VARIOUS ARTISTS
Something Borrowed, Something New: A Tribute To John Anderson
Tribute albums can be a mixed bag. Sometimes inconsistent quality, sometimes the artists involved have little connection to the subject of the project. It's pleasing to tell you that this tribute album suffers from neither of these problems. Its subject, John Anderson, has a career spanning four decades and has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame albeit that he has a good ear for picking the songs of others to record too.
The last of his 22 studio albums, 'Years', was released on Easy Eye Sound, named after the studio owned by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. The latter being behind the release of 'Something Borrowed, Something New: A Tribute To John Anderson' too. Indeed, hats off to the label's overall high quality output.
They've pulled together contributions from peers like Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and their glorious cover of 'I Just Came Home To Count The Memories'. From the country tradition, Del McCoury is joined by Sierra Hull on ‘Would You Catch A Falling Star’. The cherry on the cake for this release comes from the late John Prine with ‘1959’.
As you can see Anderson's career not only spans the generations but appeals to folks from each and every one. The current artists’ crop gets represented by Sturgill Simpson with ‘When It Comes To You’, Tyler Childers in lawless mode on ‘Shoot Low Sheriff!’ and Brent Cobb gets ‘Wild And Blue’. There’s more from Nathaniel Rateliff, Ashley McBryde, Brothers Osborne and Sierra Ferrell amongst a superlative collection of contributing artists.
Jamey Johnson finishes off the al- bum with 'I'm Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be A Diamond Someday)'. A song title that makes you smile just like this album will, for sure. A rare feat for a tribute album.
