Last summer in 2003, producer Kyle Lehning ran into Jennings at a jazz show. "He and I have been friends for a long, long time," Lehning said. "I used him [as a guitarist] on a lot of records in the '80s." When Lehning discovered that the reassembled Restless Heart was thinking about recording an album, he offered to produce it. Ultimately, the band decided to use two producers, just as it had done since its inception. The other one it picked for the new project was the gifted guitarist and songwriter, Mac McAnally.
The band cut the tracks at McAnally's home studio in Muscle Shoals, Ala., and did the overdubs and mixing at Lehning's Nashville studio. "I don't think I've ever had more fun making a record than we had down there at Shoals," Lehning reflected. "It was great food, a lot of laughs and low pressure."
In the meantime, there was the matter of a record deal. The band's manager brought a proposal to Nick Hunter, General Manager for Koch Records Nashville, and pointed out that Lehning and McAnally had already signed on as producers. Hunter knew both men from his years with Warner Bros. Records. Lehning produced Randy Travis for Warner Bros. and McAnally had recorded for the label. "I said, 'Sounds like it makes sense,'" Hunter recalled. "I didn't go back and research or anything like that. We just went ahead and did it."
Still Restless has the musical effervescence of the group's earlier works. The first single, "Feel My Way to You," has already taken Restless Heart higher up the charts than it's been since 1993. Stewart co-wrote three of the 11 songs (including one with Jennings), and McAnally contributed three. There's even a song from The Beatles - "The Night Before" - which almost didn't make it.
"I think we tried six or seven takes on it, trying to copy the record, and we just couldn't do it," Dittrich admitted. "We were about ready to scrap it, and Mac got his 12-string [guitar] down and started a finger-picking thing that was a little bit quicker [than the original]. He said, 'Hey, come here and sing to this.' I sang to it - and voila! - there was the idea we were looking for."
Always alert for a good omen, Stewart is quick to point out that one song on the new album, "Every Fire," is co-written by John Scott Sherrill, who also wrote the band's first No. 1, "That Rock Won't Roll."
"Those guys are all really good musicians," Lehning emphasized. "Any time you're dealing with good players, [you'll find] they're always somewhat competitive. And when they're competitive, that means they've been paying attention to what's been going on. All of them were aware of records that had been made since they disbanded. So it wasn't like having to dust anybody off. We sat down and just started going. I think they've evolved very naturally. It's hardly as if they've been gone."