Radney Foster's Revival Begins September 1
Album streets 10 years after critically acclaimed
See What You Want To See
Disc includes special appearances by country stars Dierks Bentley and Darius Rucker
"A Little Revival" first single to Texas radio June 29
Royalties from "Angel Flight" to benefit Texas Air National Guard
For Immediate Release
Radney Foster's Revival emerged when the Texas native plunged into the roiling waters of change—his father's death and the end of his twelve-year, 5,000-mile separation from his son—and came up with renewed conviction.
Arriving a full decade after the intensely personal See What You Want To See and recorded with the same trusted studio team (Darrell Brown and Niko Bolas), the twelve songs on Revival are a solid bookend to the watershed record.
The title track and first single for Texas radio is "A Little Revival." Most of the songs on the album are what Foster calls "close to the bone," so personal that he either wrote them on his own or with trusted friends, like Brown and Jay Clementi. "I Know You Can Hear Me," is a wrenching goodbye to Foster's father. "I Made Peace With God That Day" and "Until It's Gone"—both written with Brown—respectively capture the anguished fear of losing a child and vow to live with abandon (and crank up the volume) from here on out.
The position that Foster enjoys in the country music landscape is remarkable. Mainstream country music and independent Americana tend to occupy separate orbits. Yet for 24 years Foster has thrived in both as a songwriter, recording artist, live performer and producer. His songs—solo, with Foster and Lloyd and recorded by other artists—have topped the country, Texas, Americana, and AAA charts alike. At the same time, he's earned the respect of his peers and a devoted audience as intent on listening as they are eager to dance.
For the first time, Foster is releasing his music on his own Devil's River record label, which gives him the freedom to customize special events for his fans. The first 1000 fans to pre-order Revival from radneyfoster.com will receive a free 5 song EP. Fans also have the opportunity to purchase a concert and gourmet dinner for eight prepared by Foster; a private songwriting session; a personalized Revival plaque, and a VIP pass which contains a USB drive with 18 songs, the making of Revival documentary and access to pre-show meet and greets.
Foster has always had the ability to make the personal feel universal, and every song on this set brings the listener closer. There is a piercing honesty to songs like "Forgiveness" and "Life Is Hard (Love Is Easy)."
He also found a way to bridge seduction—something he's sung about plenty and playfully over the years—and spiritual confession. The stylish, shuffling R&B of "Trouble Tonight" runs seamlessly into the choir-backed gospel boogie of "Shed a Little Light." Foster calls it a "Saturday night/Sunday morning combo," the sort of thing his wife used to put on the opposite sides of mixtapes back when they were dating.
With so much at stake in getting the spirit of these songs across, Foster relied on his longtime road band, now appropriately dubbed the Confessions. Thanks to them—and to Foster's own contributions on electric guitar—the album has a big guitar sound and a raw energy. The band adds relentlessness to "Second Chances" which perfectly matches the lyrics, and a beautiful, stirring soundscape to "Suitcase."
Foster also enlisted the help of some friends. Dierks Bentley (who recorded Foster's "Sweet and Wild") came in to join the party on "Until It's Gone," and Darius Rucker lends his distinctive harmony on "Angel Flight," a moving tribute to the pilots who fly their fallen brethren home to their final resting places. Foster's co-writer, Darden Smith, started writing the song after talking to a pilot of the Texas Air National Guard who mentioned he flew the "angel flight." Smith asked Radney to finish the song with him, and the pair are donating proceeds from the song to a charity that provides assistance to military families beset by tragedy.
The set closes with a bluegrass reprise of the title track. Radney, Tammy Rogers and Jon Randall gathered around a microphone and in one take captured the spirit of Revival—joy and hope in the midst of uncertainty.
True to its title, Revival is the boldest and most spiritual thing Foster has done to date. But it would be a mistake to pigeonhole it strictly as a gospel release; what Foster is preaching here is the gospel of truth, and having the guts to choose love over fear. And like any good revival, this one will have you dancing, crying, laughing and ready to testify. Like he sings in the opening and closing track, Amen to love.
