GRETCHEN WILSON
''UNDER THE COVERS''
JUNE 4 2013
49:09
1/Stay with Me
Rod Stewart / Ron Wood/4:43
2/Doctor My Eyes
Jackson Browne/3:37
3/Everybody Wants You
Billy Squier/3:45
4/Bell Bottom Blues
Eric Clapton/4:59
5/Funk #49
Jim Fox / Dale Peters / Joe Walsh/3:46
6/Hot Blooded
Lou Gramm / Mick Jones/4:36
7/Over the Hills & Far Away
Jimmy Page / Robert Plant/4:57
8/I Want You to Want Me
Rick Nielsen/3:41
9/Lights
Steve Perry / Neal Schon/3:14
10/Her Strut
Bob Seger/3:16
11/Bad Company
Simon Kirke / Paul Rodgers/4:54
12/Into the Mystic
Van Morrison/3:41
Jeff Armstrong/Hammond B3, Keyboards, Piano
Bekka Bramlett/Vocals (Background)
Justin Caper/Trombone
Ron Gannaway/Drums
Chris Gregg/Saxophone
Jeff Lockerman/Bass
Gavyn Nelson/Sound Effects
Tony Obrohta/Guitar
Keith Smith/Trumpet
Ryan Wariner/Guitar
REVIEW
by Steve Leggett
Gretchen Wilson has the kind of back story the world loves: a young girl who never got past the eighth grade, grew up in trailer parks, waitressed and bartended in bars and clubs to get by, and sang on the side in cover bands, suddenly bursts onto the country scene and becomes an instant star with a single song. Released in 2004, "Redneck Woman," an iconic song that celebrated just such a ragged trailer park life and did it with resilient pride, instantly put Wilson on the celebrity fast track, and she handled it as well as anyone could have when all was said and done. Yeah, Sony dropped her in 2009 when she failed to generate another million-seller like "Redneck Woman," but Wilson rebounded nicely, starting her own label, Redneck Records, and with three albums due in 2013, she's firmly in charge of her own career for the first time. This set '1970s, and one can easily imagine Wilson singing these songs in a smoky bar in her native Missouri, fronting a cover band, wowing the locals with her energy, sass, and verve, and no one realizing yet what it would all come to down the road. These are pretty faithful-to-the-original renditions, with Wilson showing her range and passion on Rod Stewart and Ron Wood's "Stay with Me," Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes," the James Gang and Joe Walsh's "Funk #49," and closing out things with a sweet, mostly acoustic and very effective version of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic." Nothing here adds to the original versions of these songs, but Wilson and her band attack them with energy and reverence, and if one should happen to see them doing these songs in some juke joint bar, well, it would make for a sweet night of music, the kind any redneck woman would probably love. Wilson has earned her freedom, and if Under the Covers isn't likely to put her back at the top of the charts, it's obvious she's having a whole lot of fun not worrying about any of that at all.
BIOGRAPHY
by William Ruhlmann
In late May 2004, Gretchen Wilson's debut single, "Redneck Woman," became the first by a solo female singer to top the Billboard country singles chart in over two years; it also reached number one faster than any single in the previous decade. At the same time, her debut album, Here for the Party, entered the country album chart at number one and the pop album chart at number two with sales of 227,000 copies, the biggest opening week for a new country artist on record. Given the overtly country style of her music at a time when much country had been leaning toward pop, Wilson was immediately hailed as the latest in a long line of country artists leading the music back to its roots.
Her own roots went back to the tiny town of Pocahontas, Illinois (36 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri), where she began singing as a child. Her mother was 16 when she was born on June 26, 1973; her father left when she was two. She grew up poor, living in a succession of trailer parks. She went to school only through the eighth grade, and at 14 was working as a cook and bartender in the same club where her mother worked. By the age of 20, she was singing in two different bands in the area. She moved to Nashville in 1996 and tended bar while singing on demos and in clubs for the next seven years. During this period, she became part of an informal group of singers and songwriters known as the Muzik Mafia who met once a week to try out new material. She and John Rich, another member of the group (and a former member of Lonestar), wrote "Redneck Woman," an autobiographical song in which she unabashedly celebrated her redneck, white-trash background.
In 2003, she auditioned for and was signed by Epic Records. "Redneck Woman" was released as a single in the late winter of 2004 and immediately began its march up the charts. Here for the Party, originally scheduled for release in July, was moved up to May 11 because of the quick success of the single. As it, too, became a hit, Wilson agreed to opening spots on tours with Brooks & Dunn and Montgomery Gentry in the summer of 2004. By this time "Redneck Woman" had become a classic country anthem and Wilson was a superstar. She coped with the instant celebrity, and continued to work as a musician, finding time to write a book, also called Redneck Woman, which hit shops in 2005, the same year her follow-up album, All Jacked Up, appeared. One of the Boys, a deeply personal album, and the first album in which Wilson had a hand in writing most of the songs, was released in 2007. Her parting album for Sony was a best-of in 2009. She followed it with her first independently released single on her own Redneck Records imprint, "Work Hard, Play Harder," in late 2009, followed by the album I've Got Your Country Right Here in 2010. She released the impressive and diverse Right on Time on Redneck Records in 2013, along with an album of covers of '70s rock songs, Under the Covers.
