1910, Naoum and Salloum adapted the linotype machine to the Arabic script to replace manual typesetting. This contribution paved the way for cheaper and easier publishing for Arabic-speaking communities throughout the world. That same year he married his third wife but he never had children.

Mokarzel was politically engaged and called for the separation of Lebanon from the Ottoman empire. In 1917 he collected more than \$30,000 US in donations to relieve the residents of Mount Lebanon during the great famine but he diverted half of the money to fund a volunteer armed force to oust the Ottomans from Lebanon. He represented the Lebanon League of Progress in the post-World War I Paris Peace Conference of 1919 where he advocated for French tutelage over Mount Lebanon; he saw his endeavors materialize in the next few months with the creation of the State of Greater Lebanon. Mokarzel championed freedom of expression, religious tolerance, and women's right for education. He attacked the clergy for sanctioning female illiteracy, and child and forced marriages. He appointed the Lebanese-American journalist Afifa Karam as Director of Women's Issues and had a regular column published about the community's women issues.

Mokarzel died on 5 April 1932 in Paris; his body is interred in his hometown of Freike in Lebanon.

## Biography

### Youth in Mount Lebanon

Mokarzel was born into a Maronite Catholic family from the town of Freike in Mount Lebanon, then a semi-autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire. His father Antoun, a Maronite priest, and his mother Barbara Mokarzel née Akl were influential figures in local civic and political affairs. Mokarzel attended school at the Collège de la Sagesse in Beirut and received higher education at the Jesuit Saint Joseph University in Beirut. After graduation, Mokarzel moved to Cairo, Egypt where he landed a job teaching literature at the Jesuit college; he became ill with fever after a year there and returned to his hometown in 1886 where he founded a boarding school. Mokarzel's return to Lebanon was brief and he soon decided to move to the United States. Mokarzel traveled with two relatives, Abdo Rihani and the latter's nephew, Ameen, who would become a major figure in the Mahjar literary movement.

### In New York, early careers and turmoil

On August 4, 1888, Mokarzel and the Rihanis landed in New York; they lived in the basement of 59 Washington Street in Manhattan, a part of the city that was known as Little Syria due to the settlement of a growing Arab Christian immigrant population. The majority of the Syrian and Lebanese immigrants were of modest background and resorted to petty jobs, such as peddling. By contrast, Mokarzel hailed from the Beiruti elite. The Jesuit-educated Mokarzel, who was fluent in French, was quickly hired to teach the language at the Saint Francis Xavier's College in Manhattan, a Jesuit institution at the time. Besides teaching, he was also employed as a bookkeeper for different businesses before engaging in a dry goods commerce venture with Abdo Rihani in 1891. The business failed and Mokarzel consequently departed for Mount Lebanon in 1892.

Upon his return to the United States, the Arbeelys, a Greek Orthodox family of Damascene origins, had begun printing Kawkab America (American Star), the first Arabic-language newspaper in North America; Mokarzel set out to open his own newspaper Al-ʿAsr (The Epoch) with capital from his wealthy merchant friend, Najeeb Maalouf. Mokarzel and Nageeb Arbeely engaged in a journalistic feud, personally attacking each other resulting in series of lawsuits and counter-suits between the two newspapers. The enterprise floundered and was discontinued less than a year after its commencement. Mokarzel attended medical school for two years before dropping out. Meanwhile, Mokarzel was gaining notoriety for his controversial demeanor; he engaged in brawls and verbal disputes with other Arabic-speaking immigrants and was arrested on several occasions for libel and physical assault against members of the community affiliated with the Arbeely family. The brawls that started as a result of professional competition and personal antipathy evolved into sectarian battles between Mokarzel's Maronite entourage and the Orthodox families of the community. Despite his multiple arrests, Mokarzel was never jailed but the incidents were to continue. In 1895, Tannous Shishim, a Lebanese immigrant, petitioned for divorce from his wife Sophie on the ground of adultery and Mokarzel was named co-respondent in the court proceedings. The Arbeelys were quick to publish the culpable news in their newspaper along with a bilingual transcript of the judge's decision, further tarnishing the reputation of Mokarzel. The accused couple got married and eloped to Philadelphia to flee the community's public denunciation.

