''Anchor'' is the second studio album by Canadian

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

duo Autumn Hill, released on June 16, 2015 via Wax Records and distributed by Universal Music Canada. Its lead single, "

Blame Blame is the act of censuring, holding responsible, or making negative statements about an individual or group that their actions or inaction are socially or morally irresponsible, the opposite of praise. When someone is morally responsible fo ...

", became their first song to reach the top five on the ''Billboard''

Canada Country The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

chart.

Background

Their debut studio album, '' Favourite Mistake'', was released in 2013 and produced four country airplay hits. With " Anything at All" charting at both the

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

and country formats, the duo earned the distinction of being the first Canadian

act to

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Music Albums * ''Cross Over'' (album), a 1987 album by Dan Peek, or the title song * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'', an album by Intrigue * ''Crossover'', an album by ...

to pop radio since

Shania Twain Eilleen Regina "Shania" Twain ( ; born August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She has sold over 100 million records, making her one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time and the best-sel ...

. Produced by Dave Thomson, ''Anchor'' was co-written by Autumn Hill and songwriters from

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. After touring with

Kira Isabella Kira Isabella Wilkie (born September 18, 1993) is a Canadian country music artist. Isabella was signed to Sony Music in 2009. Her first single, "Love Me Like That", was released in 2011 and charted on the Canadian Hot 100. Isabella released her s ...

in late 2014, the duo sought to move away from the ballad-heavy approach of their previous record and "focus on songs that would translate to our live shows," according to member Mike Robins.

Promotion

" was released on March 3, 2015 as the album's

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

. The music video premiered the same date. It failed to enter the ''Billboard''

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007 as the standard record chart in Canada; a new chart ...

, but reached a peak position of 4 on the

airplay chart, marking the duo's first top five hit. " Return Policy" was released to Canadian country radio on August 31, 2015 as the second official single. The album's third single, "

Mixtape In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists mo ...

", was serviced to radio on January 27, 2016. The album's fourth single, "Good Night for Going Nowhere" released to Canadian country radio on May 18, 2016.

Other songs

During the lead-up to the album's release, three tracks were released to

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

promotional single A promotional recording, promo, or plug copy is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as mu ...

s supporting pre-orders: "It Don't Get Better Than This" premiered June 3, 2015; "Summertime Free" premiered June 5, 2015; and "Return Policy" premiered June 8, 2015.

Track listing

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. ;Recorded and engineered at * Buffalo, New York * Nashville, Tennessee * Toronto, Ontario ;Performance credits * All vocals – Autumn Hill (Tareya Green, Mike Robins) **

Background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

– Doug DeLuca, Nathan Meckel, Lindsay Rimes, Ethan Roberts, David Thomson ;Instruments *

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 in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

– Lindsay Rimes, Derek Wells * Bass – Luis Espaillat, Mike Rinney, David Thomson, Nolan Verner *

Bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

– David Thomson * Cello – David Thomson * Drums – Matt King *

Fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

– Zach Renquist * Guitars – Tim Galloway, Rob McNelley, Blue Miller, Justin Ostrander, Lindsay Rimes, Mike Robins, David Thomson, Derek Wells * Keyboards and piano – Jamie Appleby, Nathan Meckel, David Thomson, Chris Tuttle *

Lap steel The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of play ...

and

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...

s – David Thomson, Derek Wells *

Mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

– Tim Galloway, Lindsay Rimes * Percussion – Matt King ;Production *

Art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

– Tareya Green *

Engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while consider ...

– Brad Hill, Brad Lauchert, Nathan Meckel, Mark Niemiec Lindsay Rimes, David Thomson ** Assistant engineers – Tom Freitag *

Management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

– Alex Seif Union Entertainment Group * Mastering – Phil Demetro * Mixers – Jeff Dalziel, Billy Decker, David Thomson, Miles Walker ** Assistant mixer – Ryan Jumper * Packaging designer – Tareya Green * Photographer – Matt Barnes * Record producer – Tareya Green, Nathan Meckel, Lindsay Rimes, David Thomson *

Programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

– Nathan Meckel, Lindsay Rimes, David Thomson * Songwriters – Phil Barton, Kris Bergsnes, Stephanie Chapman, Todd Clark, Tareya Green, John King, Jason Massey, Nathan Meckel, Blue Miller, Christian Rada, Lindsay Rimes, Mike Robins, Matt Rogers, Gavin Slate, David Thomson

Chart performance

Singles

References

{{Authority control 2015 albums Autumn Hill albums