Radney Foster Discography
1987 – Foster & Lloyd (with Bill Lloyd)
1989 – Faster & Llouder (with Bill Lloyd)
1990 – Version of the Truth (with Bill Lloyd)
1992 – Del Rio, Texas, 1959
1995 – Labor of Love
1999 – See What You Want To See
2001 – Are You Ready for the Big Show (live)
2002 – Another Way To Go
2005 – And Then There's Me (The Back Porch Sessions)
2006 – This World We Live In
2009 – Revival
For more information contact:
Tamara Saviano / Ellis Creative / Tamara@ellis-creative.com
615-298-2009
More information on Radney Foster
Lone Star artists honor Texas/Americana Trailblazer with
Undone: A MusicFest Tribute to Robert Earl Keen
CD recorded LIVE at MusicFest, Steamboat Springs, CO
Street Date January 6, 2009
Celebrating 20 Years of
"The Road Goes On Forever" in 2009
October 9, 2008
A Who's Who of young Texas/Americana artists and musicians gathered last winter at the annual MusicFest in Steamboat Springs, Colorado to honor a man who has blazed an important trail for them: indelible songwriter/singer/musician Robert Earl Keen. The result of that tribute concert is a live (yes, genuinely live) double CD set appropriately titled Undone: A MusicFest Tribute to Robert Earl Keen. The CD will be released January 6, 2009 by Right Ave/Dickson Productions and distributed by Thirty Tigers in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of Keen's enduring classic party song, "The Road Goes On Forever."
Over the last two decades, Keen has earned a deep and abiding respect from his fellow musicians. He's truly a songwriter's songwriter who can move effortlessly from a poignant love ballad to a roof-raising sing-along. Because he's so successfully carried forward those rich traditions from earlier songwriters, while also putting his own distinctive stamp on the music, Keen has done more than any other single artist to inspire a whole new generation of Americana and Red Dirt singer-songwriters, including Cory Morrow, Bonnie Bishop, Cody Canada, Todd Snider, Randy Rogers, Reckless Kelly, and countless others. If anyone has earned the right to be called the "father" of Americana music, it's Robert Earl Keen.
Undone is a moving tribute to Keen's important legacy as a singer, songwriter, performer, and pioneer of the Americana music movement. As part of Dickson Productions' annual "Tribute to a Legend" at MusicFest in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, The Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University helped bring together some of today's best young Texas and Americana artists to celebrate Keen's impact on their musical careers. With a great deal of respect and a healthy dose of humor and energy, each one of these musicians adds his or her own interpretation of Keen's material to the mix.
From Reckless Kelly's rocking take on "Think It Over One Time" to Bonnie Bishop's sweet and soulful "Not a Drop of Rain," these younger artists demonstrate exactly how much Keen has influenced them musically. As an added bonus, Robert Earl Keen and his band also take the stage to perform a high-octane set of some of his most popular tunes ("Dreadful Selfish Crime," "Wild Wind," "For Love," "The Road Goes On Forever" and his new song "Goodnight Cleveland," for which this is the first recording.
As part of Dickson Productions' efforts to honor and support the great traditions of Texas music, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Undone will benefit The Center for Texas Music History. As the only comprehensive, university-based program devoted to the preservation and study of the musical heritage of the Lone Star State, the Center is a non-profit educational organization that offers college courses on Texas music, sponsors research and publishing projects, and organizes exhibits, performances, and other programs to help students, scholars, and the general public better understand how Texas music reflects the rich history and cultural diversity of the Southwest.
