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Lee Ann Womack On World Cafe

Lee Ann Womack
Ebru Yildiz
/
Courtesy of the artist
Lee Ann Womack

Lee Ann Womack could choose to sing anything in the world. She could sing the periodic table or the label on a can of baked beans or an essay about the various ways paint dries and it would sound thrilling.

On her latest album, Lee Ann has chosen to use her voice and songwriting chops for a specific purpose. Lee Ann told me she doesn't hear Nashville artists making real country music anymore. She wanted to fill that void with a classic country record, the kind that captures heartbreak the way Hank Williams used to do — songs for the lonely, the lonesome and the gone — which is the fitting title of her latest work.

Although you might know Lee Ann best for her 2000 pop crossover hit "I Hope You Dance," country music is what got Lee Ann excited about singing in the first place and what she set out to do as a young artist, dating all the way back to her debut 1997 single "Never Again, Again."

We'll talk about the moment Lee Ann realized the industry was pushing her in a musical direction she didn't truly want to go in and about breaking free. Lee Ann's album, The Lonely, the Lonesome & the Gone, is the second she's released since parting ways with her longtime label, MCA Nashville.

Lee Ann kicks off this session with a live performance of the first song off The Lonely, the Lonesome & the Gone . Hear the complete session in the player above.

Copyright 2020 XPN. To see more, visit XPN.

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage,as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.