Well this is an interesting concept from Aaron Watson.
The Texas country superstar has made quite the name for himself doing things on his own. Aaron was the first independent male country artist ever to debut an album at #1 on the Billboard Country chart with The Underdog back in 2015, and he also saw mainstream success with his follow-up album Vaquero in 2017, and his 2019 project Red Bandana.
And now he’s gearing up for his next project, and showing off that independent spirit that’s led him to so much success already in his career.
Cover Girl will be an album of cover songs – but this won’t be your typical cover album.
All of the songs on the album were originally performed by all female artists, and each track will feature independent female artists as guest vocalists.
To kick off the album, today Aaron released his versions of Rosanne Cash’s “Seven Year Ache,” on which he’s joined by Jenna Paulette, and a special version of Taylor Swift’s “Never Grow Up” that features his 13-year old daughter, Jolee Kate.
Speaking on the new album, Watson said that it was important to him to feature badass independent artists like Jenna Paulette for the unique project:
“I’ve gotten the chance to share the stage with a number of incredibly talented female artists who are hustling the independent game just like I am.
When I decided to do the ‘Cover Girl’ record, I knew I wanted to find females that I believed in and knew would be an asset to the song.”
And getting to record a song with his teenage daughter was an extra-special moment for Watson:
“My daughter, like most teenage girls and women on the face of the earth, is obsessed with Taylor Swift. She was insistent that I did a Taylor Swift song on this project and who can argue with that? I told her that if I covered Taylor she would have to sing with me on it.
Then we had to choose the right song, right? A lot of Taylor’s songs wouldn’t suit being sung by a middle-aged father, you know, they don’t really relate to me – I can’t really sing a song about a boy breaking my heart.
We did think about covering one of Taylor’s upbeat, popular songs but then we found ‘Never Grow Up’ and it made for a perfect daddy-daughter moment, it’s such a sweet song and a song that I can listen to years in the future and hear Jolee at 13 on too.”
The album will feature covers of songs by women from Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris to Lady Gaga, The Pretenders and Cyndi Lauper.
But Watson says that there was something about Rosanne Cash’s “Seven Year Ache” that made him want to include it on the record:
“The lyrics are very poetic and so mysterious — that’s something I love personally as a writer.
You know something’s going on, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Rosanne, she knew what she was doing.”
I’ve gotta say, I love the unique concept behind this project.
But from a guy who’s had so much success doing things independently his entire career, would you expect anything less?
“Seven Year Ache” ft. Jenna Paulette
“Never Grow Up” ft. Jolee Kate Watson
