Pam Tillis leads a list of straight-ahead country releases over the next few weeks. The pressures of having released RHINESTONED behind her, Tillis shares her thoughts and expectations on her fellow artists’ upcoming projects:
John Anderson
EASY MONEY
In stores May 15
“That’s going to be one of my next purchases. He is such a great singer. I heard the single and thought it was dynamite. Like me, John probably takes more time on each project these days. You gotta have that inspiration.”
Marty Stuart
COMPADRES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF DUETS
In stores June 5
“I can’t wait to hear this. Marty is always making a statement, always sharing a different facet of his talent. He is such a deep artist. Such a genius. Don’t tell him I said that, cause it’ll go to his head, and his hair is too big already!”
Porter Wagoner
WAGONMASTER
In stores June 5
“I think it’s great that Marty [project producer Marty Stuart] is paying such a legendary artist that kind of respect. It makes me think I better roll up my sleeves and do something like this for Dad.”
Brad Paisley
5th GEAR
In stores June 17
“I’ve known Brad since he started in the business. He’s the real deal. ...He totally deserves every bit of his success.”
An Independent Pam Tillis Leads Releases of New Spring Music
On Pam Tillis’ new album RHINESTONED, the first new female Opry member of the 21st Century sings about a band in the window of a honky tonk down on Nashville’s Lower Broadway, “where the streets are paved with hopeful expectations.”
Though Tillis cut her musical teeth for the most part in haunts other than those on famed Lower Broad, she says she can relate to that proverbial band in the window. “This venture was paved with hopeful expectations,” she smiles. The venture about which she speaks is her first independent album release on her own Stellar Cat label.
Since the release of RHINESTONED in April, those hopeful expectations have pleasantly segued into the satisfying reality of the greatest critical acclaim of her career to date. Veteran music journalist Bob Oermann says she’s a “superb vocalist” on the project. Billboard calls RHINESTONED “as impressive a collection as anything she released on a major (label)—perhaps better.” The latter review is particularly telling when one looks at the acclaim garnered by a decades worth of music at major label Arista—ten years that brought multi-platinum album sales, a CMA Female Vocalist win, and career-making singles such as “Maybe It Was Memphis,” “Let That Pony Run,” and “All The Good Ones Are Gone.”
“It’s a good time for us,” Tillis said from her home the week the reviews started rolling in. “I’m so glad people are enthusiastic.”
Tillis says she thinks perhaps those who listen to RHINESTONED get a sense of the freedom she felt when making the record. “The music I want to make is a little outside the mainstream,” she says with care not to knock the hit-makers at the top of today’s country singles charts and those behind those chart-toppers careers. “There’s certainly a place for that music,” she smiles, “but one of the nice reviews said this project is ‘all about the nuance.’ I like that.”
Tillis says she hopes her new music might fit in where some of the music she listened to in her bedroom growing up as a teenager in Music City in the 70s fit some 30 years ago. “These people came along back then and said ‘it doesn’t have to be safe,’” she says. “ That was some great music. Maybe it wasn’t happening on country radio at the time, but it sold records and built careers.”
The “these people” Tillis refers to, she says, included her favorites of the time including The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, and Waylon Jennings. The influence of each can be heard on RHINESTONED, as can sounds reminiscent of everyone from Marty Robbins to Roy Orbison and from genres as diverse as Dixieland, bluegrass, and the blues.
“I hope my fans who listen will think ‘that’s really great country music,’” Tillis says.
by Dan Rogers