This Side of the Moon is the third studio album by American singer Elizabeth Cook, released on May 17, 2005, by Hog Country Production. Cook based the album on her experience with the Warner Bros.record label, which had released her second studio album, Hey Y'all in 2002. Initially signed to AOL-Time Warner, she was transferred to Warner Bros. and experienced problems with the label, including an album delay. Hey Y'all was commercially unsuccessful and was not heavily promoted; its songs were not played on country radio. Cook voluntarily left Warner Bros. in 2003, and used her disappointment working in Nashville's Music Row as inspiration for her follow-up album.
A country album, This Side of the Moon features lyrics about love and heartbreak. Before being packaged as an album, the songs were recorded independently, with the assistance of five producers in eight Tennesseerecording studios. Most of the songs were written by Cook and songwriter Hardie McGehee, both of whom worked for music publisher Sis 'N Bro Music. Critics likened Cook's vocals to those of country artists such as Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton.
This Side of the Moon had a limited release in August 2004 before becoming more widely available the following year. Cook promoted it with live performances at the Grand Ole Opry and international music festivals. The album received little airplay and, after its release, Cook worked as a waitress to secure steady pay. Critical response at the time was generally positive and, in retrospective articles, reviewers felt This Side of the Moon helped enhance Cook's musical career.
Background and recording
Elizabeth Cook collaborated with eight producers, including Randy Scruggs (pictured in 2009), on "song experiments" which were later grouped together on This Side of the Moon.
Elizabeth Cook signed a recording contract with Atlantic after receiving positive reviews for The Blue Album, her 2000 self-released debut studio album.[1][2] The recording sessions for her second studio album Hey Y'all began in the spring of 2001, but its release would be delayed to 2002 because of record label issues.[3][4] When AOL-Time Warner–which owned Atlantic–closed its Nashville office, the company transferred Cook's contract to its parent company Warner Bros.[4]Hey Y'all was commercially unsuccessful, and its songs did not receive airplay on country radio.[5][6] In a 2005 Country Standard Time article, Rick Bell attributed this to Cook receiving "little label support".[4] Cook left Warner Bros. voluntarily to look for another record label in 2003.[7]
According to Cook's website, This Side of the Moon was constructed from separate "song experiments".[3]No Depression's Grant Alden described the album as a "collection of demos she scraped together" following her Warner Bros. contract.[8] "Funny Side of Love" was one of the first tracks recorded in this process.[9] Five producers, including Randy Scruggs and Sugar Hill's A&R director Steve Fishell, handled the songs which were recorded at eight recording studios throughout Tennessee.[10] Jeff Gordon was the executive producer for This Side of the Moon; along with producing a majority of the album, he mastered all of its songs.[11] Cook had met Gordon when he was looking for a "traditional girl country singer" to re-record his demos.[12]
This Side of the Moon was inspired by Cook's departure from Warner Bros., which she described as her "divorce from Music Row" and a "period of extreme frustration". In 2005, Cook told the Country Standard Time that she preferred being an independent artist, saying: "This is much more grass-roots, more real to me."[4] Cook has writing credits on the album's thirteen songs;[3] she co-wrote seven of them with songwriter Hardie McGehee,[11] who she worked with because they were signed to the same music publisher (Sis 'N Bro Music).[13][14] Cook and McGehee had collaborated on seven songs for Hey Y'all.[15][16]
Following the release of This Side of the Moon, McGehee moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and Cook shifted to writing music by herself. She believed they had "reached a real good stride" with the album, saying: "And I'm not sure where we would go from there."[12] Cook wrote two songs, “Ruthless" and "Heather Are You With Me Tonight", by herself and worked with her then-husband Tim Carroll on "Where the Blue Begins", which they recorded as a duet.[2][11]
Composition and lyrics
Sound
