Rodney Crowell Song Is Long Monday’s Lead Single
With the finishing
touches being applied to Long Monday, the first album from Cincinnati
journeyman guitarist/vocalist Tim Hensley, the first taste of
this acoustic/bluegrass will arrive at radio November 15, 2007. The
first single from the project, two years in the making, will be Rodney
Crowell’s harrowing “Ridin’ Out The Storm”.
“When Buddy Cannon and I started talking about this project,” Hensley
says of the stark track that captures the spirit of the song, “I remember
a trip he and I’d made to New York City with Kenny to do some TV shows.
We’d gone out for a walk, just around our hotel, and the snow was
coming down, and it was so pretty. But you’d look around all that,
and you’d see these homeless people… you know, folks with nowhere
to go, and it really hits you.”
“When we started looking at songs, Buddy played me this one… and
he remembered that same walk… and he agreed this song was everything
we saw and felt that day. When something can hit you like that, make
something real again, that’s when you know the song is strong…”
“Ridin’ Out The Storm” certainly mines a deep vein of truth.
Not intended to be preachy or to make the singer into a hero, it is
an honest portrait of a homeless man who in the midst of abject poverty
is determined to maintain his dignity… the one thing that is not subject
to monetary transaction.
“That is a real story,” says Grammy-winning singer/songwriting icon
Crowell. “It happened to me when I was walking with my youngest daughter
in New York… and I’d offered this homeless man my coat because it
was so cold. He was almost offended, told me his choices were his own.
He just caught me between the eyes with my own judgement…”
“And the thing about this song is that honesty,” Crowell continues.
“You can tell when you hear Tim sing this song that he’s not just
been there, but that he understands all the emotions I was trying to
show. It’s about loneliness and sadness, but it’s also about maintaining
the honor of your dignity in a very difficult place. It takes a lot
of compassion to bring that to light… and he does.”
A veteran of extended stints with Ricky Skaggs and Patty Loveless, as
well as an enduring tenure with Kenny Chesney, Hensley creates an acoustic/bluegrass
hybrid that is about songs, performances, moments, truths and emotions.
In addition to enlisting traditional bluegrass and gospel and songwriters
ranging from John Prine to John Scott Sherrill, Ronnie Bowman and Tim
Stafford to Larry Cordle and Carl Jackson, Hensley contributes his own
redemption glimpse “What A Sight To Behold.”
With “Ridin’ Out The Storm” setting the tone for what’s
to come, people will be able to start experiencing the man who has been
a muse, a catalyst and a secret weapon for some of bluegrass and country’s
biggest names for almost two decades. As a survey of what makes true
American music so compelling, one only need check out Long Monday and its 12 tracks to understand.
Posted 12/15/2007
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