Recorded at Houston’s historic SugarHill Recording Studios and produced by Lee Ann Womack’s husband and fellow Texan, Frank Liddell, THE LONELY, THE LONESOME AND THE GONE marks the culmination of a journey that began with Womack’s 2005 CMA AOTY ‘There’s More Where That Come From,’ moving her toward music that celebrates her roots and adds to the canon. It also underscores Womack’s songwriting voice.
Womack and Liddell took a band to SugarHill, one of the country’s oldest continually operating studio spaces. The studio gave birth to George Jones’ earliest hits, as well as recordings from Lightnin’ Hopkins, the Sir Douglas Quintet and Willie Nelson. Womack and Liddell found a perfect group of musicians, players who became a one-headed band. Bassist Glenn Worf (Alan Jackson, Bob Seger, Tammy Wynette), drummer Jerry Roe, guitarists Ethan Ballinger, Adam Wright (Alan Jackson, Solomon Burke) and Waylon Payne (son of Sammi Smith and Willie Nelson’s longtime guitarist Jody Payne) formed the SugarHill gang. Engineer/co-producer Michael McCarthy, known for his production work with Spoon, brought vintage gear from his Austin studio; help capture a sharper sound for sessions recorded entirely to analog tape.
In Houston with all its history, its eccentricity, its diversity and its lack of pretense those like-minded lunatics found where they could flourish. “We all felt we weren’t going someplace just to make a record,” Womack says. “We were going someplace to make a great record.”