Kellie Pickler: “Too Many Suits & Ties Trying To Make The Calls”
Former American Idol contestant Kellie Pickler’s 2012 album 100 Proof shocked the country music world with its bold, traditional sound and soulful compositions, so much so that Rolling Stone and Saving Country Music both named it the Album of the Year. Well Kellie is now back in the studio and wants folks to know that 100 Proof was not an aberration. We can expect the same type of authentic country sound on her next one.
Speaking to Taste of Country, Kellie explained she has found her sound that she’s coined “Kellie country,” and it won’t be changing much on her next album. The producers of 100 Proof Frank Liddell and Luke Wooten will be collaborating with Kellie once again on the new effort, as will many of the same musicians. Kellie is currently in the midst of the recording process, and eventually will release the new music through Black River Entertainment after parting ways with her previous label Sony due to disagreements on the traditional direction of 100 Proof.
While some listeners have wondered if Kellie would stick to her more traditional sound in the face of label adversity and a lack of singles and big sales numbers from 100 Proof, Kellie now seems even more steadfast. “[It] is definitely going to be my country”¦[there were] too many suits and ties, trying to make the calls…This record will definitely be Kellie country, for sure.”
In July of 2012, Kellie explained how trying to put out 100 Proof through Sony was “hell.”
Well, it wasn’t promoted. When my album came out, I didn’t even have a song out on the radio. Nobody does that. [The label was] spread thin”¦Recording this album, to be honest and I don’t mind saying this the process was hell. [Sony and I] couldn’t agree on songs. The thing is, my life is a country song. I don’t need to be manufactured, and I don’t need anyone to tell me what to say or what to sing.
April 10, 2013 @ 2:04 pm
Good for her. Can’t wait for her new one to drop. The gals are dominating the guys right now.
April 10, 2013 @ 2:14 pm
“The gals are dominating the guys right now.”
BIG time.
April 10, 2013 @ 2:08 pm
I’ll have to check the cd out. I’m not a big fan of the female voice in general.
April 10, 2013 @ 2:27 pm
Alison Krauss?
April 10, 2013 @ 2:35 pm
I think Alison has the voice of an angel she is talented but I’m not a fan.
April 10, 2013 @ 4:12 pm
I can respect that. I love me some Alison.
April 10, 2013 @ 4:30 pm
I don’t know if this is some kind of prejudice in my head I’ve never worked through or what but I generally prefer a guy singing vs. a girl. I mean some of my all time favorite artists are female but in general, ya know?
April 10, 2013 @ 4:44 pm
I think generally people prefer to listen to singers of their same sex because they can relate to the perspective easier. But now there’s such a quality discrepancy between men and women in mainstream country, I think I prefer the women by a long margin.
April 10, 2013 @ 9:36 pm
Leann Rimes?
April 10, 2013 @ 9:38 pm
I’m a fan of great vocals and songs. Big fan of female singers as most are the best singers with more range and always on key. Also like many male singers.
I’d love for Kellie to record some duets with male country singers and maybe that would please those who are mainly fans of males.
April 11, 2013 @ 12:12 pm
Patsy Cline?
No one sings with the depth and emotion of Patsy. Most women belt or scream now with very little real vocal range. Too many are up there on the stage saying “look at me, it’s about me,” instead of singing for the beauty of the lyrics and the music.
April 11, 2013 @ 12:20 pm
I like Patsy alot.I’ve got her box set. The story that her producer told was
that she often would sing flat and he had to really work with her sometimes.
I prefer an alto voice like hers it’s the soprano female voice I don’t like.I agree that she sure could get emotion out.
April 10, 2013 @ 2:11 pm
You listening, Blake Shelton?
April 10, 2013 @ 2:15 pm
THIS is leadership.
April 10, 2013 @ 4:21 pm
Deep down, I honestly think Blake COULD make some great country music. Hell, I liked his first album. Ol’ Red was a great song, IMO. His duet with Ashley was a good one. Maybe one day, we’ll see it again.
April 10, 2013 @ 4:41 pm
He will never make great music so as long as he doesn’t write his own songs. His last two albums contained not one song that he even co-wrote. Shameful.
