Clint Black Releases Valentine Love Songs

GAC Music Beat

By Ronna Rubin

Clint Black photo courtesy of Equity Records

Jan. 29, 2007 — It makes perfect sense that country star Clint Black is releasing an album of love songs around Valentine's Day.

Married for 16 years to actress Lisa Hartman Black, the pair already has recorded together, topping the charts with the Grammy-nominated duet, "When I Said I Do."

The 44-year-old has just released "The Love Songs," a 12-song collection of some of his most memorable love songs. "I wanted to do a record that's not just a reissue of hits," he says. "Sometimes when I go back and revisit my older recordings, I find little things that, in hindsight, I feel I could improve on just a bit — some new twist that might make it just a little bit better."

Among Black's signature songs that made it onto the disc are "Something That We Do," "My Imagination" and "Half The Man." He also breathes new life into the Jim Croce classic, "I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song."

"I was trying to find my own voice in this cover, but it is hard to get away from that original Croce sound, which is so good," he says. "While his is more of a rolling, finger pickin' style, my version has a slower groove, more of an R&B style."

Something else that will set this disc apart from his other releases is the cover art. It features a painting of Black and his wife done by artist Peter Max.

The Houston, Texas-born singer began playing clubs in his brother's band when he was just a teenager, and it was at that young age that he cut his teeth as a songwriter. "I spent a lot of time in those bars playing music and watching everything going on around me," he remembers. "There was a story in everything that happened, and they weren't lost on me."

Those early life experiences helped generate the more than 120 songs that Black has released on 10 studio albums, among them, chart-toppers like "Killin' Time," "A Better Man," "When My Ship Comes In" and "Walkin' Away."

He was part of the class of '89, a group of country music newcomers who were in large part responsible for the rebirth of the genre. His debut disc, "Killin' Time," and titles that followed over the next 10 years garnered him every possible measure of success from album sales, chart-topping hits and countless awards from his peers.

Current touring dates for Clint Black:

March 1, Florida Strawberry Festival, Plant City, Fla.

May 10, Casino Rama, Rama, Ontario, Canada.

June 15, Country Music Fest, Sauk Centre, Minn.

June 16, Green's Green Acres, Porterfield, Wis.

June 22, Peppermill Casino, West Wendover, Nev.

June 23, Sunset Station Hotel & Casino, Henderson, Nev.

(Ronna Rubin, a 21-year veteran of the music industry, can be contacted at ronna@gacmusicbeat.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)