Neil Diamond Shines On ‘Tennesee Moon’
After spending the last year in some of this town’s famed recording studios with the cream of the Nashville cats and getting over his writer’s block, Neil Diamond is back with his first album of original material in four years.
And while it’s not exactly true to say that he’s gone country, Diamond says that he’s adding a steel guitar and fiddle to his road band to accommodate the material on his new 18-cut album, “Tennessee Moon.”
Amid a flurry of activity, the Columbia album will be released Feb. 6. Diamond will tape an ABC-TV special at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium Feb. 2 and 13 to air Feb. 24. Then, he will begin a twoyear world tour March 26 in Australia.
Columbia plans a big push for the album, according to Peter Fletcher, vice president for marketing, West Coast. “This is Neil’s best record in a decade,” he says. “And our main job is to let Neil’s fans know it’s available. They’re incredibly loyal, but they’re not average radio listeners, so we have to find other ways to reach them. The cornerstone of our initial setup will be co-promotion of the TV special with ABC during their (ratings) sweeps. After the album release date, we’ll target Valentine’s Day sales to his fans, and then we’ll kick into high gear the rest of the month, leading up to the TV show.”
Fletcher says a radio promotion strategy is still being completed, but initial plans are to take the entire record to country and AC, with focus tracks for each format. The album covers the musical spectrum - from traditional, lush Diamond epics to straight country, with some surprises in between (including a funny talking blues). Except for a revamped country version of “Kentucky Woman” and two other songs, all the songs were co-written by Diamond with Nashville songwriters (one with son Jesse).
Diamond says his Nashville stay has reinvigorated his writing chops. Diamond ended up writing with Harlan Howard, Gary Burr, Raul Malo and Hal Ketchum, among others, and recording duets with such artists as Malo and Waylon Jennings.
Diamond says that before coming to Nashville, he had not written a song for three or four years. “I had not been able to get myself to complete songs. I had started songs that I really liked but had not been really motivated. Columbia had given me the easy way out by letting me do Christmas albums. I felt a definite need to write again and express myself about my life and add a new repertoire to my catalog or life’s work or whatever I’ve done. I hope some of these songs will stand among my best.
“This is American music in a way I’ve never really conceived of before,” he adds. “Just listen to Mark O’Connor’s fiddle, the way he plays around my voice. Steel guitar and fiddle are soulful instruments that I’ve never used before - great discovery. I feel good about what we’ve come out with here. I’ve got Chet Atkins on here, which was one of my fantasies.
“It’s probably a milestone album for me, in that it proved to me that I can write my own heart and my own feelings after all these years. I can still get down to the nub of the truth. It’s nice for me to know I can still do that.”
Songs like “Prison Doors” and “Win The World,” he says, are very much the story of his life. “I’ve lost two marriages now to my career, without any question, and that song ‘Win The World’ is the answer to it. So maybe I won’t do it again.”