### Inception of Al-Hoda

In Philadelphia on February 22, 1898, the estranged Mokarzel published the first issue of his second newspaper Al-Hoda (The Guidance), which became the longest-running Arabic newspaper in the United States. The first issue consisted of 18 pages of three columns each and appeared on a weekly basis. The publication expanded in November 1898 to 24 pages including six full pages of advertisement and was distributed in over forty countries. In early 1899, Mokarzel boasted that the circulation of Al-Hoda surpassed that of its main competitor, the Orthodox-inclined Kawkab America. Although claiming to be a non-sectarian publication, Al-Hoda was, like most of the New York-based Arabic newspapers, a mouthpiece to voice the confessional stances of the paper's owner. Al-Hoda was aimed primarily at the Arabic-speaking Levantine immigrants, especially the Maronite community; it reported on Ottoman politics in the Levant, political reform in Lebanon and on the environment of immigrant-run businesses. Mokarzel's brother Salloum traveled to the United States and joined the enterprise that same year. The format of the publication changed after Salloum's arrival; Al-Hoda began appearing twice weekly and was reduced to eight pages with more space reserved for paid advertisements. Despite his standing in the American Maronite community, infamy and controversy still followed Mokarzel. In 1899, the newlyweds published in Al-Hoda an apologetic article of Sophie's divorce from her previous husband and their subsequent marriage. However, Mokarzel's marriage was failing; he separated from Sophie on the same year that their defensive article was published and they divorced in 1902. Sophie returned to New York and took up selling linens before moving to South California where she started a linen shop and married her third husband, a Levantine confectioner. The Mokarzel brothers continued to print Al-Hoda in Philadelphia until late 1902.

### Back in New York

In 1902, Naoum and his brother moved back to New York and settled in Brooklyn; they set up their newspaper's office on Manhattan's West Street. The first issue of Al-Hoda was published from the New York offices on 25 August 1902 and was since published on a daily basis. In 1904, Mokarzel married Ameen Rihani's sister Saada, who according to Naoum's niece and biographer Mary Mokarzel, was very eager to marry him. Ameen Rihani brokered his sister's marriage to Mokarzel but the two never cohabited and Saada soon returned to Mount Lebanon. In 1908, Mokarzel sued for divorce from Saada in absentia on the account that she had committing adultery in a hostel in Mount Lebanon. The divorce was settled in May and was followed by a ten-year dispute in which Saada tried to prove her innocence and to win alimony.

Mokarzel and Ameen Rihani had a lasting professional collaboration with Ameen publishing a regular section entitled Kashkoul al-Khawater (Patchwork of Thoughts) from 1901 until 1904. The two writers fell out because of Naoum's divorce from Saada and because of political differences and conflicting values.

### Competing newspapers and sects

Mokarzel's approach to the Arab American community's other newspapers was contentious and confrontational, and he accused the editors of the other newspapers lacking integrity and professional ethics. The most frequent targets of Mokarzel's attacks were Kawkab America and Al-Islah (The Reform). Mokarzel posited ever since the establishment of Al-Hoda that his newspaper was secular and independent, accusing the other Arabic US-based newspapers of being sectarian and aligned to France, Britain, Russia and to the Ottomans. This position was staunchly upheld by Mokarzel until two Maronite clergymen Yusuf Yazbek and Estephan Qurqumaz sought to publish Al-Sakhra (The Rock), a newspaper representing American Maronites. Feeling threatened by the looming publication, Mokarzel contravened his previous positions and declared that Al-Hoda had always served the Maronite sect and nation and accused the clergymen of seeking "personal and dishonorable purposes". Yazbek accused Mokarzel's newspaper of being a mouthpiece of another Maronite priest, Khairallah Stefan. Mokarzel and his newspaper eventually prevailed.

