Carl Bell to Release New Album 'Tennesse Fuel', Paying Tribute to His Late Father
By: Caryn Robbins May. 04, 2017
Multi-platinum songwriter, guitarist--and now singer--CARL BELL is set to release his debut country project. Titled Tennessee Fuel, the album started as one song in homage to his father and developed into a full-length semi-autobiographical album. The record--with BELL playing everything but drums--is set for release Friday, June 16 (on his own Moon Chair Media), just in time for Father's Day. See BELL talk about the project in a video short here.
As with the best country music, Tennessee Fuel is grounded in BELL's real-life experience. His mother's snapshot album inspired "Faces in a Photograph." Growing up on a farm, dreaming of what he might someday see beyond the horizon, led to "Run Away." "Last of the Country Boys" pays homage to the archetype Bell was raised to admire. Of course "Dad" is there as well, in Bell's memory of seeing him "cross the fields as you come to that old John Deere in the dirt you loved to roam." Images of a house in sad need of repair become metaphors for a relationship gone bad in the beautiful piano ballad "Fixing You and Me." But love is triumphant on the exhilarating up-tempo "Let It Roll" and "All In."
"It all began years before while I was on tour with my band Fuel, when I got a call one day from my Mom," says BELL. "She said she wanted to tell me that my Dad was the guest of honor at our annual family reunion and she just wanted to let me know so perhaps I could be there. Well, she knew I probably couldn't due to my tour schedule, and I of course could not attend, but after I hung up I felt kind of bad, and out of the blue this song for my Dad starting coming to me. So I started pursuing it and before long, I had written a thank-you song for my Dad. Very personal and very autobiographical."
You may know Carl as a founding member of the multi-platinum selling band Fuel for which he was the principal songwriter--lyrics and music--for numerous rock hits such as "Shimmer," "Bittersweet," "Innocent," "Falls on Me" and many others. He also penned the song "Hemorrhage," which was a #1 Modern Rock song for more than three months, named Billboard magazine's No. 5 Rock Song of the Decade and Billboard's No. 6 Alternative Rock song of the last 25 years.
"When my Dad passed away in 2010, I went and stayed with my Mom for a few months to help with the transition. My Mom and Dad were married for 52 years. Now my Mom constantly watches GAC and CMT or has a country radio station playing in the background. So while I was there, I began to hear all those country songs again. One of the songs that was big at that time was Miranda Lambert's 'The House that Built Me.' That song really clicked with me there, because here I am in the house that built me, and down the road is the house I grew up in, and I could just really relate to it. It's such a great song, it really piqued my interest, and I just found myself then just writing and wanting to write more and more songs in that genre."
BELL's new album Tennessee Fuel hits stores and online retailers Friday, June 16. Stay tuned for more news.
@carlbellmusic
Tennessee Fuel track list:
--Kiss
--Dad
--All In
--Bad Day
--Stoned
--Let It Roll
--Faces In A Photograph
--Run Away
--Last Of The Country Boys
--Fixing You And Me
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