DoWnLoAd
''UNDER THE COVERS''
JUNE 4 2013
49:09
1/Stay with Me
Rod Stewart / Ron Wood/4:43
2/Doctor My Eyes
Jackson Browne/3:37
3/Everybody Wants You
Billy Squier/3:45
4/Bell Bottom Blues
Eric Clapton/4:59
5/Funk #49
Jim Fox / Dale Peters / Joe Walsh/3:46
6/Hot Blooded
Lou Gramm / Mick Jones/4:36
7/Over the Hills & Far Away
Jimmy Page / Robert Plant/4:57
8/I Want You to Want Me
Rick Nielsen/3:41
9/Lights
Steve Perry / Neal Schon/3:14
10/Her Strut
Bob Seger/3:16
11/Bad Company
Simon Kirke / Paul Rodgers/4:54
12/Into the Mystic
Van Morrison/3:41
Jeff Armstrong/Hammond B3, Keyboards, Piano
Bekka Bramlett/Vocals (Background)
Justin Caper/Trombone
Ron Gannaway/Drums
Chris Gregg/Saxophone
Jeff Lockerman/Bass
Gavyn Nelson/Sound Effects
Tony Obrohta/Guitar
Keith Smith/Trumpet
Ryan Wariner/Guitar
REVIEW
by Steve Leggett
Gretchen Wilson has the kind of back story the world loves: a young girl who never got past the eighth grade, grew up in trailer parks, waitressed and bartended in bars and clubs to get by, and sang on the side in cover bands, suddenly bursts onto the country scene and becomes an instant star with a single song. Released in 2004, "Redneck Woman," an iconic song that celebrated just such a ragged trailer park life and did it with resilient pride, instantly put Wilson on the celebrity fast track, and she handled it as well as anyone could have when all was said and done. Yeah, Sony dropped her in 2009 when she failed to generate another million-seller like "Redneck Woman," but Wilson rebounded nicely, starting her own label, Redneck Records, and with three albums due in 2013, she's firmly in charge of her own career for the first time. This set '1970s, and one can easily imagine Wilson singing these songs in a smoky bar in her native Missouri, fronting a cover band, wowing the locals with her energy, sass, and verve, and no one realizing yet what it would all come to down the road. These are pretty faithful-to-the-original renditions, with Wilson showing her range and passion on Rod Stewart and Ron Wood's "Stay with Me," Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes," the James Gang and Joe Walsh's "Funk #49," and closing out things with a sweet, mostly acoustic and very effective version of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic." Nothing here adds to the original versions of these songs, but Wilson and her band attack them with energy and reverence, and if one should happen to see them doing these songs in some juke joint bar, well, it would make for a sweet night of music, the kind any redneck woman would probably love. Wilson has earned her freedom, and if Under the Covers isn't likely to put her back at the top of the charts, it's obvious she's having a whole lot of fun not worrying about any of that at all.
BIOGRAPHY
by William Ruhlmann
In late May 2004, Gretchen Wilson's debut single, "Redneck Woman," became the first by a solo female singer to top the Billboard country singles chart in over two years; it also reached number one faster than any single in the previous decade. At the same time, her debut album, Here for the Party, entered the country album chart at number one and the pop album chart at number two with sales of 227,000 copies, the biggest opening week for a new country artist on record. Given the overtly country style of her music at a time when much country had been leaning toward pop, Wilson was immediately hailed as the latest in a long line of country artists leading the music back to its roots.
Her own roots went back to the tiny town of Pocahontas, Illinois (36 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri), where she began singing as a child. Her mother was 16 when she was born on June 26, 1973; her father left when she was two. She grew up poor, living in a succession of trailer parks. She went to school only through the eighth grade, and at 14 was working as a cook and bartender in the same club where her mother worked. By the age of 20, she was singing in two different bands in the area. She moved to Nashville in 1996 and tended bar while singing on demos and in clubs for the next seven years. During this period, she became part of an informal group of singers and songwriters known as the Muzik Mafia who met once a week to try out new material. She and John Rich, another member of the group (and a former member of Lonestar), wrote "Redneck Woman," an autobiographical song in which she unabashedly celebrated her redneck, white-trash background.
In 2003, she auditioned for and was signed by Epic Records. "Redneck Woman" was released as a single in the late winter of 2004 and immediately began its march up the charts. Here for the Party, originally scheduled for release in July, was moved up to May 11 because of the quick success of the single. As it, too, became a hit, Wilson agreed to opening spots on tours with Brooks & Dunn and Montgomery Gentry in the summer of 2004. By this time "Redneck Woman" had become a classic country anthem and Wilson was a superstar. She coped with the instant celebrity, and continued to work as a musician, finding time to write a book, also called Redneck Woman, which hit shops in 2005, the same year her follow-up album, All Jacked Up, appeared. One of the Boys, a deeply personal album, and the first album in which Wilson had a hand in writing most of the songs, was released in 2007. Her parting album for Sony was a best-of in 2009. She followed it with her first independently released single on her own Redneck Records imprint, "Work Hard, Play Harder," in late 2009, followed by the album I've Got Your Country Right Here in 2010. She released the impressive and diverse Right on Time on Redneck Records in 2013, along with an album of covers of '70s rock songs, Under the Covers.
DoWnLoAd
