Chasin' Wild Trains
Chasin' Wild Trains is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Kim Carnes. It was her first full-length album since Checkin' Out the Ghosts (1991) and her first internationally-released studio album since View from the House (1988). Carnes self-released the album in the United States through Sparky Dawg in 2004, before it received an international release through the Dutch label CoraZong on September 16, 2005.
| Chasin' Wild Trains | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 2004 | |||
| Recorded | 2004 at Dogwood Studio, Green Wagon Studio, OmniSound Studios, Rangewire Studio, Sound Emporium and The Electric Sandbox (Nashville, TN). | |||
| Genre | Americana | |||
| Length | 56:24 | |||
| Label |
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| Producer | ||||
| Kim Carnes chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Chasin' Wild Trains | ||||
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Carnes produced ten of the twelve tracks, with Angelo Petraglia and Chuck Prophet co-producing "Lucid Dreams" and Matraca Berg co-producing "If I Was an Angel". "One Beat at a Time" and "Just to See You Smile" were both released as singles.
Writing and production
Carnes decided to record Chasin' Wild Trains after writing "One Beat At a Time" with Marc Jordan. "I went in the studio and cut it with my guys," Carnes told PopMatters. "The minute I did it, I thought [it was] time to make an album. This is going to be cut one. Everything has to measure up to this."[1] Carnes described Chasin' Wild Trains as a "rootsy songwriter album" written with her friends and musical collaborators.[2]
Carnes originally co-wrote "If I Was An Angel" with Matraca Berg for her album Sunday Morning to Saturday Night (1997). Berg co-produced and sang backing vocals on Carnes' new version for Chasin' Wild Trains.[3]
"Goodnight Angel" was originally written for an unreleased companion album of songs inspired by the 2002 film We Were Soldiers. "You Made My Skin Burn" featured in the soundtrack to the 2006 film The Moguls.
Release and promotion
Carnes self-released Chasin' Wild Trains in 2004 through Sparky Dawg and sold the album to fans at her concerts.[2] On September 16, 2005, the album was released internationally through the Dutch label CoraZong. In the following year, it was released again as a Limited Edition with live acoustic versions of "Bette Davis Eyes" and "Just to See You Smile" as bonus tracks recorded during Carnes' appearance on American Connection, a show broadcast by KRO Radio 2 in 2005.[4][5] On 9 November 2005, Carnes performed "Bette Davis Eyes" and "Just to See You Smile" live on Des mots de minuit, broadcast by France 2.[6][7]
The cover art for Chasin' Wild Trains features an image of Carnes taken at age 3 sitting on a toy 'honeymoon' car. She had been playing 'wedding' with her next door neighbor, David Lindley.[8]
"One Beat At a Time" was released as a single on September 5, 2005,[9] and "Just to See You Smile" followed in 2006.[10] In 2022, Carnes began releasing shortened edits of selected tracks as singles, beginning with "Just to See You Smile" on September 3, followed by "Lucid Dreams" on November 25.[11]
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [12] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [13] |
| The Tennessean | [14] |
Chasin' Wild Trains received overall positive reviews from music critics. Joe Viglione of AllMusic opined that Carnes sounds like "the Eagles going acoustic", echoing the songwriting of Stevie Nicks with songs on the subject of time, dreams and angels.[12]
In The Tennessean, Peter Cooper described the songs on Chasin' Wild Trains as "rich, with memorable melodies" and noted "If I Was an Angel" as the album's highlight.[14] Writing for the Dutch online magazine Kinda Muzik, Jelle Schuilenburg described Chasin' Wild Trains as "simply a beautiful album", featuring songs with "a nice mix of Americana, singer-songwriter and country rock". She compared Carnes' vocals to contemporaries like Lucinda Williams and Melissa Etheridge.[15] In Country Music Today magazine, Stephen L. Betts opined that Chasin' Wild Trains is "one of 2004's best albums in any genre".[16] Dutch website Muziekwereld noted the "sparse solo guitars and atmospheric keys" giving Carnes' "emotional voice more space than the chilly, fashionable production of [the 1980s]". They likened the album's sound to the music of Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison and John Coltrane, concluding that Carnes "proves how mature pop music can sound."[17] In Break Out, a German music magazine, Birgit Bräckle wrote that Chasin' Wild Trains is a "melancholic" album with "sparsely instrumented songs, infused with Nashville country and blues influences".[18]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "One Beat at a Time" | 3:52 | |
| 2. | "Just to See You Smile" |
| 4:18 |
| 3. | "Where Is the Boy? (Chris' Song)" | Carnes | 4:04 |
| 4. | "Goodnight Angel" | Carnes | 4:53 |
| 5. | "Lucid Dreams" |
