The new release offers live, single-take recordings of songs from two albums
Chase Rice returned to his songwriter-first roots with both I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell and Go Down Singin’. Now, he doubles down on that notion with his surprise Fireside Sessions album featuring all 25 songs from both records as live, single-take versions with cowriters including Lori McKenna, Jackson Dean, Hunter Phelps, Randy Montana, and more as featured artists.
“The cool part about tonight, and why we put this together, is because the I Hate Cowboys record and the Go Down Singin’ record were the start of a whole new part of my life and my career. It was no longer chasing whatever was popular; it was finally just writing songs that I cared about, writing them on guitar – which is how I started writing songs – and then Oscar Charles producing the last two albums together. We wanted to finalize all that by coming together tonight,” Rice shared while unveiling the surprise project during his debut at the iconic Bluebird Café in Nashville with a special writers’ round featuring Charles plus fellow collaborators Blake Pendergrass, John Byron and Jonathan Sherwood. “We’re going to drop the Fireside Sessions album tonight which is featuring all these songwriters, and songwriters on both albums, and it’s going to be all of us just playing guitar like you’re seeing tonight, and that’s going to be the finalization of this chapter.”
Bringing together the cover images from each of the preceding albums, the Fireside Sessions album art unites Rice and his late father as grown men for the first time, bringing to life the lyric from album closer “You In ‘85” which Rice describes as the overarching theme of this multi-album musical chapter: “So if I could have one thing it’d be us man to man / A couple Coors Banquets in hand”
In paying homage to his dad, Rice’s vulnerable approach directly impacted his musical shift towards stripped-back authenticity as he grappled lyrically with that loss and how it has impacted him as both a man and an artist. Recorded around the fireplace at his farm outside Nashville in the style of Music City’s famous writers’ rounds, Fireside Sessions is the culmination of that multi-album tribute as he looks ahead to new music covering other topics already in the works.
- Walk That Easy featuring William Reames, Barton Davies, Jonathan Sherwood, Oscar Charles
- All Dogs Go To Hell featuring John Byron
- Way Down Yonder featuringHunter Phelps, John Byron, Blake Pendergrass
- Key West & Colorado featuring Blake Pendergrass, John Byron, Hunter Phelps
- Bench Seat
- Life Part of Livin’
- Bad Day To Be A Cold Beer featuring Blake Pendergrass, John Byron
- Oklahoma featuring William Reames, Barton Davies, Jonathan Sherwood, Oscar Charles
- I Walk Alone featuring Jaxson Free
- Sorry Momma featuring Hunter Phelps
- If I Were Rock & Roll
- Goodnight Nancy featuring Oscar Charles, Barton Davies, William Reames, Jonathan Sherwood
- I Hate Cowboys
- For A Day featuring John Byron, Blake Pendergrass, Hunter Phelps
- Go Down Singin’ featuring Blake Pendergrass
- Fireside featuring Jonathan Sherwood, Jackson Dean, Oscar Charles
- That Word Don’t Work No More featuring Lori McKenna
- Hey God It’s Me Again featuring Corey Crowder, Randy Montana
- Oh Tennessee featuring Oscar Charles, Lori McKenna
- Haw River featuring Blake Pendergrass
- Arkansas featuring Rob Baird
- Numbers featuring Ryan Tyndell, Jeff Hyde
- If Drinkin’ Helped featuring Oscar Charles, Lori McKenna
- Little Red Race Car featuring Jackson Nance, Heath Warren
- You In ‘85
