Lisa Marie Presley ≡ Storm & Grace (Deluxe Edition) (2012)

Lisa Marie Presley - Storm & Grace (Deluxe Edition) (2012)

Lisa Marie Presley — Storm & Grace (Deluxe Edition)
Nationality: American
Born: February 1, 1968
Location: Memphis, Tennessee
Album release: May 15th, 2012
Record Label: Universal Republic
Runtime:    58:31
Tracklist:
01. Over Me    3:55
02. You Ain`t Seen Nothin` Yet   3:46
03. Weary   2:50
04. Close To The Edge   5:16
05. So Long   3:40
06. Un-Break   4:06
07. Soften The Blows   4:30
08. Storm Of Nails   4:27
09. How Do You Fly This Plane?   4:03
10. Forgiving   3:38
11. Storm & Grace   4:18
12. Heartless   3:50
13. Sticks And Stones   4:10
14. I Was Wrong   2:50
15. Just A Dream   3:05       // Website: www.lisamariepresley.com
Editorial Reviews:
The Memphis-born Presley reclaims those roots on her new album Storm and Grace — an Americana-inspired showcase for her songwriting talent and smoldering alto voice. Produced with elegant restraint by 12-time Grammy Award-winner T Bone Burnett, Storm and Grace is a marked departure from Presley’s previous albums, 2003's gold-certified To Whom It May Concern and 2005's Now What, which both debuted in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, “I love the songs, but I think I was hiding behind a lot of sonic layers because it was scary to go out there,” Presley says. “It’s easier to bury yourself in the noise so you don't stand out. This album is a lot more stripped-down and naked, both musically and lyrically.” This Deluxe Version of “Storm & Grace” contains 4 bonus tracks.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com
Production credits:
Mike Compton - Mandolin
Steve Booker - Composer
T-Bone Burnett - Guitar, Producer
Dennis Crouch - Bass
Greg Leisz - Pedal Steel
Patrick Warren - Keyboards
Michael Lockwood - Guitar
Jay Bellerose - Drums
Larry Jenkins - Management
Ivy Skoff - Production Coordination
Gavin Lurssen - Mastering
Sandy Brummels - Art Direction
Sacha Skarbek - Composer
Richard Hawley - Composer
Ed Harcourt - Composer, Vocals (Background)
Paul Ackling - Guitar Technician
Jason Wormer - Engineer, Mixing
Lisa Marie Presley - Composer
Lorna Leighton - Art Direction, Design
Jackson Smith - Guitar
James Bryan McCollum - Composer
Simon Fuller - A&R, Management
Jimmy Hogarth - Composer
Blake Mills - Guitar
Kyle Ford - Second Engineer
Vanessa Parr - Engineer, 2nd Engineer
Keefus Green - Keyboards
Luke Potashnick - Composer
Fran Healy - Composer
Frank Arigo - Product Manager
Zachary Dawes - Bass
Greg Lotus - Photography
Dougie Bruce - A&R
Review by Mark Deming
¶   The trouble with being the only child of the most iconic musician of the 20th century is people expect you to go into the family business, even if it isn't your first choice, and Lisa Marie Presley waited until she was 35 years old before she released her debut album, 2003's To Whom It May Concern, suggesting she might not have been born with a burning need to express herself as a musician. Presley's lyrics had plenty to say about her inarguably remarkable life experiences, but the title of her second album, 2005's Now What, reflected a certain ambivalence about her career, as if being just another pop star no longer held much interest. Seven years after Now What, Presley has shifted gears with her third album, Storm & Grace; while her earlier work was polished, professional pop music with lots of sparkle but not so much personality, for this album Presley enlisted producer T-Bone Burnett, who helps conjure up a deeper, more organic sound that leans to swampy blues and country accents without moving too far from boilerplate roots music. Presley also embraced a more "American" sound while writing with a handful of British songwriters, including Richard Hawley and Ed Harcourt, and while that irony won't be lost on anyone, her collaborators have done their work well, creating a richer and more mature musical palette for the singer. Presley's first two albums sounded like the work of someone who thought making a record might be a good idea, but Storm & Grace feels like music she genuinely wanted to make, and if Presley's deep, breathy vocal style still doesn't boast much range, she sounds at once relaxed and fully engaged here, comfortable with her instrument in a way she wasn't before. (And one can read what they want into the fact Presley's vague vocal resemblance to Burnett's former wife Sam Phillips is noticeably clearer on these sessions.) Presley may not have much to say beyond celebrating those who bring love into her life and damning those who make trouble for her, but the songs feel personal and heartfelt, and without asking us to feel sorry for someone with a remarkable birthright and a $100 million fortune, she does opens up a bit of her world to her listeners with admirable candor. On her first two albums, Lisa Marie Presley wanted to be a pop star with a difference; on Storm & Grace, she clearly would rather be an artist, and if she's still working her musical shortcomings out of her system, this is a stronger, more mature, and more effective work than one might have expected. Nearly ten years into a recording career she may or may not have wanted, Presley is finally developing a musical personality that truly suits her. [Storm & Grace is also available in a Deluxe Edition that includes an additional four songs on a par with those in the main track listing, and "Sticks and Stones" is a particularly pointed attack on her detractors.]

