From his upcoming fall album release, Guitar Slinger, Vince Gill releases a quiet song that gorgeously portrays a man who is at peace with his impending death. While his loved ones are distraught from the thought of losing him, he assures them that he is not afraid of the prospect and, in fact, welcomes it:
“What’s the worst thing that can happen / What’s the worst that they can do?/ Threaten me with Heaven / It’s all they can do / Threaten me with Heaven / if they want to / Threaten me with Heaven, I believe that it’s true / Threaten me with Heaven, I’ll be waiting on you.”
His wife, Amy Grant, may be the official Christian/gospel singer in the family, but Brother Vince could easily stand right alongside her in such a capacity of he so chose, as his rousing “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus” and “Rock of Ages” performances with Grant, from her hymns albums, can legitimately testify. While “Threaten Me with Heaven” is much more understated than those gospel favorites, it’s a powerful testament of faith to which people can either possibly relate or envy.
Similar in sound to his inspiring “What You Give Away”, “Threaten Me with Heaven” hosts a heartfelt vocal, tasteful guitar support and a gospel choir that enriches the tone of the song. As a result, the single is more adult contemporary than pure country, but it is beautifully sung and arranged nonetheless.
Written by Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Dillon O’Brien & Will Owsley
It’s hard to believe that there once was a time that country artists put out two full-length albums a year. If they were part of a regular superstar duet team, like Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn or Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton, a fan might hear as many as four new studio albums from their favorite artist.
By the time that I got into country music – twenty years ago, natch – things had slowed down a bit. Artists usually released a new album every 12-18 months. Sometimes they’d push it to two years, but not often.
Those were the days. Waits between album releases have gotten crazy lately. I’m all for taking the time to get it right, but once we push past the half-decade mark, things have gone too far. Sure, we’re given side projects to carry us over, but there’s no substitute for a full-length studio album of all-new material.
Here are five artists who I’d really love to see make a long-awaited return with a new album in 2011, along with a brief rundown of the side projects that they’ve been busy with while we’ve waited for that new album:
Shania Twain
Last Studio Album: Up! (2002)
Side Projects: Greatest Hits (2005), featuring four new tracks; contributions to a Dolly Parton tribute album, a live Willie Nelson album, an Anne Murray duet album, and the Desperate Housewives soundtrack.
It’s been over eight years since Twain released that 19-track opus. It was cool that she released the album in three different mixes, essentially giving us 57 new mp3s for the iPods we didn’t even have yet. Of all the superstar acts, she’s the one who has been away the longest.
Wynonna
Last Studio Album: What the World Needs (2003)
Side Projects: Live album, Christmas album, covers album, Cracker Barrel album…
In a sense, she’s never really gone away. But despite being a fixture in the media and releasing so many other-type albums, we haven’t gotten a real studio set from Wynonna in over seven years. Given that the last one was among the finest in her career, it’s a shame she has yet to craft another mainstream country album.
Dwight Yoakam
Last Studio Album: Blame the Vain (2005)
Side Projects: A Buck Owens tribute album in 2007, Dwight Sings Buck.
The most distressing absence on the list, mostly because he’s been so prolific in the past. Movie appearances are keeping him busy. Here’s hoping that when he does return, we get more than ten songs.
Dixie Chicks
Last Studio Album: Taking the Long Way (2006)
Side Projects: “The Neighbor”, from the Shut Up & Sing documentary; contributions to a Tony Bennett duet project; Emily and Martie’s Court Yard Hounds set; Natalie’s duet with Neil Diamond.
It’s hard to follow up an album that wins a bunch of Grammys, but it’s not like they haven’t done so before. If they’re insisting on writing all of the next album, it could be gestating for a very long time. Can’t we get a Patty Griffin or Darrell Scott covers album to hold us over?
Vince Gill
Last Studio Album: These Days (2006)
Side Projects: A mother lode of duet and harmony appearances on other artist’s albums (Reba McEntire, Charlie Daniels, Amy Grant, Clay Aiken…)
Gill’s last album was a four discs worth of new material, so it’s understandable that it would take a couple of years for him to craft a new one. But we’re going on five now. Since Gill was able to create those four discs a mere three years after his previous studio set (2003′s Next Big Thing), we should be due for a new album soon.
