Alison Krauss Reinvents Classics for ‘Windy City’ Project
On February 17, the twenty-seven-time GRAMMY winner will release Windy City, her first project since 2011’s Paper Airplane.
It’s been five long years since Alison Krauss released her last project, but soon, the wait for new music will be over.
On February 17, the twenty-seven-time GRAMMY winner will release Windy City, her first project since 2011’s Paper Airplane.
The project, entitled Windy City. will feature the singer performing 10 classic songs she personally selected with her producer Buddy Cannon. The collaboration came together after Krauss realized that working with the veteran producer encouraged her to push herself to be better. The moment of clarity for her was when she went to the recording studio to sing her lines on Hank Cochran’s “Make The World Go Away” for Jamey Johnson’s 2012 Living For A Song album. “That was absolutely the moment,” she explained. “Wow! Buddy really makes me want to do a good job.”
Windy City was also the first time Krauss went into a project without having the songs already picked out. She knew immediately that Cannon had to be on hand to help her select the classic tunes. “Usually it’s just all songs first,” said Krauss. “It was the first time I’d ever not had songs picked out, and it was just about a person.”
In the end, the two selected 10 songs spanning many years and genres including Glen Campbell’s signature “Gentle On My Mind,” Eddy Arnold’s “You Don’t Know Me,” and lesser known songs like Willie Nelson’s “I Never Cared For You” and Brenda Lee’s “All Alone Am I.”
Fans can pre-order a copy of Windy City HERE and get an instant download of “Losing You.”
The track list for Windy City is as follows:
1. Losing You – Written by Pierre Havet, Jean Renard and Carl Sigman. Originally recorded by Brenda Lee for her 1963 album Let Me Sing.
2. It’s Goodbye And So Long To You (background vocals by Dan Tyminski and Hank Williams Jr.) – Written by Raymond Couture and Harold J. Breau in 1952. Originally recorded by The Osborne Brothers with Mac Wiseman, it appears on their 1979 collection The Essential Bluegrass Album.
3. Windy City (background vocals by Suzanne Cox and Jamey Johnson) – Written by Pete Goble and Bobby Osborne. Originally recorded by The Osborne Brothers for their 1972 album Bobby and Sonny.
4. I Never Cared For You (background vocals by Suzanne Cox and Sidney Cox) – Written and originally recorded by Willie Nelson in 1964 as a single for Monument Records.
5. River In The Rain – Written by Roger Miller for the 1985 Broadway musical Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
6. Dream Of Me (background vocals by Buddy Cannon and Melonie Cannon) – Written by Buddy Cannon, Jimmy Darrell & Raleigh Squires. Was a top 10 single on Vern Gosdin’s 1981 album Today My World Slipped Away. Alison originally heard the song performed live by Jim & Jesse McReynold’s in the early 80’s.
7. Gentle On My Mind (background vocals by Teddy Gentry and Suzanne Cox) – Written and recorded by John Hartford for his 1967 album Earthwords & Music. It was popularized by Glen Campbell as the title track of his GRAMMY Award-winning 1967 Capitol Records album.
8. All Alone Am I – Originally written by Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis for the film The Island of the Brave, the song was later given English lyrics by Arthur Altman and popularized by Brenda Lee as the title track of her 1962 album.
9. Poison Love (background vocals by Dan Tyminski and Jamey Johnson) – Written by Elmer Laird. Originally recorded by Bill Monroe as the b-side to his “On the Old Kentucky Shore” single released in 1951.
10. You Don’t Know Me – Written by Cindy Walker & Eddy Arnold. Originally recorded by Arnold in 1955 as a single, it was later popularized by Ray Charles on his 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.
