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…..some people take voice lessons
to learn how to sing, but I just sat and listened to country records,
like George Jones, Dolly Parton and stuff like that. What’s
so familiar to me can be so foreign to other people, and I don’t
realize that sometimes. But that’s how I learned how to sing.”
Somewhere between the blush of a new love and the bruises of a
broken heart lies real life and real country music. Lee Ann Womack
is a lifelong student of this reality, majoring in Jones and Wynette
and graduating with honors, with the tender, yet tough spirit of
teachers including Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.
There’s More Where That Came From
– the follow-up to her 2004 Greatest Hits collection -- is
for everyone who’s ever loved, lost, and learned hard-earned
lessons and lived to tell about it, including the singer herself.
“These are songs that aren’t
afraid to tell the truth,” says
Womack. “It is definitely
honest music as far as the lyrics go. They’re a slice of life
– the good, bad and the ugly.”
It’s not an accident that the album’s first single,
“I May Hate Myself In The Morning,”
sounds simultaneously like a classic country cheatin’ song
and a contemporary breath of fresh air.
“This is the kind of stuff I grew up listening to,”
says the daughter of an east Texas country deejay, who practically
wore out her father’s vinyl records, soaking up every vocal
lick and turn of a phrase like a sponge.
“How true is this song?” exclaims Womack. “Even
if you haven’t been in that situation, we all know somebody
who has. It’s just honest.”
“You know, the sad thing is, I always
felt like I was born too late,” Womack admits.
“Even when I was younger, I had an old soul. I chose these
kinds of songs early on in my career, but if anything, I’m
more able to relate to these kind of lyrics more now than before,”
says the woman whose 2000 single, “I
Hope You Dance,” made her worldly known.
“You can’t be married twice,
have two kids and go through all I’ve gone through in the
last few years without learning a few things, you know? I think
I even sound a little wiser sometimes.”
And that she certainly does on “Twenty
Years And Two Husbands Ago,” a song Womack wrote with
veteran country writers Dean Dillon and Dale Dodson. The song’s
opening line – Looking in the bathroom mirror, putting my
makeup on/Maybelline can’t hide the lines of time that’s
gone – is the kind of humble honesty that any woman can relate
to. “I feel like that was kind of
my ‘Tammy’ song,” says Womack.
“I wanted a song or two that was classic and classy female
country. Tammy and Dolly would sing in those sequined dresses, almost
an evening gown kind of thing. And they’d sing songs of heartbreak.
You don’t see females doing that anymore, but I knew I’d
have fun doing it, and that was what I wanted to do with this record
– just have fun and make music that I love.”
This time around Womack worked with hit-making
producer Byron Gallimore, who’s best known for working with
pop-flavored artists Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
“I can’t tell you how many people have stopped me and
said, ‘You’re making a record with Byron Gallimore?’”
laughs Womack. “Now people are calling
me saying, ‘I can’t believe Byron did this record! It’s
outstanding!’”
“Byron’s very talented and
quite versatile. And anyone who’s really sat and listened
to the records he’s made knows he’s one of the few who
are capable of going the direction an artist wants to go,”
she adds. “We just had fun. I hope that’s what it sounds
like when people hear the record. If they know anything about me
and the kind of music I love, they will know I had a blast making
it.”
Womack estimates she personally listened to over a thousand songs
to find the baker’s dozen on There’s More Where That
Came From. “Then you have to add
on how many Frank [Liddell, Womack’s husband and publisher/producer]
listened to,” she says, “and
how many Missy [Gallimore, music publishing exec and Byron’s
wife] heard, too.”
The songs that made the cut examine everything from the wistful
regret of “The Last Time”
and playful sexiness of “What I Miss
About Heaven,” to the numbing moment of a diminishing
relationship, as sung in “Painless.”
And the record’s introspective crown jewel just might be the
Don Schlitz/Brett James-penned stunner “Stubborn
(Psalm 151).”
“It’s hard for me to pass
up any song that has a lot of ache in it,” explains
the CMA Female Vocalist and Grammy award winner. “I
don’t know why that is – I’ve been like that since
I was little. Frank has taught me a lot of things about songs. He
doesn’t like things that are cliché or trite, and he’s
pointed that out to me. That’s not to say that there aren’t
some lines sometimes that can be cliché, but I do think about
those things now more than I used to. More than anything, I look
for a song that makes me feel something. If I believe it, and if
it makes me feel sad, or feel like laughing, or feel like dancing,
it’s my kind of song.”
 One
day in the studio Lee Ann and Byron found they had an extra hour
left at the end of a session. “Byron
said, ‘We have time to cut something that you love, just anything
from the past.’ I had been listening to The Essential Porter
And Dolly, so I said, ‘I’d love to cut “Just Someone
I Used To Know.” The guys didn’t even ask which one
that was, everybody just stood up, went to their instruments and
started playing. We got a key and cut it.”