This Side of the Moon is a thirteen-track country album,[2] which Rick Bell further defined as "hard-edged country".[2]Kelefa Sanneh, while writing for The New York Times, described the album as "old-fashioned" and likened its simple arrangements to demos.[17] A contributor for The Tennessean noted that Cook often used retro influences in her music.[18] In The Tampa Tribune, Stephen Thompson remarked that the songs had different styles, ranging from a "slow ballad" to a "rollicking mid-tempo number".[19]
Critics compared Cook's vocals to those of Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.[20] Alden described Cook's voice as "high [and] clear", saying it was "reminiscent in its quiet moments of Dolly Parton, or of a more burnished Julie Miller".[3]The Philadelphia Inquirer's Nick Cristiano interpreted Cook's vocals as having an "industrial-strength vocal twang" and "Loretta Lynn spunkiness", citing "Cupid", "All We Need Is Love", and "Somebody's Gotta Do It" as examples of this.[21] Although Thompson noted that Cook lacked a "knockout voice" like Patsy Cline, Kelly Willis and Iris DeMent, he wrote that she had a "sincere, unfussy style of singing".[19] While describing Cook's voice as "high" and "agile", Sanneh remarked that unlike other singers' approaches to ballads, Cook "chuckles where others might sob".[17]
Lyrics
Throughout This Side of the Moon, Cook sings about her experiences with Warner Bros.[22] In "Funny Side of Love", she uses humor to process her feelings of "disappointment and sense of lost opportunity" after leaving the label.[9] Cook said that while "Here's to You" and "Hard-Hearted" sound like break-up songs, the lyrics are about her career.[4] The album also focuses on love and heartbreak.[19] Cook warns her partner in the ballad "Before I Go That Far" about what will happen if they break up.[21] In "This Side of the Moon", she sings about the hard work required in a relationship, specifically how it involves "going through struggles and becoming disenchanted with what you started working towards in the first place".[9] The album's final track "Somebody's Gotta Do It" is about satisfying a woman's needs.[23]
"Heather Are You With Me Tonight" is a love song about a soldier's loneliness and thoughts of his girlfriend.[2][3] The lyrics focus on his moral struggle over carrying out an airstrike and his hope that his girlfriend will understand him and remain faithful.[3] Cook wrote the song during the bombing of Baghdad in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[9] Alden viewed it as a war song rather than a protest song,[8] and author Alice Randall and songwriters Carter and Courtney Little compared its message to Glen Campbell's 1969 single "Galveston", saying they both ask a similar moral question: "Can war and love exist in the same heart?"[24]
Release and promotion
This Side of the Moon had a limited release in August 2004.[4][a] Media outlets described the release as independent.[26][27] Hog Country Production gave This Side of the Moon a larger release on May17, 2005 as an audio CD.[4][11]
Before the album's release, Cook had performed its music as part of her live shows.[26] According to a 2005 press release, Cook planned to embark on a summer tour and perform at the Grand Ole Opry to further support This Side of the Moon.[9] Cook also promoted it by performing at international music festivals.[28] The album was later released on streaming services.[29]
In 2005, Cook recorded a music video for "Before I Go That Far" in New Mexico.[12] Entertainment company Thirty Tigers uploaded the video to its YouTube channel on April10, 2007.[30] According to the company's YouTube channel, This Side of the Moon was later licensed to the Orchard Music on behalf of Hog Country Production.[30]
This Side of the Moon's tracks received little airplay,[6] and following the album's release, Cook worked as a waitress to secure a steady salary.[28] She recounted taking that job because she was not emotionally attached to it, and she felt comfortable quitting to perform at live shows.[28] In a 2007 CMT interview, Cook said she developed a fanbase from "a small handful of cult country music fans" that she thought were frustrated with her lack of commercial success; she also mentioned reaching a sense of peace about her experiences with different record deals.[6]
Critical reception
Critics later believed This Side of the Moon helped Elizabeth Cook (pictured in 2009) with her career.
