While I'm Livin'
| Tanya Tucker
While I'm Livin'
While I'm Livin' is the twenty-fifth studio album by American country music singer Tanya Tucker. It was released on August 23, 2019, by Fantasy Records. The album was produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings. It is Tucker's first album in a decade, since 2009's My Turn, and her first album of original material since her 2002 album, Tanya. The album earned Tucker the Grammy Award for Best Country Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in addition to winning Best Country Song for "Bring My Flowers Now" which was also nominated for Best Country Solo Performance, and the all-genre Grammy Award for Song of the Year. Rolling Stone placed the album at number 1 on the publication's list of the 40 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2019 and number 24 on their list of the top 50 Albums of 2019. Tucker promoted the album throughout 2019 with the While I'm Livin' Tour and will continue to support the album in 2020 on the Bring My Flowers Now Tour, a partnership with CMT's Next Women of Country.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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NPR
Tanya Tucker is back and taking no prisoners.
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Rolling Stone
The album — part legacy-bolstering roots project, part first-person confessional — shows a more sensitive side of the former country star, so much so that Tucker was initially hesitant to record this batch of songs, which was co-produced by Carlile and Shooter Jennings and largely written by Carlile and her frequent collaborators, Phil and Tim Hanseroth.
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Fantasy
While I’m Livin’ is largely comprised of songs written by Carlile, the twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth and Tucker. In many ways, the album’s cornerstone is “Bring My Flowers Now,” the only tune that was co-written by Tucker, Carlile and the twins.
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The Boot
While I'm Livin' features a total of 10 tracks, seven of which were co-written by Carlile. Even the songs that Tucker didn't have a hand in writing speak to aspects of her life and personal history.
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All Music
While I'm Livin' evokes the past in how it relies on strong, burnished songs which cannily play on Western archetypes and Tucker's personal history. On the closing "Bring My Flowers Now," the only song co-written by Tucker, she musters something close to an aural autobiography.
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Entertainment
Though the 60-year-old star has released more than two dozen albums of fresh material in her four-decade career, scoring major country hits in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, she has never issued anything as raw, pure, and edgy as While I’m Livin’.
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Concord
Tanya Tucker’s celebrated new album While I’m Livin’, produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings debuted this week at #9 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, marking her 10th Top 10 album overall and the first Top 10 debut of her illustrious career. With overall activity nearing 10,000 units, the album also entered Billboard’s Current Country Albums chart at #2 and marks her first-ever #1 album on Nielsen’s Americana/Folk chart.
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Billboard
The 10-track project is a deeply personal one for Tucker, as it tells stories of her life, her father and where she grew up.
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Variety
With Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings co-producing, country’s loud outlaw avatar finds her footing in quieter, confessional roots music.
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Think Country Music
Tanya’s distinctive voice and instinctive phrasing which is in essence what the album is all about. Despite several of the tracks referencing the well-documented darker times in Tanya’s life ( she has said that its been “ a lifetime in the making” ) it is ultimately an uplifting listen and leaves you in no doubt that Tanya is still a force to be reckoned with on many levels, not only musically!
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Exclaim
While I'm Livin' is part travelogue and part musical biography of the 60-year-old singer. In fact, there's a tangible sense of place throughout While I'm Livin', an album peppered with references to Tucker's native Texas: Mustang Ridge and San Antonio's Hays Street Bridge ("Mustang Ridge"), Guadalupe Market Square ("The Wheels of Laredo") and the singer's birthplace ("Seminole Wind") are all name-checked along the way.
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RFD TV
While I’m Livin’ is largely comprised of songs written by Carlile, the twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth and Tucker. It’s a musical biography of sorts about Tanya’s real life and the places she’s seen, and it’s narrated by the greatest country and western singer this side of Johnny Cash.
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Saving Country Music
The construction of While I’m Livin’ is a little unique, with Brandi Carlile and her two famous twin collaborators Tim and Phil Hanseroth writing seven of the album’s ten songs. Possibly the greatest asset of While I’m Livin’ was the ultimate aim of the record, which was to remind the world of the contributions and talent of Tanya Tucker, and to reboot her career for a new generation of country fans.
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Nashville Music Guide
Tanya Tucker’s celebrated new album While I’m Livin’, produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings, debuted this week at No. 9 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, marking her 10th Top 10 album overall and the first Top 10 debut of her illustrious career.
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Nashville
While I’m Livin’ is largely comprised of songs written by Carlile, the twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth and Tucker. It’s a musical biography of sorts about Tanya’s real life and the places she’s seen, and it’s narrated by the greatest country and western singer this side of Johnny Cash.
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Spectrum Culture
With While I’m Livin’, Tanya Tucker is but the latest artist to be given the reverential treatment at the hands of a group of younger artists, this time in the form of Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings. With Jennings behind the boards and Carlile, along with longtime writing partners Phil and Tim Hanseroth, providing the songs, Tucker is in essence returned to her vital earlier years in terms of strength of material. With all its introspective balladry, While I’m Livin’ feels more like a rumination on a life lived hard and full than any sort of victory lap or return to form.
