''Josh Gracin'' is the debut album by the 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 of the same name. It was released in the United States on June 15, 2004 on

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 of ...

, reached number eleven on the Nielsen Soundscan album chart and sold 57,048 the first week.'Idol 2' Marine finalist Josh Gracin's eponymous CD debuts at #11 on U.S. charts
/ref> It garnered a

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

certification and has sales of 703,000 copies as of December 2010, one of only three by new male country singers introduced in four years to earn a gold album.

Content

The tracks "I Want to Live", "Nothin' to Lose", and "Brass Bed" (which was re-titled "Stay with Me (Brass Bed)" upon release to radio) were all released as singles, peaking at number four, number one, and number five, respectively, on the country charts. "Nothin' to Lose" was originally recorded by its co-writer, Marcel, on his 2003 album ''

You, Me and the Windshield ''You, Me and the Windshield'' is the debut album of American country music singer Marcel (singer), Marcel. It was the only album he released for Mercury Nashville. Content The album includes the single "Country Rock Star", which peaked at number ...

''. The album was recorded while he was still serving in the Marine Corps, recording it when on leave, during holidays and weekends.

Critical reception

Aaron Lathan of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

commended producer Marty Williams for crafting an album that while mostly "a basic musical country stew," contains tracks that complement Gracin's vocal performance, saying "There is nothing daring or adventurous in the music or with Gracin himself, but that's just fine ..it's remarkable that he was able to focus and record a consistent and pleasant debut." Brian Mansfield of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' highlighted "I Want to Live" and praised Gracin's delivery but felt he chose by-the-numbers country tracks for the album, concluding that, " e rest of the songs could have been recorded by any already-forgotten singer at any time during the past five years."

Track listing

Personnel

As listed in liner notes. *Tim Akers -

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Hammond B-3 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 to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

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 ...

*Larry Beaird -

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

*Mike Brignardello -

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

on "Nothin' to Lose", "No One to Share the Blame" and "I Would Look Good with You" *

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 A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

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 ...

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 ...

on "Nothin' to Lose", "No One to Share the Blame" and "The Other Little Soldier".

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...

on "Turn It Up,"

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 ...

on "I Would Look Good with You" * Paul Franklin - steel guitar, lap steel guitar on "Endless Helpless Hoping" *

Josh Gracin Joshua Mario Gracin (born October 18, 1980) is an American country music singer. A former member of the United States Marine Corps, he first gained public attention as the fourth-place finalist on the second season of ''American Idol''. After h ...

- lead vocals *Kirk "Jelly Roll" Johnson -

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

on "Peace of Mind" *Jerry McPherson -

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

*Russell Terrell - background vocals *

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 A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

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 *

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 ...

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 ...

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

, octofone,

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles

Sales

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Josh Gracin (Album) 2004 debut albums Josh Gracin albums Lyric Street Records albums