THE NASHVILLE SESSIONS
Title: The Nashville Sessions
Release Date: September 2019
Catalog ref.: NBMP005
Format: MP3
Vocals: Gretchen Wilson, Chip Davis, Billy Davis, Tim Hopkins, Troy Olsen, Steve Nelson, Harry Stinson.
Electric Guitar: Jeff King, Simon Nelson.
Acoustic Guitar: Mike Spriggs, Teddy Morgan, Bryan Sutton, Steve Nelson.
Bass: Mike Brigandello, Alison Prestwood, Dave Pomeroy.
Drums: Steve Brewster, Paul Liem, Kenny Malone.
Keyboards: John Hobbs.
Pedal Steel: Dan Dugmore, Mike Johnson.
Fiddle: Joe Spivey, Tammy Rogers, Rob Hajacos.
Banjo: Jeff King.
Dobro: Dan Dugmore, Simon Nelson
Liner Notes
Tucson, Arizona. The home of American songwriter and publisher Robert John Jones, who’s written songs for the great Buck Owens, Tammy Wynette and Alan Jackson. Guitars and notepads to hand, we sat out on his beautiful garden with its dazzling purple, red, gold, pink and yellow flowers, sage and cacti and dreamed up a bunch of songs under a perfect blue desert sky.… Ten days later we flew in to Nashville for our first session, led by Jeff King on guitar. Jeff has worked with the likes of Randy Travis, Johnny Cash, Patty Loveless and Lee Ann Womack: www.jeffkingnashville.com.
The band kick off with ‘Good In Goodbye’, Celtic Country Rock played with humour and panache, and in twenty minutes have nailed it perfectly.
From there on the days were filled with wonderful music, performed by a host of fabulous musicians, including bluegrass star Bryan Sutton www.bryansutton.com. who played acoustic guitar on many of the tracks, cutting a blazing solo on 'Can’t Get Enough', Nashville icon Kenny Malone on drums and percussion, and Dave Pomeroy, famous for his work with such legends as Don Williams, John Fogerty, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and Trisha Yearwood, on bass.
The Good in Goodbye
The Nelson Brothers released the lead single - 'The Good in Goodbye' (Troy Olsen Mix) on Friday, July 12th 2019.
Sitting in RJ’s home in Tucson, Arizona, swapping titles and ideas, Si played a riff and melody he’d woken up with one morning and shared some lines he’d written back home in London including:
You’re gonna see my tail lights fading
You won’t see me for dust
This town is twinned with hell
From that, and a title of RJ’s, the song was spun, and recorded in Nashville with Jeff King on electric guitar, Steve Brewster on drums, Mike Brignardello on bass, Dan Dugmore on steel, fiddler Joe Spivey and Mike Spriggs on acoustic guitar and bouzouki.
Our friend Troy Olsen is the real deal - a cowboy from Arizona who has written hit singles for Blake Shelton and Tim McGraw. He loved our song and wanted to mix a version of it featuring the Grammy award winning country singer Gretchen Wilson.
Your shirts are at the Salvation Army
Your boots went out with the trash
The ring you gave me on my birthday
Is such a sweet memory I pawned it for cash
Can't outrun the Rain
The second single from the new album 'Can't outrun the Rain' was released on August 2nd 2019.
I was running along the Thames early one Spring morning, looking up at the scudding clouds in a stormy sky, when the voice in my head said:
No matter how fast you run, you can’t outrun the rain
I got soaked and a song was born. Written under a desert sky, it’s a hymn to that magical first love, the kind you never forget. Si came up with the tune and we swapped lines over a bottle or two of Pomerol. Happy days.
Taken from the new album by the British duo ‘The Nashville Sessions‘, this track features Gretchen Wilson singing lead on The Nelson Brother’s ‘The Good in Goodbye‘. It’s upbeat Country, with a nice line in sassy lyrics that drop in a few familiar references : “You can bet I don’t regret it / I crossed you off my list / You had my number, now forget it / Baby you won’t be missed / You put the good in goodbye / And the hell in hello.” Thankfully Gretchen Wilson has a sweeter vocal than Lee Marvin.
Jonathan Aird - Americana UK
UK duo Simon & Steve Nelson enlist the vocal talents of Gretchen Wilson for this, the first track released from their upcoming album The Nashville Sessions. It’s a perfect combination on a sassy song that could’ve been tailor made for Wilson. “You can bet I don’t regret it. I crossed you off my list. You had my number, now forget it. Baby you won’t be missed. You put the good in goodbye, And the hell in hello”.
“Awesome song! We will definitely get it on to our playlist for rotation.”
“Every song on this album is a winner and we are very happy to be able to share your music with our listeners.”
David, Downhome Radio, Australia.
Like a collection of greatest hits you’ve never heard soon-to-be country classics by Britain’s Nelson Brothers – Simon and Steve – recorded by Nashville’s finest. The Nelsons may not be household names but should be, from sublime country-rock albums under their own name (not least 2018’s Migrant Tales) to their work as co-writers and guitarists in Sadie and the Hotheads, the esoteric band that has Hollywood and Downton Abbey star Elizabeth McGovern as singer.
The set is songs the Nelsons wrote while in Tucson (there with songwriter and publisher Robert John Jones), and which are played by a big-time band – Dan Dugmore on pedal steel, bluegrass picker Bryan Sutton and the fiddles of Tammy Rogers (a regular visitor to the UK a few years back with the Dead Reckoning crowd) and Rob Hajacos (a Garth Brooks regular) amongst others.
And then there are the singers. The heartfelt classic country of The Good in Goodbye is sung by Gretchen Wilson – and given an edgy contemporary mix by songwriter (hits by Blake Shelton and Tim McGraw) and performer Troy Olsen.
There’s also an edgy unplugged version by little known but impressive Lizzie Deane, with the Nelsons themselves playing on it.
Olsen himself takes on The Hank Song, drum thumping and guitar twisting, the sort of thing you could imagine Dwight Yoakam topping the charts with. Wilson is there again, on the rollicking looking-for-love song You Will Be There.
Chip Davis, one of Nashville’s in demand demo singers (and a solo act in his own right) gets the reflective Little Hearts Can Have Big Dreams, while session singers Michelle and Tim Hopkins also get a workout.
If you’re still in doubt about the Nelson Brothers, Steve’s solo acoustic finale, The Beat of Your Heart, will put them to rest. Country at its finest.
Nick Dalton, Maverick Magazine Sept/Oct 2019