Good music takes time for Rodney Atkins

Rodney Atkins takes his time making music.

The country singer has not released an album of new material since 2011. He's been working on his next album for more than four years.

"That’s kind of par for the course for me," he said with a laugh. "I like to kind of take my time working on songs. You want songs to be around, to be relevant for a long time. And putting those kinds of records together just takes me a while."

Atkins, whose last studio album was 2011's "Take a Back Road," performs Saturday as part of the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival.

Born in Tennessee, Atkins made a splash with his 2006 album, "If You're Going Through Hell," which sold more than a million copies. That same year, he was named top male vocalist by the Academy of Country Music.

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He followed that success with "It's America" in 2009. His most recent release was a greatest hits compilation in 2015.

Recently, Atkins spoke by telephone from his home in Nashville. Here are excerpts:

Weekender: Are you on tour or getting ready to head out?

Atkins: We are. We went out and did a few of the festivities for the ACM awards this weekend and I’m about to go out for our first kind of New England run through the week.

Weekender: How did the ACM Awards go?

Atkins: It went great. They had an event called "Party for a Cause.'' And they had radio remotes where all the radio folks kind of come in to Vegas for the awards show. We’re releasing a new single (April 23), so it was an opportunity to kind of do a little promoting and revisiting with radio.

Weekender: What’s the new single?

Atkins: It’s called "Caught up in the Country.''

Weekender: How would you describe it? Is it different from stuff you’ve done before?

Atkins: It kind of is. It’s a lot more organic than things I’ve done in the past. It’s the first time I’ve kind of done a vocal event. I had the Fisk Jubilee Singers come in. Those kids came in and they stomped and clapped and sang. It was a whole lot of fun.

It’s sonically kind of different than things I’ve done in the past, but it’s still kind of about hopefully lifting people up and celebrating the good things about country.

Weekender: You’ll be playing at our Dogwood Festival. Do you like doing those kind of outdoor, festival shows?

Atkins: Definitely. It’s a lot of fun.

Weekender: What are the crowds like? Is it more of a general crowd than specifically your fans?

Atkins: A lot of times it seems like those are great opportunities for families to come out, kind of hang and have a good time, spend some time together. I don’t know that it’s different from my usual fans.

Weekender: What can people expect at the show?

Atkins: It’s a fun time for us when we go out on the road. We’ve been working on a new album for the last, oh, four and a half years. We just finished that and we’re going to get to play some new music for folks. I’m excited to go out. We’ve actually been in rehearsals, working up these new songs, making a few changes and we’ll hopefully do a whole different show than we’ve done in past years.

Weekender: Will you be bringing your band to the show?

Atkins: Yes, for sure.

Weekender: What’s a typical day like for you these days?

Atkins: We’ve got a 4-month-old little boy. It’s sort of wrapped around his naps and taking turns changing diapers. These days, kind of just finishing up this new music has kind of been all encompassing, between that and having a little baby. It’s been good.

Weekender: What’s next for you?

Atkins: With the single release, we’ve been working on the set-up for that for a while. Now we get to go on the road and play the new songs. So pretty much just being on the road. It’s going to be our adventure for the year.

Staff writer Rodger Mullen can be reached at rmullen@fayobserver.com or 486-3561.

Rodney Atkins

• Where: Fayetteville Dogwood Festival

• When: Saturday at 9 p.m.

• Admission: Free

• Information: 323-1934 or faydogwoodfestival.com