Track Listing – Disc One
1. "Think It Over One Time" - Reckless Kelly
2. "No Kinda Dancer" - Max Stalling (vocals & guitar), Dale Clark (guitar)
3. "Lynville Train" - Wade Bowen
4. "Wish You Were Here" - Brandon Jenkins
5. "Paint the Town Beige" - Walt Wilkins
6. "I'll Be Here For You" - Randy Rogers
7. "I Would Change My Life" - Roger Creager
8. "I'm Coming Home" - Kathleen Braun (vocals, guitar), Cody Braun (harmony vocals, fiddle)
9. "Christabel" - Matt Skinner
10. "Carolina" - Brandon Rhyder (vocals & guitar) James Hurtless (harmony vocals)
11. "Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight" - Josh Grider
12. "I'll Go On Downtown" - Cory Morrow (vocals, guitar), Tanya Cargill (harmony vocals)
13. "Travelin' Light" - Matt Powell
14. "Front Porch Song" - Dub Miller (vocals, guitar), Doug Moreland (fiddle), Matt Skinner (harmony vocals and guitar) -
15. "Daddy Had a Buick" - Doug Moreland (vocals, fiddle), Matt Skinner (guitar, backing vocals)
Disc 2
1. "Mariano" - Jason Boland
2. "Shades of Gray" - Cody Canada (vocals, guitar), Jason Boland (guitar)
3. "Undone" - Chris Knight (vocals, guitar), Cody Canada (guitar)
4. "Not A Drop Of Rain" - Bonnie Bishop
5. "Willie" - Muzzie Braun (vocals & guitar), Micky Braun (vocals & guitar), Gary Braun (harmony vocals & harmonica)
6. "Corpus Christi Bay" - Darren Kozelsky (vocals, guitar), Chris Claridy (harmony vocals, guitar)
7. "Loves A Word I Never Throw Around" - Rich O'Toole
8. "Wild Wind" - Robert Earl Keen
9. "Dreadful Selfish Crime" - Robert Earl Keen
10. "Goodbye Cleveland" - Robert Earl Keen
11. "For Love" - Robert Earl Keen
12. "Road Goes On Forever" - Robert Earl Keen (Cody Canada on guitar w/REK)
For more information contact:
Tamara Saviano / Ellis Creative / Tamara@ellis-creative.com
615-298-2009
Gretchen Peters donates royalties from Independence Day to Planned Parenthood
Donation made in the name of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin
October 4, 2008 – Nashville, TN
When Sean Hannity began using Gretchen Peters' song "Independence Day" as the theme song for his Citadel Broadcasting radio talk show, Peters quietly stepped up her donations to causes including the ACLU, PFLAG, and Moveon.org.
But when the GOP used "Independence Day" to usher Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin to the stage after the debate in St. Louis, Peters realized the party was truly perverting the chorus of her composition to suit their agenda and it was high time for Peters to make her feelings known.
"Independence Day," written by Peters, was a hit for country singer Martina McBride in 1994. The lyrics tell the story of a woman's response to domestic abuse from the point of view of her daughter.
"The fact that the McCain/Palin campaign is using a song about an abused woman as a rallying cry for their Vice Presidential candidate, a woman who would ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest, is beyond irony," Peters says. "They are co-opting the song, completely overlooking the context and message, and using it to promote a candidate who would set women's rights back decades. I've decided to donate the royalties from 'Independence Day' during this election cycle to Planned Parenthood, in Sarah Palin's name. I hope with the additional income provided by the McCain/Palin campaign, Planned Parenthood will be able to help many more women in need."
To donate to Planned Parenthood on behalf of Sarah Palin log on to:
https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor
Ask that the donation be made in the name of Sarah Palin and send the card to:
McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington , VA 22202
For more information about Gretchen Peters, log on to gretchenpeters.com or contact Tamara Saviano at tamara@ellis-creative.com.
Gretchen Peters looks to winter
with Northern Lights
First holiday album to be released October 21
September 15, 2008 - Nashville, TN
If a holiday album is usually little more than an occasion for tossing together a dozen cheery, well-known songs and a few shakes of the jingle bells just to have another product to sell at the prime shopping time of year, then Gretchen Peters' latest recording, Northern Lights, is of an entirely different breed.
The CD, her sixth, will release October 21 on Scarlet Letter Records, and marks the first time Peters—an acclaimed artist and hit songwriter, whose 2007 set, Burnt Toast & Offerings, is an introspective tour de force—has captured the essence of a wintry season all on one disc.
