NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Mark Collie will visit with WSM-AM’s Bill Cody Monday morning during the 8:00 a.m. hour, previewing songs from his forthcoming album, Alive At Brushy Mountain.Additionally this week, Collie and His Reckless Companions take the stage Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 10 p.m. at the Hard Rock Cafe with special guest Lee Roy Parnell. The show will be webcast as part of Muscle Shoals to Music Row LIVE!, a 2-hour radio broadcast / webcast that features hit songwriters and artists, available on their site, http://www.ms2mr.com/
Collie recorded Alive At Brushy Mountain in 2001 at Tennessee’s most notorious prison. The never-before-released album (street date is May 1 on Wilbanks Entertainment) was born out of Collie’s close friendship with the late legend Johnny Cash, who encouraged Collie to use music as a type of “ministry.” It was Cash’s celebrated live albums recorded at California’s Folsom and San Quentin penitentiaries — and the impact an earlier San Quentin performance had on a young inmate named Merle Haggard — that spurred Collie to contemplate a prison recording of his own.
Produced with Tony Brown & David Z, the album features an all-star lineup of acclaimed musicians, including multi-instrumentalist / songwriter / performer Shawn Camp, Austin favorite Kelly Willis, guitarist David Grissom (Joe Ely, John Mellencamp), keyboardist Mike Utley (Jimmy Buffett, the Dixie Flyers), guitarist / mandolinist Tommy Burroughs (Memphis’ Riverbluff Clan), bassist Willie Weeks (The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, B.B. King), and drummer Chad Cromwell (Neil Young, Mark Knopfler). Additionally, blues legend Clarence Gatemouth Brown makes a special guest appearance.