Rod Stewart's next album - folk / country songs

..he has said in. German interview.
If done right this could be really good.
If done karaoke style like his J records era,or if overly produced like his recent originals it may not be.

Guess he had to try something different for the US market after the recent flop.

 

Hopefully it will be a “back to the roots” style performance...

 

I concur! Has Rod ever looked back and given his feelings about those first 4 solo albums? I wonder if he holds them to the same level of admiration that the majority of us do.

 

hope he calls Woody.

 

I wonder when these career artists chart at #1 like Rod did with his last one in the UK. Do they feel like course corrections are necessary, or does the chart placement cure all ills so to speak?

 

Too bad he waited so long. I'd have liked to see this after Never A Dull Moment due to the great covers of Dylan's Mama You Been On My Mind and Country Rod on What Made Milwaukee Famous. I'm thinking there's too much silt in the gravel pit now, but, who knows ? I hope he wears it well.

 

With Mick sick, hope Woody can go out and play.

 

could be great. like the end of his faces, early solo mandolin period stuff.

 

I will be hopeful with this but I’m not sure Rod even remembers his roots anymore. But yea...please give Woody a call.

 

If it is anything like Still The Same and Soulbook, it is a definite pass. Rod's interpretations and arrangements of other's material can be intriguing and in some instances extraordinary, but this seems formulaic like the aforementioned projects. Perhaps if he finds some obscure and deep cuts from the country genre and reinterprets them in his own voice, it will be interesting, but if he is just going to emulate Willie's Stardust, it will be a yawn-fest.

 

He does. See if you can find the CD/DVD Rod Stewart - Unplugged...and Seated from the MTV "Unplugged" series. Recorded in 1993 with Ron Wood guesting, the whole show is, as Rod says, "only the old stuff", 20+ years later. Rod and Ron have a blast doing the material, and Rod comes across as being genuinely rejuvenated.

This new project might be interesting if he truly goes back to the folk and country songs he admired that influenced his early solo career. Getting the right arranger and players for the material will be crucial, since there are so many ways this could go wrong.

 

Thanks for reminding me of that - I'd altogether forgotten that show. And yes, to get the right players will be critical - several of the originals have left this earth.

 

I'd be in for this, I'd want to hear it first though after the ruination of Girl From the North Country on Smiler any Folk album would have to reflect the style of the first four albums.

 

I will be interested. Have often suggested it.

 

The theme is not suggestive of any link between the album and the Jeff Beck gig anyway...and I doubt we will see this album for at least another 15 months or so.

 

I'd love for him to do a real "Americana" type album. No synths or drum machines, just analog recorded acoustic instruments. Robert Plant had the right idea when he collaborated with T-Bone Burnett and Allison Krauss. "Raising Sand" did very nicely for him.

Dylan and Waits are great American songwriters and have always worked for Rod but there are plenty of others whose material might work just as well. Peter Case, Alejandro Escovedo, Mark Lanegan are just a few I can think of who write material in that rustic, jangly folk/blues style that suits his voice so well. They could be rich sources of untapped material.

If he does a "country" album, I really hope it's more alt-country rather then mainstream. Plant found a great Townes Van Zandt song and I'm sure Rod could do the same. How about taking a crack at Gram Parsons "Hickory Wind" or Waylon Jenning's "We Had It All" ( I believe "We Had It All" was actually written by the same composer who did "Drift Away.") Why even Rod's fellow countryman Mick Jagger wrote a pretty decent country tune "Evening Gown" Phone him up and see if he'll let you borrow it!

The Waterboys did a tune some years back called "Bang On The Ear." When I first heard it I thought, that sounds custom made for Rod Stewart. Richard Thompson could be another goldmine of A+ material. How about "Cooksferry Queen" for starters.
Then there's the Irish classic "Raglan Road" that Van Morrison did with the Chieftains. etc, etc,
Their are dozens more I could think of but I'm not being paid to produce the album ( wish I was!)

 

How about a reunion with Ronny and Kenney? Maybe call it...Faces and write/record some great songs.

 

we'll see how this turns out

 

Please no Old Town Road, Rod.

 

I gave up on "Rod The Mod"post "Tonight's The Night" both a great single & very good record but I believe after the health issues its just too late for the man to recoup old glories, regardless EPTAS will forever remain the prominent jewel in his 70s era crown...

The only perfect record he has ever issued & the 1970s greatest musical achievement...

Good luck with it Rod

 

Rod did Eddie Cochrane's Something Else live a few nights ago....maybe nothing but songs like Shake your moneymaker and Rollin and Tumblin made live debuts and appeared on subsequent albums within a couple of years.

 

Hope by country he doesn’t mean Sam Hunt and Kane Brown.

 

Hope it will lean more towards Folk than Country, don't want to be hearing about lame horses, dried up "cricks (sic)" and absent women.

 

That's up to Andy.....

 

Snippets of where his mind is at across a number of recent interviews...he mentions Johnny Cash, Carter family, Willie Nelson, Dylan (old outtake Walls of red wing) and some Irish uprising folk songs as songs / artists / themes he is thinking about for the album. Hasn't actually started it yet so won't be 2020 I presume.