''Lonely Grill'' 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
Lonestar
Lonestar (formerly known as Texassee) is an American country music group from Nashville, Tennessee. The group consists of Drew Womack (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Michael Britt (lead guitar, background vocals), Dean Sams (keyboards, acousti ...
, released in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
on June 1, 1999 by
BNA Records
BNA Records, formerly known as BNA Entertainment, was a label group that shared ties with Arista Nashville and RCA Nashville from parent company Sony Music Nashville, which itself is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment. Based in Nashville, T ...
. It reached number 28 on the
''Billboard'' 200 chart, and number three on the
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. With sales of three million copies in the United States, it has been certified 3× 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 ...
. This was Lonestar's first studio album to have a crossover-friendly
country-pop
Country pop (also known as pop country or urban cowboy) is a fusion genre of country music and pop music that was developed by members of the country genre out of a desire to reach a larger, mainstream audience. Country pop music blends genres ...
sound, which was a departure from their earlier
neotraditional country
Neotraditional country (also known as new traditional country and hardcore country) is a country music style that emphasizes the instrumental background and a traditional country vocal style. Neo-traditional country artists often dress in the fash ...
sound. It is also their first studio album to be recorded as a four-piece, as bassist and second lead vocalist
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 ...
left the band the previous year in 1998. Instead of replacing him with a new member, the band hired several session bassists to play the album's bass parts.
Content
The singles released from ''Lonely Grill'' were, in order of release, "Saturday Night", "Amazed", "Smile", "What About Now", and "Tell Her". While "Saturday Night" peaked at number 47 on the ''
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 ...
''
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
charts, all other singles from this album reached number one on that same chart. "Amazed" was also the group's biggest crossover hit, also peaking at number 1 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and number 2 on the
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by stat ...
charts. Also included on this album is an acoustic rendition of the group's late-1998 hit "Everything's Changed" (from their ''
Crazy Nights
''Crazy Nights'' is the fourteenth studio album by American rock band Kiss, recorded from March to June 1987 and released on September 21, 1987, by Mercury worldwide and Vertigo in the UK. This was the second album to feature the line-up of Ge ...
'' album).
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 ...
produced all but the last track, which was produced by Sam Ramage and Bob Wright.
This was Lonestar's first album after the departure of bass guitarist
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 ...
, who recorded a solo album for BNA that same year before pairing up with
Big Kenny
William Kenneth Alphin (born November 1, 1963), best known by his stage name Big Kenny, is an American country music singer. He and John Rich comprise the duo Big & Rich, who recorded four studio albums and charted fifteen singles on the '' Bill ...
in the duo
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 ...
.
Richie McDonald
Richard Vance McDonald (born February 6, 1962) is an American country music singer and songwriter. From 1998 until his departure in 2007, he was the lead singer of the group Lonestar, which recorded seven studio albums on BNA Records during his t ...
became the band's sole lead vocalist after Rich's departure, and studio bass guitarists are used in Rich's place.
Critical reception
Giving it three stars out of five,
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
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 ...
wrote that Lonestar "take
a middle ground, moving back toward hardcore country while retaining elements of the pop sheen of ''
Crazy Nights
''Crazy Nights'' is the fourteenth studio album by American rock band Kiss, recorded from March to June 1987 and released on September 21, 1987, by Mercury worldwide and Vertigo in the UK. This was the second album to feature the line-up of Ge ...
''. The results aren't always successful, but overall, the album is stronger than its immediate predecessor."
Track listing
All tracks produced by
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 ...
except where noted.
Personnel
As listed in liner notes.
Lonestar
*
Richie McDonald
Richard Vance McDonald (born February 6, 1962) is an American country music singer and songwriter. From 1998 until his departure in 2007, he was the lead singer of the group Lonestar, which recorded seven studio albums on BNA Records during his t ...
– lead vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar
* Dean Sams – acoustic piano, keyboards, acoustic guitar,
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 ...
, backing vocals
* Michael Britt – acoustic guitar, electric guitars, backing vocals
* Keech Rainwater – drums, percussion
Additional musicians
* Tim Lauer –
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 ...
*
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, synthesizers
*
Matt Rollings
Matt Rollings is a Grammy Award-winning American composer, keyboard player and record producer.
Known mainly for playing in Lyle Lovett's Large Band, Rollings has worked with many artists, not all country. Matt won the 'Best Traditional Pop Voca ...
– 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 ...
* Gary Burnette – acoustic guitar,
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 ...
*
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 ...
– electric guitars
*
Biff Watson
Fletcher Bangs "Biff" Watson is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. His musicianship has been a part of recording sessions for many artists.
Biography Early years
Raised in Chatham, Virginia, Watson learned how to play guitar at a ...
– acoustic guitar
*
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 ...
–
pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...
,
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 ...
*
Paul Franklin – pedal steel guitar
*
Aubrey Haynie
Aubrey Haynie (born March 27, 1974) is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle and mandolin. In his career, he has recorded three studio albums for the Sugar Hill Records label, all three of which contained mostly songs that he wr ...
–
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
*
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 ...
– mandolin
*
Mike Brignardello
Giant is an American melodic rock band that was formed in 1987. The band originally consisted of founding members Dann Huff (lead vocals and guitar) and Alan Pasqua (keyboard), and had Dann's brother David Huff on drums and Mike Brignardello on ...
– bass guitar
* Robbie Cheuvront – bass guitar, backing vocals
*
Paul Leim
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
* Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
– drums
*
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
*
Chuck Cannon
Marion Cletus Cannon Jr., known professionally as Chuck Cannon, is an American country music songwriter. His compositions include hit singles for Toby Keith and John Michael Montgomery. Cannon has also received awards for Broadcast Music Incorp ...
– backing vocals
* Russell Terrell – backing vocals
Technical and Design
* Lonestar – arrangements (12)
* Jeff Balding – tracking, overdub recording, mixing
* Mark Hagen – tracking assistant, additional engineer, overdub assistant, mix assistant
* Bob Wright – engineer (12), mixing (12)
* Phil Barnett – assistant engineer (12), mix assistant (12)
*
Giles Reaves Giles Reaves is a multi-instrumentalist sound artist and audio engineer who has composed albums of space music. His most recognized album, ''Sea of Glass'', 1992, peaked at #11 on the Billboard Top New Age Albums chart.
Biography
Reaves got his ...
– digital editing
* Ken Love – mastering at MasterMix (Nashville, Tennessee)
* Mike "Frog" Griffith – production coordinator
* Susan Eaddy – art direction
* Torne White – design
* Jim "Señior" McGuire – photography
* Debra Wingo – hair, make-up
* Ann Waters – stylist
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
1999 albums
Lonestar albums
BNA Records albums
Albums produced by Dann Huff