Lionel Ritchie
There’s a reason Nashville is called Music City as artists come to town to pursue their goal of a country career or project. Artists that are are not necessarily country like Motley Crew, The Beach Boys, The Eagles, Kelly Clarkson, Jessica Simpson, Cheryl Crowe, Elle King, Demi Lavato, Alison Krause, and others come to mind all having different levels of success.
Darius Rucker came to Nashville years ago, sans The Blowfish, and had tremendous success, as did Ray Charles. In the 80’s Lionel Richie had a country hit with Stuck On You, then came back years later to record his country album, Tuskegee, which was a big success. Tuskegee is the city where Richie was born and the university where he graduated from. The album I feel it’s mandatory owning.
Tuskegee is a collection of 12 Richie hits remade with the biggest country stars of the time and some legends in 2012. The album followed the same formula as Ray Charles’, Friendship album from the 80’s, but the difference was these were established Richie hit songs where Friendship was a mix. This album was far bigger than I think many were envisioning, as It became Richie’s first number one album since solo pop album, Dancin’ On The Ceiling in 1986, and this sold 2 million copies.
In 1984 when many country stations played Stuck On You, Richie fit right in with the sound of much of pop country that was dominating the charts. That was a long way from his days with The Commodores. Richie then teamed up with Alabama in 1986 and scored a top ten country hit, Deep River Woman.
He was – and is a prolific songwriter, a sensational vocalist, a very popular and a much sought after performer to work with in the music business overall.
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With Blake Shelton
