The trailer for Melonie Cannon’s video with Willie Nelson (which we told you about during IBMA) has been posted online. It’s for the song Back To Earth from her current CD, And The Wheels Turn out last week on Rural Rhythm.

The trailer is just a quick look at some of the footage that was shot, without the audio from the song. The vistas and landscapes – from Nelson’s Texas ranch – are quite powerful.

The single and the video (directed by Scott Hansen) are expected to be released early in 2009.

The folks at Rural Rhythm Records invited us up to their suite yesterday afternoon (9/29) for a meet-and-greet and scaled-back acoustic set with Melonie Cannon.

The first thing on the agenda was a brief preview of the music video she recently filmed with Willie Nelson. It’s for a song of his, Back To Earth, featured on her new CD, And The Wheels Turn.

The preview was put together like a movie trailer and though it showed only a few scenes from the finished product, it was clear that the final product will be a pro effort. Shot on Willie’s ranch near Austin, TX, the video takes advantage of sweeping vistas and lush color – plus the powerful imagery of one of country music’s most recognizable icons.

The finished video will be released when Back To Earth comes out as a single early in 2009. We’ll have a copy of the trailer here on The Bluegrass Blog sometime early next week, once we recover from IBMA week craziness.

After watching the preview a time or two, Melonie grabbed her guitarist, Booie Beach, and Ronnie and Garnett Bowman to sing a number of songs from the new CD – Cactus In A Coffee Can, Set ‘Em Up Joe (written by her dad, Buddy Cannon) and I’ve Seen Enough Of What’s Behind Me, written by Ronnie Bowman and Tammy Rogers.

The CD has been getting a good bit of attention from bluegrass radio, and both Kyle Cantrell of XM’s Bluegrass Junction, and Terry Herd of Into The Blue were in attendance at this reception.

On Wednesday we ran the first part of my discussion with Melonie Cannon, where we discussed her upcoming Rural Rhythm CD, And The Wheels Turn. Here is the remainder of the interview.

Perhaps the chief highlight associated with the new CD for Melonie has been getting to work with Willie Nelson. They did a duet on one of his songs, Back To Earth, for which a music video has recently been shot.

Nelson’s latest CD, Moment Of Forever, was produced by Melonie’s dad, Buddy Cannon, and Kenny Chesney, and they had asked Melonie to sing some harmony while they were tracking.

“I had never met Willie before those sessions, though my dad had met him once – in a broom closet. I can only imagine what happened there!

When I told him I had cut one of his songs, he asked ‘Can I sing on it?’ The song was Some Little Things, which we haven’t yet used on an album. Dad got the idea of having Willie sing on Back To Earth, and asked if he wanted to do it with me. Willie said, yeah and that he would get his manager in touch.

When he came in to sing, I had already sung the whole track, and Willie decided he would do the second verse and harmony on the chorus.”

Just in the past few weeks, the opportunity arose for Nelson to appear in a music video for the song, and arrangements were made for Melonie and her dad to fly down to Texas for the shoot. They all assembled on Willie’s ranch not far from Austin.

“The crew, my Daddy and I were waiting for the man to show up at the town ‘Headquarters’ as it’s called. A black pick up truck came whizzing towards us, dust and gravel flying everywhere. And lo and behold, it was Willie! He asked if we were ready for him and the crew said yes.

He spun gravel and peeled off instead of getting out. In my mind I was thinking, ‘I hope they got the shot!’

Then, from the same direction the truck had flown into came a man on a horse, dressed all in black, from his cowboy hat to his boots. Just like you’d see in an old western movie except this was not someone acting.

I could go on forever, but I’ll just say one more thing about the video… It will be as magical as it was seeing Mr. Willie Nelson come galloping up that September morning on ‘Slim.’

This will be one of my most treasured memories I will ever have!!”

The new Melonie Cannon CD will be available from Rural Rhythm Records on October 7, and sample audio from all 12 tracks is up now online. No word yet on when the video will be released.

Melonie Cannon’s new CD, And The Wheels Turn – her first with Rural Rhythm Records – isn’t due until October 7, but there is a good bit of buzz building up already. A single, I Call It Gone, has been circulated to bluegrass radio and word of a duet video with Willie Nelson has just slipped out.

I had a chance recently to discuss all this with Melonie, and her excitement about the new project was evident throughout our conversation.

“We just wanted to make a record as good or better as the last one. I found a place for my voice that feels like home in acoustic music, and I don’t want to change it. This is the most natural and organic I’ve ever felt about my singing in my life.”

She had one previous self-titled release on Skaggs Family Records in 2004, and my impression of her was based solely on the glamour photos that had been associated with that project. I had expected an urbane, sophisticated woman-of-the-world, but when we first spoke, the voice I heard was as country as they come.

“Lord no… I’m the furthest thing from that glamour image! Shoot, I’m the biggest redneck there is.”

Melonie comes by her music chops naturally. Her dad is Nashville songwriting and producing legend, Buddy Cannon, whose credits include work with Shania Twain, Vern Gosdin and Mel Tillis. She grew up around country music and top country singers, but discovered bluegrass on her own as a girl.

“I was raised in the country world, and that was the music I heard. My dad worked for Mel Tillis when we were young, and I grew up with his kids – Pam Tillis was our baby sitter.

Still, my family had connections to bluegrass from way back. Daddy played in bluegrass bands in Lexington before he started playing country. My great uncle Dalton Tate gave my dad his first guitar, and he was a bluegrasser. He and his friends – all in their 80s – still get together every week to pick and sing.

I went to school with Deanie Richardson [New Coon Creek Girls/Patty Loveless] since first grade, and later married her brother. She started teaching me songs from the bluegrass and folk world when we were teenagers. (more…)