TNS Video History- Asleep At The Wheel- "Before The Next Teardrop Falls"

An Interview With Mark Wills Over At Engine 145

Mark Wills found both personal and professional success in Georgia's capital city. He met his wife Kelly there. The same year Mark Wills married his sweetheart Kelly was the same in year "Jacob's Ladder" jump-started his country career on Mercury Records. It was 1996. That single was followed by a string of Top 10 smashes: "Places I've Never Been" (1997), "I Do (Cherish You)" (1998), "Don't Laugh at Me" (1998), "Wish You Were Here" (1999), "She's in Love" (1999) and "Back at One" (2000).

With its message of tolerance and charity, "Don't Laugh at Me" garnered nominations from the Country Music Association for single, song and video of the year in 1998. Again, career success dovetailed with personal happiness. His daughter Mally was born, bringing a deeper joy and depth to the words of the songs he sings as an artist.

In 2001, Wills released his fourth CD, Loving Every Minute, which included a duet with labelmate Jamie O'Neal. His Greatest Hits followed in 2002, featuring the huge radio hit "19 Somethin'." He released the album  And the Crowd Goes Wild in 2003. He also just released the independent Looking For America this June and on the album, has a track that's benefiting military personnel that are returning to life stateside. I did an interview with Mark over at Engine 145 to talk about the new album and his work with our brave military teams. Read a snippet below and then check out the rest of the interview HERE.

"At the end of the day, I hope to be remembered as a singer. I don’t want to be remembered as the fanny wagon entertainer. And that’s because I think there’s a big difference between being an entertainer and a singer. I love that people are able to come to my show and hear the songs sung with the same intensity and the same passion with the same pitch live as it was on my record. That’s honestly what I strive for. I love to have fun. We have a great time in our show. And I think that’s important. But I think that’s part of what we’ve lost that makes, what I think, country music the greatest music out there. And that’s the fact that when you go see a Ronnie Milsap show, an Alabama show, one of those great artists perform live, they sound exactly like they did on the record as they did live. And that’s without auto-tune. And that’s without all the bells and whistles and tricks. That’s what I’ve always aspired to do. I’ve always aspired to be able to pull it off live and represent myself well live. And to me that brings it right down to the reality of it all, the musical talent. You have to be able to do what you do and represent yourself well live."

Read the rest of the interview HERE. 

New Music From Emily West

Emily West took to her Facebook account yesterday and unveiled two pieces of new music that she's sharing with the world- "Damn, You Were Mine" and "Only When I'm Lonely." She says, "A new baby I just birthed is ready for her debut on FB. Check it out. You like-y?" You can listen to both below.

  Damn, You Were Mine by EmilyWestMusic

  ONLY WHEN I'M LONELY by EmilyWestMusic

New Music From Jack Ingram- "Right For You"

If you're not familiar with the great Americana music site called Music Fog, go bookmark it right this instant. It's got a huge array of incredibly produced videos and high-quality sound clips of a bunch of acts you know, and others that you should know. I missed it a few weeks back, but the folks at Music Fog had this great new number from Jack Ingram to share with the world- "Right For You."

CD Album Review- The Dirt Drifters- This Is My Blood

The Background-
Made up of lead singer/guitarist Matt Fleener, vocalist/guitarist Ryan Fleener, vocalist/guitarist Jeff Middleton, bassist Jeremy Little and drummer Nick Diamond, The Dirt Drifters bring backgrounds of country, rock, funk and R&B to their roadhouse country. After several years together, road-tested, club-polished, they signed to Warner Bros. Records, which is turning them loose with their first album called This Is My Blood. The album is produced by Justin Niebank, known for his work with Vince Gill, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban, among others.

The Review-
It's not often that I get to hear a band play live in person before I hear their first recorded album, but in the case of The Dirt Drifters, such was the instance. The five-piece band played back-to-back nights in a Sacramento children's charity fundraiser in early May with 14 other country music acts and brought the house down both nights. With a high-energy short list of songs set to a gritty country-rock sound with great harmonies- it resulted in a cross between John Mellencamp and Steve Earle. They wove those stories with great musicianship and stage presence. It resulted into great anticipation to see if that energy and personality could be transferred to disc on This Is My Blood. To the benefit of The Dirt Drifters and their producers, they succeeded mightily.

The album opens up to their first radio single that just cracked the Mediabase Top 50, "Something Better." It's a well-played high-energy terrific tale of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence. It captures their live energy well and was a great first release to identify the band as a whole. For the Y and i generations, this just could be an anthem. With a glut of small-town-usa-my-hometown-southern-way-of-life-is-so-great songs on the radio dial, the Drifters take on "Always A Reason To Drink Around Here" is a refreshing twist and flip side of that coin. The blue collar themes are many across the album and they're not always championed- they're celebrated and lamented equally. It creates a more believable and realistic set of lyrics- and more personable because of it. On "Hurt Somebody," the band contrast beautiful ballad harmonies with the lyrics of self-destructive love. "You use your red lipstick like a loaded gun," are indicative of the great storytelling on this and other tracks. Gunsmoke, cheap perfume and gold bands on nightstands are the props on the outstanding story-song "Married Men and Hotel Rooms." It's a fantastic tale of lust, deception and the danger of a woman scorned. The great blue-collar champion himself, Willie Nelson, makes a delicious guest star on "I'll Shut Up Now" which then leads into the killer blue collar themed "Name On My Shirt." The song opens with the belief that a name sewn on a shirt is the trigger for a cursed life filled with dirt, grease and unfulfilled dreams. As the protagonist grows older, he realizes it as a badge of honor fulfilling a family legacy through a lifestyle and employment choice. It's beautifully well-written, smart and doesn't gloss over the hardships of rural living in its storytelling.