New fans of country music in the nineties were hit over the head with the assertion that country music was one big family. Nothing demonstrated this mythos better than the all star jams that cropped up during the boom years.
There were some variants of this approach. A popular one found a veteran star teaming up with one or more of the boom artists to increase their chances of radio airplay. George Jones was big on this approach, with the most high profile attempt being “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair.” Seventeen years later, it’s amazing to see how young everyone looks – even Jones himself!
Jones shared the CMA Vocal Event of the Year trophy for that collaboration with Clint Black, Garth Brooks, T. Graham Brown, Mark Chesnutt, Joe Diffie, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Patty Loveless, Pam Tillis, and Travis Tritt. He’d continue with this approach by teaming up with his vocal chameleon Sammy Kershaw on “Never Bit a Bullet Like This”, and he recorded an entire album of his own songs as duets with mostly younger stars. The Bradley Barn Sessions was represented at radio with “A Good Year For the Roses”, which found him singing one of his best hits with Alan Jackson:
Among the legends, the only other one to be successful with this approach was Dolly Parton, who used collaborations with young stars to score consecutive platinum albums for the first and only time in her career. Her 1991 set Eagle When She Flies was powered by the #1 single “Rockin’ Years”, co-written by her brother and sung with Ricky Van Shelton:
That album also included a duet with Lorrie Morgan on “Best Woman Wins.” She upped the bandwagon ante on Slow Dancing With the Moon, bringing a whole caravan of young stars on board with her line dance cash-in “Romeo.”
That’s Mary Chapin Carpenter, Billy Ray Cyrus, Kathy Mattea, and Tanya Tucker in the video. Pam Tillis isn’t in the clip, but she sings on the record with them. Parton also duets with Billy Dean on that album on “(You Got Me Over a) Heartache Tonight.”
Her next collaboration was with fellow legends Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, but they couldn’t resist the temptation to squeeze in several younger stars in the video for “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.” Alongside veterans like Chet Atkins, Bill Anderson, and Little Jimmy Dickens, you’ll catch cameos from Mark Collie, Confederate Railroad, Rodney Crowell, Diamond Rio, Sammy Kershaw, Doug Stone, and Marty Stuart.
Parton scored a CMA award when she resurrected “I Will Always Love You” as a duet with Vince Gill:
And while it didn’t burn up the charts, her version of “Just When I Needed You Most” with Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski:
Tammy Wynette made an attempt to connect with the new country audience with her own album of duets, Without Walls. Her pairing with Wynonna on “Girl Thang” earned some unsolicited airplay:
Perhaps the most endearing project in this vein came from Roy Rogers. How cool is it to hear him singing with Clint Black?
The new stars liked pairing up with each other, too. A popular trend was to have other stars pop up in music videos. There’s the classic “Women of Country” version of “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her”, for starters. Mary Chapin Carpenter sounds pretty darn good with Suzy Bogguss, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Pam Tillis, and Trisha Yearwood on backup:
That’s a live collaboration, so at least you hear the voices of the other stars. But Vince Gill put together an all-star band for his “Don’t Let Our Love Start Slippin’ Away” video without getting them to actually play. That’s Little Jimmy Dickens, Kentucky Headhunters, Patty Loveless, Lee Roy Parnell, Carl Perkins, Pam Tillis, and Kelly Willis behind him, with Reba McEntire reprising her waitress role from her own “Is There Life Out There” clip.
My personal favorite was Tracy Lawrence’s slightly less A-list spin on the above, with “My Second Home” featuring the future superstars Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, and Shania Twain, along with John Anderson, Holly Dunn, Hank Flamingo, Johnny Rodriguez, Tanya Tucker, Clay Walker, and a few people that I just can’t identify.
For pure star wattage, it took the bright lights of Hollywood to get a truly amazing group together. The Maverick Choir assembled to cover “Amazing Grace”, and it doesn’t get much better than country gospel delivered in a barn by John Anderson, Clint Black, Suzy Bogguss, Billy Dean, Radney Foster, Amy Grant, Faith Hill, Waylon Jennings, Tracy Lawrence, Kathy Mattea, Reba McEntire, John Michael Montgomery, Restless Heart, Ricky Van Shelton, Joy Lynn White, and Tammy Wynette.
