Friday, June 8, 2012

Lorrie Morgan

Lorrie Morgan performing live.

After 30 years of going into the studio to record music, veteran country star Lorrie Morgan decided to take on a challenge she had never attempted. She and the session musicians would sing and play live with no vocal or musical overdubs. That means no tinkering with an individual's part once it's been laid down.

"I was nervous at first," Morgan reflects. "Oh, my God! I put a lot on myself. Did I mean to do this? it was exhilarating for me. It was a high—I love a challenge. Anything that is a challenge I'm going to take it. When the music came in and the strings came in and voices were there, it was like we were all in this huge room together. Nobody was in a booth. The microphone was in the middle of the room. It was like a band. "

In two days Morgan and the musicians recorded 14 songs for her CD of country classics, A Moment in Time (on Country Crossing Records), which was released in late October (2009).

"I didn't want to do the album originally, because it seemed like everybody and their brother was doing cover songs," Morgan said. “Let's do a country album and let's sing ‘Help me Make it Through the Night,’ and I was concerned that my album was just going to get lost in the shuffle."

However, her attitude changed when she and her producer, Wally Wilson, thought about recording the album the old-fashioned way, a method Lorrie says she used to observe back in the golden days of Nashville's music scene.

"We brought in Harold Bradley and Jimmy Capps and some of these guys that were on some of the original records," Morgan said. "They said they hadn't been this excited in the studio in a long time because this is how they used to cut. It was boom, boom, boom, and you learn the song right then and you were done and moved to the next song. It wasn't so technical. You weren't taking the heart and the soul out of the song, cutting it and cutting it, that you sliced it up so bad it was gone."

Although these sessions were wrapped up within 48 hours, Morgan said overall it took a couple of years to do the project, including the excruciating choice of which classic selections to record in the first place.

"It was very hard to decide what we wanted to do," Morgan remembers. "These are some of the songs that made me want to fall in love with music and want to do music for my life. We listened to thousands of songs. It was like 'okay, you have to narrow this down to 14 - I don't think so.' I want to do them all. One would be twin fiddles and the next one would be lushy strings. I love them all. I finally narrowed it down to about 25. I said to my producer Wally, you pick the final 14."

Lorrie Morgan

Making the final cut were masterful songs like "Are You Lonesome Tonight" that Elvis Presley took to the top of the pop charts in 1961, Patsy Cline's 1963 smash "Leavin' on Your Mind," "Break It to Me Gently" (recorded by both Brenda Lee and Juice Newton), "Borrowed Angel" and "Lovin' on Back Streets" (recorded by Mel Street), and Glen Campbell's classic hit, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix."

Morgan and Mavericks former frontman Raul Malo did their own spin of Freddie Hart's 1971 chart-topper, "Easy Loving," and Morgan also shared the microphone with Tracy Lawrence for "After the Fire Is Gone," which Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn originally recorded.

"I like ‘After The Fire Is Gone’, and Loretta told me about a year ago, she said (in Loretta's voice), 'Darlin', why don't you write some good cheating songs? Nobody's writing or singing them good cheating songs anymore.' I thought when I heard it, I said, well, by God, there it is. I'm just going to re-cut hers," Morgan adds with a laugh.

Morgan also had to do "I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall." "This is my favorite Merle Haggard song, and I think it's because I'm always on that damn mountain when I fall," Morgan recalls. "There's no small fall for me. There's no scraping my knee. I'm falling off that mountain and really messing myself up. It's kind of like my anthem."

Morgan also re-cut "All Right (I'll Sign the Papers)" that her father, the late Grand Ole Opry legend and Hall of Fame member George Morgan, recorded 45 years ago. The song's writer, Mel Tillis, did his own version of the song four years later in 1968.

Many of the songs on the new album are the standards that Morgan cut her teeth on during her days in the clubs and growing up at the Opry. Over time, Morgan began developing her own repertoire of hits like "Five Minutes," "A Picture of Me (Without You)," "I Didn't Know My Own Strength," "Dear Me," and "Out of Your Shoes." So, the CMA award-winning singer had less and less time to squeeze in the other classics into her show. With this project, she' s introducing them on tour at her shows to a new generation.

"This is a song that probably some of you have never heard, but maybe, after tonight, it'll be one of your classic favorites," Morgan tells her audiences. " I think just reintroducing some of our great country songs and the way we used to record, that it will excite some of these newer acts too, to get back to the basics of how we used to record them. You'd send [your single] to radio, and you didn't have to go out and beg somebody to play them. They wanted to play them because they were great songs. Hopefully, we're going to move people--not just me but a few of us who are recording this way now--show some people how it's really done and how it was meant to be."

Performing On Broadway Next Year

Besides her new album and tours, Morgan is planning to leave her comfort zone again when she moves to New York City next year to perform the musical Pure Country on Broadway. This time she's reviving the character that Lesley Ann Warren made famous in the film. Morgan will take on the role of Lula, a tough-as-nails manager, to Rusty, the George Strait-like character that hit country artist Joe Nichols will strap on.

" I'm going to love this role, because it's going to bring out the evil side of me," Morgan said with a laugh. "I'm going to get a lot out on stage. She is a toughie, and I can't wait to incorporate a lot of managers I've known and put all their little bad parts altogether and make up Lesley Ann Warren's character, Lula."

Morgan said she has been offered roles on Broadway a couple of times before but didn't accept them because her children were too young. She moves to New York in March for about a year.