The animosity prevailing between the newspapers representing different sects mirrored an intra-communal sectarian strife that turned violent in later years. In August 1905, Mokarzel reported that the Orthodox bishop Raphael Hawaweeny called upon his followers to "crush" him. The tensions developed into violence in the autumn of 1905 when the partisans of Hawaweeny and Mokarzel sympathizers clashed, resulting in 29 injured.

The sectarian tension in Little Syria reached its zenith in 1906 when John Stefan, brother of the priest Khairallah Stephan, was killed in a restaurant brawl on Washington Street. Mokarzel was apprehended by the police for the assault that was linked to the murder. Mokarzel's calumnious accusation and arrest were overturned as the complainant did not show up to the trial. The charge was dismissed and the police authorities settled on an Orthodox man, Elias Zreik, as the murderer. During Zreik's trial, the prosecution held that Elias and his brother George were sent to kill Mokarzel; when they did not find him in his office they set out to the restaurant where his Maronite sympathizers often met.

### New Arabic printing era and political involvement

In 1910, the Mokarzel brothers decided to adapt the linotype machine to Arabic script to mitigate the expensive cost and tedious task of manual typesetting. Naoum Mokarzel imported Arabic type letters from Egypt and acquired the first such machine for Al-Hoda from the Mergenthaler company. While the linotype machine made printing cheaper, there was significant competition for readership since New York's Arabic-speaking community did not exceed 10,000 before World War II.

Through his writing in Al-Hoda and other American journals, Mokarzel was gaining further prominence as a leading figure of the American Maronite community and was seeking a similarly prominent woman to marry. In 1910 he married for the third and last time; his wife, Rose Abillama hailed from a princely Maronite family and was more than twenty years his minor. Mokarzel did not have any offspring from any of his marriages. In 1911, Mokarzel became the permanent president of the Lebanon League of Progress (Jamʿiyyat al-Nahda al-Lubnaniyya), a Maronite organization established in the US by the journalist Ibrahim Najjar (1882-1957) and dedicated to promoting a French-supported Maronite protectorate in Lebanon.

In June 1913, Mokarzel was the Lebanon League of Progress delegate to the First Arab Congress in Paris where he represented the North American Maronites. Delegates to the congress discussed reforms to grant the Arabs living under the Ottoman Empire autonomy. The congress did not have a lasting effect, due mostly to the beginning of World War I.

In 1917, Mokarzel sought and collected through Al-Hoda more than \$30,000 US in donations to relieve his compatriots in Mount Lebanon who were experiencing a great famine due to Entente and Ottoman blockades. The collected donations were to be personally dispensed by Mokarzel, but half of the money was directed to fund a volunteer armed force that was gathering to enter Lebanon instead of toward relief aid. Mokarzel incorrectly surmised that the Entente powers would come to the Maronite force's assistance, but they did not take interest in the armed venture.

Mokarzel represented the Lebanon League of Progress in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 where he advocated French tutelage over Mount Lebanon. On 28 September 1919, when the prospects of French control began to materialize, Mokarzel dispatched a fervent telegram to his New York office announcing that the French army would replace the British forces in Greater Syria and that Lebanon would come under French guardianship. In 1923, on the occasion of Al-Hoda'''s Silver Anniversary, Mokarzel was celebrated as a leading figure by the Maronite and the non-Maronite literary community of America, as well as by a number of American friends.

### Last years and death

Mokarzel's last years were marked by bed-confining illnesses. He boarded a boat to France on March 18, 1932 despite his deteriorating health condition to attend a Lebanon-related conference in Paris. Mokarzel succumbed to his illnesses on April 5, 1932. His body was sent from Paris to New York where he received a large public funeral. His body was sent to Lebanon and interred in the family cemetery in his hometown of Freike. After his death, Al-Hoda came under Salloum's management, which passed at the latter's death in 1952 to his daughter Mary. The newspaper closed in 1971.

## Views and activism

Mokarzel held an esteemed position in New York's Arabic-speaking community at a young age; his political and social views were expressed in Al-Hoda as well as other non-Arabic American newspapers. According to Suleiman, Mokarzel was an obstinate and passionate individual who fiercely clung to and defended his opinions and the survival of his publication. He sought to convert detractors to his point of view and he repeatedly made contradictory statements and opinions. Mokarzel engaged in many disputes with his detractors and with editors or rival newspapers and responded to criticism with personal attacks and sarcasm.

