On The Record

"It's Time I Tried"

This series, “On the Record,” will be a weekly Substack exclusive in which I’ll go through my recorded catalog song by song starting with my first album, Alabama Song, which was released on MCA Records in 1998. Photos will be attached if available and tolerable.

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Ah, that guitar lick. So soulful. And country soul is something I want to make sure I cover when I’m writing about The Hardest Part — this album has as much or more to do with that genre of music than anything else. I grew up loving Charlie Rich, Bobbie Gentry… well, a lot of the music that’s considered country is more soul music than anything, in my opinion. It is, of course, of the soul.

I simply adore “It’s Time I Tried,” from top to bottom. It aches, it swells, it pulses. Hell, it even has a recitation and a classic R&B key change (courtesy of Michael Rhodes’ brain) in the instrumental section. I love the melody — it’s one I really got to sink my teeth into and sink them into it I did. I’d go so far as to say I over sang this one, but you live and learn. I was so concerned with singing “properly,” and hitting the notes exactly right that I’m afraid those things got in the way of finding the proper emotion, but overall, I’m proud of the performance and particularly appreciate the way I delivered the word “yearns” at the end of the 2nd verse. HA! Just a note: I was in the studio today and I’m happy to report that I’m a much better singer now. Again, live and learn. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out how to even begin to do what you’re doing with style and elegance. I feel like I’m just learning that now at age 49. And though I sometimes shudder when I hear a performance from days gone by, I have to feel good about where I’ve been because of where I am now — that’s what life is about, not perfection, but learning. L-E-A-R-N-I-N-G. I’m grateful I’ve had the chance to learn and grow in front of y’all and haven’t lost my job yet.

The band is genius. And here’s something you may not know: that weird sounding, twinkling, underlying part in the top of 2nd verse? Where I do the spoken repeats of the lyric? That’s Russ Pahl working his magic on the steel guitar. Russ can make that instrument do things that I’ve never seen anyone else do. Incredible. Then there are the strings. Heaven help, they kill me. The great Kris Wilkinson wrote the arrangements for all of the string parts on this album and she nailed it — we wanted a cross between classic and Tom Petty’s “Good to be King,” and she knew exactly what that direction meant.

I consider “It’s Time I Tried,” to be a high point on a high point album.

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Personnel:

Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar: Kenny Greenberg

Electric Guitar: Rick Plant

B3: Jay Bennett

Pedal Steel: Russ Pahl

Bass: Michael Rhodes

Drums: Chad Cromwell

Harmony: me

Background vocals: Louis Nunley, Dennis Wilson

Strings: The Nashville String Machine

Recorded by Don Smith at Woodland Studios, Nashville, TN

Overdubs by Peter Coleman at Treasure Isle, Nashville, TN

Mixed by Justin Niebank at Masterfonics, Nashville, TN

Goodness, I’m so grateful to have made all of this music.

Thanks for reading these “On the Record” installments. I’m so enjoying writing them. I’ve made ten studio albums so that means I’ll end up covering more than one-hundred songs! More to come next week with “Best That I Can Do.”

Onward,

AM

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