April 10, 2013 @ 9:41 pm
I like his older songs. He’s married to a top songwriter and they don’t write together for his albums? Wonder why.
April 11, 2013 @ 9:22 am
Most of George Strait’s albums don’t contain a single song he’s written. Picking good songs is much more important than writing your own.
April 11, 2013 @ 1:21 pm
It may work for some singers. IMO it’s one of the core issues with the country genre, very little artistic authenticity among a large continent of musical acts. I’ve always wondered why its very common among country and pop acts, but you virtually never see it in Rock.
April 12, 2013 @ 12:12 am
I think it varies by artist and whether or not they can write or have a lot to write about. If someone is a good enough writer then writing is equally if not more important as picking songs. If not, picking songs is most important. Also I don’t like artists (or maybe it’s their label) insisting on a writing credit on every song just to get the credits and royalties if they aren’t that great of a writer and we end up with mediocre songs. On the other hand it’s hard to get great songs. Even Miranda had to talk Blake into giving her The House That Built Me after he got it.
No doubt George Strait picked many great songs. One of his main writers wrote for Kellie’s 100 Proof album
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dean-dillon-mn0000226643
“There are songwriters, and then there are poets — artists who magically weave melodies and words into three-and-a-half-minute masterpieces that outshine the paint-by-numbers songs that often clog up the airwaves. Dean Dillon is the latter.”
Kellie does a great job of balancing songwriting with picking great songs. She said she has to listen to 1,000 songs to find a great one.
Dean also has a credit on one of Blake’s Based on a True Story tracks.
I think Blake has gone into the all-genre The Voice audience territory, picking some pop songs for them and using autotune like this review says
http://www.allmusic.com/album/based-on-a-true-story-mw0002491758
Looking at this albums list there, he has writer credits on his older albums with the most stars
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/blake-shelton-mn0000046814
So the question is why did he stop writing? Maybe he ran out off things to say or hit writers block?
April 12, 2013 @ 11:41 am
I think this notion that unless an artist only records songs that they wrote solely then they’re not being authentic has resulted in some very bad country music. I love when the performing artist wrote the song, but I love good songs even more. Somewhere there is a balance, and I actually think Kellie struck it on 100 Proof–writing a lot of the material, but knowing her limitations and getting help where needed. “Red Headed Stranger” was written only 1/3 by Willie. This is the legacy of country music.
April 10, 2013 @ 4:53 pm
Blake Shelton is too far gone. His new song “Boys ‘Round Here” has a line that says “Chew tobacco. Chew tobacco. Chew tobacco. Spit” in it. Dear Lord, lyricism is dead.
April 10, 2013 @ 2:11 pm
Good for Kellie. Glad to see someone sticking to their guns when it comes to sticking to what you are good at, and the type of art you want to produce. The lure of owning 20 cars and having more money than anyone could spend is a hard one to pass up.
April 10, 2013 @ 3:32 pm
Are things changing for the surreal? Hopefully
April 10, 2013 @ 3:53 pm
i’m on the the drinkin side of we’ll see…
April 10, 2013 @ 3:56 pm
seems as though i’m stroking out over here on the the’s…smh
April 10, 2013 @ 4:26 pm
It’s funny because all the women are getting more and more country and the guys just keep getting worse. We have Miranda, Kellie, Kacey, and Ashley for the girls. Yet for the guys we have Blake, Jason, Brantley, and who knows what else will come out. It’s good to know that there is still hope for traditional country. All thanks to the girls.
April 10, 2013 @ 4:39 pm
I do think a girl is more likely to cross over though making them a bigger ambassador to country music. That can be good if someone like Kacey Musgraves or Miranda Lambert crosses over. But really it’s Carrie underwood, lady antebellum, and Taylor Swift who get pop airplay. I think the band perry is alright (at least they write their own songs and have fiddle and steel guitar and stuff) but when they crossed over they took most the country instrumentation out and replaced it with other stuff.
I’m not saying crossing over is the whole point to being an artist, I’m just talking about representing country is all.