This Side of the Moon was met with generally positive reviews from critics.[31] Sanneh included it on his list of 2005's best obscurities,[17] and in an August 2005 article, Thompson named it the best country album by a female artist so far that year.[32] Several reviewers commended the album for its traditional country sound,[33] such as Bell who described it as "a brilliant 13-song collection of hard-edged country sung with steely conviction".[2] Cook's songwriting was also highlighted.[3][32] Praising the album's cohesion as well as Cook's vocals and songwriting, Alden identified her as "an artist to whom attention must be paid".[3] Describing This Side of the Moon as an improvement over Hey Y'all, Cristiano appreciated how "disappointment obviously didn't dull her artistry".[21] Bell believed she deserved "a hard-earned, well-deserved second chance" to work with another major record label.[2]
Cristiano said Cook proved herself to be a "thoughtful and deeply affecting balladeer", pointing out "Before I Go That Far" as an example.[21] In 2006, Randall, Carter, and Little also singled out the track when praising Cook for creating "lush harmonies, traditional arrangements, and simple production".[34] While dismissing the notion that Cook was a guilty pleasure, Cooper praised "Here's to You", "Where the Blue Begins", and "Somebody's Gotta Do It" as "music fit for smiling, humming and other admirable pursuits".[35] Alden highlighted "Heather Are You With Me Tonight" as "the first great song" from the Iraq War years,[3] and said it was his favorite song six years after the album's release.[8]
Retrospective reviews of This Side of the Moon remained positive.[18][27] In a 2006 article, a contributor for The Tennessean described it as Cook's best album.[18] Two years later, an NPR writer said Cook had achieved "some commercial and artistic potential" with the album.[27] Critics identified the album as an important part of Cook's career,[36][37] such as Louisville's Brent Owen who believed it gave her further exposure in the music industry.[37] A staff writer for the River Cities' Reader attributed This Side of the Moon and Balls to helping establish Cook as a "soulful country singer and impassioned songwriter".[36]
Track listing
Credits adapted from the liner notes of This Side of the Moon:[11]
This Side of the Moon (Inlay cover). Elizabeth Cook. Hog Country Production. August 2004.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
Hardcore Jollies is the ninth studio album by the funk rock band Funkadelic, released on October 29, 1976 by Warner Bros. Records, their first album to be issued on a major label. It is dedicated to "the guitar players of the world." Originally, the first side of the album was called "Osmosis Phase 1" and the second side was "Terribitus Phase 2." Hardcore Jollies was released one month after Funkadelic's final album for Westbound Records, Tales of Kidd Funkadelic, which was recorded during the same sessions.
Emmylou Harris is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist. She is recognized for having a consistent artistic direction. Harris is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana genre in the 1990s. Her music united both country and rock audiences in live performance settings. Her characteristic voice, musical style and songwriting have been acclaimed by critics and fellow recording artists.
Randy Bruce Traywick, known professionally as Randy Travis, is an American country music and gospel music singer and songwriter, as well as a film and television actor. Active since 1979, he has recorded over 20 studio albums and charted over 50 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including sixteen that reached the number-one position.
Cynthia Leigh Wilson is an American musician and one of the vocalists, songwriters and founding members of new wave rock band the B-52's. She is noted for her distinctive contralto voice and also plays percussion during live shows. She is the younger sister of the late guitarist Ricky Wilson (1953–1985), who was also a founding member of the band.
"Shiny Happy People" is a song by the American rock band R.E.M., released as the second single from their seventh studio album, Out of Time (1991). It features guest vocals by Kate Pierson of the B-52's, who also appears in the music video.
Mazarati was an American R&B, rock and funk band, formed in the mid-1980s and was active until 1989. The band had seven members and was produced by the former Prince and The Revolution bassist Brownmark. Originally hailing from Minneapolis, they became defunct as a group in 1989. The band's sole hit was a song called "100 MPH", which was written and co-produced by Prince.
DaDa is the eighth solo studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released in September 1983, by Warner Bros. Records. DaDa would be Cooper's final studio album until his sober re-emergence in 1986 with the hard rock album Constrictor.
Fireflies is the sixth studio album by American country music singer Faith Hill. The album was released on August 2, 2005 via Warner Bros. Records Nashville. Her first album since her 2002 crossover album Cry, Fireflies marked a return to traditional country music for Hill. Hill co-produced the album with Byron Gallimore and Dann Huff. Husband Tim McGraw is featured on the single "Like We Never Loved at All".
The Forester Sisters were an American country music vocal group consisting of sisters Christy, June, Kathy, and Kim Forester. Having performed together locally in their native Lookout Mountain, Georgia, since the 1970s, the four sisters began singing full-time in the 1980s and signed to Warner Records Nashville in 1984. Their greatest commercial success came between then and 1991, when they charted fifteen top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, five of which went to number one: "I Fell in Love Again Last Night", "Just in Case", "Mama's Never Seen Those Eyes", "Too Much Is Not Enough", and "You Again". They won the Academy of Country Music Group of the Year award in 1986 and were nominated three times for a Grammy Award. In addition to their country music albums, they released multiple albums of gospel music and one of Christmas music.
