New Singles Cover all the bases

It’s been awhile since I posted anything, let alone a post of new singles.  Well, here’s a list of some of the newest stuff Nashville has to offer. 

 Heartland – “Once A Woman Gets A Hold Of Your Heart”

Signed to Lofton Creek Records last year, Heartland released a good album with a great, possibly too hard to overcome, single in “I Loved Her First.” Sadly, Lofton Creek Records couldn’t do much with the band after that no-brainer smash hit.  So, Heartland left the label.  They signed with another small label, Country Thunder, but this label gave the band a bigger budget to release “Once…” Written by John Rich and former Lonestar singer Richie McDonald (this must be an old catalog song given Rich’s/Lonestar’s history), and produced by Rich, this song is miles different from the southern fried rock of the debut album.  Still, while more ‘radio friendly’ with a bit of personality, the lead singer isn’t a charismatic singer. 

Grade: C-

Lost Among The Stars: Marcus Hummon’s “All In Good Time”

 

Back when I was beginning to explore other artists in country music I stumbled upon “All In Good Time” by Marcus Hummon.  The simple singer-songwriter artwork on the cover got me to give him a shot.  In time I found out that Marcus had written the only Alabama song that has ever gotten me.   That song was “The Cheap Seats” and it’s still one of the best baseball songs ever written.  Marcus also wrote songs and hits for other artists around the 1995 release of this record (I distinctly remember it being one of that year’s first releases).  Although I never heard it, it became the first in a string of CDs where I purchased based on nothing but blind faith and the hope that I liked at least one track.  Well, From the folksy opener “Hittin’ The Road” to the redemptive closing track I was stunned.  It simply was the best country record I had ever purchased.  It remained my favorite CD that year and it is, to this day, in the rotation of my full-album listens on my 80gb iPod. 

Collin Raye Presents “Selected Hits”

Collin Raye – “Selected Hits” (Starpointe Records)

 

While the readers of this blog may not know it, I have always been a big fan of Collin Raye.  Hey may not be the biggest of ‘names’ in country music but he’s my favorite.  Much in the way a fan likes a local baseball star (for example let’s say Raul Ibanez of the Seattle Mariners), I’ve championed my mid-level hero.  In the boom of the 1990’s ‘Garth era’ Collin garnered multiplatinum success while releasing a string of passionate ballads and rollicking tracks.   Around the turn of the century country radio somehow stopped playing what Collin had to offer (despite favoring his style of country/rock/pop) and Collin split from Sony Nashville.  Collin has since released an underwhelming live album and a nice indepentendent release through Aspirion Records.  While recording a second album for Aspirion, they decided to stop releasing new artists directly. The label decided to focus, I guess, on being a distributor instead.   So with Collin left with no label to call home he did what seemingly every successful artist has done lately; He created his own label with his management team.   Starpointe records has formed and Collin released this 6 track EP on June 26.