ATO RecordsLee Ann Womack admits her eighth studio album has a rather ominous title.
“I tell people those are the people I sing for,” she laughs, “the lonely, the lonesome and the gone.”
On her new record, the 2001 CMA Female Vocalist of the Year takes a back-to-basics approach that highlights the similarities between country and soul.
“Real country music and a traditional singer and artist — that’s soul music,” Lee Ann tells ABC Radio. “That’s what I really tried to do on my new record, is… show that to people.”
“That’s why I love working with artists like, when I did John Legend [CMT] Crossroads and that sort of thing,” she goes on. “You know… they get it right away… I play George Jones for ’em and it blows their mind, you know, that he can do what he does. Singers like him and [bluegrass pioneer] Ralph Stanley, people know they’re soul singers.”
In fact, Lee Ann cut most of the album at SugarHill Studios in her native Texas, where Jones himself had recorded “Take the Devil Out of Me” in 1959. Lee Ann’s cover closes the album.
And if you wonder about the sultry black-and-white photo of Lee Ann smoking a cigarette on the cover — well, the staunch traditionalist says she put a lot of thought into that too.
“It sort of just, I think it helps paint the picture, before you hear any of the music, of what it is,” she explains. “And that is, you don’t see that any more, you know. And so, that’s why I did it,” she laughs.
The Lonely, the Lonesome and the Gone is new in stores and online today.
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