Jude Anthony Cole is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and talent manager from Carbon Cliff, Illinois. He began his career as part of Moon Martin's backing group the Ravens, and joined the English power pop band the Records in 1980, by the age of 19. After his work on their album Crashes (1980), he signed with Reprise Records to pursue a solo recording career and released his eponymous debut studio album (1987), which was followed by four subsequent releases—A View from 3rd Street (1990), Start the Car (1992), I Don't Know Why I Act This Way (1995), and Falling Home (2000). Afterward, he outsourced his work onto management, production, and songwriting for the alternative rock band Lifehouse. Cole was credited on most of their singles throughout the 2000s, including "You and Me," "First Time," "Whatever It Takes" and "Halfway Gone" — each became hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40, Adult Top 40, and Adult Contemporary charts.
Pirates is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released on July 15, 1981, by Warner Bros. Records. The follow-up to her 1979 self-titled debut album, Pirates is partially an account of her break-up with fellow musician Tom Waits after the success of her debut album. The cover is a 1976-copyrighted photo by Brassaï.
Anita Jean Kerr was an American singer, arranger, composer, conductor, pianist, and music producer. She recorded and performed with her vocal harmony groups in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Europe.
Elizabeth Cook is an American country music singer and radio host. She has made over 400 appearances on the Grand Ole Opry since her debut on March 17, 2000, despite not being a member. Cook, "the daughter of a hillbilly singer married to a moonshiner who played his upright bass while in a prison band", was "virtually unknown to the pop masses" before she made a debut appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman in June 2012. The New York Times called her "a sharp and surprising country singer" and an "idiosyncratic traditionalist".
"The Lucky One" is a song recorded by American country music singer Faith Hill. It was released on February 13, 2006, by Warner Bros. Nashville as the third single from her sixth studio album: Fireflies (2005). The song was written by the Warren Brothers and Jay Joyce, and produced by Hill and frequent collaborator Byron Gallimore. Lyrically, "The Lucky One" is about how even if Hill may not have luxuries or a good day, she is "the lucky one" because she has her partner by her side.
Hey Y'all is the second studio album by the American singer Elizabeth Cook, released on August 27, 2002, by the Warner Bros. record label. The album was the first time its executive producer, Richard Dodd, had worked in country music. A majority of the songs were written by Cook and the songwriter Hardie McGehee, who shared a music publisher. Prior to Hey Y'all, Cook had independently released her debut studio album, The Blue Album (2000), and performed over 100 times at the Grand Ole Opry. She signed a deal with Atlantic Records but was later transferred to Warner Bros. after AOL-Time Warner closed Atlantic's Nashville office. Hey Y'all was Cook's debut on a major record label.
Dancin' on the Boulevard is the seventeenth studio album by American country music band Alabama, released in 1997 by RCA Records. It includes the singles "Dancin, Shaggin' on the Boulevard", "Sad Lookin' Moon," "She's Got That Look in Her Eyes" and "Of Course I'm Alright". Also included on the album are cover versions of The Temptations' "My Girl" and Bruce Channel's "Hey! Baby". The album peaked at No. 5 on Billboard Country Albums Chart and No. 55 on Billboard 200.
Rodney Crowell is the third studio album by American country music artist Rodney Crowell. It was released in 1981 by Warner Bros. Records and was his last album on that label before switching to Columbia. It was the first album Crowell produced by himself. It reached #47 on the Top Country Albums chart and #105 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The songs, "Stars on the Water" and "Victim or a Fool" were released as singles. "Stars on the Water" reached #30 on the Hot Country Songs chart, his highest-charting song up to that point. It peaked at #21 on the Canadian country charts. "Victim or a Fool" reached #34 in the U.S. The album was rereleased on compact disc in 2005 paired with his previous album But What Will the Neighbors Think.
Kevin Paul Kadish is an American songwriter and record producer. He co-wrote, produced, and mixed the 2014 Diamond certified single "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2018, the song was named the 67th Biggest Hot100 Hit of All-Time, by Billboard, seated between The J. Geils Band's "Centerfold" (66) and John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" (68). The song received two nominations at the 57th Grammy Awards: Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Wendy Waldman is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer.
Fayssoux Starling McLean is an American country singer. Emmylou Harris says "I've always loved Fayssoux's voice. She's one of my favorite singers." Rodney Crowell says "Charm, elegance, whippoorwills and Magnolia dewdrops: these are the things that come to mind when I hear Fayssoux sing."
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
