Hedlund kicks off the album with a strong cover of Merle Haggard’s Silver Wings. The revelation of the Country Strong soundtrack and film as a singer, Garrett’s vocals has a gruff rasp to it that finds the popular actor right in line with music released by Ryan Bingham, Jamey Johnson and this soundtrack’s guest artist, Hayes Carll. It’s a voice more suited to the twangy, quiet moments of music like “Silver Wings.” “Hard Out Here” has a sound that recalls Robert Earl Keen but is a song from the Hayes Carll songbook, the same which can be said about “Turn Loose The Horses,” a song that wouldn’t have felt out of place on a Buddy Holly album or Gary Allen’s Smoke Rings In The Dark album. The original soundtrack featured “Give In To Me” as a song sung by Faith Hill. On Country Strong: More Music from the Motion Picture, it’s an mainstream radio-ready duet between Hedlund and Leighton Meester. Even if his husky vocal and her wispy, airy voice don’t seem like a natural fit at first, the two actors somehow blend together well on the tune. “Hide Me Babe” finds Hedlund sounding particularly like he could’ve been in “Crazy Heart” as the long-lost son of Bad Blake. The final Hedlund song on this collection is his version of the song sung by Trace Adkins on the first soundtrack. “Timing Is Everything” is my favorite song from the actor of the six songs here and it’s a song that could really be a country radio single sometime down the road (for someone else). What these songs and the tracks from the original soundtrack tell me is that Hedlund has a country music singing career awaiting him should he choose to go down that path.
For her part, Leighton Meester is the ‘singer’ of the actors in Country Strong with a pop/rock deal with Universal Republic. She sings “A Little Bit Stronger” in the film and her version of the track is featured on Country Strong: More Music from the Motion Picture. While she aquits herself nicely on the song, her Colbie Calliat-like voice isn’t nearly as strong and rich as Sara Evans so it’s hard to keep Sara’s hit version out of my head. The Jessica Andrews, Marcel and James Slater co-write “Summer Girl” was one of Andrews’ last singles for DreamWorks Nashville and it’s interesting to see that song get revived here as what it is, a spirited and jovial slice of summer time country pop. Fans of Taylor Swift will really like to hear the song. Gwyneth Paltrow’s contributions to this soundtrack include “A Fighter,” an anthem of a song which once again shows off Paltrow’s solid singing skills and the fun “Travis” which features bits of dialogue from the film along with a spirited instrumental. Jypsi has the gloriously traditional cover of “Keep Me Hangin’ On,” a song which recalls Patsy Cline as if she were put through a shuffling, Texas production blender. The song is a classic torch ballad written in the 1960s by Ira Allen and Buddy Mize and recoded by Waylon Jennings, Cher and Linda Thompson and many others. Atlantic Records Nashville’s Jesse Lee has a song called “Kissing In Cars” and it has the sound of a spring/early summer radio single so perhaps it will find itself on the radio. The last song on this soundtrack is by a Nashville singer/songwriter named Nikki Williams. Written by Nikki with Nathan Chapman and Liz Roze, the song is a powerful song about redemption and new beginnings.
While I really did like the original soundtrack (click here to read that review), I think I may like this 14 song collection more, mainly because of the Jesse Lee, Nikki Williams and Garret Hedlund songs. Fans of the film should do themselves a favor and pick-up this album but the songs here are good without ever having heard them in the film, something that cannot be said about all film soundtracks.
You can purchase your own copy of this soundtrack at iTunes.
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