“DUETS WITH THE DUET”:
THE BELLAMY BROTHERS HOOK UP WITH COUNTRY SUPERSTARS FOR
LONG-AWAITED ANGELS & OUTLAWS VOL. 1 , ON CURB RECORDS, MARCH 29
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Mega award-winning Bellamy Brothers celebrate the 30th anniversary of
timeless chart-topper “Let Your Love Flow” with new recordings of monster hits
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“Let Your Love Flow” remake is possible first single
The Bellamy Brothers have received nearly every music award there is to have, and they even hold the record in both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association for the most duo nominations. They've written countless worldwide hits, crossed the globe like their music has crossed genres, brought reggae to the Grand Ole Opry, and recorded 45 albums. Now get ready for number 46, because here it comes...
Slated for release March 29, on Curb Records, Angels & Outlaws Vol. 1 could very well be the Bellamy Brothers most ambitious project yet, for its sheer size, scope, historical impact, and imagination. These beloved gents of country and crossover have rounded up many of Nashville's brightest and best to record “duets with the duet,” as Howard Bellamy likes to call it – 20 superstars singing with the Bellamy Brothers on new versions of 13 monster hits culled from three decades of Howard and David's gold and platinum chart-toppers, including “Let Your Love Flow,” the new album's possible first single.
Angels & Outlaws Vol. 1 marks the 30 th anniversary of the No. 1 country rock anthem in 11 countries that took The Bellamy Brothers from Southeast regional performers to international dynamic duo, though David's clever three-million selling “Spiders and Snakes,” recorded by Jim Stafford, was the single that set the tone of the songs to come.
The Bellamy Brothers produced all but one track on the album, which was three years in the works, owing to the logistical and legal complexities involved, as well as coordinating artists and scheduling studio time.
Says Howard, half-joking, “It was like giving birth to an elephant. We laid out the songs and made a wish list of who we'd really, really like to hear singing them. You can't do an album like this in sequence, because of everybody's schedules, and who has to have a tape flown to London – stuff like that.”
Actual recording sessions, however, were sometimes all too brief for the amount of fun that David and Howard were having with their angels and outlaws, including Alan Jackson, Montgomery Gentry, Hal Ketchum and Lisa Brokop, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Pat Green, Trini Triggs, George Jones, John Anderson, Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen and Rhonda Vincent, David Allan Coe and Tanya Tucker, Charlie Daniels and Bobby Bare.
With the pride of Nashville hooking up with the Grammy-winning bros for some history-in-the-making, a companion DVD to Angels & Outlaws Vol. 1 would definitely be in order, but regrettably, David explains, “We wanted to film it every time we went into the studio, but we knew we'd run into a lot more legalities there, and it would become the most expensive country album in history.”
The Bellamy Brothers have a fascinating, well-storied past, but both agree that the recording of Angels & Outlaws is a tremendous highlight of the last three decades.
Howard recalls, “The creative parts of this album were a lot of fun and the easiest. For the most part, even the crazy things that happened were funny and entertaining.”
David adds, “The legal aspects – we didn't have a clue they would be this crazy. If we had known you couldn't do this, we probably wouldn't have. Fortunately, we went into it naive, so here's where we're at.”
Of course, the “V ol. 1” part of the album title implies that there is more on the way. Indeed, the Bellamy Brothers have already consorted with other angels and outlaws for Vol. 2 . And while they're not naming names, they've hinted that the next set of duets with the duet are outside of the Nashville city limits, which makes perfect sense because the Bellamy Brothers slip into musical styles like a pair of cowboy boots – easy, comfortable, and always feeling good.
Here's to another 30 years of letting the love flow.
The Bellamy Brothers
Angels & Outlaws
Cut x Cut
1. “You Ain't Just Whistlin' Dixie ” w/ Alan Jackson
David: “We were knocked over that he wanted to do the project. He told us that he used to do some of our songs in clubs and play them at soundcheck.”
Howard: “He had wanted to do ‘...Beautiful Body...', because he had done it so much, but Dolly had already recorded it, and she was so much more appropriate. We were really nervous because we had asked Alan, and we hoped that we wouldn't lose him because he had wanted to do a different song. We suggested this one, he liked it, so he was gracious enough to do it, which really worked out because he did such a great job on it.”
2. “Old Hippie” w/ Montgomery Gentry
Howard: “They used to do that song in clubs, and they didn't even have to rehearse it. That was the great part; some of the songs were so well-known. Matching up the song with the right artist was probably the biggest trick. They were such a natural for this one.”
David: “They came in and cut it with us and had a really good time. It wasn't even like work because they knew the song so well. They're a couple of wild and crazy guys. Eddie sang the whole song from top to bottom, and then Troy put harmonies on the track. Then we sat around shooting the bull for awhile, and after they left, we did our vocals.”
3. “Let Your Love Flow” w/ Hal Ketchum & Lisa Brokop
Howard: “Hal's a great singer, and his voice is a natural fit for this song. This particular song – how to choose someone for it, because it's such a monster. He really wanted to do it, and he has this great vibrato that stylizes the song very well, and he makes it his own. He's a good guy and a good friend.”
David: “Yeah he played at our jam two years ago down here in Florida. We've played a few dates with Lisa. Mike Curb had the idea of putting her on the song, and it worked out really great; she's a really good singer.”
