''Sweet Southern Sugar'' is the eleventh studio album by American recording artist

Kid Rock Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock (also known as Bobby Shazam), is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. His style alternates between rock, hip hop, country, and metal. A self-taught musician, ...

. It was released on November 3, 2017, by

Broken Bow Records BBR Music Group (formerly Broken Bow Records) is an American record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in July 1999 by Benny Brown, the label specializes in country music. The label's executive vice president is Jon Loba. Craig Morgan ...

, Top Dog Records and

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was founded in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its ...

. The album spawned four singles: "Po-Dunk", "Greatest Show on Earth", "Tennessee Mountain Top", and "American Rock 'n Roll", along with their music videos. Its lead single, "Po-Dunk", peaked at number 27 on the

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 ...

. "Greatest Show on Earth" peaked at number 16 on the

Mainstream Rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...

chart and it was used as the main theme for

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

pay-per-view

Survivor Series (2017) The 2017 Survivor Series was the 31st annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on ...

. "Tennessee Mountain Top" peaked at number 36 on the Hot Country Songs. ''Sweet Southern Sugar'' is Kid Rock's first album since his self-titled 2003 album not to feature a title track, though the album's name comes from a lyric in "Tennessee Mountain Top". The album also features a cover of the

Four Tops The Four Tops are an American vocal quartet from Detroit who helped to define the city's Motown sound of the 1960s. The group's repertoire has included soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, doo-wop, jazz, and show tunes. Founded as the ...

song "

I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" is a 1965 hit song recorded by the Four Tops for the Motown label. Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, "I Can't Help Myself" is one of the most well-know ...

", titled "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch". The album's sixth track "Back to the Otherside" and tenth and final track "Grandpa's Jam" feature a return to the rapping vocals of Rock's earlier work.

Commercial performance

''Sweet Southern Sugar'' debuted at number eight on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and number four on the US ''Billboard'' Top Country Albums with 43,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...

s, with almost all of that figure (41,000) coming from pure album sales. It has sold 184,600 copies in the United States as of April 2019.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Personnel

listed inside the booklet from the album:

Kid Rock

* Robert James Ritchie Sr. - drum programming, drums, acoustic guitar,

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 ...

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 ...

, background vocals,

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 to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

, turntables

Additional personnel

Backing vocalists A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

* Herschel Boone - background vocals * Danny Rader - background vocals * Joey Hyde - background vocals *

Shannon Curfman Shannon Marie Curfman (born July 31, 1985, Fargo, North Dakota) is an American blues-rock guitarist and singer. Career She came to prominence in 1999, at the age of 14, with the release of her first album, ''Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions'', whi ...

- background vocals * Aaron Eshuis - background vocals * Stacy Michelle - background vocals * Kristen Rogers - background vocals * Morgan Hebert - background vocals * Stephcynie Curry - background vocals

Drummers

* Jerry Roe *

Stefanie Eulinberg Twisted Brown Trucker is the backing band for American musician Kid Rock. Formed in 1994, the band has contributed to nine of his twelve studio albums, as well as Uncle Kracker's '' Double Wide'' album. History Formation and establishment (1 ...

* John “Rook” Cappelletty

Others

Paradime Freddie Beauregard (born November 9, 1974), professionally known by his stage name Paradime, is an American rapper and producer from Detroit, Michigan. He is a Northwood University and Detroit Catholic Central alumni. Career His first appeara ...

- tambourine, turntables *

Jimmie Bones Jimmie is a variation of the given name James. Jimmie may refer to: * Jimmie Adams (1888–1933), American silent film comedian * Jimmie Åkesson (born 1979), Swedish politician * Jimmie Allen (born 1986), American country music singer * Jimmie A ...

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 ...

, background vocals * Marlon Young - bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar *

Mike E. Clark Michael Earl Clark (born December 25, 1962) is an American record producer and DJ from Michigan, best known for working with Kid Rock, Insane Clown Posse, Prozak and Mickey Avalon. Clark has also worked with George Clinton, Patti Smith, R.L. B ...

- drum programming, producer

Guitarists

* Gordy Quist - electric guitar *

Adam Shoenfeld Adam Shoenfeld (born April 29, 1974) is a professional guitarist, songwriter and producer based in Nashville, TN. Primarily focused on modern country music, his guitar playing has been featured on over 200 albums, and is closely associated with Bi ...

- electric guitar * Nathan Young - electric guitar * Jason Krause - electric guitar * Derek Wells - electric guitar * Rob McNelley - electric guitar

Pianists

* Tim Lauer - piano, keyboards, mellotron, synth,

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

, strings (string machine) * Justin Niebank - piano, synth * Jim "Moose" Brown -

, B3 Organ * Dave Cohen -

, B3 Organ, keyboards, synths

Bassists

Jimmie Lee Sloas Jimmie Lee Sloas is an American session musician, producer, and songwriter, who plays bass guitar. History Jimmie Lee Sloas, born in Ashland, Kentucky, grew up in Fairborn, Ohio and Isonville, Kentucky. His father, Dave, was a member of the p ...

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 ...

* Tony Lucido - bass guitar * Aaron Julison - bass guitar

References

{{Authority control 2017 albums Country albums by American artists Kid Rock albums Southern rock albums