Tuskegee
| Lionel Richie
Tuskegee
Tuskegee is the tenth studio album by American singer Lionel Richie, released on March 5, 2012, on Mercury Records. The album consists entirely of reinterpretations of previously released songs by Richie, each performed with a different guest artist. It became Richie's third number-one album on the Billboard 200 and his first since Dancing on the Ceiling in 1986. Tuskegee also became Richie's first album to sell more than a million copies in the United States since Dancing on the Ceiling.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
Show All-
Mix 94.1
‘Tuskegee” is like your favorite pair of sweats. You already know these classic songs, put Lionel & Company put a fresh spin on them. Unlike a lot of today’s popular music, it’s not over-produced or relying on major studio tricks or music software. The songs sound contemporary, but with a full, rich sound that is missing from some of today’s current hits.
-
Taste Of Country
It all feels a little bit ... random. There's no getting around Richie's talent and influence, but it's difficult to believe that every artist featured on 'Tuskegee' grew up listening to hits like 'Easy,' 'Stuck on You' and 'Dancing on the Ceiling.' Though they both grew up in the south, there isn't a scent of soulful pop on anything Jason Aldean has ever recorded, yet there he is, singing away with conviction on 'Say You, Say Me.'
-
Metacritic
Alabama native Lionel Richie brings a country twang to some of his hits on this album of duets.
-
Entertainment
it’s still gratifying to see how many A-list Nashville stars lined up for guest spots on Tuskegee — Blake! Tim! Shania! Willie! — and to hear how naturally the Alabama native countrifies R&B classics like ”Endless Love” and the Jennifer Nettles-assisted ”Hello.” On a banjo-tastic ”Dancing on the Ceiling,” Richie even out-twangs good ol’ boys Rascal Flatts.
-
BBC
Whether Tuskegee, the album, is enough to please hard core country fans is not really the point here – Richie’s post-Commodores output was largely ignored by soul fans. He’s a pop artist of substance, and as such brings a touch of class and sufficient flavour of another genre to the mainstream to make music that’s interesting and lasting.
-
Roughstock
With Tuskegee, Lionel Richie returns to his Alabama country boy roots with an album that proves that he's always been a country singer, even if he fought for years to be seen as a man capable of writing and singing country songs.
-
The Oklahoman
Lionel Richie revisits his roots in more ways than one with “Tuskegee,” a new duets album featuring the music icon performing his classic hits primarily with contemporary country stars.
-
All Music
Tuskegee generates a bit of déjà vu: the surroundings are new, yet everything feels familiar. Whether that’s a comfortable bit of nostalgia or just a shade too predictable depends entirely on the tastes of the listener.
-
Rolling Stone
You walk into a karaoke bar in Nashville and see Lionel Richie singing his cottony R&B hits with a bunch of country stars. Best vacation ever!
-
Los Angeles Times
His new album is less the 180-degree career shift that it may seem. Acoustic guitars replace glistening synths, bittersweet steel guitars slide in to provide the patina of rural rootsiness, yet Richie still never really steps away from the polished sheen that characterized his musical heyday.
-
Saving Country Music
What Lionel Richie’s Tuskegee album does hold the distinction of being is country music’s most embarrassing album put out to date. Never before for any album or artist has country as a community taken such a complicit, submissive role in an artist’s transition from pop.
-
The Bull Amarillo
'Tuskegee" is like your favorite pair of sweats. You already know these classic songs, put Lionel & Company put a fresh spin on them.
-
Billboard
Richie returned to the CMAs to preview "Tuskegee," a collection of his classic hits performed with Little Big Town, Darius Rucker, Jason Aldean and other country acts.
-
The Wrap
“Tuskegee,” earns its keep just through the inclusion of a collaboration with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles that makes something riveting out of, of all things, “Hello.”
-
Boston Globe
Soul-pop legend Lionel Richie's enjoyably sunny new album, "Tuskegee," named for his Alabama hometown, is essentially a greatest hits release shot through a contemporary Nashville filter.
-
Klaw 101
Country music fans under 40 are left scratching their heads about all the hype surrounding Lionel Richie‘s courting of Nashville’s greatest artists. First it was a duet with Shania Twain, now a full album of duets called ‘Tuskegee.'
-
Country Standard Time
The country duets album, which held the number 1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 for 2 consecutive weeks, sits at number 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart for the fourth week since its March 26 release. The disc is the best-selling country album of 2012 and the first country album in more than a year to spend 2 consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200. He joins Ray Charles as the only artists in history to have number 1 albums on both the Billboard Country Albums and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts.
-
Phil Fogel Art
When I first heard snippets of the album I was a bit disappointed but after hearing the full LP I love it. R&B staples like my favourite “You Are” with Blake Sheldon are just as good if not better, this guitar flavoured version only adds to the song without taking away any of the original magic. “My Love” with Kenny Chesney, “Sail On” with Tim Mcgraw and “Stuck On You” with Daruis Rucker are perfect.