4. “Guardian Angel” w/ Willie Nelson
David: “We had just cut the track, and he was the one we wanted to sing on it. We had played a date with him in Fargo , and Wally, our road manager, got a CD rough to his guy. We watched the show and said hello to Willie. You hate to hit on people, so we just left it. We went back to the hotel, and there was a message on the voicemail from Willie. I thought it was one of the band guys, because they had been goofing with us about all of these artists, and it didn't sound like Willie. My wife rang it back, and sure enough, it was Willie. And he said, ‘Hey, I love this song, and I want to do it really bad. It was one of those things that was meant to be, because it fell into place all at once. So we sent the tape to him, and we got the tape right back, and we thought, ‘That was easy.' We all forgot to discuss that there was a musical modulation on the end of the song. So he had sung one chorus, and we had to send the tape back and ask him to sing the modulation at the end of the song. [Laughing] I think Willie smoked a joint before the modulation.”
Howard: “You're asking somebody a big favor anyway, taking the time to do this, and then you have to ask them to do it again.”
5. “If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me) w/ Dolly Parton
Howard: “You would expect someone of her stature to be hard to get to, but Dolly was the easiest and most professional. She came in well-rehearsed, and not only sang greatly, but she did great harmonies around our vocals. She had always wanted to record the song -- little did we know -- and was a fan of that song. We had a wonderful day. She came into the studio with us, and she can brighten anybody's day”
David: “Dolly was a lot of fun in the studio. If everything was like recording Dolly, it would have been a big picnic.”
6. “Redneck Girl” w/ Pat Green
David: “He's a really interesting artist. We've watched his career in Texas, because we've played there so much. We've watched him come up through the ranks from being an alternative country-college artist into the mainstream. He's got his own niche. It's Pat Green music and it's just what he does. We're really happy to have him on the record because of all this. We've played quite a few dates with him in Texas, and know a lot of the same people he knows, so it was a natural to do this song with him.”
7. “Dancin' Cowboys” w/ Trini Triggs
David: “He's a Texas artist that's been around the scene awhile. He's on Curb, and we've known him for several years. He's the real McCoy, and we thought this song would be a good one for him. Mike Curb brought Trini to the project, because he really believes in his talent.
8. “Sugar Daddy” w/ George Jones
David: “With George Jones singing, anything is great. We both love George. When we had the idea for this whole thing, George was the first one on the list. He was the ideal guy to do this song. We've known him for a long time, and played a lot of dates with him. When he agreed to do it, we were really happy. What can you say about George? He's just the best. He is George Jones and nobody's like him. When you hear George – and what we achieved with most of the tracks, is that when you hear the artists singing, you know who they are. And when you hear him singing, almost anyone on the planet knows it's George. And that's the kind of signature vocal that you dream about doing on a project like this.”
9. “Alligator Alley” w/ John Anderson
David: “It is one of our favorite tracks, and John is one of our favorite singers. We've actually performed the song with him in concert for the Seminole Indians in South Florida .”
10. “Crazy from the Heart” w/ Chris Hillman, Herb Pederson, and Rhonda Vincent
Howard: “I love the sound of this record. They're kind of a country rock and blue grass combination. We asked them to give it their flavor. Our original version was a little more country pop. They put different instruments on it, and it just really gave it a sound. Rhonda is just an incredible harmony singer. She can make anything sound blue grassy.”
11. “Reggae Cowboy” w/ Tanya Tucker & David Alan Coe
Howard: “We had the idea of doing Tanya and Coe – that's two really colorful characters--“
David: [Laughs] “--That's an understatement.”
Howard: “We've known him for many years, and he said, ‘Yeah, I'd love to do it,' so we sent him the track. He doesn't like studios--“
David: “He doesn't even come to town--“
Howard: “--He goes the truck route around Nashville [laughs] –“
David: [Laughs] “—I don't blame him.”
Howard: “And he lives on his bus in the casino parking lot –“
David: “--He's a pretty eccentric guy –“
Howard: “--and he has a recording studio on his bus. He got the music and couldn't open the file. Recording files nowadays -- you have to be a computer wiz to do it. So he bought a CD with the original version that we did, and he rapped over it. He recorded a rap over the original record . With Coe, you never know what he's gonna do. So we got the file back, and expected him to be singing lyrics and the chorus.”
David: “We were all in shock. We were like, ‘What the hell is this ?'
Howard: “It's the first vocal to have ever been sent to forensic music to dissect the track, and then fly in all the parts. Then we had Tanya come in, and you never know if she's gonna show up. She actually showed up a day-and-a-half late.
David: “It's one of the most colorful tracks on the album, and probably the most interesting to put together.
Howard: “It was pieced together in fragments, because Coe's rap had to flown into every little part and played on the beat. It was quite a feat for our engineers. So we got it! And all those rap lyrics are his, which are pretty interesting.”
David: “I like when he said, ‘You got to burn one and got to have some fun.' Those are pretty funny lyrics.”
12. “Kids of the Baby Boom” w/ Charlie Daniels and Bobby Bare
David: “Both of these artists are so classic.”
Howard: “And we've done a lot of international touring with both of these artists. What a lot of country fans don't realize in the states is that some artists are huge overseas. And Bobby is huge in Germany , throughout Europe , Switzerland , and because of that, we've done a lot of work overseas with him, and he's one of our favorite people. And we've done a lot of the military stuff with him.”
David: “We've even been to Japan with Charlie. We've done his volunteer jam every year, so we've known him for years and he and Bobby are like part of the family.”
