Pictured (from l-r): Cliff O’Sullivan – Sugar Hill General Manager and Senior Vice President, Frank Liddell – Producer,Lee Ann Womack, Kevin Welk – Welk Music Group President, Enzo DeVincenzo – Manager, Dan Sell – Welk Music Group General Manager
Nashville, Tenn. (April 10, 2014) – Sugar Hill Records announces it has signed Grammy-winning
Lee Ann Womack. The critically acclaimed vocalist’s eagerly anticipated new record is slated for a September release, with its first single coming this summer. The signing was announced yesterday on
HollywoodReporter.com.
“When I was looking for the right home for this record,” Womack says, “I knew I wanted a label where passion for music and artistic integrity drive the decision-making, the people who bring the music to the fans. Beyond the incredible work Sugar Hill has done with Nickel Creek, Sarah Jarosz and Bryan Sutton, they have a broader way of looking at where music can go and why it matters – and for this very personal record, it seemed like the perfect fit.”
Award-winning producer Frank Liddell – known for his work with Chris Knight, Pistol Annies, David Nail — helmed Womack’s forthcoming release. Beyond winning the Country Music Association’s Album of the Year award in 2010 for Miranda Lambert’s Revolution, his work earned Lambert the Academy of Country Music Award’s Album of the Year for three consecutive recordings: Revolution, Crazy Ex Girlfriend and Four The Record.
“Lee Ann and I always thought one day we’d work together,” Liddell says of their collaboration, “but we wanted it to be right, be something we could both bring the best of ourselves, too. My wife is one of the greatest country singers ever, but she’s also a vocalist who bring things out of songs you never realized were there. It’s unusual for the musicians to not just want, but to shape their performances to the vocalist during tracking, but for this project… That’s just what some of the best players in the world did.”
Cliff O’Sullivan, Sugar Hill’s General Manager and Senior Vice President, states, “We’re thrilled to have Lee Ann join Sugar Hill and the Welk Music Group. She has delivered a stunning album, and we can’t wait for people to hear it. Lee Ann turns an important artistic corner with this project — and we’re delighted to be a part of her next chapter. Where Lee Ann wants to go musically matches up perfectly with our goals as a label.”
A native of Jacksonville, Texas, Womack’s career has always represented the high watermark in modern country. In addition to the multi-genre six week #1 success of “I Hope You Dance,” the multiple Grammy nominee won the 2002 Grammy for Best Country Vocal Collaboration for “Mendocino County Line” with Willie Nelson. She has also received 20 Country Music Association Awards nominations, winning Album of the Year for There’s More Where That Came From, Female Vocalist and two Single and Musical Events.
Working with a core band that included a rhythm section of Matt Chamberlin on drums and Glen Whorf, guitarist Duke Levine, acoustic guitarist/pianist Mac McAnally and steel player Paul Frankin, the project was recorded live on the floor with minimal overdubs. The instant alchemy can be heard on the tracks, as well as fingers on strings and the space between notes.
Most recently joining Old Crow Medicine Show, Dolly Parton and Ralph Stanley as part of last year’s Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War, Womack is a go-to collaborator for Buddy Miller, as well as frequent duet partner for Willie Nelson, George Strait, Don Henley, Alan Jackson, Bryan Sutton and Oscar-winning music supervisor Randall Poster.
“I have always loved country music with my entire being,” says Womack, “and I think the gift of a genre that’s built on real life is that there is always room for great songs, and the truth. When we started this record, Frank and I promised each other we would only cut songs that we absolutely loved for no reason other than we loved them very much. No other factors, and I think that freedom really inspired us.”
