New Music Video From Billy Dean and Paul Overstreet - "The Rest Of It's Mine"

Fab Four October- A Quartet of Things TNS Is Digging

This is the Halloween version of our new monthly feature that is going to highlight four new, new to me, or recently rediscovered items that have made my own personal country-music-can't-remove-from-my-head over the last month. It follows up on lists from earlier in the year. Some will be singles, some might be albums and some just might be a live performance or two. It’ll be a little look inside the head of this mad-about-country-music-man.

1. Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott – “House of Gold”- The duo just released a live performance album called We’re Usually A Lot Better Than This that was recorded at two different Nashville-area school fundraisers. They’re both accomplished songwriters with dozens of album cuts between them. The stand-out track on the new album is done in old time mountain gospel style without any instrumentation at all. It’s good old fashioned a cappella. The fact that it is written by none other than the legend himself, Mr. Hank Williams, Sr., only gives it that much more of an aura surrounding it. You can listen to studio version of them singing the track here at YouTube: http://youtu.be/OWb4SHdfpJM

2. Emily West – “That’s How the Boy Gets the Girl in the Movies”- Former Capital Records artist West has put out some of the most interesting music of anyone in Nashville this year. Her I Hate You, I Love You EP will rank as one of our favorite five albums of the year with only six songs. This follow-up release and music video barely borders on country music, but is fantastic storytelling and beautiful instrumentation- the strings are heavenly. Her range and voice knock me out each time I listen to it. The fact that it is set to movie segments of love found throughout cinema is the perfect match.



3. Billy Dean – “Seed”- Dean has been missing off of the country music charts for the better part of a decade now, but he hasn’t stopped making music. He just released A Man of Good Fortune this past month and it’s Dean just how you remember him. He plays pure storyteller on most of the album, painting pictures right and left with an above-average album as a whole. The stand-out track, however, is this little song about positivity in the world. With all the negativity surrounding the world of politics here in the U.S., this stands out more than ever. If a small seed can turn into a tree, and that tree wood can supply all that it does, can’t we as a society change the world with just an idea? It reminds a little of Shel Silverstein’s book, The Giving Tree.



4. Lori McKenna – “Sometimes He Does”- Off of McKenna’s EP she released just two weeks ago called Heart Shaped Bullet Hole, this is one of our favorite tracks of the year. McKenna has an innate ability to share intimate feelings that are the same time tender, revealing, melancholy and inspiring- all in the same song. “Sometimes He Does” does just that. Marriage isn’t all roses and romance, but the times it is keeps it magical. She paints both sides of that equation perfectly. Eloquently. Truthfully. Thankfully.

 

Happy Birthday To Emmylou Harris & Billy Dean Today

That Nashville Sound wishes a big hearty birthday wish to two of country music's long-standing country stars- Country Music Hall of Famer Emmylou Harris and Billy Dean.

Though Emmylou is one of the most admired and influential woman in contemporary country music, her scope extends far beyond it. She has recorded with such diverse artists as Ryan Adams, Beck, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, Tammy Wynette, Neil Young, The Chieftains, Lyle Lovett, Roy Orbison, The Band, Willie Nelson and George Jones. She was inducted to the Hall of Fame this past year. Celebrate her big day with a watch of the song For No One written by the legendary John Lennon & Paul McCartney here...

Active as a recording artist since 1990, Billy Dean has recorded a total of eight studio albums (of which the first three have been certified gold by the RIAA) and a greatest hits package which is also certified gold. His studio albums have accounted for more than twenty hit singles on the Billboard country charts, including eleven Top Ten hits. Celebrate his birthday with a quick watch of his latest chart hit video, "Let Them Be Little" here...

"This Is My America" CD Box Set Combines History & Music

Fifty-six award-winning, American songwriters and performers have united to tell the history of the United States in a musically unprecedented, three-disc concept album called This Is My America.

Developed by Canadian producer Douglas Hutton, This Is My America employs songs and spoken narratives to chronicle a timeline of significant events that helped to shape the path of American history."

The 'star' of this project is a place called America," says Hutton, executive producer and president of King Motion Picture Corporation. "Portraits of the American experience have been expressed and distributed through film, television, recordings and countless literary works, but I wanted to tell it in a more inventive way that respects and reflects today's American values. What better way to do that, than through the international language of music?"

The epic set features an impressive array of some of Nashville's most talented singers and songwriters, including dozens of award-winning North American Songwriters Association (NSAI) composers, such as Charlie Black, Rory Bourke, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Roxie Dean, Steve Dean, Matt King, J Fred Knobloch, Wood Newton, Tim Ryan, Bill Shore, Sharon Vaughn, Jon Vezner, Jim Weatherly, Brian White, Lynn Wilbanks and David Wills. Dolly Parton, Kathy Mattea, Charley Pride, Mark O'Connor, Billy Dean, the Nashville Symphony and the Fisk Jubilee Singers are just a few of the performers that contributed to one of the most expensive projects ever recorded in Nashville. "

This is My America is simply one of the most amazing projects the Nashville Songwriters Association International has had the privilege to be involved with," says NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison. "The music is incredible, the stories are amazing, and the concept is fabulous." This Is My America chronologically spans more than 500 years of American history, touching on Native American themes, European exploration, Western settlement, and specific events such as the arrival of the Mayflower, the California Gold Rush, the Civil War, World War I and II and the recent tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.

The three-disc set, beautifully designed by artist Rollow Welch, is currently available online at www.ThisIsMyAmerica.com.