New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Starting today, Amazon Originals offers the soundtrack to your next road trip with "Open Road," an all-new playlist featuring 30 artists covering some of the best and most loved asphalt-burning anthems of all time. "
Open Road" is now available to stream exclusively on Amazon Music—both Amazon
Music Unlimited and Prime Music. Check out "
Open Road" now: www.amazon.com/openroad
The 30 cover songs that comprise "
Open Road" are as eclectic as the roster of artists who participated in this playlist. Americana fixtures, John Paul White, Robert Ellis, and Son Volt sit comfortably alongside raucous newcomers White Reaper and
Rainbow Kitten Surprise, indie hero Hamilton Leithauser, as well as acclaimed singer-songwriters, Shawn Colvin, and Joshua Radin, among many others.
"
Open Road" is marked by a number of truly special collaborative performances, including country iconoclasts Paul Cauthen and
Cody Jinks joining forces for a take on the
Waylon and Willie classic "Luckenbach,
Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)"; indie folk upstarts Blank Range and The Wild Reeds tackling the Kinks togetherness-touting "
Strangers"; and Carl Broemel's epic, desert highway conjuring reading of Beck's "The Golden Age," for which the
My Morning Jacket guitarist convened a veritable super group including Nashville's Caitlin Rose and members of Band of Horses, Sebadoh, and Deer Tick.
Of his jaunty, piano-driven take on the
Talking Heads classic "Road to Nowhere," Leithauser says "I played all of the instruments (except the sax) myself, and I mixed it alone. This is the process I find most fun and, oddly, spontaneous these days…'Road to Nowhere' is a deceptively simple song. There really isn't that much information in the entire track.
David Byrne is so good at riding out these simple grooves with a charismatic vocal, and great sounding, simple parts. I did what I could to emulate what sounded to me like spontaneity and simplicity."
Elsewhere, Radin called on childhood memories for his version of
Simon and Garfunkel's evocative "America," noting, "I've always loved this song…My parents would play it in the car all the time and I can remember watching the world go by from the back seat, wondering what it would be like to see the world through Paul Simon's eyes."
The motivation for Kentucky garage-punks White Reaper's full-throttle take on Deep Purple's classic rubber-scorcher, "Highway Star," wasn't as nostalgic but no less inspired. The band says of the song, "Choosing 'Highway Star' was easy because we listen to it just about every day. Richie Blackmore is one of our favorite guitarists of all time, and
Deep Purple is one of the coolest groups there ever was."
"
Open Road" also finds Colvin offering a darkly acoustic version of Rihanna's "Shut Up and Drive"; Big Search covering the
Paul McCartney gem "Let Me Roll It"; and Nightlands, the solo project of The War on Drugs' Dave Hartley, taking on Albert Hammond's loping lament "99 Miles From LA."
In all, "
Open Road" offers listeners the perfect year-round road trip soundtrack, whether there is rain, snow, or sunshine beneath the tires.
Open Road Track List:
· "Radar Love," Arrows to Fire
· "Highwayman," Ashley Campbell
· "Let Me Roll It," Big Search
· "Bring it on Home to Me," Brent Cowles
· "The Golden Age," Carl Broemel (of My Morning Jacket)
· "Have Love, Will Travel," C.S. Armstrong
· "Road to Nowhere," Hamilton Leithauser
· "Road Trippin'," Handsome Ghost
· "Home By Now," Hippo Campus
· "Cars and Girls," Hoops
· "Drive," Jacob Collier
· "I've Been Everywhere," Jade Bird
· "Hold On, We're Going Home,"
James Hersey
· "Magnolia,"
Jesse Hale Moore
· "I Drove All Night," John Paul White
· "America," Joshua Radin
· "Low Rider," Kinky
· "2-4-6-8 Motorway," Lee Bains
· "Strong Enough," Milo Greene
· "Born to be Wild," Naked Giants
· "99 Miles From L.A.," Nightlands (Dave Hartley of The War On Drugs)
· "Luckenbach,
Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)," Paul Cauthen and
Cody Jinks (featuring Nik Lee)
· "On the Road Again," Pickwick
· "The Boys are Back in Town,"
Rainbow Kitten Surprise
· "Coyote," Robert Ellis
· "Cruisin'," Ruthie Foster
· "Shut up and Drive," Shawn Colvin
· "No Expectations," Son Volt
· "Strangers," The Wild Reeds & Blank Range
· "Highway Star," White Reaper
Customers who sign up for Amazon
Music Unlimited can begin their free 30-day trial today. To find out how to listen, visit www.amazon.com/howtolisten. With Amazon
Music Unlimited on Alexa-enabled devices, there is no searching or browsing required, just ask "Alexa, play the 'Open Road' playlist."
