We’re Gonna Party, Karamu, Fiesta, Forever

It is a shame that time has almost completely forgotten Lionel Richie. He was on the eighties music Mt. Rushmore with Michael Jackson, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen but is now put into categories with other cheesy eighties acts like Culture Club. Like most eighties acts, the nineties were not kind to Richie, it probably did not help he went ten years in-between releasing a new album after the smash hit Dancing on the Ceiling. Even worse, last decade he became known primarily as Nicole Richie’s dad even though he released an otherwise ignored solid Coming Home album.

Know like many pop acts of the past decade that saw their record sales go south, Lionel is going country. But unlike someone like Jessica Simpson, Richie has a history in country, writing Kenny Rogers’s number one country hit Lady. Also Lionel is taking baby steps into the genre rerecording thirteen songs from his catalogue for Tuskegee with a who’s who of country stars from Blake Shelton (Lionel has been mentoring Blake’s rivals currently on The Voice, so hopefully a performance will be soon coming on the show), Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles (who will be competing against Richie on the upcoming vocal competition Duets), recent country convert Darius Rucker, and of course Kenny Roger who shares his former song Lady with the songwriter.

Songs range from his Commodores days to the hit making eighties that everyone know and for those that have never heard Just for You, it comes from Lionel’s little heard 2004 album of the same name (sorry Billy Currington, you drew the short straw on that one). Not surprisingly the songs can be pretty much hit or miss, Shelton, with all the time hanging around Cee Lo Green, adapts himself well to You Are. But on Say You, Say Me, now with slide guitar, Jason Aldean and his very thick country accent really drags down the song which is probably why his voice does not pop up until the second verse. Hello gets creepier thanks to Nettles but she also overpowers the song more than what it needs.

Sail On which was the most country ready song in Richie repertoire works nicely with the added Tim McGraw vocals. And the harmonies of Little Big Town start Deep River Woman off nicely in one of the few songs where Lionel’s voice is not the first week here. The old guard of Richie and Willie Nelson suits Easy well and may even leave you disappointed that Willie has not tacked the classic sooner. Tuskegee ends with All Night Long with Jimmy Buffett and Corel Reefer Band bringing even more party to the song, along with some steel drums, with the song being as awesome as you would have expected when you saw it on the track listing. But most of Tuskegee, you are left wishing that Lionel Richie would have just recorded countrified versions of his songs by himself.

Song to Download – All Night Long

Tuskegee gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.