''Fireflies'' is the sixth 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, ...

singer

Faith Hill Audrey Faith McGraw (; born September 21, 1967), known professionally as Faith Hill, is an American singer and actress. She is one of the most successful country music artists of all time, having sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. Hill' ...

. The album was released on August 2, 2005 via

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

Nashville. In its first week, the album sold 329,000 copies, making it the top album on both the ''Billboard'' 200 and

Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales a ...

chart. ''Fireflies'' is her third #1 album, and it has been certified 2× 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 ...

for US shipments of two million copies. Hill produced the album with

Byron Gallimore Byron Gallimore (born in Puryear, Tennessee) is an American record producer known for more than two decades of work in the field of country music. He has worked with artists Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sugarland, Lee Ann Womack, and Jo Dee Messina. F ...

(who also produced for her husband,

Tim McGraw Samuel Timothy McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has released 16 studio albums (11 for Curb Records, four for Big Machine Records and one for Arista Nashville). 10 of those album ...

) and

Dann Huff Dann Lee Huff (born November 15, 1960) is an American record producer and songwriter. For his work as a producer in the country music genre, he has won several awards, including the ''Musician of the Year'' award in 2001, 2004, and 2016 at the Co ...

. The album was nominated for the

Grammy Award for Best Country Album The Grammy Award for Best Country Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the country music genre. Honors in ...

and the

Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance was first awarded in 1965, to Dottie West. The award has had several minor name changes: *From 1965 to 1967 the award was known as Best Country & Western Vocal Performance - Female *In 1 ...

("Mississippi Girl") and won the

Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals The Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to quality country music collaborations for artists who do ...

("Like We Never Loved at All").

Content

Singles from the album include, in order of release: "Mississippi Girl", "Like We Never Loved at All", "The Lucky One", "Sunshine and Summertime" and "Stealing Kisses". Of these, "Mississippi Girl" was a Number One on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' country charts. The other singles peaked at numbers 5, 5, 7 and 36 on that chart, respectively. Of the singles, "Mississippi Girl", "Like We Never Loved at All" and "Sunshine and Summertime" were co-written by

John Rich John Rich (born January 7, 1974) is an American country music singer-songwriter. From 1992 to 1998, he was a member of the country music band Lonestar, in which he played bass guitar and alternated with Richie McDonald as lead vocalist. After d ...

Big & Rich Big & Rich is an American country music duo composed of Big Kenny and John Rich, both of whom are songwriters, vocalists, and guitarists. Before the duo's foundation, Rich was bass guitarist in the country band Lonestar, while Kenny was a solo ...

, while

The Warren Brothers The Warren Brothers are an American country music duo composed of brothers Brett Warren (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, mandolin, piano) and Brad Warren (background vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar). The duo has released three ...

(Brad and Brett) co-wrote "The Lucky One", a song on which Brett also sings backing vocals. Other backing vocalists on this album include Hill's husband,

(on "Like We Never Loved at All"),

Bekka Bramlett Rebekka Ruth Lazone Bramlett (born April 19, 1968) is an American singer and session background singer. She is the daughter of Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, of the music duo Delaney & Bonnie. She has been a member of Mick Fleetwood's band the Z ...

Rhonda Vincent Rhonda Lea Vincent (born July 13, 1962) is an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Vincent's music career began when she was a child in her family's band The Sally Mountain Show, and it has spanned more than four de ...

, and

Kelly Willis Kelly may refer to: Art and entertainment * Kelly (Kelly Price album) * Kelly (Andrea Faustini album) * ''Kelly'' (musical), a 1965 musical by Mark Charlap * "Kelly" (song), a 2018 single by Kelly Rowland * ''Kelly'' (film), a 1981 Canadi ...

. Hill produced the entire album, with co-production from

on tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 12,

on 7, 8, 13, and 14, and both Gallimore and Huff on 2 and 11.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the album has an average score of 57, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Track listing

Personnel

As listed in liner notes. ;Musicians * Greg Barnhill - background vocals (1, 9, 10, 11, 12) *

Bruce Bouton Bruce Bouton is an American guitarist, session musician, producer, and songwriter. His pedal steel guitar has been featured on many country music recordings, and he helped reintroduce the pedal steel guitar to the forefront of the Nashville sound ...

- steel guitar (2, 7, 8, 11),

Dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

(8) *

- background vocals (1, 2, 11) *

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 (1, 2, 3, 5-11, 13, 14), acoustic guitar (3, 4, 9) * Paul Bushnell - bass guitar (all tracks except 5, 8) * John Catchings - cello (12) *

Matt Chamberlain Matthew Chamberlain (born April 17, 1967) is an American session musician, drummer, producer and songwriter. Biography Life and career Chamberlain was born in San Pedro, California on April 17, 1967. He began learning how to play the drums ...

- drums (8) * Lisa Cochran - background vocals (13) * Steve Cohn - accordion (3) * Perry Coleman - background vocals (2) *

Vinnie Colaiuta Vincent Peter Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and the ''Classic Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 2014. Colai ...

- drums (3, 4, 9, 11, 12, 14) *

Eric Darken Eric A. Darken is an American percussionist, composer, and programmer. Biography Drawing inspiration from his grandfather, a band leader. Darken began playing drums at age 12, and played timpani and mallets in high school. Darken attended ...