Peters and her longtime collaborator Barry Walsh took no shortcuts in making the album. As a result, it comes off not as a disposable Christmas-themed compilation, but a deeply satisfying retreat that does justice to the rich range of emotion that winter inspires—not just the joy, but the awe and sadness too.
Northern Lights is built around three Peters originals: "December Child," a meditative, gracefully-strummed waltz that imagines Mary's motherly anxiousness for her baby's future, the ethereally gliding "Waitin' On Mary"—which features the divine harmonies of Matraca Berg and Suzy Bogguss—and the title track, an aching piano and cello ballad.
"I wondered if I could be honest, as a writer, about the melancholy that many people feel at Christmas," Peters says. "We all tend to reflect at the end of the year—and our reflections quite naturally include loss and regret, as well as gratitude and happiness. It seems almost taboo to write a Christmas song that makes room for that sense of loss, but that's what I was going for in the song 'Northern Lights' and on the record in general. I wanted to make a Christmas record that you could listen to at night when you're all alone and not come away feeling depressed, but instead feeling moved by the whole of human experience—not just the happy parts."
Peters handpicked masterfully written songs by Gordon Lightfoot ("Song For a Winter's Night") and by Kim Richey and Will Kimbrough ("Careful How You Go"). Kimbrough lent his voice and bouzouki playing to the latter. Instead of doing typical carols and Christmas songs in warmed-over ways, Peters carefully selected songs with an air of mystery, and, with Walsh, set about giving them new life.
Peters and Walsh gave "I Wonder As I Wander" a unique modal blues tint, and, in an especially imaginative move, they set the austere elegance of the medieval "Coventry Carol" against the more modern sounds of the prelude (reminiscent of trumpets over 1940s radio airwaves) and instrumental interludes (the lapping and receding of Walsh's B-3 organ). "I was trying to get something that sounded like what you'd hear coming out of your radio late in December in the hinterlands of England, just after Winston Churchill had given a wartime speech on the BBC," Peters offers.
The stately traditional carol "Angels We Have Heard on High" became "(Charlie's) Angels," a swinging, 6/8 jazz number, interwoven with a jaunty "Skating" riff from Vince Guaraldi's "Charlie Brown Christmas." Notes Peters, "We called it '(Charlie's) Angels' as a little tip of the hat to Charles Schulz and his alter-ego Charlie Brown." The whole album-making journey began with an impromptu session in a U.K. hotel room that yielded a luxurious, accordion-sweetened take on another Guaraldi tune, "Christmas Time Is Here."
The entire 12-track affair has an organic, living room sort of intimacy, and for good reason—Peters and Walsh recorded in their 1870s era Victorian shotgun style row house— originally built as a worker's cottage—at night, after the city noise had quieted down for the day and they'd enjoyed a glass of wine—and without a single time-keeping device to speak of. Adding to the gorgeous textures they got from instruments as varied as Turkish finger cymbals, bamboo chimes and an upturned liquor box are Doug Lancio's silvery guitar touch, Dave Francis' smooth upright bass playing and David Henry's moody cello and trumpet.
Yet another thing that sets Northern Lights apart from a run-of-the-mill holiday album is the fact that $2 from every sale will go to the Nashville-based homeless outreach program, Room In The Inn. After Peters revived "Waitin' on Mary" from a 1993 demo, she realized that it only made sense to give toward the same need echoed in the song.
From November to March each year, Room In The Inn partners with more than 150 local faith communities and other volunteers to offer clean beds, warm meals, hot showers, and medicine in these houses of worship to more than 1000 homeless men and women during the cold months when they need it most, and thus seeks to reverse that ancient story's ending by providing Room In The Inn. During the daytime, Room In The Inn operates the Campus for Human Development, Nashville's only comprehensive site of services, offering literacy and computer classes, addiction treatment, respite care and other essential care to more than 4000 homeless men and women throughout the year.