Biography:
¶   Lisa Marie Presley / Storm & Grace
¶   With all the hoopla that has surrounded her, it’s easy to forget that Lisa Marie Presley is at heart a simple Southern girl whose earliest musical memories are of obsessively listening to 45’s in her bedroom at Graceland and of her dad catching her singing into a hairbrush in front of a mirror at the age of three.
¶   The Memphis-born Presley reclaims those roots on her new album Storm and Grace — an Americana-inspired showcase for her songwriting talent and smoldering alto voice. Produced with elegant restraint by 12-time Grammy Award-winner T Bone Burnett, Storm and Grace is a marked departure from Presley’s previous albums, 2003's gold-certified To Whom It May Concern and 2005's Now What, which both debuted in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, “I love the songs, but I think I was hiding behind a lot of sonic layers because it was scary to go out there,” Presley says. ¶   “It’s easier to bury yourself in the noise so you don't stand out. This album is a lot more stripped-down and naked, both musically and lyrically.”
¶   The album’s rootsy golden tone is set immediately with the opening track “Over Me,” with its echoey guitar line, burping bassline, shuffling backbeat, and lyrics that lament a lover who’s replaced her, while the ominous, swampy lead single "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" and the pedal-steel and mandolin-driven title track sound like they could have been recorded during an impromptu back-porch jam session.
¶   Presley’s previous albums did, however, enable her to work through the rebelliousness she was feeling when she launched her career as a singer-songwriter in 2003. “I was angry at all that I was potentially up against — all the expectations — and I was puffing myself up as a protective mechanism,” she says. “At the same time, I was being pushed by the team around me to be a pop star, and to do all these crazy things that I really didn’t want to do.”
¶   After completing a well-received tour to support Now What, Presley retreated from the music industry, relocating to the English countryside with her husband and young twin daughters and shedding the people and things she felt had demoralized her. “I got rid of a lot of the toxicity around me, but I also lost a lot of my drive and love for songwriting,” she says. “The creativity was kind of wrung out of me.”
¶   Not wanting to abandon her craft, and after gentle prodding from her new manager Simon Fuller, Presley agreed, in the summer of 2009, to sit down with some new songwriting collaborators, who included three Brits: Sacha Skarbek (who’s written with Adele and Jason Mraz among others), and singer-songwriters Ed Harcourt and Richard Hawley, who is also a member of Pulp. “There was no agenda,” she says. ¶   “I wasn't trying to write a hit or to please any particular audience. I was just enjoying the process of being creative with great people who really love music.” The first song to emerge was a gentle ballad called “Weary,” which Presley wrote with Hawley. “That one turned the tide and sparked the whole sound of the record,” she says. Over an eight-month period, Presley wrote 28 songs including “Storm and Grace” and “How Do You Fly This Plane?” with Hawley; “Un-Break” and “Close To The Edge” with Skarbek; and “Soften The Blows” and “Over Me” with Harcourt.
¶   Taken as a whole, Storm and Grace is a unflinchingly honest piece of work from this songwriter, who, though known for her tough frankness, has managed to create a tender, consoling thread that runs throughout the album. "Weary" may concern a relationship that didn't work out, but it is suffused with a genuine warmth, as Presley sings: "I will always love you/you can move on, dear."
¶   For Presley, the album’s conciliatory theme grew out of wanting to have peace in her life after a period of turmoil and letting go of what no longer suited her. “There were a few years there where everything around me had fallen apart,” she says. “All the things that had become my foundation were gone and I had to shed a lot of skin. I found myself really vulnerable afterward and that's what birthed the album’s vibe. It’s me without any attitude or anger at a time of rediscovery.”
