“Music is powerful. And the lyrics move people. And therefore if you can get folks in a setting where they are in front of you for 90 minutes, and for 90 minutes you can take their mind off everything in the world that’s going on in their life, then that’s what you got paid for.” –Marty Raybon, Frontman, Shenandoah
We’re ready for that experience Marty! And we’re ready to get out of our seats and dance. Because If Bubba can dance, we can too! And we’ll be doing it a whole lot to this new album now that Shenandoah is baaaackkkk!!!!! It took twenty years and a phone call from Rascal Flatts’ member Jay DeMarcus for the guys to channel that Muscle Shoals spirit that led them to each other for the first time back in 1984. Twenty years to make new music . . . well old music . . . in a new kind of way. A “hybrid” sort of way as founding member Mike McGuire calls it.
The new album, Reloaded, produced by DeMarcus and due out March 16, features nine of the GRAMMY Award winners’ biggest hits and three new songs. How they chose three out of the hundreds they listened to is beyond our understanding. But we promise—the chosen three have that timeless Shenandoah sound written all over them. “Noise”, their current radio single, is an uptempo piece giving credit to the “meant to be” connection between two people, despite all the other distractions around them.
“My heart doesn’t have any choice. When I hear my name on your voice, everything else, everything else is just noise”
Their projected next single, “That’s Where I Grew Up”, is a visionary standout, as powerful as “I Wanna Be Loved Like That”, (which by the way is the song the audience sings the loudest every night, the guys told The Country Note. And we still melt every time we hear it).
But according to Marty, “That’s Where I Grew Up” is “one of those kind of songs. . . what we’ve heard from a lot of people is man, this is what helps this record sound like a Shenandoah record. The lyric, ‘there’s still marks on that pantry door of that little house where mama used to measure us’. . .goodness sakes alive, my mama used to do that to us.”
Not to sound cliché, but trust us when we say you will be driving down many a dirt roads reminiscing about the simpler days while hitting repeat on this song in your beat up Chevy truck or doorless Wrangler jeep.
Then, of course, we have the hits from the peaceful “Sunday in the South” to the painful “Ghost in This House”. However, don’t be fooled into thinking this is a “Greatest Hits” studio album. Because that sounds boring and this album is anything but. After all, these songs were recorded live.
The initial screaming and clapping leading into the first cut, “Next to You, Next To Me” solidifies Marty’s belief that “if you want a good reaction, let them know you appreciate them being there.” That feeling continues throughout the entire record because Shenandoah is famous for turning their fans into friends. Perhaps it has something to do with the magical era in country music (late 80s into the 90s) that prompted the rise of tight musicianship and effortless harmonies from not only Shenandoah but other groups like Restless Heart and Alabama.
“It was a big family. Not just the artist and the fans but the artists and the artists would get close in a lot of cases. I guess because we were all basically wearing the same shoes as bands in country music—we just felt a kinship with each other,” Mike shared with us while reminiscing about the days of Fan Fair and award shows.
That kinship they have always felt with fellow musicians and fans still carries over today. Mike and Marty stick to the philosophy that it’s truly about choosing impactful songs and connecting with your audience. Important songs like “Church on Cumberland Road” and “Two Dozen Roses”, which often times have audiences echoing the words and showing off their best moves in the aisles, no matter who’s watching.
If you don’t believe us about the dancing in the aisles part, just wait until Tuesday night, March 20, because we guarantee a room full of members of the Shenandoah “Friend Club” will be doing it at City Winery in Nashville, TN during their Reloaded Release Party. If you can’t be there, be sure and follow Shenandoah on their socials (@shenandoahband) as well as The Country Note on ours (@thecountrynote). And in the meantime, pick yourself up a copy of this “got to have” album and watch our full interview with Mike and Marty here.
Marty summed it up best when he said, “We truly love what we do and so therefore, we just go out and do it.”
We couldn’t be more thrilled that you are out doing just that because after all, “a little bit of livin’ never killed no one!” (That’s track 12 by the way!) See!? We told you it was good!