### Immigration

In 1896 the Ottoman government lifted the ban on the emigration of its subjects, prompting a surge of immigration to the United States from the Levant. The Ottomans saw benefit in the remittances sent by the Ottoman diaspora, which boosted the economy. In 1898, the Ford Committee lobbied for more stringent immigrant admission criteria to the United States and proposed to the US Congress that the undesirable be turned back. These measures aimed to dampen the flow of the non-European immigrants and prompted Mokarzel to call on all the community's newspapers to stop promoting immigration because the immigrants were likely to be turned back upon arrival. Despite the restrictive measures, only a small fraction of Levantine Ottoman immigrants were debarred.

### Lebanese independence

Mokarzel harbored tacit Lebanese separationist aspirations that he did not openly advocate until the Ottoman defeat in World War I. Before the Ottomans' fall, Mokarzel's rhetoric was more diplomatic; unlike Al-Ayam (The Days), another US-based Arabic newspaper, which was openly hostile toward the Ottoman sultan and authorities, Al-Hoda took a more cautious tone, reminding its Arabic-speaking American readers that they were above all, Ottoman settlers in a foreign land. In 1894, Mokarzel attended an event honoring the Ottoman sultan, giving an address in French to the assembled notables among whom was the Ottoman consul-general of New York. In 1899, Mokarzel criticized the newly established Young Syria Party that aimed to overthrow the Ottoman government and sought to recruit a militia for that purpose. At the turn of the twentieth century, Mokarzel began to openly express his disdain for the Ottoman consul in New York. Mokarzel represented the Lebanon League of Progress in the Arab Congress of 1913 in Paris advocating for the autonomy of Mount Lebanon within the Ottoman Empire.

The mistreatment of the Lebanese during World War I and the ensuing famine were turning points for Mokarzel, who afterward openly called for Lebanon's independence from the Ottomans. In 1917, Mokarzel urged his readers to join a special battalion and fight alongside France to help force the Ottomans out of Lebanon. His call for action was met with distrust and was not successful as there was a growing concern that the recruits would be exploited in occupying Mount Lebanon on behalf of the French, not liberate it from the Turks. Mokarzel then engaged in a campaign among the Lebanese communities in the diaspora, especially in the Americas, to change the name of the community and its organizations from "Syrian" to "Lebanese". Mokarzel participated in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and advocated a French Mandate over Mount Lebanon to train the locals in good governance in preparation for independence. Mokarzel designed the flag used of Mandatory Lebanon; his calls for the establishment of a French-supported protectorate in Lebanon caused his detractors to accuse his newspaper of being financially supported by French endowments.

### Religion and sectarianism

Despite being a staunch practicing Maronite, Mokarzel had often criticized and clashed with the Maronite clergy especially al-mursaloon missionaries who collected funds for the purpose of building or renovating churches in Lebanon. The Maronite clergy members were not accustomed to accountability or reproach of their actions, and thus Mokarzel's criticisms and accusations of corruption made them irate. He was subsequently accused by members of the clergy of being a Freemason. Instead of building more places of worship, Mokarzel pressed in a 1904 article for building more public and secular schools in which the clergy and religion had no influence, arguing that the priests were not serving their community. In a 1923 article, Mokarzel reasserted that secular schools were necessary to avoid sectarian antagonism and aversion between the people of the same nation. Mokarzel also criticized the clergy for imposing social and religious barriers on Syrian women which prevented them from receiving a formal education.

Mokarzel also called for freedom of expression and religious tolerance and used the Al-Hoda publishing house to propagate these values. In 1903, Al-Hoda published Ameen Rihani's The Tripartite Alliance in the Animal Kingdom, a book that was critical of religion. Both Rihani and Mokarzel were severely attacked by the Catholic clergy and by the editors of many rival Arabic newspapers in the United States. Notwithstanding his previous calls for secularism, Mokarzel engaged in a sectarian campaign aimed at Lebanon's Muslim population in November 1925; in a New York Times article, he called for French protection of Lebanese Christians from "the ruthless fanaticism of the Mohammedan element".