¶   Impressed with Presley’s songs, Fuller sent the demos to producer and musician T Bone Burnett, who is known for his work with such artists as Allison Krauss and Robert Plant, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Elton John and Leon Russell, and scores of others. “I got a call that T Bone really liked them and wanted to meet with me,” Presley says. “When I saw him, he said, ‘I don’t want to do a big song and dance. I really like the record and I’d love to produce it.’”
¶   “When Lisa Marie’s songs arrived, I was curious,” Burnett says. “I wondered what the daughter of an American revolutionary music artist had to say. What I heard was honest, raw, unaffected, and soulful. I thought her father would be proud of her. The more I listened to the songs, the deeper an artist I found her to be. Listening beyond the media static, Lisa Marie Presley is a Southern American folk music artist of great value.”
¶   “It makes me feel really good to hear him say that because I know he means it,” Presley says. “His enthusiasm and support gave me a lot of confidence. His even doing this project and bringing in his musicians [who include drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Dennis Crouch, guitarists Jackson Smith and Michael Lockwood, and keyboardists Keefus Green and Patrick Warren] injected me with new life. They were all outstanding.”
¶   Presley is also glad to have a new label home, Universal Republic, which will release Storm and Grace on May 15th. “I have a new team around me, and none of the things that brought me down before,” she says, adding that although she is nervous about how Storm and Grace will be received, the joy of knowing that she’s connecting with an audience makes it all worth it.
¶   “I’m compelled to do this because I’m a music lover and I feel that music is so important in the world. That’s what drives me — pouring your heart and soul into something and hoping that it can change someone’s life in some way. I’m looking forward to performing live and interacting with people who are there for the music and nothing else. Getting that instant reaction is the best part.”   // Airplane "Lisa Marie"
¶   In November 1975, her father named one of his private aircraft, a converted Convair 880 jet (original passenger capacity: 100), after her. Elvis spent upwards of $1,000,000 refurbishing it to use as his main transport while on tour. The "Lisa Marie" and one of Elvis' other planes, "Hound Dog II", are currently on exhibit at the Graceland mansion museum of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee.
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¶   Lisa Marie Presley will release a new album, "Storm and Grace," on May 15. It will mark the singer's first album in five years and her Universal Republic/XIX Recordings debut. It was produced by Grammy winner T Bone Burnett and recorded at The Village studios in Los Angeles.
¶   Said to reflect her "southern roots," Elvis Presley's only daughter, managed by American Idol creator and XIX founder Simon Fuller, traveled to England for inspiration and found it in the artist-friends Richard Hawley (from Pulp), Ed Harcourt, Sacha Skarbek and Fran Healy (from Travis).
¶   "Nothing was planned or contrived in any way and out of it came a very organic record that was always inside of me and that I am incredibly proud of," Presley says in a Thursday announcement. "It was a dream come true and such an honor when T Bone liked the songs and produced and played on the record."
¶   Adds Burnett: "I was curious. I wondered what the daughter of an American revolutionary music artist had to say. What I heard was honest, raw, unaffected and soulful. I thought her father would be proud of her. The more I listened to the songs, the deeper an artist I found her to be. Listening beyond the media static, Lisa Marie Presley is a Southern American folk music artist of great value,"
To promote the album, Presley will also be performing on en episode of American Idol, tentatively scheduled for May. Presley has released two previous albums, 2003's "To Whom It May Concern," which was certified gold, and 2005's "Now What," both of which debuted in the Top 10 of The Billboard 200.
¶   Fortaken: http://www.billboard.com   // See also: List of albums produced by T-Bone Burnett    ¶   (T-Bone Burnett is an American songwriter, musician and producer. He was born Joseph Henry Burnett in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in Fort Worth, Texas. He emerged from a self-imposed 14-year hiatus as a recording artist in 2006 to release two collections of music: The True False Identity, his first album of new original songs since 1992, and Twenty Twenty - The Essential T-Bone Burnett, a 40 song retrospective spanning Burnett’s entire career of music-making.
¶   Burnett’s time away from recording and performing led him to other undertakings. He produced various artists such as Tony Bennett and k.d. lang on the A Wonderful World album and The Wallflowers on Bringing Down the Horse. Burnett won a Grammy award for the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. He worked as a songwriter, and was nominated for an Oscar for his contribution to the film Cold Mountain. He founded the record label DMZ, an imprint of Columbia, and was involved with Mark Heard and Tonio K in the short-lived What? Records. He also oversaw the music for the films Walk the Line and The Big Lebowski.)