''Chicago XXX'' is the twentieth studio album, and thirtieth album overall, by the American band
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, released on March 21, 2006. It was Chicago's first album of entirely new material since 1991's ''
Twenty 1''.
Background
The album was recorded in
Nashville
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 ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
with horn sessions in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
over the summer of 2005. Production duties were handled by
Jay DeMarcus
Jay DeMarcus (born Stanley Wayne DeMarcus Jr.; on April 26, 1971) is an American musician, vocalist, record producer and songwriter. He is a member of the country music band Rascal Flatts.
Early life
DeMarcus was born in Columbus, Ohio. He grad ...
of the country group
Rascal Flatts
Rascal Flatts is an American Country music, country music band formed in 1999 in Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, background vocals), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, background voc ...
, who came to the project through a friendship with Chicago's bassist-singer
Jason Scheff
Jason Randolph Scheff (born April 16, 1962) is an American bassist, singer, and songwriter who was a frontman for the American rock band Chicago (band), Chicago from 1985 to 2016. Replacing former lead vocalist Peter Cetera, Scheff was the longe ...
. DeMarcus used several session players for the album.
''Chicago XXX'' peaked at number 41 in the US during a brief chart stay, spawning minor hits "Feel" and "Love Will Come Back." This would be the last studio recording with long-time vocalist and keyboardist Bill Champlin, as he departed Chicago in August 2009.
Track listing
Personnel
Chicago
*
Robert Lamm
Robert William Lamm (born October 13, 1944) is an American musician and a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for his songwriting, vocals, and keyboard melodies, most significantly on the band's debut studio album, ''Chic ...
– vocals, acoustic piano,
Wurlitzer electric piano
The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from 1954 to 1983. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptually similar to ...
,
Hammond B3 organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...
, horn arrangements (10)
*
Lee Loughnane
Lee David Loughnane (pronounced LOCK-nain; born October 21, 1946) is an American trumpeter, flugelhorn player, vocalist, and songwriter who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for being one-third of Chicago's brass/wo ...
– trumpet,
flugelhorn
The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...
,
piccolo trumpet
The piccolo trumpet is the smallest member of the trumpet family, pitched one octave higher than the standard B trumpet. Most piccolo trumpets are built to play in either B or A, using a separate leadpipe for each key. The tubing in the B picco ...
*
James Pankow
James Carter Pankow (born August 20, 1947) is an American trombone player, songwriter, and brass instrument arranger who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for his brass arrangements, and for being one-third of Chi ...
– trombone, horn arrangements (2–9, 11–13)
*
Walt Parazaider – saxophones,
flute
The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
s
*
Bill Champlin
William Bradford Champlin (born May 21, 1947) is an American singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter. He formed the band Sons of Champlin in 1965, which still performs today, and was a member of the rock band Chicago (band), Chicago from 1 ...
– vocals, Hammond B3 organ, acoustic piano,
Fender Rhodes
The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...
, BGV arrangements
*
Jason Scheff
Jason Randolph Scheff (born April 16, 1962) is an American bassist, singer, and songwriter who was a frontman for the American rock band Chicago (band), Chicago from 1985 to 2016. Replacing former lead vocalist Peter Cetera, Scheff was the longe ...
– vocals, bass, BGV arrangements
*
Tris Imboden
Gregory Tristan "Tris" Imboden (born July 27, 1951) is an American rock and jazz drummer. As a performer, he has been in studio sessions and on tour with some of the most notable and highest-selling musicians of all time. He was the drummer fo ...
– drums (1, 5, 7–13)
*
Keith Howland
Keith Howland (born August 14, 1964) is an American guitarist. He was the lead guitarist for the veteran pop-rock band Chicago from 1995 to 2021.
Biography
Howland started playing the guitar at the age of seven, and he played in a number of ban ...
– guitars
Additional musicians
*
Jay DeMarcus
Jay DeMarcus (born Stanley Wayne DeMarcus Jr.; on April 26, 1971) is an American musician, vocalist, record producer and songwriter. He is a member of the country music band Rascal Flatts.
Early life
DeMarcus was born in Columbus, Ohio. He grad ...
– keyboards, guitars,
loops, programming, acoustic piano (2), arrangements
* James Matchack – keyboards, loops,
sequencing
In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succ ...
, arrangements
*
Tom Bukovac
Tom Bukovac (born December 20, 1968) is an American session guitarist and producer. He is also a popular YouTube personality with over 100,000 subscribers. He is a five-time winner of Music Row's Top Ten Album All-Stars award in the guitar categ ...
– acoustic guitar, electric guitar
*
Dann Huff
Dann Lee Huff (born November 15, 1960) is an American record producer, studio guitarist, and songwriter. For his work as a producer in the country music genre, he has won several awards, including the ''Musician of the Year'' award in 2001, 2004 ...
– guitars (3–5, 7, 9, 11)
* Jack Kincaid – guitars (6)
* Yankton Mingua – guitars (6)
*
Dean DeLeo
Dean DeLeo (born August 23, 1961) is an American guitarist known for his work with rock band Stone Temple Pilots. DeLeo is also known for his role in the short-lived bands Talk Show and Army of Anyone. He is the older brother of Robert DeLeo ...
– guitars (12)
* John Brockman – drums (2, 6)
* Steve Brewster – drums (3, 4)
* Lee Thornburg – trumpet
*
Joseph Williams – additional backing vocals (2)
*
Bobby Kimball
Robert Troy Kimball (born March 29, 1947) is an American retired singer best known as longtime frontman of the rock band Toto from 1977 to 1984 and again from 1998 to 2008. He has also performed as a solo artist and session singer.
History ...
– additional backing vocals (3)
*
Shelly Fairchild – lead vocal (4)
*
Rascal Flatts
Rascal Flatts is an American Country music, country music band formed in 1999 in Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, background vocals), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, background voc ...
(
Gary LeVox
Gary LeVox (born Gary Wayne Vernon Jr., July 10, 1970) is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known for being the lead vocalist of the contemporary country music band Rascal Flatts, and his stage name was taken from the studio-console l ...
,
Jay DeMarcus
Jay DeMarcus (born Stanley Wayne DeMarcus Jr.; on April 26, 1971) is an American musician, vocalist, record producer and songwriter. He is a member of the country music band Rascal Flatts.
Early life
DeMarcus was born in Columbus, Ohio. He grad ...
and
Joe Don Rooney
Joe Don Rooney (born September 13, 1975) is an American guitarist. He is the lead guitarist and high octave harmony singer in the country music band Rascal Flatts.
In addition to the electric guitar, Rooney plays the acoustic and bass guitars, ...
) – guest vocals (5)
Production
* Produced by Jay DeMarcus
* Production Coordinator – Mike "Frog" Griffith
* Recorded by Jeff Balding, Ben Fowler, James Matchack, Sean Neff and Chas Sanford.
* Assistant Engineers – David Fricks, Jay Goin, Jed Hackett, Jody Sappington, Aaron Walk and Tony Zeller.
* Tracks #1, 2 & 7–13 mixed by Jeff Balding, assisted by Jed Hackett.
* Tracks #3–6 mixed by James Matchack
* Digital Editing – Jed Hackett and Sean Neff
* Mastered by
Bob Ludwig
Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...
at Gateway Mastering (Portland, ME).
* Photography by Jimmy Katz and Hugh Brown, assisted by Andy Strauss.
* Design by Hugh Brown, assisted by Andy Strauss.
Charts
Album - ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' (United States)
Singles - ''Billboard'' (United States)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago 30
2006 albums
Chicago (band) albums
Rhino Entertainment albums
Albums produced by Jay DeMarcus