- percussion (11, 14) *

Dan Dugmore Dan Dugmore is an American session musician known primarily for playing the pedal steel guitar Born in 1949, Dugmore was raised in Pasadena, California. Influenced by the Flying Burrito Brothers, he learned to play steel guitar after Flying B ...

- banjo (1), steel guitar (2, 9, 13), Dobro (5, 6, 10) *

Stuart Duncan Stuart Duncan (born April 14, 1964) is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and banjo. Life Duncan was born in Quantico, Virginia, and raised in Santa Paula, California, where he played in the school band. He ...

- mandolin (1, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13) *

Shannon Forrest Shannon Forrest (born August 22, 1973 in Easley, South Carolina) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. As a session drummer, he has contributed to the work of many well-known artists, and he is also a pr ...

- drums (1, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13), percussion (1) * Paul Franklin - steel guitar (3, 4, 9, 12) * Byron Gallimore - electric guitar (4, 9), keyboards (5), organ (5), acoustic guitar (10) *

Kenny Greenberg Kenneth S. "Kenny" Greenberg is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and session musician. He is known for bringing a rock-and-roll sensibility to Nashville recording sessions. Biography Greenberg was born in Cleveland, Ohio but attend ...

- electric guitar (4, 8, 14), electric mandolin (9) * Aubrey Haynie - fiddle (3), mandolin (4, 9) *

Mike Henderson Mike Henderson (born in Independence, Missouri) is an American singer-songwriter. Career Early career Henderson was an original member of blues group the Bel Airs when they formed in Missouri in 1981. They released an album, ''Need Me a Car'' ...

- electric guitar (10) * Wes Hightower - background vocals (3, 4) *

- electric guitar (2, 7), acoustic guitar (8, 11),

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

(13) *

Jay Joyce John Joseph "Jay" Joyce is an American record producer, songwriter and session musician. In the 1990s, Joyce, with Chris Feinstein and Brad Pemberton, recorded and toured as Iodine and began working as a record producer, working with artists suc ...

- acoustic guitar (9), electric guitar (9) * Charlie Judge - keyboards (3, 4, 7, 8, 11-14), organ (11), synthesizer strings (12) * Tim Lauer - accordion (2) * Liana Manis - background vocals (3) *

- background vocals (7) *

Chris McHugh Chris McHugh (born 1964) is an American musician. He began his career as the drummer of Christian rock band White Heart from 1986 to 1989. He also worked in the recording of several of their later albums. Chris McHugh is on the Nashville "A" li ...

- drums (2) * Gene Miller - background vocals (9) *

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 ...

- piano (13) * Jimmy Nichols - keyboards (1, 2, 10), piano (4, 5, 8, 12, 14), accordion (6), organ (9) *

Darrell Scott James Darrell Scott, known as Darrell Scott (born August 6, 1959), is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. The son of musician Wayne Scott, he moved as a child to East Gary, Indiana (known today as Lake Station, Indiana). ...

- mandolin (2, 3, 11, 12), acoustic guitar (3, 9),

Weissenborn Weissenborn or H. Weissenborn is a brand of lap slide guitar manufactured by Hermann Weissenborn in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s. These instruments are now highly sought after, and form the base for most non-resonator acoustic lap steel ...

(9) * Javier Solis - percussion (1, 9, 10, 12) *

Bryan Sutton Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs. Biography Early career Sutton's grandfather and ...

- acoustic guitar (1, 5, 6, 10, 12) *

Crystal Taliefero Crystal Taliefero-Pratt (née Taliefero) is an American multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Taliefero grew up with a musical family, performing rhythm and blues with her brother in the Chicago metropolitan area. During her college years she was ...

- background vocals (9, 11, 12) *

- background vocals (4) * Brett Warren - background vocals (9) *

- background vocals (5, 6) *

Glenn Worf Glenn Worf is an American bassist known mainly for his work as a session musician. He has recorded with many major country music acts and also tours with Mark Knopfler. Early life and education Worf was born in Dayton, Ohio, and grew up in Madis ...

- bass guitar (5, 8) ;String section on "Paris" * Violins: Bruce Dukov, Charlie Bisharat, Darius Campo, Roberto Cani, Susan Chatman, Mario Deleon, Armen Garabedian, Berj Garabedian, Endre Granat, Songa Lee-Kitto, Michael Markman, Robert Matsuda, Sara Parkings, Robert Peterson, Michele Richards, Anatoly Rosinsky, Josefina Vergara, John Wittenberg * Violas: Evan Wilson, Bob Becker, Denyse Buffum, Roland Kato * Cellos: Suzie Katayama, Larry Corbett, Steve Erdody, Paula Hochalter, Steve Richards, Dan Smith ;Production * Tracks 1, 3-6, 9, 10, 12 produced by Byron Gallimore, and Faith Hill * Tracks 7, 8, 13, 14 produced by Dann Huff and Faith Hill * Tracks 2, 11 produced by Byron Gallimore, Dann Huff, and Faith Hill

Release history

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fireflies (Faith Hill Album) Faith Hill albums 2005 albums Albums produced by Dann Huff Albums produced by Byron Gallimore Warner Records albums