Tayna Tucker Celebrates Gritty Determination in ‘Hard Luck’ Video
Her new album 'While I'm Livin'' comes out August 23.
Country icon Tanya Tucker reflects on her beloved reputation as a trouble making wild child in the new video for “Hard Luck,” a track from her upcoming album return, While I’m Livin.’
Originally recorded in 1978 by country rockers Josefus, the twangy retrospective is built on string-bending guitars and gospel-inflected background vocals, with Tucker celebrating the gritty determination behind her storied career. Tucker changed up a few of the lyrics to make them more personal to her, says album co-producer and Americana star Brandi Carlile, who selected the track alongside co-producer Shooter Jennings. “This tune is really fun,” she explains. “If you know Tanya Tucker you know this is her song.”
Carlile and Jennings are both featured in the video for “Hard Luck,” a rollicking barroom romp directed by Chris Phelps and set in a beloved East Nashville hole-in-the-wall — the American Legion Post 82. Full of throwback, no-frills visuals and plenty of Tucker’s signature take-me-as-I-come attitude, it finds the star playing poker and performing on a tiny stage while an exasperated Carlile looks on and Jennings (son of country legend Waylon Jennings) plays piano.
Tucker’s While I’m Living album — her first in 17 years — was announced earlier this month. Set for release on August 23, the 10-song project also features Tucker’s current single, “The Wheels of Laredo,” as well as a reimagined version of Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” and Jennings’ “High Ridin’ Heroes.” After breaking out with “Delta Dawn” at the age of 13 in 1972, Tucker went on to influence a generation of empowered female country artists, and Carlile says the album will celebrate that legacy.
“It’s a musical biography of sorts,” she says, “about Tanya’s real life and the places she’s seen, and it’s narrated by the greatest country and western singer this side of Johnny Cash.”
Tanya Tucker’s While I’m Livin’ Track List:
- “Mustang Ridge” (written by Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth and Phil Hanseroth)
- “The Wheels Of Laredo” (written by Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth and Phil Hanseroth)
- “I Don’t Owe You Anything” (written by Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth and Phil Hanseroth)
- “The Day My Heart Goes Still” (written by Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth and Phil Hanseroth)
- “High Ridin’ Heroes” (written by David Lynn Jones)
- “The House That Built Me” (written by Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin)
- “Hard Luck” (written by John C. “Pete” Bailey, David Lee Mitchell, Raymond L. Turner and Jerry Ontiberoz)
- “Rich” (written by Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth and Phil Hanseroth)
- “Seminole Wind Calling” (written by Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth and Phil Hanseroth)
- “Bring My Flowers Now” (written by Tanya Tucker, Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth and Phil Hanseroth)