-
Soul Tracks
Tuskegee is far better than it has any right to be and will likely be happily welcomed by Richie's sizeable international audience. Tuskegee is "country" in the same way that Urkel is "cool" when he becomes Stefan Urkelle or the way my accountant uncle is a Hell's Angel when he rides a Harley. In other words, you simply add the trappings of that to which you aspire -- here, a steel pedal guitar and some close harmonies -- and declare victory.
-
Las Vegas Review
Lionel Richie names some of the albums he used to tote across the campus of the historically black Tuskegee University in Alabama. Richie could have patched the “Tuskegee” album together more quickly by shipping parts back and forth electronically, but he wanted it done live with a live band.
-
The Roxborogh Report
Tuskegee isn’t new material and it isn’t even a re-imagined Greatest Hits, but it has some of the best love songs of the last 40 years in duet-form with the likes of Kenny Rogers and Willie Nelson as well as newer country stars like Tim McGraw, Rascall Flatts and Darius Rucker.
-
Blinded By Sound
And so Tuskegee (Mercury Nashville) doesn’t sound so much like a genre experiment as it does an extension of what Richie has been doing in fits and starts for years. A host of contemporary and veteran country acts are on hand and often help to effect new perspectives and contexts out of old memories, but the real stars here are the songs themselves. Most of them are instantly familiar—if you were awake in the ‘80s some were unavoidable—and just about all of the ones here have held up to time and interpretation.
-
Sound Like Nashville
Lionel Richie’s new album, Tuskegee, is a great reimagining of 13 of his biggest hits, performed with some of country music’s biggest stars.
-
Michigan Daily
Tuskegee might come as an unpleasant surprise. But if Richie’s point was to get across the makeup of his Southern roots, he has absolutely done his job.
-
Young Post
Despite the age of some of tracks, the new treatment makes Tuskegee sound like a modern country album. Essential listening.
-
B105 Country
The highly awaited 13-track collection of duets with Richie and some of the biggest names in country finally dropped March 26. This week, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. According to the Tennessean, the project sold 198,892 copies, which also landed Richie at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top 200 trailing only Madonna.
-
Wiki Visually
Tuskegee is the tenth studio album by American singer Lionel Richie, released on March 5, 2012, on Mercury Records. The album consists entirely of reinterpretations of previously released songs by Richie, each performed with a different guest artist, it became Richie's third number-one album on the Billboard 200 and his first since Dancing on the Ceiling in 1986. Tuskegee also became Richie's first album to sell more than a million copies in the United States since Dancing on the Ceiling.
-
CBS News
"Tuskegee," a collection featuring 13 tracks recorded as duets with Richie and various country artists.
-
Cd Universe
Surpassing his creative and personal boundaries, Richie comes full circle with the innovative and personal Tuskegee, performing 13 of his most revered "anthems of our day" with some of the biggest names in Country music, including Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Darius Rucker, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington, Little Big Town and Jason Aldean. On this worldwide, multi-genre album, Richie is also joined by the likes of such superstars as Shania Twain, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett.
-
Stereoboard
This new album record sees the 70s soul legend exploring his musical influences, inviting some of his favourite artists to share the journey. Richie is joined by rtists such as Shania Twain, Kenny Rogers and Willie Nelson as well as his pick of contemporary artists.
-
Renowned For Sound
Richie has hit the nail right on the head with this latest release and it’s great to hear these songs being performed outside of their pop comfort zones though they sound equally comfortable in their new environment.
-
Jake's Take
Lionel Richie’s Tuskegee brought the Motown legend back to his roots as he collaborated with some of country music’s biggest stars to sing his classic hits, which was one of my favorite records in the 2010s.
-
Charlestone Scene
Lionel Richie is another excellent example. Although he peaked creatively in the late ’80s, when you start listing his songwriting accomplishments, it is impossible not to be impressed.
-
Tvtropes
The Tuskegee album consisted of reinterpretations of songs he wrote in full or part.
-
Sound Opinions
Lionel Richie proved HSN can mean big success when he sold 20,000 copies of his new album Tuskegee in just one hour.
-
Off The Tracks
Lionel Richie, Tuskegee, 2012 My first trip to America was marred by only one thing: I could not find a vinyl copy of Tuskegee, Lionel Richie’s long-threatened country album of duets.
-
Lionel Richie
The album was one the biggest of his career reaching #1 on the Billboard Top 200 list and garnering huge critical acclaim. Tuskegee also received a national two-hour CBS television special with performances by Richie and the album’s country duet partners that was the top-rated show of the night with more than 8 million viewers.
-
New York
The popularity of this album isn’t just US based either. Tuskegee has climbed to number one in Canada and made it to the top ten albums chart in the UK, Denmark, Holland, Australia, Hong Kong and Sweden, reaching the top twenty in ten countries. Richie claimed the number one spot on the overall Billboard Top 200 albums chart for two consecutive weeks and the number one spot in country for four weeks. With this success, Richie is making history, joining Ray Charles in the record books as the only artists to have albums become number one on the charts for country and R&B/Hip-hop.
-
WYRK
Topping the charts this week is Lionel Richie's "Tuskegee", which is basically a duets album of all of Lionel's hits.
Rate This Album and Leave Your Comments