First of all a disclaimer: I have never really been a Brad Paisley fan until today, when I listened to this album. Sure I like “Whiskey Lullaby”, “When I Get Where I’m Going” and “Letter To Me”, but I never really thought “Man, I need to hear some Brad Paisley right now.” He just wasn’t high up for me, like Lee Ann Womack or Sugarland always are. My dad’s a fan, in fact for father’s day I got him Who Needs Pictures, Part II and Play to round out his Paisley collection. American Saturday Night? I bought it for myself, but mostly for him because I didn’t expect to really love it: I was wrong.
Why do I love this album? First of all, it’s so balanced between the facets of Brad’s personality. We get fun and clever Brad (“American Saturday Night”, “The Pants”, “Water”) and we get sentimental Brad (“Then”, “No” “Anything Like Me”), and neither really outweighs the other- although I argue that sentimental Brad is usually much better. Surprisingly, no songs are sexist in any way, an objection some had to “I’m Still A Guy” or “Little Moments”, previous hits from Brad’s earlier albums. The album leans a little more towards slower numbers, but it never gets annoying because they’re separated by bursts of energy, and the songs are just good.
Shockingly, this album has a lot of steel guitar and fiddle- something almost unheard of from today’s Nashville stars, but it works well with Brad’s electric guitar work. His guitar never gets in the way, but comes in to make a slow song a little more interesting, or to drive a faster song. The songs all sound great, and it gives that impression of a good band playing live together, instead of a wall of sound where instruments blend together into a mushy radio-friendly pile of goo. The songs are just great to listen to, save the odd futuristic sounds on “Welcome To The Future”, and it’s a very well-made album.
Two songs stand out thematically, namely “Everybody’s Here” and “Oh Yeah, You’re Gone”, both of them being about failing at getting over a break up. On the former, Brad escapes his ex’s memory by going to a party, where he’s just bombarded with questions:
The first time somebody asked where you were,
I didn’t know what to say.
The second time somebody asked where you were,
I lied and said she’s on her way.
The third time somebody asked where you were,
Well, I just wanted to scream,
I guess the land of the living
Ain’t no place for a heartbroken zombie like me…
He paints an accurate picture of a man not ready to move on, so he just checks out- “Everybody’s here but me.” The song has gorgeous steel guitar parts and Brad sings really well with some nice falsetto. It’s a relaxing, yet sad song and just a great track. On “Oh Yeah, You’re Gone” Brad sings about how he still acts like a couple, even though she’s gone already. Little moments remind him he’s alone, like grabbing two coffee cups in the morning, making for a great song about trying to move on.
In “No”, Brad pays tribute to his Grandpa, relating his advice of how prayers are always answered, but sometimes we just get a “no”. It’s a classic 3-act story song, but one that feels natural, not forced or manufactured like other similar songs (“You Can Let Go” by Crystal Shawanda or “Cowgirls Don’t Cry” by Brooks & Dunn). This is mostly because it’s completely believable and most likely a true story. Likewise when Paisley sings about how his son will be just like him on “Anything But Me”, there’s no doubt that Brad’s done the things related in the song.
It’s this kind of believability that makes this album good because on every song, Brad’s personality and flair shine and make sure that he’s never mistaken for anyone else when he sings. He sings from a unique perspective with his own sound that sets him apart from the lesser artists on radio. Even if you think you won’t like it, please give this album a try: it’s worth it.
We have our winners! The following individuals will be receiving a copy of Tanya’s latest CD My Turn:
Patrice, Chad, Karlie, Plain_Jo, and Dale Schmucker.
We’ll be in touch shortly to get your mailing addresses. Thanks to all who participated.
We hope that you’re enjoying our coverage of this month’s spotlight artist, Tanya Tucker. Now that we’re halfway through the month (already), we’re pleased to announce that we have a copy of her forthcoming CD, My Turn, to give away, courtesy of Gigante Media. In order to enter the contest to win the CD, please submit a comment telling us what your favorite Tanya Tucker song is and why. A winner will be chosen at random. All comments must be entered by 11:59 pm on Sunday, June 28th.
In the meantime, we still have plenty of Tanya’s music left to discuss, so stop by whenever you can.
