Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown Set for ‘Southern Family’ LP: Ram Report
A new album from producer Dave Cobb unites some of country and Americana’s biggest names. Southern Family will be released March 18th and feature songs from artists like Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown, Jason Isbell, Brandy Clark and Morgane Stapleton with Chris Stapleton.
Cobb asked the artists to either write new songs about growing up in the south or perform songs that were important to them.
“A friend and I were talking and he said, ‘You should make a concept record.’ I laughed him off the phone. Who’s going to put out a concept record and why would anyone do it?” Cobb tells Rolling Stone Country of Southern Family‘s genesis. “But the more I thought about it, everybody has a great story, about their parents, their grandparents or brother and sister. I wanted to have really talented artists custom write and do songs that mean a lot to them, and also just make the song that maybe they wouldn’t put on their record. The deep song, or the song that doesn’t fit in the queue or wouldn’t be a single. I wanted them to do the most honest song they could do.”
Among the tracks are Isbell’s “God Is a Working Man,” Lambert’s “Sweet By and By,” Brown’s “Grandma’s Garden” and John Paul White’s “Simple Song.” Morgane Stapleton turns in a bluesy take on “You Are My Sunshine.”
“These are songs written about growing up and songs that are cut that they’ve heard. Maybe one your mother sang to you,” Cobb says. “Something that means a lot to your family.”
Here’s the artists and track list for Southern Family
1. John Paul White, “Simple Song”
2. Jason Isbell, “God Is a Working Man”
3. Brent Cobb, “Down Home”
4. Miranda Lambert, “Sweet By and By”
5. Morgane Stapleton with Chris Stapleton, “You Are My Sunshine”
6. Zac Brown, “Grandma’s Garden”
7. Jamey Johnson, “Momma’s Table”
8. Anderson East, “Learning”
9. Holly Williams, “Settle Down”
10. Brandy Clark, “I Cried”
11. Shooter Jennings, “Can You Come Over?”
12. Rich Robinson, “The Way Home”