Nashville is full of artists who claim to be country but sound a whole lot more like what Dale Watson would call watered-down pop.
And then sometimes you get an artist who was established in another genre come out with some country music that is better than most, hey look at Darius Rucker or Aaron Lewis.
I was watching the TV special titled A&E Biography: Kenny Rogers recently and learned that Lionel Richie wrote the famous Kenny Rogers hit Lady. The story behind song is pretty funny.
Well anyway, it reminded me of the brilliant 2012 album, Tuskegee, Lionel released. It consists of 13 of his hits remasted in a southern style with a Country artist singing along.
I’m a fan of all the original versions of these songs, but it goes to prove my theory: add a steel guitar to a song and it’s automatically better. Oh, and Willie helps too.
Now I believe this is an underrated album, but it’s not that it lacked promotion. It had it’s own TV special with all the artists and some of the duets were featured as performances in award shows. Like this one with ole American actor Tim McGraw.
Surprisingly the song that changes the most to fit the genre is with Jason Aldean, an artist who is known for bending the rules. Say You, Say Me in Tuskegee has some of the most beautiful steel you’re going to find in a song.
In conclusion, it’s a beautiful collection of songs. One I find myself going back to often and just listening to it from start to finish. I’ll leave you with the fantastic harmonies of Little Big Town singing Deep River Woman.
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