Update: The folks at Gigante Media were kind enough to send me four additional copies of the CD, so there will be five lucky winners for this contest. Keep your comments coming!
And head over to Country Universe to double your chances of winning.
And while you’re waiting for the June 30 release date of this CD, you can preview 6 of the tracks at the Saguaro Road blog.
In 2006, Sara Evans was riding high. She was the reigning female vocalist for the Academy of Country Music and had ridden the hits from her 2005 release Real Fine Place to the upper reaches of the chart. She was also appearing that fall on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars and was about as high-profile as a country music star gets in the mainstream eye. Then in October of that year, she filed for divorce from her husband of 13 years and left the network show citing personal reasons. This began an entire year of tabloid and internet gossip sites buzzing with the latest in the Sara and Craig scandal. In the meantime, Sara Evans’ star continued to shine bright. In 2007, RCA released its first Greatest Hits collection for Sara Evans and the set featured four unreleased tracks with the snappy ‘As If’ serving as the lead single to promote the album and to keep Sara Evans at radio through 2008 – with spotty success – while she took some time off.
So riding high on all that publicity, Sara was able to take ‘As If’ to a respectable #11 slot on the country charts. That brings us to her new single. We find Sara Evans returning with new music for the first time since her highly publicized divorce and exile from the popular Dancing With the Stars TV show. (Aside from a tanked single released from the soundtrack for Billy: The Early Years, the biopic of the Rev. Billy Graham.) This time it’s with the same safe, slick sound that was she chose to help sell her Hits package. Only this time, with 3 full years spent pretty much out of the spotlight, Sara Evans needed to come back with something that packed a punch and set her apart from the pack the way songs like ‘Born To Fly’ and ‘Suds In The Bucket’ did. This is not it.
This is a tune with more snazz than substance as Sara sings the standard laundry list of hardwood floors, children laughing, and all those things that evoke warm, fuzzy feelings in your average soccer mom. From there, we’re sent into a chorus with lines like ’And when a dream starts coming true, and it feels like destiny, like I already knew that you were meant for me and me for you’. A Keith Urban-esque guitar introduces the song and frames the first verse before a major sonic eruption in the chorus where there’s so many instruments and background singers, I can’t begin to name them. Vocally, Sara begins interestingly enough – just like the song itself – but it’s not long before autotuning takes over and even a great vocalist like Sara Evans gets lost in this pseudo-wall of sound mess.
I hope there’s better material to come from the album, to be released this fall. Sara Evans is capable of much better than this – as we’ve heard in the not so distant past.
George Jones released this song as a single in 1968. The record reached #12 on the Billboard country singles chart; however, this is a record that suffered from timing. It would have been a much better recording if it had been done a few years earlier — or a few years later. George’s duet partner Melba Montgomery had left Musicor Records for Capitol, and his future duet partner Tammy Wynette was signed to Epic. As a result, both women were contractually prohibited from recording the song with him. Instead, a singer named Brenda Carter, who was on the Musicor roster, was brought in to be George’s duet partner. To put it charitably, she was no Melba or Tammy. Still, it’s a good song. This 1969 performance with Tammy on the Wilburn Brothers Show shows what the record might have been like had Tammy been available to record it.
Special thanks to Paul Dennis for some of the background information.
Rainy walks, a midnight talk, dance me on your feet
Hold me close, don’t let go, all I’ll ever need
Is a single rose, a kiss hello, that smile upon your face
The tender way, you say my name takes my breath away
Little things
The first single released from Tanya Tucker’s 1997 album, Complicated, was the romantic ‘Little Things’ which finds the singer appreciating all the small things her man does for her like walking with her in the rain and making her laugh. It climbed to the #9 position on the country charts and is Tucker’s last appearance in the top 10 to date. A second single and my favorite from the album was ‘Ridin’ Out the Heartache’. The tune is another of the countless ‘leaving in a car’ songs that dotted the country charts a decade ago. This catchy tune about driving south in a ’66 Chevrolet stalled at #45 and no subsequent singles were released. Despite being one the top 10-played artists on country radio in 1996, the next would prove to be Tanya’s last successful year with radio.