"I'm not nervous because I don't think I can do the part," Morgan said. "I'm nervous because it's a change in my environment. I'm moving to New York. My kids said they'd come and be with me some and of course, so will my boyfriend. But Nashville is my home, and this is my safety net. This is my four walls. I'm going to New York to a big room and I'm taking my two dogs with me."

"My dad always told me if you're not a little bit nervous before you go on stage, you've lost your love for what you're doing, and I believe that with all my heart," she adds. "Once I'm on stage I'm okay, but before I go on in the wings, do not talk to me. I can't hear you. I don't want to hear what you're saying, but once I get out there I'm fine."

Colby O’Donis

Colby O'Donis (right) with Akon.

Colby O, the self-titled debut album by 20-year-old R&B/hip-hop singer/songwriter/producer Colby O’Donis on Akon’s KonLive label, is set for release sometime this summer. However, that’s not stopping the NYC bred, L.A. based artist from looking a year or so ahead right now, completely excited about the long- term rollout schedule for the album’s first three singles. The first of these tracks, “What You Got” - which features Akon, who also co-produced the album with O’Donis - is quickly moving up on several chart formats.

By late-April, “What You Got” had reached #31 bullet on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. The song also has R&B and Latin flavors, which has translated to a strong presence on Latin stations; “What You Got” reached the Top 20 on the Latin Rhythm Airplay chart, and it was close to cracking the Top 50 on the iTunes Top Songs list.

Already a hit on the road with a series of packed club dates throughout Southern and Northern California, and Las Vegas, O’Donis will keep the momentum going over the next year with the upcoming singles “Don’t Turn Back” and “Sophisticated Bad Girl,” both of which include the beats of mixtap DJ, hip-hop producer and syndicated radio host Clinton Sparks.

While O’Donis is also a gifted dancer whose charisma makes him a compelling presence onstage, everyone’s talking about the way he’s developed into a versatile musical threat. In addition to his formal music training on the guitar under the tutelage of Johan Oiested (a member of Carlos Santana’s rhythm section), he’s also become a solid pianist. At one point O’Donis considered signing a recording deal with Babyface, until a career-altering meeting with Akon occurred. Akon was immediately impressed with the young prodigy, and offered him a record deal with his Konlive label. O’Donis joins R&B singer Ray Lavender, Atlanta based rapper Jay Money, Jamaican R&B duo Brick & Lace on the growing roster of KonLive, which is affiliated with Akon’s Konvict Muzik and Interscope/Geffen, and distributed by Universal Music Group.

“My manager helped hook me up with some of his contact people, and he really connected with the 14 songs on that first demo I had floating around,” says O’Donis. “From there, we just kind of took off and started vibing in the studio, with a chemistry that was totally off the chain from the start. Akon told me he was starting this label Konvict Music and wanted me to be a part of it. Because labels take awhile to get going and to achieve the stature they need to launch new artists, there was a bit of a waiting process for me. But the two years was worth it. When you see us work and hear the tracks we do, you can see that Akon’s and my ideas are identical on everything. He fell in love with everything he heard me coming up with, and we just have a cool bond going on. Everything’s really exciting for me right now, and I feel blessed to have this opportunity.”

O’Donis may be new to the pop, hip-hop and Latin charts, but he actually broke into the music industry years ago when at the age of nine he started working with platinum producers Full Force (Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Backstreet Boys, N’Sync). O’Donis’ father bought him his first studio set-up when he was nine, and his self-produced demo of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” inspired Full Force to shop him to numerous labels. O’Donis signed to Motown briefly and recorded “Mouse In The House” for the Stuart Little soundtrack That initial breakthrough didn’t immediately evolve into the success the young prodigy had hoped for, but he and his family were committed to making his dream happen somewhere down the line.

“I remember how hungry I was back then,” he says, “and I’m even hungrier today. I’m so thankful to have such supportive parents as well as a sister who helped to pay for my guitar lessons, which is a big part of what I do. I guess all those things that happened when I was a kid just came at me too early and it wasn’t my time yet. But everything happens the way it’s supposed to, and all the time in the middle helped me grow into manhood and develop more of a vision of myself as an artist.”

Because of Akon’s hectic globetrotting schedule and the demand for his writing & producing by so many artists, he and O’Donis developed a unique working arrangement in creating the tracks for Colby O. O’Donis did everything in his home studio - from the engineering to recording keyboards, beats, drums and laying down the vocals - then sent the cuts off to Akon, who would finish off the production. “Most of the time he’s off somewhere else doing his own thing, but then he’d jump on my project and add the amazing cherry on the top. We recorded so many songs for the project - maybe 40 or so - so it was hard to get it down to a manageable number. The writing process has been so much fun, and it’s been great working with Akon. On the real, he is a very humble guy.”

Together, the two have created a collection of “joints” that Akon says are “beyond definition…we are doing whatever is hot. Colby is my secret weapon.” While O’Donis would like to include more guitar playing on his next project, he loved his debut’s mix of pop, R&B, hip-hop and the Latin guitar flavors that enhance those vibes. Starting in late summer, he will be going on his first formal tour in support of Colby O with Akon and another Akon associate, superstar R&B/hip-hop singer T-Pain.

“I’m really looking forward to hitting the road with those guys,” says O’Donis. “My shows will include all those styles,” he says. “Performing and entertaining is what I live for. I want to be able to show the fans that I’m a real musician as well as a singer and dancer. I always begin my concerts with an unplugged intro where I sing with just the acoustic guitar. I want to show everyone what I can do without the plug-in. The fact that I’m finally getting to this point is proof that persistence pays off. If you think you’ve got what it takes, it’s just a matter of putting things together at the right time.”

Sunday, May 20, 2012