"On Christmases past I had played benefits for Room In The Inn a couple of times," Peters says. "I got more excited about the collaboration when I realized that the song "Waitin' On Mary" was really a perfect fit, the story of two homeless people from centuries ago."
For more information about Gretchen Peters
For media information on Gretchen
Press inquiries: Tamara Saviano / tamara@ellis-creative.com / 615-298-2009
For information on Room In The Inn
Saviano Media Changes Name and Direction
New firm, Ellis Creative, merges public relations services with project management, marketing, event production, book publishing and other creative ventures
Public Relations firm Saviano Media has changed its name to Ellis Creative and will merge the company’s publicity services with project management, marketing, event production, book publishing and other creative ventures.
Ellis Creative is named in honor of owner Tamara Saviano’s maternal grandfather, the late Ellis Leavitt. “My grandfather was my first mentor and teacher. He inspired and encouraged me to live my life and build a career on my own terms. Naming the company after him will be a daily reminder of his wisdom.”
Ellis Creative has two missions: 1) To assist artists in their continual development in an ever changing and evolving world; 2) To create new artistic assets for the greater good of society.
The company kicks off its new services with three new music project management assignments and the co-publishing of two children’s books.
Ellis Creative will act as project managers for Gretchen Peter’s beautiful new CD Burnt Toast & Offerings, Beth Nielsen Chapman’s anticipated Prism CD of world hymns, and Thirty Tigers’ release of Song of America, the compilation CD inspired by former Attorney General Janet Reno. The company will also co-publish Fly Baby and Monster Sandwich. The children’s books are authored by Saviano’s longtime friend, Dr. Michael Reilly, founder of the Holistic and Family Practice Medicine clinic based in the Chicago suburb of Lake Zurich.
Ellis Creative will continue to specialize in public relation and marketing services for the music industry, focusing on artists who are singers, songwriters and musicians and who serve an adult audience, primarily in the genres of Americana, folk, bluegrass, roots rock and alt-country. Current clients include Kris Kristofferson, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Gretchen Peters and Dan Colehour.
The staff at Ellis Creative includes Saviano, publicist Annie Mosher and audio-video engineer Paul Whitfield who will oversee event production. Ellis Creative will continue to partner with noted writer Alanna Nash and documentary filmmaker Lori Savitch for ghostwriting and life story films.
For more information about Ellis Creative contact:
Tamara Saviano / Ellis Creative / tamara@ellis-creative.com
Feel A Hunk O' Burnin' Love with
The Bluegrass Elvises, Volume One
Shawn Camp & Billy Burnette
Available August 16, 2007 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley
On July 6, 1954, in a 30 x 18 foot recording studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, TN., a 19-year old hopeful with the unlikely name of Elvis Presley grabbed an acoustic guitar and dared to do the unthinkable. With a doghouse bass and a primitive electric guitar egging him on, he put a gnawing scrub rhythm to Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky," changing Monroe's elegant waltz to a 4/4 rockabilly tune, and charging both forms with the slurred vibrato that would become his signature. "Fine, man! Hell, that's different," Sun Studio owner Sam Phillips famously remarked. "That's a pop song now, nearly 'bout!"
What had started as a parody became the B-side of Presley's first single. But in the fall of 1954, when Elvis played Monroe's 1947 classic on his only appearance on the Grand Ole Opry, he approached the Father of Bluegrass backstage in his dressing room and apologized.
"I thought he had a beautiful voice," Monroe recalled in the '80s, speaking in his brittle husk of a tenor. "I told him, "Well, if it give you your start, it's all right with me." But it also made Monroe re-think his own composition, and the elder musician later re-recorded the song, shoving the tempo up into overdrive and showcasing a syncopated mandolin break as a hallmark of the bluegrass idiom.
Rules, it seems, are made to be broken. Which brings us to the Bluegrass Elvises, aka bluegrass/country singer Shawn Camp and rockabilly/country performer Billy Burnette, who spent nearly a decade with Fleetwood Mac and now tours frequently with John Fogerty. Shawn is yin to Billy's yang. And both men are steeped in the snaky soul of the Tennessee-Arkansas mythology of the '50s, born of the spirit of Elvis.