It’s worth mentioning that Tanya sued Capitol Records in 1998 for $300,000. The suit – which reportedly began when Capitol refused to finance a music video for the second single – centered on the label’s lack of promotion for the album and accused the label of focusing all its efforts on another artist. The suit never named the other artist, but Garth Brooks had just the year before orchestrated a takeover at the label, ousting long-time chief Scott Hendricks for Pat Quigley, said to be hand-picked by Brooks. Tucker also asked to be let out of her contract with Capitol.
In Tanya’s defense, she did turn in a quality album to the label, plenty worth promoting. Just after the first two tracks, which are the two singles, comes the melancholy ‘It Hurts Like Love’. This is followed by the swinging ‘I Don’t Believe That’s How You Feel’, written by Harlan Howard and Kostas, it’s a forgive-me number done up in Cajun style. ’By The Way’ makes use of the double-entendre. The verses begin each statement with ‘by the way’ using the phrase as a opening to each observation. Then in the chorus, it’s used to tell how the singer assures her man she knows he loves her ‘by the way you smile’.
Continuing with our Tanya Tucker coverage, this review was written by a guest contributor, Michael, who is also a frequent commenter here at My Kind of Country.
When I was a boy, my mom and I scored front row seats to a Tanya Tucker concert but she cancelled the show. My mother never forgave her, and I won’t tell you the name she still uses to refer to Tucker today, but I couldn’t stay mad at Tanya for long after purchasing this CD.In fact, along with Martina McBride’s The Way That I Am, Soon was one of the very first CDs I ever bought. A twelve-year-old’s well spent allowance money at Target became an investment that continues to pay off today
This was six years before Faith Hill was rolling around in the sheets for the music video to “Breathe” and long before Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles took on the role of a mistress that stands up for herself, there was “Soon”.In the summer of 1993 Tanya Tucker released the scandalous, racy video for the first single and title track of her upcoming album Soon.The steamy clip featured Tucker and her lover thrashing around in bed and was banned from daytime airings on CMT and TNN. In fact, a search for the video on YouTube today requires age verification to watch it and be warned, it may still make you blush.Using the third person point-of-view, Tucker tells the story of a woman who has had a summer tryst with a married man.He has promised her that he will leave his wife soon but by Christmas he has still not followed through on his word and she spends the holiday alone.She finds no answer when she calls him and I’m a little embarrassed to admit that, as a teenager, the chorus after this verse was featured on my outgoing answering machine message for awhile.
Soon, I can’t talk to you right now
Soon, you’ll hear a beep and you know how to play this game
Leave your number and your name
And I promise I’ll call back … soon
By the final verse our protagonist has a renewed sense of strength and independence and has turned the tables on the man.Her New Year’s resolution is to make herself unavailable to him when he calls or comes by.Tucker’s voice conveys the heartache of what should be an unlikable character’s story and makes her sympathetic.“Soon” peaked at number two on the Billboard charts and none of Tucker’s singles in the in the 16 years since its release has reached a higher summit.
The second single released from the album was “We Don’t Have To Do This”.It just missed the top 10, stalling at number 11.The lush ballad is about a breakup that could have never been predicted at the beginning of the relationship.However, Tucker wonders if saying goodbye is even necessary at all.She gives one last emotional plea to save the relationship from their pride.Should all of the time, energy and effort they have put into it be in vain?Breakups are almost always messy.When is something worth fighting for and when is it time to let it go?Even when ending it is the right thing to do, it can still hurt.There may be relief but it could be clouded with a sense of failure.When it’s over, all we can do is hang onto our memories of the good times.Tucker sings with such passion that it makes me root for her and in the end, I hope they didn’t say goodbye.
Amazon MP3 is offering Tanya Tucker’s latest single “Love’s Gonna Live Here” as a free digital download.
The song is the first single from Tanya’s upcoming My Turn CD and features Jim Lauderdale as a guest vocalist on this remake of the Buck Owens classic. Read our review of the song.
Had she chosen to retire from the music business around 1990, Tanya Tucker could have done so knowing that she’d secured her musical legacy. By then she had been a presence on the country charts for nearly two decades, had released 20 studio albums, and secured 30 top 10 hits, including ten #1′s. She was also the “last woman standing”, the only artist who had been having top 10 hits in the early 70s to still be regularly reaching the top of the charts. No one was surprised that her winning streak still continued, but few realized at the time that Tucker had not yet reached her commercial or artistic peak.
