Columbia Nashville recording artist Jessica Simpson spent time in the new XM Nashville Headquarters recently to tape the XM World Premiere of her forthcoming country album Do You Know. The exclusive conversation between Simpson and XM’s Jon Anthony will air this weekend on Highway 16 ShortCuts, which features all eleven songs on the CD.
Topics covered during the extensive interview range from what she found to be the hardest thing to deal with when she came to Nashville to write, her charity work, her USO tours, and how Dolly Parton came through for her during a very tough time.
The first airing of Highway 16 ShortCuts is this Friday at 2pm ET on XM’s Highway 16, XM Radio Online and DirecTV Channel 814.
8 comments:
Great!!!
Congratulations.
The dog looks really impressed. :)
I actually want to hear this...help. :)
Congratulations!
I've heard JS's album and it's mediocre. Not disastrous but not good. I go back to what Chet Flippo said about JS, that it wasn't a big deal that JS was crossing over and country music would survive it fine. Now that I've heard the album I can say: you've heard it all before, and it's been done better. There's not much to be outraged about but there's nothing to be excited about either.
JS simply doesn't have a natural country voice and it shows especially in a song that could've been good if someone else were singing it: Sipping On History. She doesn't have that 'cry' in her voice that a good country singer needs. But the worst thing about her singing is that JS seems to think she's a powerhouse vocalist. JS doesn't have the chops for that to put it mildly and no amount of studio engineering can fix that. This isn't just oversinging, it's bad singing and she butchers a few of the ballads with it.
Dolly makes the song Do You Know worth listening to. That one really sounds like a Dolly song and I regretted it wasn't Dolly singing the whole thing. I also regretted it wasn't Rachel Proctor singing Remember That. She's got a much better voice than Jessica's. But Remember That is more a pop song and it's a 'can't miss' song no matter who sings it.
I didn't even like Come On Over much but it's probably the best sounding cut on the album. The production is typical Nashvegas and JS doesn't have enough of a voice to cut through it. Maybe the album will do well for her but IMHO it's not good enough to last past the initial surprise that it's not as terrible as some might have expected or hoped.
Just my 2 cents. :)
Looking at those shoes makes my feet hurt ;-)
Hey Flutters -- welcome! Thanks for the feedback. Can I ask where you heard the album?
"Pray Out Loud" is my favorite cut.
I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable our interview with her was.
I can't stand 'Come on Over'. Iread over on CMT (I think) that she announced in a concert she passes gas in bed...classy. There are far better ways to get across you're 'regular folks'.
I love Carrie Underwood :)
LOL
but cute pic
Thanks J! I enjoy your blog here.
I heard an advance of the album but it was also made available for free online streaming at some inferior radio outlets that don't bear the XM name. ;) I confess consulting the latter in order to listen to Pray Out Loud again after your recommendation.
Pray Out Loud is at least sung within JS's achievable vocal range, I'll give it that. But if you had asked me, song unheard, to come up with the expected rhymes in that song based on the title, I would have picked these words: now, cloud, doubt, down, out. I got 4 out of 5 right! That's a problem.
The lyrics are so predictable it takes away from any enjoyment of the song. When I listened to it I thought the song was one cliche after another, the lyrics came together very awkwardly, and the song went nowhere. It was supposed to be inspirational but it fell flat. I would have been happier if it had been an instrumental only track, because that part sounds good. ;) It made me go back and listen to Wide Open Spaces.
As for JS herself, I think she's probably generally a nice person. But she's so easily led into high school 'cool' crowd antics and bad decisions that it makes me sad knowing she's 10 years out of high school. I'm not convinced she is her own person yet, seeing as every new album cycle has produced a new declaration that she has found herself and the love of her life. Again that makes me sad, because I think it'll take more than the superficial self awareness she has for her to find what she is really looking for.
JS is someone with a lot of ambition who truly believes she has something of artistic value to offer the world. There's nothing wrong with believing that and trying. But it's just that her ambition outstrips her actual talent. But you know I think that's why JS remains a celebrity. Enough people are interested in her quest for respect despite her limitations that they find her interesting to watch as she keeps trying again and again.
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