Tribute To Emmylou

Freedom Highway, Grammy Award–winner and 2017 Grammy nominee Rhiannon Giddens’ follow-up to her highly praised debut album Tomorrow Is My Turn, will be released by Nonesuch Records on February 24, 2017. The record includes nine original songs Giddens wrote or co-wrote while she and her band toured after Tomorrow Is My Turn’s 2015 release, along with a traditional song and two civil rights-era songs, “Birmingham Sunday” and Staple Singers’ well-known “Freedom Highway,” from which the album takes its name (track listing below). Giddens and the band will tour the U.S. in the spring; details will be announced shortly. Freedom Highway may be preordered now from iTunes or rhiannongiddens.com and nonesuch.com, where purchases include an instant download of the title track as well as a limited-edition, exclusive print signed by Giddens.

2017 release from the veteran singer/songwriter. Jack Tempchin and Glenn Frey were friends for a long time before either became world-famous, Jack as a hit songwriter and Glenn as an Eagle. It's a friendship first sparked back in 1972 when Frey, then a member of the duo Longbranch Pennywhistle with J.D. Souther, spent a San Diego night at Jack's big house and candle factory, a beloved hippie crash pad. Two years later at his friend Jackson Browne's L.A. home, Jack played Glenn a new song he'd written about a waitress in El Centro called "Peaceful Easy Feeling."

Drawn largely from Vince Gill's first three albums for MCA Records, 1989's When I Call Your Name, 1991's Pocket Full of Gold, and 1992's I Still Believe in You, Souvenirs functions as a greatest-hits collection from what is arguably Gill's finest period as a solo artist. Gill's smooth tenor singing is practically the definition of modern slow-burning country sincerity, all done with a touch of that bluegrass "high lonesome" sound, and his ease with ballads frequently obscures the fact that he is one hell of a guitar player when he decides to be. Highlights on this easy to like set are duets with Reba McEntire ("The Heart Won't Lie") and Dolly Parton ("I Will Always Love You"), an interesting cover of the Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why," and the infectious and upbeat "Liza Jane," which lets Gill rock things out a little. Souvenirs isn't the last word on Vince Gill, who continues to record and release quality contemporary country and bluegrass albums, but there isn't a better single-disc introduction to the commercial side of his output than this one.