Womack laughs when she recalls another day in the studio when the
engineer was exposed to – and amazed by – her “country
soul” way of singing. “I remember I was in the vocal
booth and I could see Byron just dying laughing and talking to the
engineer, Eric. I asked him what was so funny, and he got on the
talkback and said, ‘Eric said, ‘I love her singing,
but how does she do that? And where did she learn to do that?’
Byron thought it was so funny because I was just singing country.
We went into this big thing about how some people take voice lessons
to learn how to sing, but I just sat and listened to real country
records, like George Jones, Dolly Parton, and stuff like that. What’s
so familiar to me can be so foreign to other people, and I don’t
realize that sometimes. But that’s how I learned to sing.”
One listen to There’s More Where That Came From is proof
of that. And like the heroes who bared their souls through her father’s
turntable, Womack has perfected the art of combining vulnerability
with strength. “I hope people will
enjoy it,” says Womack. “You
can always pull out your old Tammy records or your old George or
Dolly records – and I do it consistently, but I think it’s
fun to have new recordings of things like that. I hope those people
who have been missing out on classic country albums, find that this
one fills the void. I hope they hear the honesty in the players,
production and the singing. And I hope they have as much fun listening
to it as we did making it.
 |
 “There’s
More Where That Came From”
(Chris
Stapleton, Chris DuBois)
When
was the last time you heard a female artist play the role of a cheater?
‘It’s been
too long since I’ve heard a song like that. The ‘even
though I know I shouldn’t,
but I’m going to’ kind of song. That’s where I
tried to go with this
record.
I didn’t want to think too hard about whether I should or
shouldn’t, I
just cut a song if I liked it.
“One’s
A Couple”
(Dale
Dodson, Billy Lawson, John Northrup)
It
just sounded like a beer-drinking, honky tonk song. I didn’t
think too much
about
whether it made a better
girl or guy song or whatever. I just liked it,
so I cut it.
“I May Hate Myself In The Morning”
(Odie
Blackman)
That’s
almost too real. It’s one of those songs that almost makes
the listener
uncomfortable.
“The
Last Time”
(Tony
Lane, David Lee, Chris DuBois)
I
love Tony Lane’s songwriting and his melodies. I had a lot
of fun recording
that one. Wes Hightower and Andrea Zonn sang the harmonies on it,
and I
thought they did a really great job. That’s probably my favorite
part of the cut.
“He
Oughta Know That By Now”
(Clint
Ingersoll, Jeremy Spillman)
It’s
so hard for me to find up-tempo songs that I like that aren’t
fluff. That’s why I
was drawn to this song.
“Twenty
Years And Two Husbands Ago”
(Lee
Ann Womack, Dale Dodson, Dean Dillon)
I
was in my office talking to my assistant. She asked me a question
and I said,
‘I can’t remember – lordy, that was 20 years and
two husbands ago.’ And I
thought, ‘Bingo! There’s the next song I’m writing.’
(laughs)
“Happiness”
(Kostas)
Missy
brought this song to me and said, ‘You’re cutting this
song, that’s all
there is to it.’ (laughs) And I played it for Frank just to
make sure and he
thought it was great. I thought it might be a little weird for me
to cut because it
might sound like I was giving an old man advice or something, but
it’s just
a story song and a good little lesson.
“When
You Get To Me”
(Bill
Luther, Marv Green)
More
than anything I just liked the way that one felt. It felt like you
were getting on
the road and just driving.
“Painless”
(Luke
Laird, Bill Luther, Hillary Lindsey)
I
cut ‘Painless’ because of the line, ‘Said you
felt like those dirty dishes and
it was high time you came clean.’ There must’ve been
a lot hurt flying around
the
writer’s session that day.
“What I Miss About Heaven”
(Annie
Roboff, Marcus Hummond)
Up-tempo,
smart lyric, banjo and fiddle player (Bryan Sutton and Aubrey Haney)
playing their asses off.
“Waiting
For The Sun To Shine”
(Sonny
Throckmorton)
That’s
one I’ve always wanted to cut. I just love Ricky Skaggs’
record on that.
And
I love to hear harmonies. I could listen to just a cappella stuff.
I sort of
cut
this one more so to sing the harmony part than the lead!
“Stubborn
(Psalm 151)”
(Don
Schlitz, Brett James)
‘Stubborn’
is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in my life. When
I heard
the
demo, I couldn’t believe it. It brought me to my knees. I
got about halfway
through
the song and literally, tears were streaming down my face. It’s
funny because
I came home one time, nobody was home, but there was this CD
lying
on the kitchen counter that had ‘Psalm 151’ written
on it. I thought, ‘If
someone wrote a song and entitled it ‘Psalm 151,’ that
must be an important
Psalm, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember that one.’
So I went and got
my
Bible, and found there was
no Psalm 151I was eager to hear the song
so I put the CD in and was
crying by the middle of the song. When Frank
came home I met him at the door and asked him what it was. After
listening
to it he said, ‘That might be one of the best songs I’ve
ever heard.
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