All Hat by Joshua Hedley
“This album is my pièce de resistance,” says Joshua Hedley of All Hat, his lively new collection of Western Swing tunes. “It’s all been building up to this moment. I feel like I’m making music I love more than any other style.” Produced by Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel—Hedley’s hero since childhood—the album brims with excitement, wit, and verve, as Hedley expertly navigates the tricky dance rhythms of this jazzy style of twang. It’s a sharp left turn in a career defined by sharp left turns, following close on the heels of his 2018 debut Mr. Jukebox, which explored ‘60s countrypolitan and established him as one of the finest old-school country crooners in all of Nashville. Released in 2022, Neon Blue jumped ahead a few decades as Hedley turned his attention to that much-maligned period in country music: the early ‘90s, when a new wave of singing cowboy took their twang into rock arenas.
All Hat doesn’t try to update the style, because Hedley understands that it doesn’t need any kind of modernizing. It can sound as immediate and urgent and just plain fun now as it ever did. And he hopes folks will get up and dance. “At its core Western Swing is just dance music. Bob Wills didn’t play theatres; he played dance halls. The music is for dancing, and that’s what I wanted to come through on these songs. I just want to show people how big a genre country music is and how deep it goes. There’s such a diversity of sounds in country music. It’s not just one little box that everything fits into.”
Tracklist
| 1. | All Hat (No Cattle) | 2:35 |
| 2. | Boogie Woogie Tennessee | 3:13 |
| 3. | Fresh Hot Biscuits | 2:54 |
| 4. | Stuck in Texas (feat. Ray Benson) | 2:41 |
| 5. | Hedliner Polka | 3:51 |
| 6. | Come Take A Ride With Me | 2:52 |
| 7. | Clueless | 3:36 |
| 8. | Mean Mama Blues | 5:00 |
| 9. | Crawlin’ Home To You | 2:34 |
| 10. | The Waltz I Promised To You | 2:54 |
| 11. | Over The Line | 3:09 |
Credits
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Lead Vocals - Joshua Hedley
Drums - David Sanger
Bass - Lindsay Greene
Piano - Floyd Domino
Electric Guitar - Dave Biller
Acoustic Guitar - Ray Benson
Console Steel Guitar - Flavio Pasquetto
Fiddle - Jason Roberts, Joshua Hedley
Additional Steel Guitars on “Boogie Woogie Tennessee” - Jason Roberts, Dave Biller
Electric Mandolin - Jason Roberts
Tenor Banjo - Jason Roberts
Clarinet - Rory Hoffman, Lyon Graulty
Saxophone - Lyon Graulty
Accordion - Rory Hoffman
Whistler - Rory Hoffman
Harmonies - Jason Roberts, Ray Benson, Sam Seifert
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All songs by Joshua Hedley
Ribbon Music (BMI)
Except “Boogie Woogie Tennessee” by Ernie Newton
Songs of Universal, Inc. OBO Shelby Singleton Music Inc
And “Crawlin’ Home To You” by Joshua Hedley and Brennen Leigh
Ribbon Music / Elmyra Music (BMI)
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Produced by Ray Benson and Joshua Hedley
Production Assistant: Sam Seifert
Recorded at The Bismeaux Barn in Austin,TX
Engineered and Mixed by Steve Mazur
Additional Recording at The Duck and Battle Tapes Recording in Nashville,TN
Assistant Engineer: Andrew Dalton
Additional Engineering by Jeremy Ferguson and Jordan Lehning
Mastered by John Baldwin at Infrasonic Sound in Nashville, TN
Management: Lightnin’ Management
Photography: Joshua Black Wilkins
Graphic Design: Taylor Rushing
Layout: Matt Etgen
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Thank you: Sam, Ellie, and Jacob at Lightnin’ Management. George Fontaine, Jr. and everyone at New West Records. Chris Rhoades at Atomic Music Group. Morgan Lebus at Ribbon Music. Jeff Colvin. Jesse Lee and Emily Ann Jones and the whole Robert’s Western World Family. Amy Dee and Dee’s Lounge. Zephaniah OHora and Skinny Dennis. Christian and Johnny at Left Field NYC. Cameron Morris at Standard Hat Works. Russ, Caroline, and Big Daddy! Eddie Lange, Kevin Key, Bill Cook, Walter Hartman, Leo Grassl, Paul Sgroi, Elijah Ocean, Kevin Finn, and everyone who’s ever been a Hedliner. Mom, Dad, and all my family and friends. Jesse and Brittany at Danger Zone Video. Heeter, Kelly, Mose, and the entire KOBK fam. KOBK 4 Life. All my fans, and every last one of my haters.
This album is dedicated to Ray Benson, Asleep At The Wheel, Buddy Spicher, and the memory of Bob Wills. I wouldn’t be doing this without a lifetime of their inspiration.
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License
All rights reserved.
An accomplished fiddle player, Hedley got his first fiddle at age 8, and by 12, he was playing with the pickers at the local VFW. At 19, he moved from his native Florida to Nashville, becoming an in-demand sideman at Robert’s Western World and other bars, and ultimately, a well-respected frontman. Armed with an easy croon and prodigious fiddle playing, he became known as the Mayor of Lower Broad.