What’s your favorite of the bunch? Any good ones I missed?
“the night was freezing cold, from a heavy snow that day, we warmed our hearts on old time songs and danced the night away” — Gordy/Loveless
Back in 2001, Patty Loveless made a wondrous, rustic and rootsy album called Mountain Soul, a stunningly beautiful and highly acclaimed work of art. Mountain Soul was a natural evolution for the coal miner’s daughter Loveless, who has always been known for the passionate mountain sound that she brings to her award winning Country repertoire. Mountain Soul is potential realized, a bountiful harvest that Loveless continues to cultivate to this day, her current masterwork Mountain Soul II being her most recent offering.
Patty’s immediate and worthy follow up to the original Mountain Soul is entitled Bluegrass & White Snow, a Mountain Christmas With it’s stripped down yet sophisticated feel, this 2002 release has the quality and the character that entitles it to be called ” the Mountain Soul of Christmas records,”, It is that good.
Bluegrass & White Snow is an inspired, joyous and reverent labor-of-love from Patty Loveless and husband/producer (and genuine musical genius) Emory Gordy Jr. It seems that every project this talented couple undertakes is done with the golden touch of artistry and creative good taste, and their mountain Christmas record is no exception. What has made this classic a perennial favorite is the natural blending of two wonderful musical traditions, the organic feel of it’s acoustic production, and the warm and expressive voice of the finest pure-Country vocalist of our time.
Bluegrass & White Snow is an enchanting mix of Christmas Bluegrass and beloved traditional carols. This album has a warm and personal feel to it and rings with Appalachian authenticity. No surprise, since the Kentucky native invests so much of herself into the music with three autobiographical songs, and an open reverence for her family’s Christmas traditions and Mountain heritage.
The album opens with the Christmas lullabies “Away in the Manger”, and “Silent Night”. and Loveless gracefully covers such traditional carols such as “Joy to the World”, “The First Noel”, and “O Little Town of Bethlehem”. Her Appalachian alto is accompanied by ubiquitous mandolin, fiddle and guitar infusing a rustic flavor and giving these beloved carols an earthy yet elegant feel throughout.
The artistry of any Loveless/Gordy record often extends even to the album cover and Bluegrass & White Snow is one of the best examples. Here Patty “walks in beauty like the night” wearing the woolen coat-of-glory metaphorically alluded to in the original Mountain Soul. She looks every bit the Appalachian archangel in humble disguise, down from the mountain like a dream. She walks upon a cloudlike snow bank, an understated vision in royal blue and misty white.
Combine this with the clever title and the descriptive subtitle; it all conjures up scenes of mountain hospitality and beckons to the warmth of the music that is offered within. There, the listener will encounter Patty and Emory and their Holiday guests. A distinguished circle of musical friends that includes the finest talents in Country and Bluegrass music. Folks like Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill and Amy Grant. And the listener is embraced by this fine company in true Christmas spirit and is made to feel welcome and never left out in the cold.
All throughout, Patty’s vocals ring with pure silver clarity and warm golden tones. Her soulful voice sometimes seems to resonate in celestial dimensions and always conveys uncanny depths of emotion. “Joy to the World” is a beautiful example. It is a majestic Patty Loveless-Jon Randall duet and is the first of several carols to employ some creative musical accents; subtle wind chimes and wine glasses that seem to ring with Patty’s voice in resonant harmony like Heavenly tuning forks. They infuse the middle tracks of this extraordinary album with extra doses of Holiday enchantment.
“Carol of the Bells” softly descends upon the musical landscape like a surprise overnight snowfall, courtesy of the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble. It is an instrumental interlude saturated with mandolins that mimic harpsichords for a real old-fashioned feel. The subtle eerie overtones are from the wine glasses ringing with delicate magic, like crystal elvin bells. The whole piece gracefully turns into an extended instrumental introduction that Loveless uses as a springboard for her spellbinding rendition of “The First Noel”. With exquisite harmony provided by Trisha Yearwood and Claire Lynch, the three sound like a trio of down-to-earth angels singing their hearts out to the Heavens.