Released in July 1991, What Do I Do With Me is the jewel in Tucker’s musical crown. It follows the same formula as its predecessor, Tennessee Woman , combining radio-friendly, pop-infused uptempo songs with tender, heartfelt ballads. However, this time around the song selection was stronger and that is what makes What Do I Do With Me Tanya Tucker’s masterpiece.
For the lead single, Tucker again turned to her old friend Paul Davis, who wrote the sassy, harmonica-driven “Down To My Last Teardrop”, in which the long-suffering protagonist tells her unfaithful partner that he’s drained her of every last drop of emotion. Tucker took this tune all the the way to #2 in the early summer of 1991.
The next single was the title track. Beautifully written by Royce Porter, L. David Lewis, and David Chamberlain, it tells the story of a woman wondering aloud how she will occupy the free time she suddenly has in the aftermath of a break-up. This is the type of ballad at which Tucker excels. Every line is filled with emotion, yet her performance is restrained and never over-the-top. Like its predecessor, “(Without You) What Do I Do With Me”, just missed the top spot on Billboard’s country singles chart, peaking at #2. This is the kind of song that has been missing in action from country radio in recent years, having fallen from favor in lieu of happier, empowerment anthems.
“Some Kind Of Trouble”, a more blues-infused number, didn’t chart quite as high, peaking at #3. Written by Mike Reid, Brent Maher and Don Potter, this song is more beat-driven than the previous singles, but the lyrics are still quite strong. I suspect that it was probably written with The Judds in mind, given the Maher and Potter connection, and would have likely been recorded by that duo had they still been active.
The fourth and final single, “If Your Heart Ain’t Busy Tonight” is a more light-hearted number written by Tom Shapiro and Chris Waters, that peaked at #4.
Today an album that I’ve been anticipating for a while came out, namely Far by Regina Spektor- a very unique artist indeed. Listening to the album’s lead-off single, “Laughing With” (See the music video here), a line hit me kind of hard:
No one laughs at God on the day they realize
that the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes,
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re saying their goodbyes…
I guess I’m getting to a changing point in my life, going to college on the other side of the country, meaning I have a lot of goodbyes to say over the summer- and it won’t be easy. So then I turned to my music collection, as I usually do, and I started looking for songs about saying goodbye.
I found many ways to say goodbye: a quiet prayer (“Sissy’s Song” by Alan Jackson), loading a car in the night (“Small Town Jericho” by Sugarland), a litany of “never-ever”s to an ex (“I’ll Take You Back” by Brad Paisley) or a misguided funeral service for a grandfather (“The Grandpa I Know” by Patty Loveless). Those are all songs I love, but I’ll talk about another song.
For my recommendation, I settled on “To Say Goodbye” by Joey + Rory.
This song is all about wanting to say goodbye to the ones that we love, using two different stories. It’s heartbreaking and the stories are specific and real. I won’t spell out the stories here, I think it’s better to listen to the song for yourself.
What I like about this song is that it never gets overblown like many singers would end up doing, but it stays simple and heartfelt, even if the song ends up a little cliche. Joey and Rory give a fantastic performance, with a wonderful backing with lots of piano and country-ness.
What are your favorite songs about saying goodbye?
Kenny Rogers originally recorded this song with pop star Sheena Easton. The pair took it to the top of the country charts and to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 (as well as several other charts) in 1983. However, I always preferred this live version with Dolly to the original. The ending is priceless, so make sure you watch all the way through …
After seven long years, Tanya Tucker is finally back with My Turn , a collection of covers of classic country songs, recorded as a tribute to her late father and mentor, Beau Tucker. This album is different from anything Tanya has done in the past. We’ve never heard her sound so “retro” before, and it struck me that aside from the common knowledge that Tucker is a huge Elvis, Merle Haggard and Loretta Lynn fan, we haven’t heard a lot about her musical influences, up to now. Unlike her contemporaries Lorrie Morgan and Patty Loveless, she’s never made a habit of including a classic cover or two on her albums. My Turn , therefore, gives us a rare insight into the music that influenced this country legend who has been a presence on the country charts for nearly 40 years.
