Rita Wilson is known as an actress and a producer, but she wants it to be known that she is also a musician, and has an album coming out that pays tribute to her lifelong passion for the musical arts. She gives renditions of music she loved growing up, first on AM radio and then on FM – and that is the basis for the album’s name: “AM/FM.”
The album, coming from Decca Records, is scheduled to be released 5/8/12.
Decca noted, “A lifelong passion for music brought her many talents full circle to deliver an album release that is an extremely personal endeavor. She chose songs for the album that resonated emotionally with her, that told a story and evoked the era of the 60s and 70s which sparked her singing desires.”
Wilson said, “The song sequence on the album tells a story of a very innocent, idealized version of love in the ‘AM’ section, before it shifts to the ‘FM’ section and becomes more about the disillusionment that happens after you’ve had some heartbreaks.”
The AM portion, themed to evoke the “lovely innocence and hopefulness of the time,” includes versions of “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” “Never My Love,” “Cherish,” “Come See About Me,” “Angel Of The Morning,” “Walking In The Rain,” “Wichita Lineman” (written by Jimmy Webb who also plays piano on Wilson’s version), and “You Were On My Mind.”
The 70s section focuses on the folk-rock storytellers Wilson grew to love, and includes “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues,” “Love Has No Pride,” “Please Come To Boston,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “Faithless Love,” and “River.”
“As I got older, I began to understand that not everything had a happy ending,” Wilson said, “so I was drawn to songs by women who wrote about how love was not always the dream fantasy; that there was pain and disappointment involved.”
Wilson was able to enlist the talents of Chris Cornell, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Webb, Jackson Browne, Faith Hill, Vince Gill, and Patty Scialfa on various cuts.
RBR-TVBR observation: Wow – radio stations are used to providing free publicity for musicians. Wilson is now returning the favor! We hope, if the quality of this release is up to snuff, that radio stations with the appropriate formats will be able to find some room on their playlists to return the publicity favor to Wilson.