April 10, 2013 @ 9:49 pm
Apparently pop radio won’t play anything with twang. If they remix and strip all the country out of a song, I don’t see how that’s being an ambassador for country. I know Kellie only wants to be played on country radio but the industry needs to force a Kellie country song on pop radio as payback for them forcing pure pop songs on country radio. LOL
April 14, 2013 @ 12:02 pm
There is nothing inherently wrong with crossing over to another genre. The problem is that the industry has taken a one size fits all approach to crossing over. The target genre is the same – mainstream pop music targeting young audiences. Since these crossovers are commercially and not artistically motivated, the singers change their sound to fit the mold, so they are no longer doing what they do best.
In principle a crossover could involve other genres besides mainstream pop. Carrie Underwood could have been great as a country-Christian crossover artist. I could see Kacey Musgraves eventually crossing over into the alternative scene, if the suits would let her. The key here is to find the genre that the artist’s music and persona wold naturally appeal to. Unfortunately I would expect the record labels to continue to push crossover artists into mainstream pop, because music is a hit driven business.
April 14, 2013 @ 12:59 pm
Good point. It was great way back when (just 8 years ago) country artists crossed over to pop radio with pop country songs and without remixing them to pure pop. What the hell happened to that? If Taylor stood up for country like Carrie Underwood did back then and said hell no you can’t remix my songs for pop radio, maybe we wouldn’t be in this pure pop mess.
April 10, 2013 @ 9:28 pm
These mainstream women singers just suck!. The only reason why the men singers get a worse rap cause they play the music meant for the women to sing. They both just suck in my opinion.
April 11, 2013 @ 8:07 am
¿que?
April 10, 2013 @ 9:29 pm
Best news all year. I’m not surprised and glad she’s sticking with Kellie country and the 100 Proof producers and musicians (some also played for Tammy and George). Another key is that everyone recorded 100 Proof together in the same room instead of each instrument and the vocals separately. Isn’t that how albums used to be done back when they were better than many of today’s albums?
There are too many suits in Nashville and globally making the wrong music calls for country music. Maybe most of them are pop fans or came from pop labels. They are catering to teen pop fans for sales and it’s gone way overboard. Imagine the reaction from pop fans and radio listeners if suits forced pure country music on those formats like they are doing with pop on country. They would raise hell. If they want to change the music, change pop to country. I like all types of country from country/pop to bluegrass but I’m picky about the production, vocals, lyrics, and keeping country instruments (fiddle, steel, banjo, acoustic guitar, harmonica, etc.) in the music along with the electric guitars and drums.
Too many mediocre songs are released and played on radio at the expense of better songs. I don’t want to hear pure pop songs, mindless pop lyrics, synthesized music, or mediocre pop or country songs on country radio.
I’m tired of the word games Nashville plays to try to convince and brainwash us that pop songs are country or pop is better or good for us, as if we’re dumb. If they put a pure country song on pop radio and call it pop is it pop? Hell no.
I think some if this is due to the economy and itunes driving prices down. If labels charged itunes more for songs maybe that would help?
April 11, 2013 @ 8:14 am
Love Kellie and I’m glad to hear she will be sticking with the same direction she went with on 100 Proof.
April 11, 2013 @ 12:31 pm
I’m female I do like a female alto and in that range. but I’m not a fan of the soprano voice.
April 11, 2013 @ 3:39 pm
It’s good to hear artists speaking out about the gritty side of music – namely, the business side.
Too much art is left on the cutting room floor.
I seldom purchase music from big studio artists.
Actually, I seldom experiment with new artists on the big labels.
I won’t turn my back on an offering by someone I have been a fan of for years because he or she is produced by Sony, MCA (spit) or Geffen, for example.
April 13, 2013 @ 9:57 pm
100 Proof was one of my favorite albums last year. I’ll definitely be picking up her new one.
May 20, 2013 @ 12:24 pm
Kellie Pickler has been making history since she danced her way onto ABC’s Dancing With the Stars as the first former American Idol contestant to ever be on the show and is now primed to be the first Country Music artist to WIN!
We need your help TODAY in rallying the country music fans and supporting Kellie with our votes. Let’s help her bring that shinny mirror ball back to Nashville!
Again, your support is greatly appreciated!
Call: 800-868-3401
Click: Vote on Facebook and ABC.com
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