Tanya Tucker Announces Her Second Album With Brandi Carlile as Co-Producer, ‘Sweet Western Sound,’ on Heels of Country Hall of Fame News
Tanya Tucker did not let much time slip away after the Country Music Hall of Fame announced her impending induction this week before coming out with an announcement of her own: She has a second album produced by the team of Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings coming soon, following up on a celebrated previous effort that earned Tucker her first two Grammy Awards.
The album “Sweet Western Sound” will be out June 2 on Fantasy. A teaser track from the record, “Kindness” is out now. The song was written by Carlile’s bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth.
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The collection reunites the team that made Tucker’s comeback album, “While I’m Livin’,” a 2019 set that got the singer a Grammys for best country album, and its closing track, “Bring My Flowers Now,” which won best country song.
The track list reveals a featured vocal appearance by Carlile on the song “Breakfast in Birmingham,” which she cowrote with Elton John’s perennial lyricist, Bernie Taupin, the first song those two writers have collaborated on to be released.
Most of the songs include co-writing credits for Tucker, Carlile, Jennings and/or the Hanseroth twins on material that was likely written expressly for Tucker, a la the previous album, including the ones she didn’t have a hand in. A couple of other tracks have intriguing credits. The late Billy Joe Shaver, one of Tucker’s musical heroes, shares a credit with her on the opening track, titled “Tanya,” which is said to be her elaboration on a voice mail the outlaw country left her. Another tune, “City of Gold” was solely written by JT Nero, who is known for collaborating with his partner Allison Russell in the duo Birds of Chicago.
The record includes one previously issued song, “Ready as I’ll Never Be,” which Carlile and Tucker wrote together and was featured as a closing theme in their 2022 Sony Classics documentary, “The Return of Tanya Tucker, Featuring Brandi Carlile.” (In December, both artists talked with Variety about that particular tune, which was prompted by Tucker’s feelings about Shaver’s death.)
Said Tucker in a statement, “‘Sweet Western Sound’ is another revelation and I’m excited to see what folks think of our new endeavor. It’s always a trip working with Brandi and Shooter. I didn’t know if we’d be working together again on a new album after ‘While I’m Livin’’… But we did it! Lots of new things we did this time and I even co-wrote some of the songs, which means a lot to me. Brandi says we’re magic together, and I’m starting to believe her.” (Tucker famously almost begged off working with Carlile in the studio the first time around, but clearly has not regretted it over the intervening four years.)
It was only two days prior to the new album announcement that Tucker attended a news conference in Nashville revealing that she was one of three greats set to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later this year, alongside Patty Loveless and songwriter Bob McDill.
Although a full Tucker tour for 2023 has not been announced, the singer did also put it out there this week that she will be headlining two shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on June 3-4, with tickets scheduled to go on sale this Friday.
The full track list for “Sweet Western Sound”:
1. Tanya (written by Billy Joe Shaver, Tanya Tucker)
2. Kindness (written by Tim Hanseroth, Phil Hanseroth)
3. Breakfast in Birmingham featuring Brandi Carlile (written by Brandi Carlile, Bernie Taupin)
4. Waltz Across a Moment (written by Shooter Jennings)
5. Ready as I’ll Never Be (written by Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker)
6. The List (written by Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker)
7. Letter to Linda (written by Tanya Tucker, Shooter Jennings)
8. City of Gold (written by JT Nero)
9. That Wasn’t Me (written by Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth, Phil Hanseroth)
10. When the Rodeo Is Over (Where Do the Cowboys Go?) (written by Billy Don Burns, Craig Dillingham)
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