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�..some people take voice lessons to learn how to sing, but I just sat and listened to country records, like George Jones, Dolly Parton and stuff like that. What�s so familiar to me can be so foreign to other people, and I don�t realize that sometimes. But that�s how I learned how to sing.�
Somewhere between the blush of a new love and the bruises of a broken heart lies real life and real country music. Lee Ann Womack is a lifelong student of this reality, majoring in Jones and Wynette and graduating with honors, with the tender, yet tough spirit of teachers including Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.
There�s More Where That Came From � the follow-up to her 2004 Greatest Hits collection -- is for everyone who�s ever loved, lost, and learned hard-earned lessons and lived to tell about it, including the singer herself.
�These are songs that aren�t afraid to tell the truth,� says Womack. �It is definitely honest music as far as the lyrics go. They�re a slice of life � the good, bad and the ugly.�
It�s not an accident that the album�s first single, �I May Hate Myself In The Morning,� sounds simultaneously like a classic country cheatin� song and a contemporary breath of fresh air. �This is the kind of stuff I grew up listening to,� says the daughter of an east Texas country deejay, who practically wore out her father�s vinyl records, soaking up every vocal lick and turn of a phrase like a sponge. �How true is this song?� exclaims Womack. �Even if you haven�t been in that situation, we all know somebody who has. It�s just honest.�
�You know, the sad thing is, I always felt like I was born too late,� Womack admits. �Even when I was younger, I had an old soul. I chose these kinds of songs early on in my career, but if anything, I�m more able to relate to these kind of lyrics more now than before,� says the woman whose 2000 single, �I Hope You Dance,� made her worldly known.
�You can�t be married twice, have two kids and go through all I�ve gone through in the last few years without learning a few things, you know? I think I even sound a little wiser sometimes.�
And that she certainly does on �Twenty Years And Two Husbands Ago,� a song Womack wrote with veteran country writers Dean Dillon and Dale Dodson. The song�s opening line � Looking in the bathroom mirror, putting my makeup on/Maybelline can�t hide the lines of time that�s gone � is the kind of humble honesty that any woman can relate to. �I feel like that was kind of my �Tammy� song,� says Womack. �I wanted a song or two that was classic and classy female country. Tammy and Dolly would sing in those sequined dresses, almost an evening gown kind of thing. And they�d sing songs of heartbreak. You don�t see females doing that anymore, but I knew I�d have fun doing it, and that was what I wanted to do with this record � just have fun and make music that I love.�
This time around Womack worked with hit-making producer Byron Gallimore, who�s best known for working with pop-flavored artists Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. �I can�t tell you how many people have stopped me and said, �You�re making a record with Byron Gallimore?�� laughs Womack. �Now people are calling me saying, �I can�t believe Byron did this record! It�s outstanding!��
�Byron�s very talented and quite versatile. And anyone who�s really sat and listened to the records he�s made knows he�s one of the few who are capable of going the direction an artist wants to go,� she adds. �We just had fun. I hope that�s what it sounds like when people hear the record. If they know anything about me and the kind of music I love, they will know I had a blast making it.�
Womack estimates she personally listened to over a thousand songs to find the baker�s dozen on There�s More Where That Came From. �Then you have to add on how many Frank [Liddell, Womack�s husband and publisher/producer] listened to,� she says, �and how many Missy [Gallimore, music publishing exec and Byron�s wife] heard, too.�
The songs that made the cut examine everything from the wistful regret of �The Last Time� and playful sexiness of �What I Miss About Heaven,� to the numbing moment of a diminishing relationship, as sung in �Painless.� And the record�s introspective crown jewel just might be the Don Schlitz/Brett James-penned stunner �Stubborn (Psalm 151).�
�It�s hard for me to pass up any song that has a lot of ache in it,� explains the CMA Female Vocalist and Grammy award winner. �I don�t know why that is � I�ve been like that since I was little. Frank has taught me a lot of things about songs. He doesn�t like things that are clich� or trite, and he�s pointed that out to me. That�s not to say that there aren�t some lines sometimes that can be clich�, but I do think about those things now more than I used to. More than anything, I look for a song that makes me feel something. If I believe it, and if it makes me feel sad, or feel like laughing, or feel like dancing, it�s my kind of song.�
One day in the studio Lee Ann and Byron found they had an extra hour left at the end of a session. �Byron said, �We have time to cut something that you love, just anything from the past.� I had been listening to The Essential Porter And Dolly, so I said, �I�d love to cut �Just Someone I Used To Know.� The guys didn�t even ask which one that was, everybody just stood up, went to their instruments and started playing. We got a key and cut it.�
Womack laughs when she recalls another day in the studio when the engineer was exposed to � and amazed by � her �country soul� way of singing. �I remember I was in the vocal booth and I could see Byron just dying laughing and talking to the engineer, Eric. I asked him what was so funny, and he got on the talkback and said, �Eric said, �I love her singing, but how does she do that? And where did she learn to do that?� Byron thought it was so funny because I was just singing country. We went into this big thing about how some people take voice lessons to learn how to sing, but I just sat and listened to real country records, like George Jones, Dolly Parton, and stuff like that. What�s so familiar to me can be so foreign to other people, and I don�t realize that sometimes. But that�s how I learned to sing.�
One listen to There�s More Where That Came From is proof of that. And like the heroes who bared their souls through her father�s turntable, Womack has perfected the art of combining vulnerability with strength. �I hope people will enjoy it,� says Womack. �You can always pull out your old Tammy records or your old George or Dolly records � and I do it consistently, but I think it�s fun to have new recordings of things like that. I hope those people who have been missing out on classic country albums, find that this one fills the void. I hope they hear the honesty in the players, production and the singing. And I hope they have as much fun listening to it as we did making it.