Teaming up with producer Pete Anderson, Tucker chose mostly songs that were favorites of her late father, and wisely avoided songs that have been covered countless times by others, the exception being “Crazy Arms”. I was surprised to see this song included in the track listing, since it was recently covered by Tucker’s Saguaro Road labelmate Patty Loveless. But while Loveless’ version is drenched with a wailing steel guitar and her trademark “mountain siren” vocals, Tucker takes a much more understated approach that is closer to the Ray Price original.
I was already very familiar with all of the songs, except for the opening track “Wine Me Up.” Originally a hit for Faron Young in 1969, it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite tracks on the album. It’s followed by a version of Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” that is very faithful to the original, and Buck Owens’ “Love’s Gonna Live Here” featuring guest vocals from Jim Lauderdale. “Love’s Gonna Live Here” is the lead single from the album, and was previously reviewed here at My Kind of Country.
“After The Fire Is Gone” was the Grammy Award-winning first duet by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn back in 1970. Tucker and Pete Anderson wanted Billy Ray Cyrus to be Tanya’s duet partner, but mercifully he was unavailable and Tucker is joined instead by The Grascals, who provide the harmony vocals.
Released in March 1990, Tennessee Woman was another consistent album which sustained Tanya’s run at the top, marrying together commercial radio-friendly appeal with artistic merit. Jerry Crutchfield was at the helm once more for another good selection of sassy pop-country and sensitive ballads.
The energetic mid-tempo first single, ‘Walkin’ Shoes’, written by Emmylou Harris’s ex-husband Paul Kennerley, falls into the former category. It is more about vibe than lyrical depth, although there are a couple of good lines, as Tanya shows off her independent side, leaving the guy who doesn’t treat her right, wearing her punning “it’s-all-overcoat” as well as the titular “walking shoes”. It was perfect for radio, and yet another top 5 hit for Tanya (#3 on Billboard).
The next single, ‘Don’t Go Out’, teamed Tanya up with the raspy-voiced, blues-influenced T Graham Brown, who combines very well with Tanya. The song was written by Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd, who had recorded the song themselves (as ‘Don’t Go Out With Him’). Reworking the song as a duet gives it a new dimension, as both Tanya and her duet partner swap lines warning each other against dating someone else. It is not a traditional country record by any means, but is still very good, and reached #5 on Billboard.
Also doing well on radio was ‘It Won’t Be Me’, another almost playful song about a painful lesson Tanya just won’t face up to, written by Tom Shapiro and Chris Waters: “To see her fall apart would be more than I could bear
I’m just too close to that girl in the mirror there
Somebody’s got to tell her, she’s got to let him go -
But it won’t be me”
With the final single release from the album, the label turned to the anguished reproach of ‘Oh What It Did To Me’, a more traditional country waltz. My personal favorite of the singles, although it was the least successful, just missing the top 10, it is an excellent song written by producer Jerry Crutchfield, as the protagonist is betrayed by a cheating spouse trying to sweep it all under the carpet: “You say when she held you, it did nothing to you,
But oh, what it did to me!
You say when she kissed you, you didn’t feel a thing,
But I felt enough for all three”
Tanya’s third release for Capitol, in 1988, showed no signs of a creative or commercial slowdown, even though she finally admitted that year that she had alcohol and cocaine addictions, and went into rehab.
Strong Enough To Bend is one of my favorite Tanya Tucker albums. Produced as before by Jerry Crutchfield, it features some very good songs, and shows Tanya at her best vocally. She commits 100% even to the less stellar material. For some reason it was recorded in the Bahamas, but the usual top Nashville session musicians were imported to play on the record.
The title track and lead-off single, written by Beth Nielsen Chapman and Don Schlitz, was a charming piece comparing a lasting relationship to a tree which bends in the wind instead of breaking: “Sway with the wind ’til the storm is gone
Like a tree out in the back yard
That never has been broken by the wind
Our love will last forever
If we’re strong enough to bend.”
It is the kind of song which might sound sappy performed by a more sentimental singer, but Tanya tackles it briskly enough to let the message sound rooted in experience. It was to be Tanya’s last #1 hit.
