NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Let's be frank: Trisha Yearwood is an awesome artist.
So it comes as no surprise that she nailed her Frank Sinatra tribute album, "Let's Be Frank" -- her first solo album since 2007 -- available now at Williams Sonoma and everywhere else on Feb. 15.
Yearwood is in New York City, where she will sign copies of the album at Williams Sonoma at Columbus Circle on Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
"It's a record I've wanted to do for a very long time," Yearwood tells 1010 WINS.
Songs on the record include "Witchcraft," "Drinking Again," "All The Way," Come Fly With Me" and "Over The Rainbow."
Below, she talks to 1010 WINS about the album, her inspiration -- and how husband Garth Brooks was her rock!
"Let's Be Frank" is your first solo since 2007. Why did you decide to make it a tribute album to Frank Sinatra?
It's a record I've wanted to do for a very long time -- probably 20 years now. I actually was on the road for the last four years with my husband [Garth Brooks>. And when that tour ended at Christmas of 2017, I told him I need to make some new music. So I actually have been working on two albums this year: One is the Sinatra record and one is a regular what I would call a regular Trish album or country record.
This country album is almost finished, and we just thought it might be nice to release the Sinatra record around Valentine's Day, and then we'll come out with a country album in the fall, so it's actually going to be just a year of music for me. It's just been a long time and with all the things that I do, and I love all the other things that I do, with the cooking show [Food Network's "Trisha's Southern Kitchen"> and all that that involves. It's all fun but I realized music was kind of getting put on the backburner and it's what I really do. I always wanted to make this record, I thought the time was right.
What is it about Frank Sinatra that appeals to you?
Well, I love all of these standards, and if you go back and listen to almost all of these songs on this record, Frank's not the only one who recorded them ... So you can find versions of these songs by everybody from Lena Horne to Ella Fitzgerald to Dean Martin to Rosemary Clooney.
You know, everybody's recorded them but a lot of people have made standard records and I wanted to focus it somewhere. I wanted it to have a focus that was like one thing instead of one hundred things. And Frank is kind of the coolest icon I can think of from that era. When you say Frank Sinatra, you automatically know what all those songs are. So it just felt like a really nice way to kind of focus those songs.
I was asked to sing for the Grammys one hundredth birthday celebration of Frank about four years ago ... I got invited to sing at it and that was when it kind of hit me that this is how I can do this record that I wanted to do forever, because I sang "I'll Be Seeing You." And Don Was was the musical director and after ... he asked me if I'd ever thought about making an album of these songs and I'm like, "yes I've thought about this a lot."
And so I guess Frank's birthday was kind of the thing that brought us together and we decided to do this together, so that was kind of where it started and then Don was busy. I was on the road we had to kind of find our timing and this past summer was the time and it worked for both of us.
You don't necessarily associate Sinatra with country music. Does that make a difference?
Not to me because in my own mind, you know nobody's one dimensional, and so I grew up on all kinds of music and my playlist and my life is every kind of music there is.
So I don't look at myself as one thing and if you go back and look at my career, I have been I guess allowed by my country fans to step out of the box. I mean I got to sing with Pavarotti in '98. So I've gotten to do some different things ... I've had a chance to kind of step out of that box a little bit and the nicest thing was walking into the studio at Capitol with with Don Was and with Al Schmidt, who is a legendary engineer who's got 20-something Grammys and has worked with everybody including Sinatra to the 55 musicians.
I didn't walk in the room and feel like, "oh there, look at me like, here's a country singer who has come to do these songs." We really approached it as a record and no one made me feel that. They made me feel like I belong there. No one no one made me feel like, "we'll see if she can do this." So they gave me the confidence to just do it.
What's your favorite Sinatra song?
It's really tough. One of the quintessentially Frank songs I would I think I'd have to pick is "One For My Baby" because the version of his that I really was inspired by is a black and white video on YouTube. That's just so forlong and sad. The thing about Frank that I think makes him so unique is that every song kind of sounds like he's just having a conversation with you. And I don't think any set song sounds more like that than "One For My Baby," so that's probably my favorite. It's so bluesy. It was so much fun to sing, it was just great.
What was different about working on a tribute album as opposed to a straightforward Tricia album?
It's completely different ... I've spent almost a year working on this record where I go in and sit with publishers and writers and I listen to songs and try to find the songs that feel like me and then I go in and record some and then I find more songs. And it's a process with the Sinatra project. The songs are there already. So all you have to do is pick a twelfth song, get your arrangements done and then the entire album is recorded and mixed in eight days. So it's kind of like you're done. So we recorded in the last week of June, the first week of July we were done.
The thing that is similar about the two is I record my country record live with the musicians in the room. The difference is there's five musicians as opposed to 55. But it it all happens live and it's all about the lyrics it's all about that story you're trying to tel,l so in that way the approach felt very similar. But the biggest difference is these songs already exist.
It's kind of like a Christmas album: You know your songs ... and you're just going to figure out which ones you're going to do. Then you just go in and you make the whole record in a very short period time. The country records take a little bit longer. No one who has ever covered a Frank Sinatra song said, "I really showed old Blue Eyes how it should be done."
Like no one thinks they're topping what he did. It's really just kind of showing respect. Paying tribute to a great artist and even when I think I'm doing something very similar to how he did it, when I go back and listen, you always put your own spin on it whether you want to or not ... I mean I think it's a challenge to sing a song that so many people have recorded and make it your own.
Are there any other artists you would like to pay tribute to?
I never I never thought I would ever do one. I mean I thought I would make a standard record. I never thought it would be centered around a certain artist. My favorite artist in the world, probably my my biggest musical influences is Linda Ronstadt .... I could I could do a tribute album to her right now because I already know all the songs ... But Linda really doesn't want anybody do a tribute record to her. You know Linda.... Linda is very humble and doesn't understand the influence she's had on people like me but I could do that in a heartbeat.
What does your husband Garth Brooks think of the album?
You know we've we've made a lot of records between the two of us and we don't go sit in the studio and yhold the hand of the other while they're recording. But in this particular instance I was very nervous because I reallydidn't want to be that the country girl walking in who couldn't handle it. I wanted to do it right. So I told him, "I really would like you to be with me on this, these sessions," and he was such a great support.
He went with me every day to the studio and sat quietly and worked on his computer and listened, and it was wonderful because I know him well enough that I can tell by looking at him when he's listening, if it's if it's moving him or if he's really in it. He was wonderful. We're proud of each other and we support each other.
But in that moment I really needed him to be there for me and he was. And when I hear him talk about it to other people, man, he's really making me sound good. So I think he liked it. It's such a good stamp of approval there.
