New York, NY (Top40 Charts) John Corbett, Leaving Nothin' Behind is produced by Jon Randall Stewart and Gary Paczosa and is available at iTunes on January 29th.
The album arrives at retail on February 5th and a 2013 "Leaving Nothin' Behind Tour" kicks off February 24.
No one has to tell John Corbett that Hollywood stars moonlighting as musicians don't always get taken seriously. He's already faced crowds full of skeptics wearing expectant looks that silently challenge, All right, actor boy, show us what you've got.
But Corbett's never had a problem doing just that, onstage with his band or on radio airwaves. His self-titled debut album, released in 2006, climbed to No. 42 on Billboard's Country Albums chart, surprising even the guy who rose to fame as Cicely, Alaska's resident radio deejay on the Northern Exposure TV series (and made women swoon in Sex and the City and My Big Fat Greek Wedding).
With his new album, Leaving Nothin' Behind, on his own Funbone Records label, Corbett confirms what fans of John Corbett quickly recognized: He was never just moonlighting in the first place. Growing up in the shadow of Wheeling, W.Va.'s famed Capitol
Music Hall, just a few miles from where
Brad Paisley was raised, music was always Corbett's first love. He's been playing since he can remember.
I never for a second dreamed that I could make a living making music, except probably when I was a freshman in high school and would daydream about what it would be like to be in Kiss or Styx or something, he admits, laughing. But I always had a guitar with me.
His mom bought him his first one when he was 7 or 8right about when she ignited his enduring passion for Elvis. He's such a huge fan, he owns the king's birth recordhandwritten by the doctor who delivered him in Tupelo, Miss. Corbett also swears allegiance to the Rolling Stones,
Tom Petty and Aerosmith, plus
Garth Brooks (a fellow Kiss fan), Glen Campbell,
Waylon Jennings and Buck Owens (who gave Corbett the last guitar the Bakersfield legend ever bestowed, two weeks before he died).
But it's Corbett's passion for another talentDallas-born musician, songwriter and producer Jon Randall Stewartthat drives Leaving Nothin' Behind. The longtime Guy Clark collaborator wrote or co-wrote seven of the album's 10 songs, and co-produced with Gary Paczosa. He also contributes guitars and harmonies, alongside talents including his fellow singer/songwriter wife, Jessi Alexander; John Cowan, Brian Sutton, Dan Dugmore, Michael Rhodes, Steve Gorman, Audley Freed and other respected Nashville names.
For more album info and a list of Corbett's tour dates announced so far, please click "read more."
The result is an album that could easily hold its own among those from top Americana artists in Nashville, Austin or even Los Angeles, where Corbett headed after high school when his father offered to help him land a better steel mill job than he could get in West Virginia. He arrived with a suitcase, a guitar and a basketball (perhaps it's not evident on TV, but Corbett is 6-foot-5). Several years later, an injury sent him from the mill to the books; he discovered acting at a community college. (He also does voice-over work, notably for GAC and Walgreens).
Corbett's passion for
Texas music grew as well; the new disc also has a cut by Dallas-raised songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey, called Satin Sheets. Only two tracks are from non-TexansRainy Windy Sunshine, by
Howard Bellamy of the Bellamy Brothers, and Tennessee Will, by Pat McLaughlin (the World Famous Headliners) and Adam Hood (Leon Russell).
Corbett does a masterful job of owning each songeven El Paso, one of those classic murder ballads that Joe Ely or Robert Earl Keen might deliver. Over Spanish and baritone guitars, Corbett even evokes the taste of dry desert dust as the protagonist prepares to hang for the death of a cowboy he didn't kill. Maybe Corbett relates to that one because he lives on a
Santa Barbara ranch. But he confesses another Stewart song really felt personaland makes Corbett misty-eyed when he performs it. Called Name on the Stone, it reminds him of losing his father, who died in 2011, a year after suffering a stroke.
The ability to inhabit someone else's songs and make them your own is what separates wannabes from the real dealwhich, come to think of it, is the same trait actors need. It's all about interpretation, for which Corbett's fans and friends give him high marks.
An affable, fun-loving guy, Corbett has built friendships with many musicians, including
Texas legend Dale Watson and the late Rusty Weir. Honky-tonker Watson, once a member of the house band at L.A.'s old Palomino Club, says he didn't even know Corbett played music when they met there years ago.
Then one day I see him singing with my best friend,
James Intveld, on The
Tonight Show,' Watson recalls. That was before his first album came out. After it did, Corbett and Watson performed together at Austin's famed Continental Club. He opened for me, which is ridiculous, because the place was crawlin' with women, Watson says with a chuckle. But he's really good. He holds his own. Absolutely. I was impressed the first time I got to hear John do a set.
Ask Corbett what he does to dispel preconceived actor-dabbling-in-music notions, and he answers, I don't do anything. I play the show. I already win the battle when I come out onstage, if they haven't seen us before, because they have such low expectations. Laughing, he adds, We're pretty good; we put on a pretty good live show.
I want them to put on the marquee, From Sex and the City' and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.' I want as many people in those shows as I can get. I don't care how they get in there, he says, laughing again.
Tour Dates (so far):
February 24 - Sellersville Theater 1894, Sellersville, PA
February 26 - Iron Horse, Northhampton, MA
February 27 - B.B. King's, New York, NY
February 28 - Ramshead, Annapolis, MD
March 1 - Hill Country BBQ, Washington DC
March 9 - Windjammer, Isle of Palms, SC
March 11 - Visulite, Charlotte, NC
March 14 - Superfly's Lone Star
Music Emporium, San Marcos, TX (in store performance)
March 15 - Lone Star
Music Magazine SXSW Party, Austin, TX
March 17 - Hot Springs St. Patrick's Day Parade, Hot Springs, AR
April 4 - Powerhouse Pub, Folsom, CA
July 6 - Heritage Park, Junction City, KS
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