| Simple Life | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 13, 1990 | |||
| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 38:16 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. Nashville | |||
| Producer |
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| Mac McAnally chronology | ||||
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Simple Life is a studio album by American country music singer Mac McAnally. It was released in 1990 by Warner Bros. Records Nashville.
The album includes McAnally's only solo single to reach Top 40 on the Hot Country Songs charts, "Back Where I Come From", which peaked at No. 14 in 1990. [2] The album's only other single, "Down the Road", peaked at No. 70. Kenny Chesney and McAnally recorded "Down the Road" as a duet on the former's Lucky Old Sun album, and this version was a No. 1 single in 2009. [3] Chesney had previously recorded "Back Where I Come From" on his 1996 album Me and You , [4] and included a live version on his 2000 Greatest Hits package. [5]
Linda Davis covered "Company Time", the B-side of "Back Where I Come From", [2] on her 1994 album Shoot for the Moon , and her version was a No. 43 country single that year. [6] Also, Sammy Kershaw released "Southbound" as a single from his 1994 album Feelin' Good Train , taking the song to No. 27 on the country charts that year. [7] Finally, Andy Childs covered the title track on his 1993 self-titled debut, taking it to No. 61 that year. [8]
Rating it 3 out of 5 stars, Michael McCall of Allmusic wrote that "The album features well-crafted lyrics, fastidious acoustic-pop arrangements and his unremarkable voice." [9] A review in Cash Box was positive, saying that McAnally "makes the 'simple life' seem so intriguing, as he touches on every aspect of life" and "delights us with his own style of singing and musical accompaniment". [10]
All songs written by Mac McAnally.
Tracy Lee Lawrence is an American country music singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born in Atlanta, Texas, and raised in Foreman, Arkansas, Lawrence began performing at age 15 and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1990 to begin his country music career. He signed to Atlantic Records Nashville in 1991 and made his debut late that year with the album Sticks and Stones. Five more studio albums, as well as a live album and a compilation album, followed throughout the 1990s and into 2000 on Atlantic before the label's country division was closed in 2001. Afterward, he recorded for Warner Bros. Records, DreamWorks Records, Mercury Records Nashville, and his own labels, Rocky Comfort Records and Lawrence Music Group.
Kenneth Arnold Chesney is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has recorded more than 20 albums and has produced more than 40 Top 10 singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, 32 of which have reached number one. Many of these have also charted within the Top 40 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, making him one of the most successful crossover country artists. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
Joe Logan Diffie was an American country music singer and songwriter. After working as a demo singer in the mid 1980s, he signed with Epic Records' Nashville division in 1990. Between then and 2004, Diffie charted 35 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, five of which peaked at number one: his debut release "Home", "If the Devil Danced ", "Third Rock from the Sun", "Pickup Man" and "Bigger Than the Beatles". In addition to these singles, he had 12 others reach the top 10 and ten more reach the top 40 on the same chart. He also co-wrote singles for Holly Dunn, Tim McGraw, and Jo Dee Messina, and recorded with Mary Chapin Carpenter, George Jones, and Marty Stuart.
Lonestar is an American country music group from Nashville, Tennessee. The group consists of Drew Womack, Michael Britt, Dean Sams, and Keech Rainwater (drums). Britt, Sams, and Rainwater co-founded the band in 1992 with original lead vocalist Richie McDonald and bass guitarist/vocalist John Rich. Rich exited the band in 1998 and went on to join Big Kenny as one-half of the duo Big & Rich. Since his departure, Lonestar has relied alternatingly on session and touring musicians for bass guitar accompaniment. McDonald exited the band in 2007 to record as a solo artist, and was replaced by former McAlyster vocalist Cody Collins before returning in 2011. After leaving the band a second time in 2021, McDonald was replaced by Womack, previously the lead vocalist of Sons of the Desert.
Doug Stone is an American country music singer and actor. He debuted in 1990 with the single "I'd Be Better Off ", the first release from his 1990 self-titled debut album for Epic Records. Both this album and its successor, 1991's I Thought It Was You, earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. Two more albums for Epic, 1992's From the Heart and 1994's More Love, are each certified gold. Stone moved to Columbia Records to record Faith in Me, Faith in You, which did not produce a Top Ten among its three singles. After suffering a heart attack and stroke in the late 1990s, he exited the label and did not release another album until Make Up in Love in 1999 on Atlantic Records. The Long Way was released in 2002 on the Audium label, followed by two albums on the independent Lofton Creek Records.
Hubert Neal McGaughey Jr., known professionally as Neal McCoy, is an American country music singer. He has released 10 studio albums on various labels, and has released 34 singles to country radio. Although he first charted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1988, he did not reach the top 40 for the first time until 1992's "Where Forever Begins", which peaked at number 40. McCoy broke through two years later with the back-to-back number one singles "No Doubt About It" and "Wink" from his platinum-certified album No Doubt About It. Although he has not topped the country charts since, his commercial success continued into the mid to late 1990s with two more platinum albums and a gold album, as well as six more top 10 hits. A ninth top 10 hit, the number 10 "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On", came in 2005 from his self-released That's Life.
Greatest Hits is the first compilation album by American country music artist Kenny Chesney, released on September 26, 2000 on BNA Records. It features hits from his previous albums, as well as newly recorded tracks. Two of the new tracks — "I Lost It" and "Don't Happen Twice" — were issued as singles. Also released from this album was a re-recording of his 1994 single "The Tin Man". Greatest Hits has been certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of over four million copies in the United States.
