Terri Clark has a star-studded new album, Take Two, out now. The eight-track project features new versions of some of Clark’s biggest hits, joined by artists like Cody Johnson. Lainey Wilson, Ashley McBryde, and more.
“I had a list, a wish list of people,” Clark shared with Everything Nash and other outlets during a recent virtual media event. “Of course, I wanted some current artists that I had never worked with before, to be a part of this, if I could get them. So I started just making a list of people, and started asking people. Out of everybody I asked, there were maybe only two that had scheduling conflicts that couldn’t do it. I was just blown away with some of the names that I got.”
Clark first asked McBryde, rightfully assuming that McBryde wouldn’t decline the invitaiton of the woman who inducted her into the Grand Ole Opry.
“I started with Ashley McBryde, because I knew she probably wouldn’t say no to me,” Clark reveals. “So I started with Ashley. I told her I really would have been honored if she would do ‘Better Things to Do,’ which was my first single, with me. From that point on, it just started to fall into place with the other artists. I’m just humbled and grateful and blown away with the names that I’m seeing beside mine on this thing, and the songs that have meant so much to me.”
Take Two is a celebration of Clark’s successful, and lengthy, career in country music, one that began with her eponymous debut album, released in 1995.
“Somedays, it feels like it’s been 30 years,” Clark admits. “And then other days — I get up on stage with my band, and I find myself in that spot with that microphone that I’ve been in so many times, and I just have this moment of reflection. I’m like, ‘Has 30 years gone by that I’ve been doing this?’ But when I see some of my fans that have been coming to see me since the beginning, and they’re bringing other generations, and their family with them — they’re bringing their kids and their grandkids now, it hits me that it has been 30 years, and we’re all growing old together,
“My fanbase and I, we’re older … I see that side of it that represents the past,” she adds. “But then, getting in the studio with Cody and Ashley and Carly [Pearce] and all these artists that are having so much success right now, it’s full-circle. It’s so surreal.”
Clark enlisted some of music’s biggest stars to join her on Take Two, and although the 55-year-old has had plenty of awards and accolades over the years, she admits she was surprised at how much the new generation of artists revered her and her music.
“These people came in and didn’t even need lyric sheets to these songs, and I’m like, ‘That’s so cool,'” Clark admits.
Clark had some idea of which songs she wanted some of the artists to sing, whle others were left up to Clark and the singer to decide together.
“I specifically asked Ashley if she would do ‘Better Things to Do,'” Clark reveals. “She said of course she would do that one. That was the debut single, the one that people probably identify with me the most. And Lainey, I specifically asked her if she would do ‘Poor Poor Pitiful Me.’ It’s just quirky. It’s Warren Zevon. I had so much fun with that. With Cody, we had three songs we were going back and forth with, and he kind of was leaning toward one direction, and then came back and said, ‘You know, the more I listen to [‘I Just Wanna Be Mad’], the more it feels like a true duet to me.”
See a track list for Take Two below. Clark also has her Greatest Hits album, available now on vinyl. Find Take Two and all of Clark’s music and upcoming shows, at TerriClark.com.
Take Two Track List:
1. “I Just Wanna Be Mad” (featuring Cody Johnson)
2. “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” (featuring Lainey Wilson)
3. “Better Things to Do” (featuring Ashley McBryde)
4. “Now That I Found You” (featuring Ben Rector)
5. “I Wanna Do It All” (featuring Lauren Alaina)
6. “If I Were You” (featuring Kelly Clarkson)
7. “Girls Lie Too” (featuring Carly Pearce)
8. “You’re Easy On The Eyes (live)” (featuring Paul Brandt)