Exiting Highway 101 for Her Own Road : With an Album, ‘Love Goes On,’ and a Tour, Paulette Carlson’s Solo Act Is Well on Its Way

Why would anybody walk away from one of the most successful country-music groups of the last decade?

Paulette Carlson’s distinctive vocals led Highway 101 to a string of Top 10 country hits, including “Somewhere Tonight,” “The Bed You Made for Me,” “Whiskey, If You Were a Woman” and “(Do You Love Me) Just Say Yes,” as well as to multiple country-music awards for Group of the Year.

Even though the band showed no signs of letting up either artistically or commercially, Carlson parted company last year with her band mates: bassist Curtis Stone, drummer Cactus Moser and guitarist Jack Daniels, who continue as Highway 101 with singer Nikki Nelson taking over for Carlson.

“There were a few different reasons for leaving,” Carlson said by phone from Nashville during a brief hiatus in a solo tour that brings her to the Crazy Horse Steak House on Monday.

“Now I have a baby,” she said, referring to her daughter, Cali Gabriel, who turned 1 this week. . “I needed to be able to set my own schedule with my family and the little one. With Highway 101, we were on the road constantly.”

Couldn’t Carlson just have told the others that she wanted to cut back on the touring schedule? “I took a couple of months off when I got married,” she said. “We had never done that in our four years together. I didn’t feel taking even more time off was fair to the guys. I knew they liked to be on the road. I didn’t think cutting back on touring was something it was fair of me to ask of them.

“There were also extra things that I wanted to do beyond the band,” she continued. “I wanted to make a solo album and still stay with the band, and they didn’t want me to do anything like that. . . . I could go down a list of probably a dozen different things, and it just weighed out that it was better for me to move on. It was a hard decision to make, though.”

Needless to say, Carlson’s decision came as an unpleasant shock to the other three members of Highway 101.

“I don’t think they were very happy,” she said. “It was a tough year. I gave the guys about 10 months’ notice that I was leaving. The decision among the management and the guys was to not let it out to the public. That was kind of difficult. I would have preferred to have said (to fans): ‘Come on out, everybody, to our last shows.’ However, the others preferred to keep it real quiet. It was a shock to folks when all of a sudden I was gone. That was one thing that was kind of hard.”

Carlson said that she turned down a chance to go solo at the very start of Highway 101’s career.

“When we had our singles deal with Warner Bros., ‘The Bed You Made for Me’ came out and started going up the charts like crazy. We didn’t even have our album deal yet, and Warner Bros. came to me and asked if I wanted to just go solo. I thought hard about it, and I thought how much convincing it had taken me to get Curtis Stone to believe in the (band) project. I wasn’t about to let him go, so I decided to remain with the band. Even back then Curtis used to tease me and say, ‘You’ve got to stay with the band for five years.’ ”

As it turned out, Carlson stayed with Highway 101 exactly five years. Although she misses the guys, Carlson said that producing her solo debut album, “Love Goes On,” with Jimmy Bowen gave her an exciting new challenge.

“Co-producing is a lot of work,” she said. “The most difficult thing for me turned out to be doing vocals, finding the right blend. Because I’m a singer, you would think I’d find that the easiest part. . . . I found it very rewarding to co-produce, though, and I’m going to do it again.”

She’s touring again as a solo artist but says that this time out, “having my baby and her nanny with me is a big plus. . . . It’s nice to have that feminine companionship. It’s hard to be one of the guys when you’re the only woman. I grew up with all boys and I was a tomboy, but, you know, you get to a certain age and those differences just start emerging.

“Feminine energy is definitely different than the male. I was never one of the boys, and I used to get kind of lonely. Now I have some woman companionship.”

Carlson also is enjoying the warm reception she has been getting on this tour from all her Highway 101 fans. “The audience has been so receptive,” she said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the road, what with having the baby and switching record companies,” to Liberty Nashville. “I find that the folks are happy to see me back, which makes me feel good.”

Although Carlson is eager to introduce the material from her new album, she includes plenty of Highway 101 songs in her stage show. “I think people would throw things at me if I didn’t,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t want any rotten tomatoes.”

Paulette Carlson sings Monday at 7 and 10 p.m. at the Crazy Horse Steak House, 1580 Brookhollow Drive, Santa Ana. $24.50. (714) 549-1512.