From our friends at Sugar Hill Records...
New Release "The Way I'm Livin'" Available Now
Note: As of November 13, this concert has been cancelled.
As the Sept. 23 release for The Way I’m Livin’ draws close, Lee Ann Womack is cutting a wide path through American music. With CMT: Country Music Television’s “Crossroads,” featuring a collaboration with John Legend, airing on Sept. 26 and her upcoming International Bluegrass Music Awards co-hosting duties October 2 in Raleigh, it’s looking like a busy fall.
“When I said I was ready to get back to work,” laughs the Grammy-winning progressive traditionalist, “I knew they were going to throw it at me, but this has been a whole lot more than I could’ve dreamed. It’s kind of exciting to see how far I can take this music – or rather the songs of the writer/artists I cut.”
Early response to The Way I’m Livin’ has been strong. The Wall Street Journal debuted the title track, writing, “she digs in like she’s making up for lost time” and USA Today wrote the CD is “irresistibly teasing.” Look for spreads in Garden & Gun, Texas Monthly, People, Cowboys & Indians, Lone Star Music, Esquire’s Playlist, various daily papers, NoDepression.com and NPR’s Weekend Edition.
That album - the eagerly-anticipated The Way I’m Livin’ - marks the end of a seven year silence from the CMA Female Vocalist who’s also won their coveted Album of the Year for There’s More Where That Came From, as well as a pair of CMA Vocal Event and Single of the Year Awards. Produced by Frank Liddell (Miranda Lambert, David Nail), The Way I’m Livin’ features the songs of Chris Knight, Mindy Smith, Julie Miller, Mando Saenz, Hayes Carll, Neil Young, Bruce Robison and one cagey cover lifted from Roger Miller.
“I wanted songs that talked about how life really is, the raw spots, the tough places, the meltdowns and messy parts,” laughs the always sunny Texan. “Hard, sad, rough... all the stuff people pretend doesn’t exist! Because once you embrace that, you can figure out what to do; or not do!”
“The Way I’m Livin’,” currently at radio, was written by Grammy Country Song of the Year nominee Adam Wright (“So You Don’t Have To Love Me Any More.”) A scalding psychic meltdown of a lost soul, banging on the rocks and not sure they want any better is fuel for provocative Roger Pistole-directed video that will arrive in the next few weeks.
“We’re picking up speed, and that makes me happy,” says Womack. “I’ve waited a long time to get this music out - and I love how people are responding.”
Editor's Note: Womack (and Del Barber) will visit George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium on Friday, November 14th at 8:00 PM. To purchase tickets, click here or visit the Lisner box office, Tuesday - Friday from noon to 6:00 PM. Tickets range in price from $35-45.
About Lee Ann Womack:
Lee Ann Womack, pride of Jacksonville, Texas, has sung for Presidents, the Concert for the Nobel Prize and Maya Angelou’s Celebration of Joy Rising. More importantly, the Grammy-winner built a career seeking songs that slice life wide open to let the pain, the emptiness, the rage and the desire pour out.
The duet partner of choice for Buddy Miller, Alan Jackson, Jim Lauderdale and Willie Nelson, as well as part of Miller’s Silver Strings project, Rodney Crowell and Mary Karr’s Kin and music supervisor Randall Poster’s Divided & United, Womack’s soprano has a purity that rivals Dolly Parton and an ache that suggests Emmylou Harris at her most haunted.
The Way I’m Livin', produced by Frank Liddell (Chris Knight, Pistol Annies) is an unvarnished distillation of Womack’s clear-eyed take on the real world. Drawing on songs from Julie Miller, Bruce Robison, Hayes Carll, Mindy Smith and Neil Young, USA Today has called it “irresistibly teasing” and The Wall Street Journal proclaimed, “she digs into (the title track) as if she were making up for lost time.”
