Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Lucinda Williams & Elvis Costello Release New Duet For True Blood- Listen To It Here
Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello have a song called "Kiss Like Your Kiss" which was written exclusively for the True Blood Soundtrack. We wanted That Nashville Sound readers to hear it in its entirey, so here it is!
Lucinda Williams with Elvis Costello - Kiss Like Your Kiss by ATL REC.
If you like what you hear, you can hear a lot of the other tracks HERE.
Lucinda Williams with Elvis Costello - Kiss Like Your Kiss by ATL REC.
If you like what you hear, you can hear a lot of the other tracks HERE.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Gatlin Brothers Plan Box Set Release For September 8
“One of the joys of my youth was reading ‘quotable quotes’ and ‘humor in uniform’ in the Reader’s Digest” says Larry Gatlin. “To be associated with this legendary publication is absolutely fantastic!”
Reader’s Digest will exclusively release The Legendary Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers on September 8, 2010. The 3-disc box set will feature 60 of the Gatlin Brothers’ most celebrated career songs, including all 33 of their Top 40 Hits. Consumers can expect original studio recordings of the songs that made Larry, Steve and Rudy Gatlin household names, including their biggest hits, “All The Gold In California,” “Houston (Means I’m One Day Closer To You)”, “I Just Wish You Were Someone I Love” and “Broken Lady.”
“Larry Gatlin is one of country music’s greatest singer/songwriters of all time. I am thrilled that we were able to include every track from Larry’s incredible debut album “The Pilgrim” in this box set” says Reader’s Digest Senior Music Editor John Alexander. “What a joy it was revisiting all these amazing songs that not only inspired and influenced my life, but also elevated the Gatlin Brothers to country music royalty.”
The set will be available for purchase through Reader’s Digest’s fall 2010 catalog, as well as the publication’s online store, which can be found at www.readersdigest.com.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Taylor Swift Reveals Cover Art For October 25 Release, Speak Now
"That pertains to the album as a concept and as an entire theme of the record -- more than I can even tell you. I've been working on it for two years. Ever since we put out Fearless, I've been writing for this record and conceptualizing it and putting it together in my head as to what I wanted it to be." Describing the theme, she added, "In life, you have a lot of situations that pop up and people that come into your life. Sometimes you don't get to tell them what you wish you'd told them. This album is my opportunity to do that. Track by track, each song is a different confession to a different person."
Billy Currington Plans 4th Album Release For September 21
"It’s a great mix. It reflects who I am,” Currington says about the collection of 10 songs. “I’m definitely not just one thing. I’m the beach guy, I’m the country guy, I love my dirt roads and fishin’, but I love New York City and L.A. and Miami, too.”
The album features Nashville’s songwriters Dave Barnes, Shawn Camp, Scotty Emerick, Jones and Mark Nesler.
“This record was about recording songwriter’s songs,” says Billy. “I could have gone back and recorded a bunch of mine that I’ve written, but there were a lot of writers I wanted to record, like Shawn and Troy. I had to put their songs on this album.”
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Lady Antebellum Releases New Sessions EP
“Sessions” Track Listing:
1. I Run To You
2. Need You Now
3. Learning To Fly
4. Our Kind Of Love
5. Love This Pain
6. American Honey
7. Hello World
CD Reviews- Trace Adkins- Cowboy’s Back In Town
The Background:
Trace Adkins' new album, Cowboy's Back in Town arrives today- August 17, 2010. It's his first album for Show Dog-Universal Music, the label headed by Toby Keith and producer Mark Wright. Adkins co-wrote the title track with Jeff Bates and Kenny Beard. In addition, Beard co-produced the 11-track album with Michael Knox, best known for producing Jason Aldean. A deluxe package is also be available with four additional tracks, including "Hillbilly Bone," his collaboration with Blake Shelton. Overall, he has charted more than twenty singles on the Billboard country music charts, including the Number One hits "(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing", "Ladies Love Country Boys", and "You're Gonna Miss This."
The Review:
On this first album on Toby Keith’s label, Trace Adkins ramps up the redneck bravado and testosterone-filled swagger with Cowboy’s Back In Town. While each of Adkins previous albums have had some rockier moments (ala “HonkyTonkBadonkadonk” or “Chrome”), this one is decidedly more edgy and rockier. With a couple exceptions, there’s little here to remind us of the softer side of Adkins- past singles such as “Muddy Water” and “Arlington” come to mind. If he appealed to the soccer mom crowd previously with “You’re Gonna Miss This,” this album has certainly retargeted a younger, more southern rock crowd. That’s easy to see with Cowboy’s Back In Town titles such as “Whoop A Man’s Ass”, “Hold My Beer”, “Ala-Freakin-Bama” and the getting-busy-in-the-hayloft rocker “Brown Chicken Brown Cow.” There certainly are positive & critical highlights, however. His first single to radio, “This Ain’t No Love Song”, is a terrific starter complete with a throwaway line that it “may not be on the radio… but you never know.” “Hell, I Can Do That” is a cute novelty song celebrating blissful ignorance- right down to comparisons and genius rhymes with Matthew McConaughey. Ironically, it’s when he slows things down a bit that that deep baritone conveys the most emotion- most notably on the pretty soft piano ballad “Still Love You.” “Break Her Fall”, a song about two young souls using each other as they learn about the world, has one of the better lines I’ve heard sung lately in “She used me like a razor blade to cut the ties that bind.” But for each one of those tender moments, there’s heaping amounts of loud southern pride, with stadium rock-style production- right down to the puzzling half-talk half-rap song finish by Trailer Choir on “Don’t Mind If I Don’t”, a celebration to being lazy.