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The Wall Street Journal
The country icon’s latest album reaffirms the range of her abilities and reveals her many sides. This rich and rewarding album is tangible evidence of why we should follow her instructions.
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Digital Journal
Her latest album, While I'm Livin', garnered a favorable review from Digital Journal, which was described as "stunning."
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No Depression
This is the record Tucker should have made at this point in her career: a look back at her trials and travails, not asking anybody to feel sorry for her, nor asking forgiveness, just keeping on as best she can, learning from her mistakes and moving forward. It’s a powerful record.
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Entertainment Focus
Her 25th studio album, While I’m Livin’ sees Tucker teaming up with Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings, who produce the record with Carlile doing a large share of the writing with Tim and Phil Hanseroth. The song-writing feels perfect for Tucker. She wraps her distinctive voice around the lyrics, delivering them with conviction and heart.
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Umusic
While I’m Livin’ is largely comprised of songs written by Carlile, the twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth and Tucker. It’s a musical biography of sorts about Tanya’s real life and the places she’s seen, and it’s narrated by the greatest country and western singer this side of Johnny Cash.
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Metacritic
The first full-length album of new material in 17 years from the country legend was produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings.
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OK Reviews
While I’m Livin’ is a culmination of songs that fit the narrative of her life-long outlaw country music career. Tucker has always had plenty of tender ballads on her resumé, but she has never been shy from putting her edgier side on display. The newest release is a synthesis of both those personas. It is everything she stands for wrapped up in a masterfully created work of art.
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Sounds Like Nashville
The 10-song collection is an expertly crafted statement from a singular country music voice.
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Rough Trade
Produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings, While I’m Livin’ is Tanya Tucker’s first album of all new music in 17 years and signals the return of this country music icon.
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The Art Desk
Solidly enjoyable reappearance from one of country'n'western's wild women.
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New York Times
The resulting album positions Tucker as the multifaceted heroine at the center of her own larger-than-life story.
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Goldenrod Music
This album is a musical biography of sorts narrated by the greatest country and western singer this side of Johnny Cash.
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Dirt Road Anthems
While I'm Livin' is an album full of stories only Tucker could perform. While the album was largely written by Brandi Carlile, the songs' lyrics tell the stories of Tucker's life. Unlike other records, this project finds a more vulnerable, down to earth Tucker.
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Country Standard Time
Tucker knows how to get into a song and make it her own, and she demonstrates her ability to turn phrases on this set of songs. Every song is a gem, and every song might be describing some aspect of her own life. Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings produced the album, and Jennings played piano almost every track, while Carlile sings background vocals on most tracks.
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Glide Magazine
Tucker’s voice is a stone, one of those stones that you skip on the lake. These stones are smooth and have a distinct beauty, yet they are tough. These stones are honest beauty.
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Radio WPSU
The 60 year old living legend is set to release a tell-all record, full of wisdom, wit, and heart, produced by 3 time Grammy award winning artist Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings.
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Country Music Tattle Tale
Tanya Tucker's celebrated new album While I’m Livin’, produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings, debuted this week at No. 9 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, marking her 10th Top 10 album overall and the first Top 10 debut of her illustrious career. With overall activity nearing 10,000 units, the album also entered Billboard’s Current Country Albums chart at No. 2 and marks her first-ever No. 1 album on Nielsen’s Americana/Folk chart.
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Vancouver Sun
This is the album that should catapult her back into the public eye with a new fan base for her take on outlaw road tales and similar such songs.
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Broadway World
While I'm Livin' is largely comprised of songs written by Carlile, the twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth and Tucker. It's a musical biography of sorts about Tanya's real life and the places she's seen, and it's narrated by the greatest country and western singer this side of Johnny Cash.
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Albumism
Throughout While I’m Livin’, Tucker steps into the shoes of each new character and fills them out by imbuing their story with raw emotions from her own extremely colorful life.
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The New Yorker
“While I’m Livin’ ” is not going to initiate a third string of Tanya Tucker radio hits. Women have very nearly been segregated out of the mainstream country format for years, and sixtysomethings are unwelcome, no matter their gender. But the album does capture one of America’s great vocalists at her peak. One hopes that it will make more people see that Tucker really does belong in the same breath as those first-name-basis superstars—Reba, Dolly, Loretta, and Tammy—and that she should be celebrated accordingly.
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Vinyl Me Please
Tanya Tucker is one of country's last outlaws. Her first album in 17 years, and her answer to Johnny Cash's 'American Recordings,' we have While I'm Livin'.
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Post and Courier
“While I’m Livin’,” which was co-produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings, is Tucker’s first Top Ten debut and 10th Top 10 Country album. It also debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums Sales chart.
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KCRW
Now Tucker is out with her first album in nearly 20 years, titled “While I’m Livin.” It’s produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings.
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Lab.fm
It’s a musical biography of sorts, about Tanya’s real life and the places she’s seen, and it’s narrated by the greatest country and western singer this side of Johnny Cash.
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