''Sounds Like Life'' is American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

singer

Darryl Worley Darryl Wade Worley (born October 31, 1964) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Signed to DreamWorks Records Nashville in 1999, Worley released four albums for the label: ''Hard Rain Don't Last'' (2000), '' I Miss My Friend'' (20 ...

's fifth studio album. It was released on June 9, 2009 by the Stroudavarious label. The first single "Tequila on Ice" peaked at #44 in 2008, and the second single "Sounds Like Life to Me" became his first Top 40 country hit since "I Just Came Back from a War" in 2007. Worley co-wrote eight of the songs on this album. ''Sounds Like Life'' is produced by Jim "Moose" Brown.

Content

"Tequila on Ice"

"Tequila on Ice" was released as the first single from the album. It peaked at #44 on the country charts in mid-2008.

"Sounds Like Life to Me"

Co-written by Worley with Wynn Varble (who has also written several of Worley's other singles) and Phil O'Donnell, "Sounds Like Life to Me" is the album's second single release. It has become Worley's first Top 20 country hit since "I Just Came Back from a War" in late 2006-early 2007.

"Best of Both Worlds"

"Best of Both Worlds" was released as the album's third single in early 2010, written by Worley and Jim "Moose" Brown, and reached a peak of #43 on the country charts in March 2010.

Other songs

Worley wrote the majority of the tracks with his regular co-writers, including Wynn Varble and Don Poythress. The final track, "You Never Know", was written by Jimmy Yeary and Mike McGuire (respectively the

lead singer The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of th ...

and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western bands that play rock, pop, jazz, or R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeeping and embellishing the musical timbre. The drummer' ...

of country band Shenandoah) about the death of former Shenandoah

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

ist Ralph Ezell, who died in 2007. Worley said that the song was "dead-on" for him, and thought that its second very closely paralleled the relationship between him and his brother. Track 3, "Slow Dancing with a Memory", was carried over from Worley's last album, 2006's ''

Here and Now Here and Now may refer to: Music * Here & Now (band), an English progressive/space rock band * Here and Now Tour, a series of concert tours Albums * ''Here and Now'' (The Jazztet album) (1962) * ''Here and Now'' (Hampton Hawes album) (1965) * ...

''.

Critical reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, oc ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five. He considered it an improvement in quality over Worley's albums for

DreamWorks Records DreamWorks Records (often referred in copyright notices as SKG Music, LLC) was an American record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, ...

and thought that the slower-tempo songs such as "Tequila on Ice" worked best. Of those songs, he said, "even if they're cluttered with

cliché A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...

s, they're executed well, emphasizing Worley's low-key charms

Track listing

Personnel

* Bill Anderson – vocals on track 9 * John Anderson – vocals on track 9 * Kelly Back –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

baritone guitar The baritone guitar is a guitar with a longer scale length, typically a larger body, and heavier internal bracing, so it can be tuned to a lower pitch. Gretsch, Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, ESP Guitars, PRS Guitars, Music Man, Danelectro, Sch ...

* Jim "Moose" Brown – Producer,

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, electric guitar,

Hammond B-3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

, keyboards,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

, strings,

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called " zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thou ...

, background vocals, Wurlitzer piano * Pat Buchanan –

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...

* J.T. Corenflos – electric guitar * John Cowan – background vocals * Mark Crum –

* Ira Dean – background vocals * Gilbert Donovan – bass vocals * Tom Drenon –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

* Glen Duncan –

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

* Kevin "Swine" Grantt – bass guitar, background vocals *

Steve Harwell Steven Scott Harwell (born January 9, 1967) is a retired American singer and musician, best known as the former lead vocalist and frontman for the rock band Smash Mouth. He and bassist Paul De Lisle were the only two constant members of the ban ...

– vocals on track 9 * Larry Hazelbaker – electric guitar, piano, Wurlitzer piano * Steve Hinson – slide guitar * Jeff Jared – acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar *

Jamey Johnson Jamey Johnson (born July 14, 1975) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Signed to BNA Records in 2005, Johnson made his debut with his single " The Dollar", the title track to his 2006 album '' The Dollar''. He was dropped from ...

– vocals on track 9 * Jeff King – 12-string guitar, baritone guitar, electric guitar * Troy Lancaster – baritone guitar, electric guitar * B. James Lowry – acoustic guitar * James Mitchell – electric guitar * Shaun Murphy – background vocals * Phil O'Donnell –

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was origin ...

, acoustic guitar * Scott Randon –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, background vocals * Steve Sheehan – acoustic guitar *

Chris Stapleton Christopher Alvin Stapleton (born April 15, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and grew up in Staffordsville, Kentucky. In 2001, Stapleton moved to Nashville, Tennessee, t ...

– background vocals *

Mel Tillis Lonnie Melvin Tillis (August 8, 1932 – November 19, 2017) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s as part of the outlaw country movement, ...

– vocals on track 9 * Wynn Varble – background vocals *

– lead vocals * Curtis Wright – background vocals

Chart performance

Album

Singles

References

{{Authority control Darryl Worley albums 2009 albums Albums produced by James Stroud R&J Records albums