Sandy Carroll - Unnaturally Blonde (2013)

Tracklist

01. Unnaturally Blonde
02. I Got You
03. Sundown (Lay the Day to Bed)
04. Superman Blues
05. Leave It Alone
06. Good to Be Home
07. Bad B Movie
08. Can't Make the Devil Cry
09. Somebody Gotta Pay
10. Waltzing to Sunset (Pappy's Song)



The second release from West Tennessee-based singer/songwriter Sandy Carrollis the follow-up to Sandy’s 2011 debut, Just As I Am, which garnered critical acclaim and extensive radio airplay. “Romeo and Juliet,” a single from that first album, also stayed on the New Country Indie Chart for three months, topping off at number 6.

Unnaturally Blonde features 10 original songs with some of Sandy’s offbeat perceptions and heartfelt universal life experiences. It was produced, mixed and engineered by multi-Grammy winner Jim Gaines. The core band on the sessions was Sandy Carroll – piano, lead vocals; David Smith – bass; Steve Potts – drums; and Will McFarlane -- guitar. Special guests included Royal Southern Brotherhood drummer Yonrico Scott, keyboardist Rick Steff, guitarist Harold Smith & backing singer Daunielle “Pie” Hill.

Since the release of her last CD, Sandy’s also been very busy as a songwriter, having had her compositions recorded by a number of other artists. Sandy co-wrote cuts on Johnny Rawls’ Soul Survivor, Barbara Carr’s Keep the Fire Burning, James Armstrong’s Blues at the Border and the upcoming debut CD from Daunielle “Pie” Hill. More recently, she was one of the first inductees into her hometown’s Music Hall of Fame (Arts in McNairy County), along with legendary Memphis deejay Dewey Phillips, earlier this year. Some of the other musicians who’ve recorded her songs over the years include Albert King and Luther Allison.

“Unnaturally Blonde was written for the strong, sassy, funny, undefeated, glorious men and women in my world, especially my much-maligned blonde friends who are really very, very
smart,” declares Carroll about the new album’s songs. “It was written for the fine men in my world, too ... the ‘Superman’ ones and the ‘Bad B Movie’ ones... and the very, very special ones told in ‘Pappy's Song.’ Some are pure fun, some make a somewhat statement and all of them are organic and recorded with an Americana sound true to their roots, mud and all.”

And Sandy Carroll cuts right to the chase on some specific targets with these tunes, as she described the essence of each.

“ ‘Unnaturally Blonde, drawn like a moth to the shine of her yellow light…’ is a fun-loving look at how our society judges by the color of hair … unnatural plays on the actual hair color, but also on the assumption that blondes are not ‘as smart as’ … No more dumb blonde jokes!”

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