Billy, whose father Dorsey and uncle Johnny Burnette used to kick a young Elvis out of their rehearsals in the laundry room at the Lauderdale Courts housing project, had so many connections to Presley—with Crown Electric and Humes High figuring prominently in their shared stories—that they felt like kin.
"They were all good buddies, they all knew the same people, [guitarist] Scotty Moore and [bass player] Bill Black," Billy says. "Elvis used to call the house a lot." Things were happening so fast in the early '50s--when Billy and his cousin, Rocky, were born three weeks apart, their dads named their new "rockabilly" style after them—that at first it was hard to tell which Memphis practitioner would get famous first. Billy, with a pair of black sideburns in his future, would meet them all, including Elvis on a downtown Memphis street during his "Teddy Bear" era.
Two hundred miles over in Arkansas, Shawn would grow up grooving on his parents' Sun singles, his fascination eventually leading to a peanut butter and banana-fed addiction. In years to come, Presley fervor would take such a firm grip on his psyche that he would get, as Elvis might put it, "real, real gone." He'd make all the pilgrimages—stopping at Graceland every time he went through Memphis, even seeking out the forgotten grave of Elvis's paternal grandfather in Louisville. The cab of his truck became a cocoon, a nesting room spun from the sounds of the Sirius Elvis channel. And when he put his mind to it, he could imitate Elvis's Whitehaven-via-Tupelo drawl so perfectly as to maybe even fool mama Gladys.
Fate has a way of bringing such people together, of course. Labelmates at Warner Bros. in the early '90s, Billy and Shawn eventually joined to play a little music together, and to write more than 100 songs, including Alan's Jackson's "Burnin' the Honky Tonks Down" and Del McCoury's "My Love Will Not Change."
Then, in 2003, as on that seminal day at Sun in 1954, genius raged. Shawn, mindful that country music was at the heart of such early Elvis offerings as "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" and "I Forgot to Remember to Forget," made a furtive notation on a piece of paper...something about doing an album of Elvis songs high-lonesome style. A few weeks later, he and Billy were at the Nashville studio of Cowboy Jack Clement – the famed engineer who watched it all go down at Sun and has the scratches Elvis made on his guitar to prove it – when producer David Ferguson walked in and off-handedly suggested they cut a bluegrass Elvis record. "It all came together right then," Shawn remembers. "And a month later we started cutting on this thing."
First session: January 8, Elvis's birthday, at Ferguson's tiny Naughty Pines studio. With Dave Talbot on banjo and Terry Eldridge thumping bass--Aubrey Haynie would later replace Shawn's own fiddle parts--they kicked into "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Mystery Train," and "A Big Hunk O' Love." Even they were surprised with what they had. When they played back the 'grassy yipping on "Good Rockin' Tonight," a delightfully eerie sound that threatened to reach into the stratosphere, everybody's hair stood on end.
The melding of bluegrass and rockabilly turned out to be such an organic synthesis that it went down smooth and easy, Billy's rocking, back-alley swagger twining with Shawn's joyous, hillbilly tenor in a sweet siren call of seduction: "She said, 'Meet me in a hurry out behind the barn'/Don't you worry baby I'll do you no harm.'" At the end, it's easy to imagine the ghost of Bill Monroe crowing, "That's different! That's a bluegrass song now, nearly 'bout!"
Still, the album languished for several years, until Shawn mentioned it to Tamara Saviano, the Grammy winning founder of American Roots Publishing. Saviano enthusiastically sanctioned the project, and a second session was quickly underway, this time at the Butcher Shoppe with sidemen Scott Vestal (banjo), Chris Henry (mandolin), Aubrey Haynie (fiddle) and Mike Bub (bass). As before, the vibe in the studio was blue suede bliss, beginning with the 28-second intro, "2007: A Bluegrass Oddity," a brilliant, if hilarious take on "Also Sprach Zarathustra," the Richard Strauss tone poem widely known from Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Oddyssey," and which Presley used to open his shows in the '70s.
