Powerhouse Country and Americana artist Crystal Yates releases her third album, “The Other Side” now available on iTunes.
Crystal Yates, who grew up on a steady diet of Merle, Waylon and Dolly, was inspired by the classic country icons. She infectiously fuses soul, country, and rock into an emotional landscape on her new album, “The Other Side.” It is a compilation of songs that are true stories about overcoming struggles and offer the listener understanding and hope.
Crystal and her multi-instrumentalist husband, Will Yates, started recording the album in January 2016 in Denton, TX at Redwood Studios owned by drummer and producer Mckenzie Smith.
We’ve been friends with McKenzie Smith for quite a while now, and really loved his work with St. Vincent, Sarah Jaffe, Gungor, and lots of others. As we were finishing these songs, his name kept popping into our heads, but we weren’t sure if he would want to take on a country/americana project like what we were thinking. So one day we just asked him about it, and he was really enthusiastic about the idea. It was great because he is such a gifted drummer, but he really got into the producer mode behind each of this whole project and called in just the right players. From the first day of recording, we could tell this was going to be something magical,” Crystal recalls.
“The Other Side” Track Listing:
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Leave Me Along To Die
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Already Yours
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Made to Last
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Hell On My Soul
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The Other Side
“The Other Side” features Crystal’s powerhouse vocals into the most collaborative album she has done to date. Working with such names as, Mckenzie Smith on drums, he also was a co-producer and mixed the album, and Joey McLellan played electric guitar, both from the band Midlake.
Hank Early from Turnpike Troubadours plays steel. Kylie Rae Harris co-wrote “Hell on My Soul” and sung backing vocals. Scott Lee plays bass. Lindsey Duffin played fiddle in Made to Last. Jon Christopher Davis sang backing vocals on Leave Me Alone to Die and Made to Last. Jordan Martin was the engineer, and Kim Rosen mastered the album.
I kept trying to describe the big boomy stomp sound I wanted to hear in the song somewhere…but I didn’t know exactly how to relay that into words. McKenzie went over hit a couple of his drums, but that wasn’t quite it. Then he and Will went over to one of his drum road cases and stared at it for a bit…like they were thinking the same thing but neither of them said a word…and then emptied it out and gave it a whack…and that was exactly the sound I was hoping for,” Crystal stated during the recording session for the title track.
She was crowned the national winner in the 2014 Texaco Country Showdown, the longest-running music competition, saw her last album “I Believe” produced by Charlie Peacock, rocket up the iTunes charts debuting at #13 on its release day.
Since then, she’s had a more than full schedule…touring across the US and opening for and performing with dozens of artists such as Martina McBride, Joe Ely, John Conlee, Suzy Bogguss, Sam Baker, Deana Carter, and many more, as well as performing at renown venues such as the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, The Bluebird Cafe, and the Ryman Auditorium. Crystal Yates will embark on a national and UK tour in 2017.
For a complete list of tour dates and more up to date information on Crystal Yates, visit her website and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
