(EBM) With both I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell, praised by Billboard as "one of 2023's most unexpected artistic pivots" and as one of the best albums of the year across all genres, plus Go Down Singin', lauded by Rolling Stone as "an excellent collection of poignant, often anthemic country...a more refined, emotionally vulnerable version of what he does best," Chase Rice returned to his songwriter-first roots. Now, he doubles down on that notion, with his surprise Fireside Sessions album featuring all 25 songs from both records as live, single-take versions with cowriters including Lori McKenna, Jackson Dean, Hunter Phelps, Randy Montana and more as featured artists.
"The cool part about tonight, and why we put this together, is because the I Hate Cowboys record and the Go Down Singin' record were the start of a whole new part of my life and my career. It was no longer chasing whatever was popular; it was finally just writing songs that I cared about, writing them on guitar - which is how I started writing songs - and then Oscar Charles producing the last two albums together. We wanted to finalize all that by coming together tonight," Rice shared while unveiling the surprise project during his debut at the iconic Bluebird Café in Nashville with a special writers' round featuring Charles plus fellow collaborators Blake Pendergrass, John Byron and Jonathan Sherwood. "We're going to drop the Fireside Sessions album tonight which is featuring all these songwriters, and songwriters on both albums, and it's going to be all of us just playing guitar like you're seeing tonight, and that's going to be the finalization of this chapter."
Bringing together the cover images from each of the preceding albums, the Fireside Sessions album art unites Rice and his late father as grown men for the first time, bringing to life the lyric from album closer "You In '85" which Rice describes as the overarching theme of this multi-album musical chapter: "So if I could have one thing it'd be us man to man / A couple Coors Banquets in hand"
In paying homage to his dad, Rice's vulnerable approach directly impacted his musical shift towards stripped-back authenticity as he grappled lyrically with that loss and how it has impacted him as both a man and an artist. Recorded around the fireplace at his farm outside Nashville in the style of Music City's famous writers' rounds, Fireside Sessions now serves as the culmination of that multi-album tribute as he looks ahead to new music covering other topics already in the works.
"I've always written songs like these but was never inspired enough to put them out," he shared with the Tennessean. "Now I'm at a place where records I wasn't inspired to let see the light of day define my career. Come hell or high water, this is the kind of music that I now make."
Fireside Sessions Track List:
Walk That Easy (feat. William Reames, Barton Davies, Jonathan Sherwood, Oscar Charles)
All Dogs Go To Hell (feat. John Byron)
Way Down Yonder (feat. Hunter Phelps, John Byron, Blake Pendergrass)
Key West & Colorado (feat. Blake Pendergrass, John Byron, Hunter Phelps)
Bench Seat
Life Part of Livin'
Bad Day To Be A Cold Beer (feat. Blake Pendergrass, John Byron)
Oklahoma (feat. William Reames, Barton Davies, Jonathan Sherwood, Oscar Charles)
I Walk Alone (feat. Jaxson Free)
Sorry Momma (feat. Hunter Phelps)
If I Were Rock & Roll
Goodnight Nancy (feat. Oscar Charles, Barton Davies, William Reames, Jonathan Sherwood)
I Hate Cowboys
For A Day (feat. John Byron, Blake Pendergrass, Hunter Phelps)
Go Down Singin' (feat. Blake Pendergrass)
Fireside (feat. Jonathan Sherwood, Jackson Dean, Oscar Charles)
That Word Don't Work No More (feat. Lori McKenna)
Hey God It's Me Again (feat. Corey Crowder, Randy Montana)
Oh Tennessee (feat. Oscar Charles, Lori McKenna)
Haw River (feat. Blake Pendergrass)
Arkansas (feat. Rob Baird)
Numbers (feat. Ryan Tyndell, Jeff Hyde)
If Drinkin' Helped (feat. Oscar Charles, Lori McKenna)
Little Red Race Car (feat. Jackson Nance, Heath Warren)
You In '85
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