| 4:02 |
| 6. | "All About Time" |
| 3:53 |
| 7. | "Runaway" |
| 4:57 |
| 8. | "You Made My Skin Burn" |
| 4:12 |
| 9. | "Still Warmed by the Thrill" |
| 4:03 |
| 10. | "If I Was an Angel" |
| 3:46 |
| 11. | "Too Far Gone" |
| 2:58 |
| 12. | "Stepped Right in It" |
| 3:31 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13. | "Bette Davis Eyes" (Acoustic Version) | 3:41 | |
| 14. | "Just to See You Smile" (Acoustic Version) |
| 4:00 |
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes.[19]
Musicians
- Kim Carnes – lead and backing vocals, keyboards (5, 7)
- Tim Lauer – keyboards (1–4, 6, 8, 9, 10), accordion (6, 11), organ (12)
- Billy Panda – guitar (1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11), Ebow (2), bass (2), acoustic guitar (4), electric guitar (12)
- Angelo Petraglia – guitar (2, 5), backing vocals (4)
- Richard Bennett – guitar (3, 6, 8)
- Tom Bukovac – electric guitar (4)
- Chuck Prophet – guitar (5), bass (5), drums (5), backing vocals (5)
- Greg Barnhill – guitar (6), backing vocals (6, 9)
- Anders Osborne – guitar (7), drums (7), backing vocals (7)
- Gary Burnette – guitar (9, 11)
- Jeff Hanna – slide guitar (10)
- Al Anderson – acoustic guitar (12), guitar solo (12), backing vocals (12)
- Alison Prestwood – bass (3, 4, 6, 8)
- Byron House – bass (9, 11)
- Jeffrey Steele – bass (12)
- Greg Morrow – drums (1, 9, 11)
- Craig Krampf – drums (2, 8)
- Tommy Harden – drums (3, 6, 12)
- Dave Ellingson – percussion (6, 12)
- John Catchings – cello (7)
- Tammy Rogers – viola (7), violin (7)
- Jonathan Yudkin – strings (9)
- Matraca Berg – backing vocals (10, 11)
- Kim Richey – backing vocals (11)
Technical
- Kim Carnes – producer
- Angelo Petraglia – producer (5), additional recording
- Chuck Prophet – producer (5)
- Matraca Berg – producer (10)
- Scott Baggett – recording, mixing
- Tim Lauer – additional recording
- Josh Muncy – additional recording, assistant engineer
- Billy Panda – additional recording
- Eric Tonkin – additional recording
- Adam Beard – assistant engineer
- Erik Jaskowiak – assistant engineer
- Jim DeMain – mastering
Design
- Don Bailey – art direction, design
- Mike Condon – live photography
- Glen Rose – photography
Release history
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Edition | Label | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | June 14, 2004 | CD | Standard | Sparky Dawg Music | |
| Europe | October 3, 2005 | CoraZong | [20] | ||
| September 16, 2006 | Limited Edition | ||||
References
- Wikane, Christian John (April 24, 2017). "Where the Heart Is An Interview With Multi-Grammy Winner Kim Carnes, Part Two". PopMatters. Archived from the original on August 11, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- Watts, Cindy (June 10, 2004). "Boogie in the 'Boro tonight with Kim Carnes". The Daily News Journal. Murfreesboro, Tennessee. p. 25. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- Sunday Morning to Saturday Night (Booklet). United States: Rising Tide Records. 1997. RTD-53047.
- Chasin' Wild Trains (sleeve). United States: CoraZong Records. 2006. 850295001912.
- One Beat at a Time (sleeve). Netherlands: CoraZong Records. 2005. 850295001066.
- "Kim Carnes "Bette Davis Eyes"". INA (in French). Retrieved May 13, 2022.
- "Kim Carnes "Just to see you smile"". INA (in French). Retrieved May 13, 2022.
- Davis, Andy (August 30, 2020). "Kim Carnes". uDiscoverMusic. Archived from the original on January 8, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
- One Beat at a Time (sleeve). United States: CoraZong Records. 2005. 225505.
- Just to See You Smile (sleeve). United States: CoraZong Records. 2006. 225506.
- Carnes, Kim (September 3, 2022). "Just to See You Smile - Single". Apple Music (US). Archived from the original on November 21, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
- Viglione, Joe. "Kim Carnes Chasin' Wild Trains". AllMusic. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
- Cooper, Peter (January 10, 2005). "'Chasin' Wild Trains' is delightful with Carnes on board". The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. p. D5. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- Schuilenburg, Jelle (September 9, 2005). "Kim Carnes – Chasin' Wild Trains" (in Dutch). Kinda Muzik. Archived from the original on February 15, 2022. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- Betts, Stephen L. (November–December 2004). "Kim Carnes: Chasin' Country Hits". Country Music Today. Vol. 5, no. 15. New York City: Country Music Television. p. 28.
- "Kim Carnes - Chasin' Wild Trains". muziekwereld.com. November 20, 2005. Archived from the original on April 12, 2017. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
- Bräckle, Birgit. (November–December 2005). "Kim Carnes – Chasin' Wild Trains". Break Out (in German). No. 8. Neckarsteinach, Germany. p. 20.
- Chasin' Wild Trains (Booklet). United States: Sparky Dawg Music. 2004. 827912006148.
- "Chasin' wild train". Fnac. Archived from the original on October 6, 2022. Retrieved October 6, 2022.