New York, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Blue Note Records) - Soul and R&B icon
Al Green earned four nominations for his chart-topping and critically-praised Blue Note album 'Lay It Down' including Best R&B Album, Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals for 'Stay With Me (By The Sea)' featuring John Legend, and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for 'You've Got The Love I Need' featuring Anthony Hamilton.
'Lay It Down' was also nominated for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for the engineering work of Jimmy Douglass, Russell 'The Dragon' Elevado and Jon Smeltz. Green was honored with the prestigious Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. Throughout his career, he has received 9 Grammy Awards in various Gospel and Pop categories, but has never won in the R&B category.
The title 'Lay It Down' truly tells it like it is. Conceived as a collaboration between the soul legend and a handful of gifted young admirers from the worlds of contemporary R&B and hip hop, the album is drawn from a series of inspired sessions that yielded the most high-spirited, funky and often lushly romantic songs of Green's latter-day career.
The album is a refreshingly old school jam, with everyone laying down the music together, face to face, heart to heart, soul to soul. Featuring singer-songwriters Legend, Hamilton and Bailey Rae, and co-produced with Green by two of hip-hop's most innovative players, drummer Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson from the Roots and keyboardist James Poyser, with Brooklyn's celebrated Dap-Kings Horns, guitarist Chalmers 'Spanky' Alford and bassist Adam Blackstone, among others, it's a modern soul-music dream team, fronted by the most expressive voice in the business.
'The soul legend teams up with The Roots for his best disc in decades.' - Rolling Stone
'On Lay It Down, [Al Green] captures the essence, the magic, the quality of the classic hit songs he createdthat will make his legion of fans around the world and of every generation happy'. - Ebony Magazine
'Watching Al Green sing live should be on any list of 'Things to Do Before You Die.'' - The Los Angeles Times