"We're not making fun of either bluegrass or Elvis, but we laughed a lot on this record, hearing some of the classic Elvis licks done in a bluegrass fashion," Billy says, recalling the fiddle flourishes on "Little Sister," the mandolin fills on "Hound Dog," and the banjo zings on "A Big Hunk O' Love." (The latter rendition was inspired as much by Bonnie Raitt's version as Presley's.) Most of the songs have been totally recast, "Don't Be Cruel" standing as one of the few songs that retain the original tempo. For "Blue Suede Shoes," the two pulled nuances from Bill Monroe's "Heavy Traffic Ahead," and added jazz, western-swing, and jump blues stylings.
Other surprises abound: Shawn's masterful and heartfelt recitation on "Are You Lonesome Tonight," where Haynie lays down a mournful twin-fiddle effect; Billy's switchblade sharp vocal on "Jailhouse Rock," perhaps the first understandable reading of the lyrics; and the inclusion of original verses of "Hound Dog" that Elvis chose not to record.
"I did the Elvis version up front, and then at the end I did the Big Mama Thornton lyric, but a little bit from the male perspective," Shawn says of the latter song. "And I used her attack, the way she emphasized specific words."
The project was so inventively fun that everyone stayed behind long after the sessions had ended. "I'll tell you," Shawn recalls, "it's rare that you work on a record and even at the mix stage, listen back and enjoy it so much that you're almost dancing around. And everybody in the studio was doing it. It all just fell into place. Maybe that was the spirit of Elvis, coming back and guiding us along."
Billy got a stronger jolt from the blue when his cell phone rang and the caller I.D. spelled out Graceland. "That was so cool! Elvis on the line!" It turned out to be an invitation from [Elvis cronie and DJ] George Klein to appear on a radio show. But Billy and Shawn often ponder what Elvis would be like today if he had lived. The two wrote a song about it, which they may include on a second volume. Which seems sorely needed. After they finished volume one, Billy realized, "God, we forgot to do 'Blue Moon of Kentucky!'"
Chances are, Elvis will haunt them until they make it right. The polite Mr. Presley will want to repay Bill Monroe for the favor of a song that started it all. Thirty years after his death, Elvis is still influencing a broad spectrum of genres, even as he once borrowed from them.
- Alanna Nash
The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson
Grammy-Winners, Legends, Friends & Fans Interpret the Poetry of an Icon/Outlaw
When Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster, America Roots Publishing's inaugural release, won the Best Traditional Folk Album Grammy, founder Tamara Saviano and VP Tom Frouge knew it would take something special to follow their launch project.
Thankfully, that inspiration was already in the family--Saviano's longtime client, friend and mentor Kris Kristofferson, whose songwriting--often overlooked in the fullness of his superstardom--defined the intersection of genuine poetry, human fragility and the quest for love, dignity and personal freedom.
With 18 songs spanning the breadth of Kristofferson's career - tendered by an expansive roster of artists across myriad genres (R&B's silken Brian McKnight caressing "Me & Bobby McGee," Latina songstress Marta Gomez embracing the humanistic protest of "The Circle" and Patti Griffin with Charanga Cakewalk on an austere "Sandinista," popfringe writers Lloyd Cole & Jill Sobule entangling "For The Good Times" and Oscar-winner Russell Crowe's heroistic turn on "Darby's Castle"), The Pilgrim offers testament to the truth, timelessness and timeliness of the former Rhodes Scholar, Country Music Hall of Famer and original Outlaw's work.
Starting with "family," Frouge and Saviano went to those closest: Rosanne Cash ("Lovin' Him Was Easier"), Willie Nelson ("The Legend"), Jessi Colter ("The Captive") and Shooter Jennings ("The Silver Tongued Devil & I") - and then expanded out to include old friends like Marshall Chapman ("Jesus Was A Capricorn"), Emmylou Harris ("The Pilgrim: Chapter 33"), Texans in Rodney Crowell ("Come Sundown") and Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis ("Help Me Make It Through The Night") and Music Row rebels and refugees, worn for the wear but true believers in song Todd Snider ("Maybe You Heard"), Shawn Camp ("Why Me") and Gretchen Wilson ("Sunday Morning Coming Down").
