With her breathtaking new album Rita Wilson Now & Forever: Duets, Rita Wilson solidifies her place as a major force in today’s musical landscape. Her fifth studio album, Rita Wilson Now & Forever: Duets was co-produced by Rita and GRAMMY Award-winning producer Matt Rollings and will be released on September 27th. The project sees Wilson return to exploring her gift as an interpretive singer, as she revisits the songs that made her fall in love with music. A collection of classic, timeless songs from the Seventies, each track has been newly and lovingly arranged as a duet showcasing Rita’s crystalline vocals alongside some of the greatest male singers of our time spanning genres including pop, country and rock.
Pre-order the album HERE.
A set of true modern standards, Rita Wilson Now & Forever: Duets sees Rita singing alongside giants including WILLIE NELSON, SMOKEY ROBINSON, JACKSON BROWNE, TIM MCGRAW, ELVIS COSTELLO, KEITH URBAN, LESLIE ODOM JR, JOSH GROBAN, VINCE GILL AND JIMMIE ALLEN, illustrating the high regard in which she is held by her peers.
For Wilson the album is a tribute to the songs that made her discover music, and the melodies and stories that defined a generation. “I wanted to honor where I came from with songs from the Seventies,” she says. “It was really about showing enormous appreciation for the songwriting of that period—how these songs are still relevant even though they’re fifty years old.” Rita adds, “This album is really a continuation of sharing who I am musically, and what it is that I want to say.”
The project is an idea that Wilson had been considering for several years. When the pandemic shut down the world, she reached out to producer Matt Rollings, hoping that musicians spending time off the road would be longing to make music. “And that’s exactly what happened,” she says. “It all fell together incredibly smoothly.”
The first single to be unveiled from the album was Fleetwood Mac’s classic “Songbird” with Josh Groban. Upon its release, A Taste of Country raved, “Wilson and Groban don’t crowd the song with lots of instruments, opting to keep it simple… their two voices wrap delicately around one another as if the listener has stumbled across a private moment between lovers.” Watch Rita and Josh perform “Songbird” live on stage captured at New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall earlier this year HERE, and listen to the single HERE.
The first person to jump on board the project was no less than Willie Nelson, for a version of Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away.” Others followed, including Smokey Robinson, with an impassioned rendition of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s “Where is the Love,” a blistering vocal from Elvis Costello on Bruce Springsteen’s “Fire” (popularized by the Pointer Sisters), and a majestic performance on “Massachusetts” by Leslie Odom, Jr. The album also includes not-to-be-missed, inspired interpretations of the stirring Van Morrison track “Crazy Love” with Keith Urban, the moving ballad “If” with Tim McGraw (originally performed by Bread), the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” with Jimmie Allen and Badfinger’s “Without You” with Vince Gill (also covered by Harry Nillson). Watch Rita and Jackson Browne team up on The Everly Brothers classic, “Let It Be Me” HERE
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