Brandi Carlile, Jimmie Allen, Glen Campbell Featured on New Elton John Album
Like many artists, Elton John spent at least part of his time in quarantine due to COVID-19 leaning into his creativity. The music legend has announced The Lockdown Sessions, his latest album, and it features several country names.
The album is certainly a collaborative effort, as John's list of special guests includes nearly two dozen artists. Among them are Brandi Carlile, Jimmie Allen and Glen Campbell, each of whom perform with John on one of 16 songs. Per Allen, he wrote his song, "Beauty in the Bones," with Phil Bentley, Taylor Bird and Bruce Roberts.
Carlile, meanwhile, appears on a song called "Simple Things." John's collaboration with the late Campbell, who died in 2017, is on the song "I'm Not Gonna Miss You." That particular track was Campbell's final song.
Though it may seem natural that creatives stuck inside would use that time creating, John hadn’t actually planned to do so. “The last thing I expected to do during lockdown was make an album,” he says in his Instagram post. “But, as the pandemic went on, one-off projects kept cropping up.”
The Lockdown Sessions is a throwback to a time in John’s life when he wasn’t the global superstar he is today, but was instead a session musician. Though he says the material he was creating was out of his comfort zone, he describes the music as “interesting and diverse stuff that was completely different to anything I’m known for” — though the processes he used to create music while in quarantine was not.
“I realized there was something weirdly familiar about working like this,” John adds. "At the start of my career, in the late '60s, I worked as a session musician. Working with different artists during lockdown reminded me of that. I’d come full circle: I was a session musician again. And it was a blast.”
The Lockdown Sessions is due out on Oct. 22, and is currently available for pre-order.