Close Up Archives - Nashville Rocks

SESSION ACES RATE TWO SCHOOLS OF RECORDING

December 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Session Aces: Nashville OR L.A.

During a recent conversation, session ace guitar whiz Guthrie Trapp casually referenced a distinction between classic Nashville studio procedure and what he described as Los Angeles or New York types of sessions being done in Music City.

In his view, Nashville sessions are geared toward producing the maximum amount of music in the minimum amount of time, whereas producers from the East and West Coasts require more hours in the studio.

Daniel Lee – New Artist Spotlight

December 2, 2014 Leave a comment

Daniel Lee

Daniel Lee isn’t the first young Country artist to write about trucks, beer and ball caps. But he’s found a few fresh perspectives on these tropes.

DOWNLOAD DANIEL LEE’s ROOTS ON AMAZON

Consider “Hell Yeah,” one of five solo-writes on Daniel Lee’s debut album Roots, available now from Average Joes Entertainment. This is a flat-out exercise in braggadocio. He hollers out that he’s a “throw-down fighter,” a “Mason jar sipper” and “one crazy S.O.B.” His litany owes less to Music Row than to Mike Fink, the frontier riverboat legend who informed the patrons of countless saloons, “I’m a Salt River roarer! I’m a ringtailed squealer! I’m a reg’lar screamer from the ol’ Massassip!”
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American Young – New Artist Spotlight

December 2, 2014 Leave a comment

American Young

When two artists, already wise to the ways of the Country Music world, form a duo called American Young, the result can be more varied than what you often get from sibling pairs.

When the twosome is Kristy Osmunson and Jon Stone, it can also be close to magic.

They have plenty in common. Both are American and, though well established in Nashville, young. Stone’s writing credits include “Me and My Gang” for Rascal Flatts, “A Woman Like You” for Lee Brice and “It Ain’t Yours to Throw Away” for fictitious superstar Gunnar Scott on “Nashville.” Osmunson sizzled on fiddle with another duo, Bomshel.

DOWNLOAD AMERICAN YOUNG ON AMAZON

Mary Sarah – NEW ARTIST SPOTLIGHT – CMA Close Up Interview

October 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Mary Sarah Up Close

Mary Sarah may keep her last name secret, but she’s no secret to the legends who guest on her first album, Bridges, produced by Kent Wells, executive produced by Freddy Powers and released July 8 on Cleopatra Records.

She nails stratospheric notes with Ronnie Milsap on “What a Difference You’ve Made In My Life,” matches Tanya Tucker sass for sass on “Texas (When I Die),” swaggers with Merle Haggard on “The Fightin’ Side of Me,” soars while also digging into the lyric with Dolly Parton on “Jolene” … and, in a surprising coup de grâce, channels Connie Francis, complete with teary teenage angst, on “Where the Boys Are,” with the song’s co-writer Neil Sedaka chiming along.

DOWNLOAD BRIDGES ON AMAZON

Lee Brice Finds His Footing on I Don’t Dance

October 1, 2014 Leave a comment

Lee Brice Releases I Don’t Dance

“I grew up loving songs that moved me,” said Lee Brice. “I grew up in church. So for the most part, you’re singing songs that are trying to put across a message.

“Then as I started to play in college, I did the parties and played in the bars,” he continued. “I started hearing music like (Garth Brooks’) ‘Ain’t Goin’ Down (Till the Sun Comes Up)’ and Hank Jr. That became more of who I was, along with Guns N’ Roses and Aerosmith. There are two sides to me. I wanted to be able to show both of them.”

Download Lee Brice’s I Don’t Dance [Deluxe Edition] on Amazon

Brice’s affinity for both the soulful ballad and the uptempo rocker is evident on his third Curb album, I Don’t Dance, releasing Sept. 9. Read more →

Lee Ann Womack Shares The Way I’m Livin’

September 30, 2014 Leave a comment

Lee Ann Womack Releases The Way I’m Livin’

Released Sept. 23 by Sugar Hill Records, Lee Ann Womack’s The Way I’m LIvin’ begins with a wounded whisper, followed by a gospel rouser that somehow begs for mercy while asserting the fervor of devotion, a heartbreaking account of one more night in a forsaken saloon, an exhilarating, string-soared plea for some way to reconcile these extremes … and so on through 13 songs that unfold like chapters in recounting a life nearly lost to turbulence and trouble.

DOWNLOAD THE WAY I’M LIVIN’ on Amazon

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this celebration of narrative writing and nuanced vocal interpretation is that it all came together without much design. In fact, there was only one light guiding Womack and her producer/ husband Frank Liddell as they took their first steps in preproduction. Read more →