Produced by Grammy-winner Randy Scruggs (Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. 2), who contributes the breathtaking instrumental "Smile at Me Again," and featuring a 1970 demo from Kristofferson of "Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends," along with brilliantly written extensive liner notes by The Tennessean music writer Peter Cooper, The Pilgrim is a legacy of love.
Begun as a way to maintain the artistic standards and integrity of a burgeoning organization built on principles, not profit, their sophomore release quickly blossomed into something far more personal.
Music journalists have always remarked on how Kris writes a lot about freedom, but what he's really writing about is love and life," Saviano says. "There are many people who don't know Kris as a songwriter--and to us, that's the most important part of his storied career. Hopefully with this record, it'll be obvious how much Kris changed the way we all live, love and feel about our place in the world. Like Stephen Foster before him, I believe Kris's songs are classics and generations after us will celebrate him as one of America's greatest songwriters."
"It's been so humbling to work on this project," says Frouge. "Kris Kristofferson is one of my all-time favorite songwriters but beyond that he is a person I greatly admire--a man who has always stood fast for human rights and justice, for the displaced, here and abroad, and has never flinched. Our goal for this tribute is to reflect both of these aspects. If Kris had only written 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' and 'Me & Bobby McGee' he would be canonized as one of our greatest songwriters--but his catalogue and it's varied subject matter is as expansive as his influence and his unselfish motivation to create awareness on issues with global, philosophical and emotional significance. Kristofferson is a national treasure and while he has been celebrated for his achievements, this tribute--and the artists involved-- focuses on the breadth and scope of a career and a life of honesty and integrity lived without compromise."
For more information on The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson contact:
Annie Mosher / Ellis Creative / annie@ellis-creative.com
Gretchen Wilson sings "Sunday Morning Coming Down" for The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson
Country music star Gretchen Wilson took time out of her busy schedule to sing "Sunday Morning Coming Down" for the upcoming tribute album The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson. The album will be released by American Roots Publishing on June 27 in honor of Kristofferson's 70th birthday. The Pilgrim is a follow up to the Grammy-winning Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster. The compilation producer is Randy Scruggs.
"Sunday Morning Coming Down" was recorded in Buddy Miller's studio. Steve Fishell and Wilson produced the track, which includes Jon Randall on guitar and harmony vocals, Larry Atamanuik on drums, Byron House on stand up bass and Phil Madeira on keyboard. Miller engineered the session.
In addtion to Wilson, other artists included on The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson include: Willie Nelson, Rosanne Cash, Jessi Colter, Shooter Jennings, Emmylou Harris & Friends (Jon Randall, Sam Bush, Byron House, Randy Scruggs), Rodney Crowell, Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God, Patty Griffin & Charanga Cakewalk, Todd Snider, Shawn Camp, Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis, Marshall Chapman, Lloyd Cole & Jill Sobule, Marta Gomez, Brian McKnight, and Randy Scruggs.
For more information contact:
Tamara Saviano / Ellis Creative / tamara@ellis-creative.com
Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster Wins Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album
Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album on Sunday February 13, 2005at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards Pre-Telecast. Congratulations to producers Steve Fishell, David Macias and Tamara Saviano along with contributing artists Raul Malo, Alison Krass, Yo Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor, BR5 49, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Judith Edelman, The Duhks, John Prine, Henry Kaiser, Beth Nielsen Chapman, David Ball, Michelle Shocked, Pete Anderson, Grey DeLisle, Mavis Staples, Ollabelle, Roger McGuinn, Suzy Bogguss, Will Barrow and Ron Sexsmith. We'd also like to congratulate our engineer, the mighty Dave Sinko for the TLC he put into this recording. Thanks also to all the musicians, track producers, promotional team and the small army of people it took to get this record made. We couldn't have done it without your time and talent.