“Little Drummer Boy” is an inspired change of pace from the usual Christmas repertoire, and works brilliantly. Patty joins forces with a fellow Kentuckian and gifted young vocalist Rebecca Lynn Howard in a wonderful duet that blends two glorious voices in parallel melodic lines. The exquisitely interpreted lyrics conveys the song’s comforting sentiment that the Deity graciously accepts all heartfelt gifts, be they ever so humble:“I have no gift to bring par rum pum pum pum, that’s fit to give a king…shall I play for you pa rum pum pum pum, on my drum?” Patty graciously shares the spotlight, and allows Miss Howard to shine. Howard’s clarity and Loveless’ warmth make for the perfect vocal blend. And in a departure from strict Applachian convention, a lonely recorder hovers over the musical proceedings like a dove, It is a brilliant innovation, and a musical benediction.
“Christmas Time’s A Comin’” heralds not only the Holiday, but also the Bluegrass section of this wonderful album. It begins with Patty setting the rhythm on sleigh bells, and Emory joining in with compelling acoustic guitar hooks. Then all Bluegrass Heaven breaks loose as Patty and friends run with the melody and twin fiddles fly. They all conjure up images of home for the holidays, Country style.
“Santa Train” is the first of three songs written by the Loveless-Gordy team, and once again, they demonstrate their talent as first rate songwriters. Their originals fit seamlessly along with the more established and traditional songs on this album.
The actual Santa Train runs from Pikeville KY, ( Patty’s birthplace,) to Kingsport, TN and provides Christmas gifts to Appalachian children in need. And if it sounds like Patty is singing from experience, it is because she’s been there. She saw Santa wave to her from the back of the train when she was a mere 6 years old, and as an adult has joined Santa as a volunteer spreader of Christmas cheer three times now, in ’99, ’02 and ’07. Indeed, with this musical version of the Santa Train, Patty has given children yet another gift and awakened the inner child within us all. “Santa Train” chugs along with plenty of fiddle and perfectly evokes train rhythms, Bluegrass style. There’s even a real train whistle played by Patty herself, and she sings out the stops like a conductor, calling out storybook sounding names like Shelbiana, Dungannon, Copper Creek, and Cady Junction. But make no mistake, this song, like “Christmas Day at My House” is fine Bluegrass
music. The quality of the songs themselves and the virtuosity of the vocal and instrumental performances raise both these child-friendly songs far above novelty status.
The album closes with soaring festive harmonies, as Loveless is joined by Dolly Parton and Ricky Skaggs for the album’s closer. The song “Bluegrass, White Snow” like the album that bears it’s name, is absolutely saturated with Appalachian hospitality.
Patty Loveless and her musical companions make a compelling case that Christmas music is meant for Appalachian acoustics and soaring mountain harmonies. And Loveless herself continues to demonstrate that there is nothing more powerful than a gifted artist deeply connected to her roots singing from the depths of her being.
By any standard, Bluegrass& White Snow is a fantastic record. The few rough edges that are present only serve to enhance the authentic feel of the album even further. Christmas music is just great music to begin with, and this is a Christmas album with a mountain soul. The exceptional quality and Appalachian flavor of this record makes it entirely suitable for year round enjoyment, in and out “of season”.
Loveless and friends celebrate the essence of Christmas giving; the gift of God’s grace and the gift of music. And as always Patty Loveless and Emory Gordy Jr. continue to give their all. This is their Christmas gift to the music world. Make it part of your tradition and you are bound to experience this sonic wonder as a musical benediction. As is so often the case with Patty and Emory’s work, their music will leave you spiritually and emotionally enriched, nourished and blessed.
Bluegrass & White Snow is truly the “Mountain Soul” of Christmas albums, the finest of its kind.
From his upcoming fall album release, Guitar Slinger, Vince Gill releases a quiet song that gorgeously portrays a man who is at peace with his impending death. While his loved ones are distraught from the thought of losing him, he assures them that he is not afraid of the prospect and, in fact, welcomes it:
A Guest Contribution
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