Tanya took a completely different approach in the track which was picked to follow it on the charts, the positively raunchy ‘Highway Robbery’. This semi-novelty song has Tanya stopped from speeding and claiming the (perfectly good) excuse that she was doing it only so she could hunt down the hot blue-eyed guy who “stole my heart from a moving car” when he passed her some miles back down the road. “He oughta do time in my arms for what he’s done”, she claims, evidently to no effect, as by the fadeout at the end of the song she’s abandoned him in favor of making eyes at the (lucky?) patrolman. The story is entertaining if silly, but too heavily produced for my taste, but was a big (#2) hit. Also successful despite being very over-produced was my least favorite track, the boring and pop-sounding ‘Call On Me’, which reached #4.
The final single released from the album, the touching ‘Daddy And Home’, was less successful, but is actually the highlight of the album. Altough it is not typical of Tanya’s best-known material, it is one of her finest moments artistically. It is a beautifully restrained and tender take on an old Jimmie Rodgers classic about homesickness and a child’s love for an aging father, which Tanya dedicated to her own father, a major influence on her career.
First of all a disclaimer: I have never really been a Brad Paisley fan until today, when I listened to this album. Sure I like “Whiskey Lullaby”, “When I Get Where I’m Going” and “Letter To Me”, but I never really thought “Man, I need to hear some Brad Paisley right now.” He just wasn’t high up for me, like Lee Ann Womack or Sugarland always are. My dad’s a fan, in fact for father’s day I got him Who Needs Pictures, Part II and Play to round out his Paisley collection. American Saturday Night? I bought it for myself, but mostly for him because I didn’t expect to really love it: I was wrong.
In 2006, Sara Evans was riding high. She was the reigning female vocalist for the Academy of Country Music and had ridden the hits from her 2005 release Real Fine Place to the upper reaches of the chart. She was also appearing that fall on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars and was about as high-profile as a country music star gets in the mainstream eye. Then in October of that year, she filed for divorce from her husband of 13 years and left the network show citing personal reasons. This began an entire year of tabloid and internet gossip sites buzzing with the latest in the Sara and Craig scandal. In the meantime, Sara Evans’ star continued to shine bright. In 2007, RCA released its first Greatest Hits collection for Sara Evans and the set featured four unreleased tracks with the snappy ‘As If’ serving as the lead single to promote the album and to keep Sara Evans at radio through 2008 – with spotty success – while she took some time off.
1949: 
Rainy walks, a midnight talk, dance me on your feet
Amazon MP3 is offering Tanya Tucker’s latest single “Love’s Gonna Live Here” as a 
Had she chosen to retire from the music business around 1990, Tanya Tucker could have done so knowing that she’d secured her musical legacy. By then she had been a presence on the country charts for nearly two decades, had released 20 studio albums, and secured 30 top 10 hits, including ten #1′s. She was also the “last woman standing”, the only artist who had been having top 10 hits in the early 70s to still be regularly reaching the top of the charts. No one was surprised that her winning streak still continued, but few realized at the time that Tucker had not yet reached her commercial or artistic peak.
Today an album that I’ve been anticipating for a while came out, namely Far by Regina Spektor- a very unique artist indeed. Listening to the album’s lead-off single, “Laughing With” (See the music video 
For my recommendation, I settled on “
After seven long years, Tanya Tucker is finally back with My Turn , a collection of covers of classic country songs, recorded as a tribute to her late father and mentor, Beau Tucker. This album is different from anything Tanya has done in the past. We’ve never heard her sound so “retro” before, and it struck me that aside from the common knowledge that Tucker is a huge Elvis, Merle Haggard and Loretta Lynn fan, we haven’t heard a lot about her musical influences, up to now. Unlike her contemporaries Lorrie Morgan and Patty Loveless, she’s never made a habit of including a classic cover or two on her albums. My Turn , therefore, gives us a rare insight into the music that influenced this country legend who has been a presence on the country charts for nearly 40 years.
1949: 
Released in March 1990, Tennessee Woman was another consistent album which sustained Tanya’s run at the top, marrying together commercial radio-friendly appeal with artistic merit. Jerry Crutchfield was at the helm once more for another good selection of sassy pop-country and sensitive ballads.
Tanya’s third release for Capitol, in 1988, showed no signs of a creative or commercial slowdown, even though she finally admitted that year that she had alcohol and cocaine addictions, and went into rehab.
