''Redemption'' is the third studio album from American country music artist Josh Gracin. It was released on November 8, 2011. After Gracin was dropped by his previous record label, Lyric Street Records, in early 2009, Gracin began working independently on his third studio album. During that time, he released a couple of songs to country radio, but they failed to chart. In January 2010, Gracin signed with

Average Joe's Entertainment Average Joes Entertainment Group is an American record label specializing in alternative country, country rap and country music. The label was founded in 2008 by country rap artist Jason "Colt Ford" Brown and producer Shannon Houchins. Ford has ...

, and his first single under Average Joe's, "Cover Girl," was released in August 2010. It charted briefly 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 ...

chart, reaching a peak of number 57. "Long Way to Go" was released as a single to

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

radio, and became Gracin's first single to be promoted to the format, and has since reached the Top 20.

Critical reception

Thom Jurek 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 ...

was mixed on the record overall, praising tracks like "Long Way to Go" and "Only When It Rains" as highlights and commending the various musicianship from Gracin's road band but felt the track listing needed a few songs cut for length. He concluded that "Ultimately, Gracin is betting a lot on ''Redemption''; each self-penned song reaches for a certain niche in the contemporary country genre, trying to cover all the bases programmers desire ..whether this kitchen-sink approach results in garnering new ones is indeed a gamble."

Track listing

Personnel

*Shelagh Brown- duet vocals on "Only When It Rains" *

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

*Jonathan Crane- acoustic guitar *Will Doughty-

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 ...

*Loren Ellis- acoustic guitar * Josh Gracin- acoustic guitar, lead vocals, background vocals *Mark Hill-

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 ...

*Claire Indie-

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 ...

*Shane Kiester- keyboards *Tony Lucido- bass guitar *Devin Malone- electric guitar *Mike Meadows- acoustic guitar *Kevin Murphy-

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 ...

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 ...

*Russ Pahl- doblajes,

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 ...

*Hubert Payne- drums *Ben Phillips- drums *Ethan Pilzer- bass guitar *Holli Poole- background vocals *Danny Rader- electric guitar *Rich Redmond- percussion *Tripper Ryder- bass guitar, background vocals *Adam Shoenfeld- electric guitar *Jeff Smith- background vocals *Keith Thomas- keyboards, programming *Seth Timbs- keyboards * Ilya Toshinsky- acoustic guitar *Travis Toy-

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 ...

, pedal steel guitar *Jonathan Yudkin- banjo, string arrangements, strings

Chart performance

The album debuted at number 167 in the Top Current Albums chart with sales of 3,000.

Album

Singles

References

{{Authority control 2011 albums Josh Gracin albums Average Joes Entertainment albums