Lyman Corbitt McAnally Jr., known professionally as Mac McAnally, is an American country music singer-songwriter, session musician, and record producer. In his career, he has recorded ten studio albums and eight singles. Two of his singles were hits on the Billboard Hot 100, and six more on the Hot Country Songs charts.
McBride & the Ride is an American country music band consisting of Terry McBride, Ray Herndon, and Billy Thomas. The group was founded in 1989 through the assistance of record producer Tony Brown. McBride & the Ride's first three albums — Burnin' Up the Road, the gold-certified Sacred Ground, and Hurry Sundown, released in 1991, 1992, and 1993, respectively — were all issued on MCA Nashville. These albums also produced several hits on the Billboard country charts, including the Top 5 hits "Sacred Ground", "Going Out of My Mind", "Just One Night", and "Love on the Loose, Heart on the Run".
Me and You is the third studio album by American country music singer Kenny Chesney. It was released in 1996 via BNA Records. Although its lead-off single "Back in My Arms Again" failed to make Top 40, the album's title track and "When I Close My Eyes" both reached number two on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 1996. The title track was reprised from Chesney's previous album. "Back Where I Come From" is a cover of Mac McAnally's 1990 single from his album Simple Life, while "When I Close My Eyes" had been recorded by Restless Heart lead singer Larry Stewart on his 1993 debut album Down the Road, and by Keith Palmer before that. "It's Never Easy To Say Goodbye" had been recorded by singer Wynonna Judd on her eponymous debut album. "Back in My Arms Again was previously recorded by Lee Roy Parnell on his 1992 album Love Without Mercy.
Live: Live Those Songs Again is the first live album by country music singer Kenny Chesney, released on September 19, 2006 via BNA Records. The album includes live renditions of 14 of his songs, ten of which were singles. "Live Those Songs", "Never Gonna Feel Like That Again", "On the Coast of Somewhere Beautiful", and "Back Where I Come From" were never released as singles by Chesney, although the latter was previously a single in 1990 for Mac McAnally from his album Simple Life. The recordings for the album were taken from concerts in Carson, CA, Knoxville, TN, Nassau, Bahamas, Nashville, TN and Pittsburgh, PA.
"Country Road" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter James Taylor, released in February 1971 by Warner Bros. Records. It is the third single from Taylor's second studio album, Sweet Baby James. "Country Road" is also featured on James Taylor's 1976 Greatest Hits record. The song has been played at most of his concerts since 1970. Randy Meisner, later of the Eagles played bass on the album version.
Still Restless is the ninth studio album by American country music band Restless Heart. Released in 2004, it was considered the band's reunion album, as it was their first release since 1998's Greatest Hits, as well as the first album since Fast Movin' Train (1990) to feature all five original band members. Their first and only album for Koch Records Nashville, it produced the single "Feel My Way to You", which peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in late 2004.
Shane McAnally is an American country music singer, songwriter, and record producer. Originally a solo artist for Curb Records in 1999, McAnally charted three singles on Hot Country Songs, including the No. 31 "Are Your Eyes Still Blue". McAnally left the country music business in 2000 and returned in 2006 as a songwriter, having initial success on that front with "Last Call" by Lee Ann Womack. He began working as a producer in 2013 with Kacey Musgraves' debut album Same Trailer Different Park. From the early 2010s onward, McAnally has worked almost exclusively as a songwriter and producer.
Lucky Old Sun is the twelfth studio album by American country music artist Kenny Chesney. It was released on October 14, 2008 as the first release for Blue Chair Records, Chesney's personal division of the BNA Records record label. The album produced two singles in "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven" and "Down the Road", which were both number ones on the country charts. Chesney's versions of those two songs are duets with The Wailers and Mac McAnally respectively. This was Kenny's first album since 1997's I Will Stand to not have a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
"Down the Road" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Mac McAnally. McAnally has charted with the song on two separate occasions. The first of these two versions was released as the second single from his 1990 album Simple Life, and was a minor chart single for him that year. Eighteen years later, McAnally re-recorded the song as a duet with Kenny Chesney on Chesney's 2008 album Lucky Old Sun. This rendition is also McAnally's highest charting country hit, having reached Number One in February 2009.
"Anymore" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Travis Tritt. It was released in September 1991 as the second single from his album It's All About to Change. It peaked at number 1 in both the United States and Canada, becoming his second number-one hit in the United States, and his fourth number-one in Canada. The song was written by Tritt and Jill Colucci.
"Save Me" is a song by British-American band Fleetwood Mac from their 15th studio album, Behind the Mask, released as a single in 1990. Written and sung by Christine McVie, it was the group's last top-40 hit in the United States, where it reached No. 33. "Save Me" achieved modest success in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at No. 53. It also reached the top 10 in Canada, Finland, and the Netherlands. The song was, as the slightly shorter single edit, included in the group's 2018 compilation 50 Years – Don't Stop.
"Southbound" is a song written and originally recorded by American country music singer Mac McAnally for his 1990 album Simple Life. It was released as a single by American country music artist Sammy Kershaw. It was released in December 1994 as the third single from the album Feelin' Good Train. The song reached number 27 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
"Back Where I Come From" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Mac McAnally. It was released in January 1990 as the first single from his album Simple Life. The song reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. Its B-side, "Company Time", was later a single for Linda Davis in 1994.
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