### Women's rights and literacy

In a 1904 article entitled "You Are What Your Womenfolk Are", Mokarzel adamantly called against gender discrimination against women in education and attributed the Levantine women's lack of education to the backwardness of the clergy and their authority over women, which he argued, was the root cause of the lack of progress of the Arabic-speaking community of the United States. In an attack on the role of the clergy in barring women from education and from becoming teachers, Mokarzel described the women who submit to the clergy's impositions as traitors to God, and to the mothers' purpose of upbringing.

Mokarzel attacked what he called "false modesty" and how the men of the community allowed their women to peddle freely and stay out of town overnight while labeling them as immodest if they became writers or gave public lectures. Mokarzel found an ally in Afifa Karam, a stalwart woman writer whom he appointed as "Director of Women's Issues" in Al-Hoda. She contributed a regular column in the newspaper and continued writing about the community's women issues despite angry attacks and attempts to shame her. Mokarzel further encouraged female education by offering a free Al-Hoda subscription to any literate woman from the Arabic-speaking community of the United States. Mokarzel was, however, against granting women the right to vote and women's involvement in politics.

Mokarzel condemned forced marriages and child marriage that were still a tradition among Arabic-speaking communities of the US.

### Great Druze Revolt

Mokarzel was a vehement opponent of the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925 which pitted Syrian and Lebanese rebels against the French Mandatory authorities. Mokarzel formed the "Committee to help the Lebanese victims and the refugees" and initiated a fundraising campaign supervised by the Lebanon League of Progress for the benefit of Lebanese victims of the uprising from Rashaya, Hasbaya and Marjayoun. He managed to collect more than half a million dollars that were transferred to a committee in Lebanon headed by Moussa Nammour, a member of the Lebanese parliament. Meraat-ul-Gharb (The Mirror of the Occident), a rival newspaper, accused Nammour of socializing with the French and accused Nammour's organization of corruption. Mokarzel was opposed to Emir Shakib Arslan, a leading figure of the Druze revolt, with whom he had fundamental political disagreements. He called on his readers to petition the US government to ask for the deportation of Arslan and of his delegation. Mokarzel managed to get the delegation under surveillance.

### Arab whiteness and naturalization

In 1909 Mokarzel founded the Syrian American Association to defend the eligibility of Syrians to the American citizenship. Mokarzel and the SAA were engaged in the 1914 case Dow v. United States. The plaintiff, George Dow, was an Ottoman Syrian whose application for citizenship had been rejected twice by the lower courts of South Carolina. Mokarzel and Dow's lawyer mounted an elaborate defense of five points arguing why Dow was to be in the "white persons" category.

Mokarzel argued that Syrians are of Arab origins, "the purest type of the Semitic race" and that therefore are "free white persons" falling within the meaning of the naturalization statute. In the final ruling, the judge in Dow's case accepted the Dillingham report which stipulated that Syrians were from the Semitic branch of the Caucasian race, that they were of mixed Syrian, Arabian and Jewish ancestry and were not from the Mongolian race of their Turkish overlords. The judge finally ruled that Syrians were "white persons", and consequently the court granted Dow American citizenship. The Dow case officially settled the issue of race and eligibility for citizenship for the early Arab Americans.

## Legacy

By adapting the linotyope machine to the Arabic script, Mokarzel and Al-Hoda paved the way for cheaper and easier publishing for Arabic-speaking communities all throughout the world; subsequently, the New York Arabic-speaking colony became an intellectual epicenter through the preponderance of Arabic printing presses. Al-Hoda grew to be an Arabic daily with the widest circulation in North America. The New York Times'' wrote in 1948 that this development "made possible and immeasurably stimulated the growth of Arabic journalism in the Middle East".

## See also

- Al-Hoda
- Nageeb Arbeely
- 'Afifa Karam

Lebanese writer and philosopher

Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the United States