Strings, Smith, McCreery, Nelson deliver new releases
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Strings, Smith, McCreery, Nelson deliver new releases

Friday, November 18, 2022 – "Me/And/Dad" is GRAMMY Award-winning bluegrass guitarist Billy Strings' first album, out today, with his father, Terry Barber. The product of a longtime dream, the record features new versions of 14 bluegrass and country classics that the two have been playing together since Strings, now 29, was a young child. Produced by Strings and Gary Paczosa and recorded at Nashville's Sound Emporium Studio, the album features bassist Mike Bub, mandolinist Ron McCoury, banjo player Rob McCoury and fiddler Michael Cleveland as well as special guest appearances by Jerry Douglas, Jason Carter and Strings' mother, Debra Barber, who sings on the final track, "I Heard My Mother Weeping."

Granger Smith today released "Moonrise" and announced his acting debut as the star of PureFlix's upcoming film "Moonrise," out Dec. 15. Produced by Smith with John Marlin, every song on the new record will be featured in the movie. In the film, Smith portrays Will Brown, a country music artist with three kids who has lost his wife in a tragic accident and must seek redemption with his music and his family. Having gone through tragedies himself (Smith's son, River, died in 2019 in a drowning accident), Smith felt connected to Brown after reading the script and asked to hear the songs. Told there weren't any, Smith who soon became the movie's musical supervisor took it upon himself to write all the songs for the movie. The disc contains 11 songs.

Scotty McCreery releases "Same Truck: The Deluxe Album," an enhanced version of the release. The disc contains the number one hits "You Time" and three-week chart topper "Damn Strait" along with current single "It Matters To Her." The North Carolina native wrote four of the 18 songs.

"Willie Nelson Live At Budokan," the first official album release of Nelson's performance at the Nippon Budokan in 1984, drops today. While this has been previously officially available as a LaserDisc in Japan (which is now long-out-of-print with low-grade bootleg copies treasured by collectors), this concert performance of Willie and his backing Family band, is enjoying its first official widespread release. Longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael produced the set.


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CD reviews

CD review - A Beautiful Time They say if you love what you do, you'll never have to work a day in your life. Just ask 89-year-old Willie Nelson. Within recent history, he's been releasing records at a clip far younger people can only envy, at over an album a year. A tribute album to Frank Sinatra? Absolutely. Traditional hymns? Sure. Another tribute album to Frank Sinatra? You can't make this stuff up. Beginning with the 2017 "God's Problem Child" record, Willie started musically pondering the meaning of life. ...
CD review - Renewal It's just like Billy Strings to have a song title that reads like a heavy metal track ("Hellbender") for a tune that sounds like traditional bluegrass music. When it comes to creating music, though, the phrase, 'It's all good,' actually applies to Strings – for once. "Renewal" is over an hour of music, and is (mostly) bluegrass – at heart – but not just bluegrass music. "Hide And Seek" is one of the most complicated recordings, ...
CD review - That's Life Willie Nelson's decades-old explorations into the Great American Songbook continue with his second Frank Sinatra tribute in less than three years - the solid and satisfying "That's Life." As with its 2018 predecessor "My Way," Nelson once again joined forces with the production team of Buddy Cannon and Matt Rollings. Like that previous outing, Rollings' "That's Life" arrangements don't go far afield from those found on the tracks popularized by Sinatra. ...


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