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| Date: | 2012-04-02 |
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| Article Title: | Music City Bridges A Little Country With Soul With New Lionel Richie Album |
| Article: | Lionel Richie is an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor. From 1968, he was a member of the musical group Commodores. Richie made his solo debut in 1982 with the album "Lionel Richie" and number-one hit "Truly.” A five-time Grammy-winning superstar of pop and R&B music, Richie has detoured into a another genre of music. He has been spotted around Nashville in the past few weeks. This is largely in part due to his recent March 26 release of "Tuskegee," an album on which Richie duets on some of his best-loved hits with some of country music's best-loved stars. Much to his surprise, the Nashville music community has warmly embraced Richie's latest (but not his first) foray into the country field. Country artists lined up to be part of the new album. The Country Music Association, made room for him to sing three of the duets from "Tuskegee" on last fall's CMA Awards on ABC. Moreover, Academy of Country Music will honor him with a two-hour special, "ACM Presents: Lionel Richie and Friends - In Concert," airing April 13 on CBS. His unique musical style in collaboration with many of country music greats include several of Richie’s hits on the new album. Some include “You Are” with Blake Shelton, “Stuck On You” with Darius Rucker, “Hello” with Jennifer Nettles, and “Endless Love” with Shania Twain among others. While the new album is his first full-blown Nashville project, Richie says he "eased in" to county music long ago and admits he's much more drawn to the idea of working in country than other genres like rap, which he says would be "impossible for me because that's just not my talent.” The nine month project has already gotten rave reviews and has given Country music's capitol the added attraction of being just a few hours' drive from Richie's hometown of Tuskegee, Alabama for which the album was named. Richie has already announced his tour dates for the recently released album with plans to make a stop in Music City. |
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