''Feels Like Today'' is the third studio album by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
group
Rascal Flatts
Rascal Flatts is an American country music band founded in 1999. The band members were Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, background vocals), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, background vocals). DeMarcus is LeVox's second cousi ...
. It was released on September 28, 2004, via
Lyric Street Records
Lyric Street Records was an American country music record label. It was owned by the Disney Music Group and founded in 1997 by Randy Goodman. The label had its first successes in 1998 with singles by Lari White and Aaron Tippin, both formerly ...
. The album has sold 5.274 million copies in the United States as of July 2014,
and it has been certified 5× Multi-Platinum by the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
. The album produced its
title track
A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title.
Title track may a ...
as a single along with "
Bless the Broken Road
"Bless the Broken Road" is a song that has been recorded by several American country music artists. Co-written by Marcus Hummon, Bobby Boyd, and Jeff Hanna in 1994, it tells how the journey through relationship heartbreak and disappointment was ...
", "
Fast Cars and Freedom
"Fast Cars and Freedom" is a song recorded by American country music group Rascal Flatts. It was released in March 2005 as the third single from the album '' Feels Like Today''. It was the group's fourth Number One single on the U.S. '' Billboar ...
", and "
Skin (Sarabeth)
"Skin (Sarabeth)" (listed on the album, ''Feels Like Today'', as just "Skin") is a song written by Doug Johnson and Joe Henry, and performed by American country music group Rascal Flatts. The song was originally a hidden track on the first shipme ...
". "Bless the Broken Road" was initially recorded by the
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country rock band formed in 1966. The group has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California. Between 1976 and 1981, the band performed and recorded as the Dirt Band.
Constant ...
, and has also been recorded by
Marcus Hummon
Marcus Spencer Hummon (born December 28, 1960) is an American country music artist. He is the father of country singer Levi Hummon.
Early life
Hummon was born in Washington, D.C.. He graduated from Williams College.
Career
After several years o ...
,
Melodie Crittenden
Melodie Crittenden (born 1968) is an American country and Christian music artist. Her first album was recorded at the age of nine in Norman, Oklahoma, and was titled ''Melodie Sings''. She traveled around Oklahoma with her family band "The Crit ...
(whose version was a number 42 country single in 1997), and
Geoff Moore
Geoff Moore (born February 22, 1961) is an American contemporary Christian music singer. He began recording as a solo artist in 1984. In 1987, he formed Geoff Moore and The Distance, his touring band, which released eight albums generating a st ...
before the release of Rascal Flatts' version. It would later be a Top 5 Christian hit for
Selah
(; hbo, סֶלָה, selā) is a word used 74 times in the Hebrew Bible. Its etymology and precise meaning are unknown, though various interpretations are given.
It is probably either a liturgical-musical mark or an instruction on the reading ...
as well. "When the Sand Runs Out" was later recorded by
Marty Raybon
Marty Raybon (born December 8, 1959) is an American country music artist. He is known primarily for his role as the lead singer of the country band Shenandoah, a role which he held from 1985 to 1997, until he rejoined the band in 2014. He reco ...
on his 2006 album of the same name.
"Skin (Sarabeth)", initially a
hidden track
In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...
, received enough airplay to enter Top 40 on the country charts in 2005, leading to its release as a single. Upon its release to radio, "Skin (Sarabeth)" was officially added to the track list. "Here's to You" also charted from unsolicited airplay, and was made into a music video.
This was the band's last album to be produced by
Mark Bright
Mark Abraham Bright (born 6 June 1962) is an English sports correspondent and former footballer.
Born to a Gambian father and English mother, he was adopted into a foster family in Stoke-on-Trent at an early age. He played non-league football ...
.
Track listing
Personnel
;Rascal Flatts
*
Jay DeMarcus
Jay DeMarcus (born Stanley Wayne DeMarcus Jr.; on April 26, 1971) is an American bassist, vocalist, pianist, record producer and songwriter. From 1999 to 2021, he was a member of the country pop group Rascal Flatts.
Early life
DeMarcus was born ...
– bass guitar, backing vocals
*
Gary LeVox
Gary LeVox (born Gary Wayne Vernon Jr., July 10, 1970) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for being the lead vocalist of the contemporary country music band Rascal Flatts, and his stage name was taken from the studio-console label ...
– lead vocals
*
Joe Don Rooney
Joe Don Rooney (born September 13, 1975 in Baxter Springs, KS) is an American musician. From 1999 to 2021, he was the lead guitarist and high octave harmony singer in the American country pop trio Rascal Flatts.
In addition to the Electric guitar ...
– electric guitar, backing vocals
;Additional musicians
* Tim Akers – keyboards, synthesizers,
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
*
Gordon Mote
Gordon James Mote (born October 25, 1970) is an American Christian country/ southern gospel singer, piano virtuoso, and worship leader. He was born blind. He has released eight studio albums. His album ''Don't Let Me Miss the Glory'' (2007) was ...
– acoustic piano,
Hammond B3 organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...
*
Steve Nathan
Steven Jay Nathan is an American keyboardist. He is known for his session work in Muscle Shoals and Nashville studios.
Biography
Nathan was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. In 1977, Nathan moved to Muscle Shoals, Alabama. After touring wit ...
– acoustic piano, Hammond B3 organ
* Larry Beaird – acoustic guitar
*
Tom Bukovac
Tom Bukovac is an American session musician and producer. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in nearby Willowick, Ohio. He has been a Nashville-based musician since 1992. He previously owned 2nd Gear, a used music consignment shop in Sou ...
– electric guitar
* Jerry McPherson – electric guitar
*
Paul Franklin –
steel guitar
A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...
*
Lonnie Wilson
Lonnie Wilson is an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer, known primarily for his work in country music.
Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Wilson was originally the lead singer of the band Bandana, which charted ten singles on the Hot C ...
– drums
*
Jonathan Yudkin
Jonathan Yudkin is an American multi-instrumentalist who is a proficient player of banjo, violin, mandolin, and other stringed instruments. He is a Nashville-based session musician, record producer, arranger, and band leader.
Biography
Growin ...
–
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
,
fiddle
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...
,
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
,
octofone
The octophone (or octofone) is a stringed musical instrument related to the mandola family resembling an octave mandolin. It was marketed by Regal Musical Instrument Company, who introduced it 21 January 1928, as an "eight-purpose instrument".
...
, strings on "Feels Like Today" and "Skin (Sarabeth)"
Production
* Mark Bright – producer
* Marty Williams – producer, engineer, mixing
* Rascal Flatts – producers
* Doug Howard – A&R
* Bart Morris – engineer, assistant engineer, mix assistant, digital editing
* Tom Baker – mastering
* Gene Dries – production coordinator
* Greg McCarn – creative director
* Glenn Sweitzer – art direction, design
* Chapman Baehler – photography
* Jennifer Kemp – wardrobe
* Rhonda Parman – hair stylist, make-up
Chart performance
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Singles
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
2004 albums
Rascal Flatts albums
Lyric Street Records albums
Albums produced by Mark Bright (record producer)