Familiar Stranger Bottom Line:
Remember this guy named Mark Wills? It's been a while since he's been around. Well he's back with a brand new CD entitled Familiar Stranger. It's released on Tenacity Records and includes 12 tracks. If you haven't heard Mark Wills before, you might want to sit up and take notice. If you have, you'll really enjoy this new CD.About Mark Wills:
So it was back in 1970 somethin', or was that 1980 somethin' when we last heard from Mark Wills. OK so it really hasn't been that long, but it sure seems like it. Actually it's been 5 years since his last studio release from 2003 entitled And the Crowd Goes Wild.In June of 2005 he released Live at Billy Bob's Texas on the Smith Music Group label. But his last big memorable hit was from his 2002 Greatest Hits CD called "19 Somethin'."
Back in the 1990's, Mark Wills' country piano-driven ballads were all over country radio. With emotional songs like "Don't Laugh At Me," a song about a man who ends up in a wheelchair after a car crash that takes his wife and child. Or the hauntingly beautiful "Wish You Were Here." This song gets my vote for the most amazing lyrical turn of phrase. If you've not heard this song, you must. It's about a man who sends his wife a postcard from the airport as he's leaving on a business trip. The card shows an ocean and a beach and simply says "wish you were here." Well, his plane crashes and he doesn't survive. A couple days later, she receives the postcard, and the line "wish you were here" takes on an entirely new meaning.
His first hit was "Jacob's Ladder," and can be found on his self titled Mark Wills CD from 1996. It was a song about young love between teenagers who's parents did not approve of their relationship. He was a farmer's son and she was a preacher's daughter. But as fate would have it, they end up together and everyone lives happily ever after.
Familiar Stranger - The Songs
Mark Wills has always chosen to record songs that speak to him as a performer. And this is quite apparent on his new CD entitled Familiar Stranger. The first thing you'll notice about this CD is that there's a heavier guitar emphasis.The CD starts off with "Days Of Thunder." It's an uptempo feel good country rocker about remembering when you turned 18. You pick up your best girl, you crank up the radio and the two of you head off into the night in your truck.
The reminiscing continues in the song "The Things We Forget." Another reflective song about remembering those little things that meant so much. The sound of tires on a gravel road, the smell of fresh earth... And how it's where we've been that will guide us to where we're going.
"Entertaining Angels" is realizing that our troubles are rather meaningless compared to those with real problems like someone's wife passing on, or dying of cancer.
"Take It All Out On Me" is a slow sexy song about releasing the stresses of the work week behind the locked bedroom door.
"The Likes of You" is seeing the potential in a relationship the more you realize how much you have in common.
The CD closes with a sentimental song called "All the Crap I Do." Guys, this one is for us. We know that we keep messing up. And try as we may to do better, we keep making the same stupid mistakes, but she keeps loving us in spite of our stupid male tendencies.
Release date: November 4, 2008 - Tenacity Records
Familiar Stranger Track List:
- Days of Thunder
- The Things We Forget
- Entertaining Angels
- Closer
- Panama City
- Take It All Out On Me
- Rednecks Anonymous
- The Likes of You
- Crazy White Boy
- What Are You Doing
- Her Kiss
- All the Crap I Do