Sounds Like:
Jason Aldean rocking with Josh Turner’s voice with a couple of Joe Diffie novelty songs
Track Highlights (suggested iPod adds):This Ain’t No Love Song
Cowboy’s Back In Town
Hell, I Can Do That
Still Love You
Break Her Fall
The Verdict:
Three And A Half Stars Out Of Five
Monday, August 16, 2010
CD Reviews- John Mellencamp- No Better Than This
The Background:In an age of auto-tuned, computerized recordings, John Mellencamp's approach on his Rounder debut, No Better Than This, is very different. The entire album was recorded with Mellencamp and his band all playing live in one room using a 55 year-old Ampex tape recorder and just one vintage microphone. Legendary producer T Bone Burnett captured the thirteen new Mellencamp originals at three historically important locations: Sun Studio in Memphis, TN (where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis all first recorded); the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, GA (the oldest Black church in North America, dating to 1775); and in Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, TX (where Robert Johnson made his first recordings in 1936). The songs on No Better Than This reflect classic American musical traditions including blues, folk, gospel, rockabilly, and country, while addressing such themes as the need for hope, the nature of relationships, and narratives that recount extraordinary occurrences in everyday life. Mellencamp says of the album, "It was absolutely the most fun I've ever had making a record in my life. It was about making music - organic music made by real musicians - that's heartfelt and written from the best place it can come from."
The Review:
Going back to the John Cougar days, Mellencamp always flirted back and forth across rock and roll, Americana, folk and country- walking across genres fairly seamlessly. He probably did it better and more seamlessly than any other artist of his time- always being and feeling authentic along the way. No Better Than This is much more acoustic and much more country than anything he’s released previously. He’s also much more mellow on this album. And while there’s some great tracks on the album, this reviewer isn’t ready for Mellencamp to give up his rocking ways quite yet. He’s not quite sixty. And while artists before him have gone to a stripped down acoustic direction- think Cash’s American Series, Kristofferson’s most recent or even Tom Jones’ latest album- they’re much older artists with deeper lyrics that deal with legacy, death and God. Mellencamp’s just too young to completely give up his rock and roll side. What we love about him as much as anything is his ability to get his groove on with such classics as “Paper In Fire”, “Jack and Diane” and more recently, his duet with Me'shell Ndegeocello on “Wild Night.” Those are all great tracks- and a side that’s missing on this album. Ironically, and perhaps a bit counter-intuitive to that last comment, two of the better songs one the album are acoustic guitar only without even any percussion. “Thinking About You” finds Mellencamp looking back fondly on that first childhood relationship and now, several decades later, wondering what she’s doing now. In the form of a phone call, he reaches out to her. The song is at once philosophical, romantic and contemplative. “Love at First Sight” on the other hand is a two-sided comical take on the perils of falling in love at first sight- particularly since Mellencamp has been married three times. The first half of the song is all lovey-dovey and roses with the perfect sequence of events: romance, love, marriage and kids. After the bridge, things begin falling apart with arguments, getting hit with a frying pan and finally being whacked by his wife- doing him in. It is definitely a humorous take on the dating scene. Slightly fuller on the instrumentation depth scale is the opening track, “Save Some Time to Dream.” Mellencamp has been long been a crusader for the working man (25 years of Farm Aid probably tell that tale better than any other stat) and the lyrics preach the importance of saving some time to dream, for those dreams might save us all. An additional powerful song is “Easter Eve” It tells the story of John and his fourteen year-old-son who are eating dinner when a strange man sitting with his wife comes over and threatens them. A fight ensues and his son narrowly escapes death but with a beer bottle across the jaw, subdues the attacker. They all go to jail. But that only stands as a surface story. Behind the scenes, the wife of the crazed husband has been too fearful to leave her spouse. Now jailed, she has the opportunity for her own rebirth of personal freedom. The symbolism and comparison on this Easter- with Jesus’ own rebirth- is a powerful one. Through a fight, trials and tribulations, she is able to have a rebirth of her own- similar to a Phoenix. It’s a great analogy and a great story song- easily the favorite track on the album.
Sounds Like:
Classic gravel-voiced Mellencamp set to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s Raising Sand
Track Highlights (suggested iPod adds):
Save Some Time To Dream
Thinking about You
Love at First Sight
Easter Eve
The Verdict:
Three Stars Out Of Five
Sunday, August 15, 2010
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