The complaints are minor. The last three tracks don't have as much lyrical teeth as the first eight tracks and the musical bridge/break into a rocking version of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" in the middle of their live version of "Married Men and Motel Rooms" is nowhere to be found on the album. Perhaps that will be something to look forward to as an added bonus track on their second album.

Overall, the album is a phenomenal piece of work and easily ranks in the top ten of albums we've heard thus far this year.

Sounds Like-
A modern version of everything that was great about early John Mellencamp

Suggested Tracks-
Something Better
Married Men and Hotel Rooms
Name On My Shirt

The Verdict-
Four stars out of five

Lady Antebellum Release Artwork And Details On Next Album Launch

The trio Lady Antebellum have announced that their new album, Own the Night will release on September 13th of this year. The group has unveiled the cover and the full track list for their third album, which follows up the Grammy-sweeping, multi-platinum Need You Now.

Band member Dave Haywood says, “We’re definitely more in tune with each other musically and personally than ever. It’s an exciting place to be. This album was created from the ground up — we are writing these songs, playing these instruments and creating these arrangements. With Own the Night, more than ever before, I think we share a real feeling of accomplishment both as a band and as friends.”
Singer Charles Kelley added, “Our only hope and expectation for this record is that it will build on the first two. At the end of the day, we just want our fans to be able to say that we continue to give them solid albums with solid songs they can enjoy from start to finish.”

Track listing:
1. ‘We Owned the Night’
2. ‘Just a Kiss’
3. ‘Dancin’ Away With My Heart’
4. ‘Friday Night’
5. ‘When You Were Mine’
6. ‘Cold as Stone’
7. ‘Singing Me Home’
8. ‘Wanted You More’
9. ‘As You Turn Away’
10.’ The Love I’ve Found in You’
11. ‘Somewhere Love Remains’
12. ‘The Heart of the World’

Songwriter Jerry Ragovoy Passes

Jerry Ragovoy, a hugely profilic songwriter for artists from Sammy Hagar to Janis Joplin, passed away this past week at the age of 80. He was known primarily for his songs in the soul vein of music, but he had a number of roots music cuts including several by Bonnie Raitt and Faith Hill's "Piece of My Heart." Below is his bio from AllMusic.

An important behind-the-scenes force behind East Coast soul music, Jerry Ragovoy  wrote or co-wrote several classic New York and Philadelphia soul records in the 1960s, often distinguished by a conspicuous gospel feel. The best of these included Garnet Mimms' "Cry Baby," Howard Tate's "Get It While You Can," "Time Is on My Side" (done by Irma Thomas and the Rolling Stones), and Lorraine Ellison's "Stay With Me." Ragovoy also contributed to first-class soul records as a producer and arranger.

It is interesting that some of the seminal producers and songwriters of the soul era were not African-American, or nearly as young as the audience buying most soul records. Ragovoy was a case in point; he was a white Jew from Philadelphia, and entered record production in 1953 with "My Girl Awaits Me" by the Castelles. He worked at Philly's Chancellor Records (where Fabian and Frankie Avalon had hits) and wrote the Majors' vocal group single "A Wonderful Dream," which made number 22 in 1962. Around this time he began writing some songs with another excellent white soul songwriter-producer type, Bert Berns, including "Cry Baby" by Garnet Mimms, which made number four in 1963.

Ragovoy produced Mimms throughout the 1960s, creating a distinctive soul sound that blended churchy vocals and gospel-ish tunes with professional, classy New York studio arrangements. Ragovoy also had a hand in writing other memorable singles for Mimms, including "A Quiet Place," "Look Away," "Baby Don't You Weep," "It Was Easier to Hurt Her," "Anytime You Want Me" (covered by the Who in 1965), and "My Baby." In the mid-'60s he also wrote a song for jazz trombonist Kai Winding, "Time Is on My Side," that was covered by Irma Thomas, and then by the Rolling Stones in a more rock-oriented version that gave them their first U.S. Top Ten hit. "Time Is on My Side," and some other of his best songs, were written under the pseudonym of Norman Meade.

Ragovoy also took a production/songwriting role in the careers of two of the most esteemed East Coast soul cult performers of the late '60s, Lorraine Ellison and Howard Tate. Ellison's "Stay With Me" is a classic example of the Ragovoy style: a slow, emotionally wrenching number which could almost be a gospel song but for the symphonic orchestral production, vocalized passionately and played with a drama with faint echoes of Broadway and opera. Indeed, for "Stay With Me," a 46-piece orchestra was used, after a Frank Sinatra session was canceled at short notice and Ragovoy scrambled to come up with an arrangement that could be used while the musicians were available.

Janis Joplin in particular seemed to have a yen for Ragovoy-penned material, covering (with Big Brother & the Holding Company, or as a solo singer) "Piece of My Heart," "My Baby," "Get It While You Can," "Cry Baby," and "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)" (the last of which was originally recorded by Ellison). In most cases, Joplin's interpretation eventually became the best-known version. Three of these songs were on her final album, Pearl, and Joplin asked Ragovoy to compose a tune especially for her that she could record on the disc. Ragovoy has said that he did do this around the summer of 1970, but that Joplin did not have a chance to record the number -- titled, ironically, "I'm Gonna Rock My Way to Heaven" -- as she died several weeks later.

Probably comfortable from the royalties brought in by Joplin's cover versions, as well as some of his other compositions -- it was reported that producers of proposed Joplin biopic paid about one million dollars for the rights to use "Piece of My Heart" -- Ragovoy was not too active after the 1960s, although he did some production for Bonnie Raitt in the 1970s.

TNS Video History- Don Williams- "Some Broken Hearts Never Mend"