Lee Ann Womack

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Lee Ann Womack

---

Img_capt = Lee Ann Womack signing an autograph.
Img_size =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Lee Ann Womack
Born = birth date and age|1966|08|19
Origin = Jacksonville, Texas, USA
Instrument = Vocals
Genre = Country, Country Pop
Occupation = Singer-Songwriter
Years_active = 1997–present
Label = Decca Nashville
MCA Nashville
Mercury Nashville
Associated_acts = Cross Canadian Ragweed
Willie Nelson
Jason Sellers
Sons of the Desert
George Strait
URL = [http://www.leeannwomack.com Official Website]

Lee Ann Womack (born August 19, 1966) is a Grammy Award-winning American country-pop artist.

Best-known for her 2000 Country-Pop crossover hit, "I Hope You Dance", Womack has had three Gold albums and four Platinum albums, since breaking through in 1997 with her debut self-titled album. She has also won two Grammy awards and over five awards from the Country Music Association, as well as having numerous Top 10 and 20 Country hits.

Biography

Womack was born in Jacksonville, Texas in 1966. As a child, Womack was surrounded by Country music, because her father was a Country music disc jockey. Mr. Womack would take his daughter to the studio, and used her assistance in picking out records to play, from Bob Wills to Glen Campbell, which were her favorites http://www.askmen.com/women/singer_60/86c_lee_ann_womack.html askmen.com's Lee Ann Womack bio] .

Womack became very interested in country music, particularly artists from the Nashville Sound, a type of Country music popular in the 60s that incorporated string instruments, and other orchestrated music arrangements that made Country music at that time have a Pop-tinged sound to it. She spent her spare time listening to music from the Grand Ole Opry on her stereo, and opted to take a trip to Music Row in Nashville, rather than going on her senior trip .

Womack attended college at the South Plains College in Levedlland, Texas, where she studied commercial music, and played in a Country music band called "Country Caravan". She continued her education at Nashville's Belmont University, where she enrolled in the music business program. The business route of music gave Lee Ann the opportunity to work for MCA Records, as an intern in the A&R department . In 1990, after studying music for a long period of time, she decided to move to Nashville, Tennessee, the capital of Country music.

After several years off the scene, she took her daughter Aubrey along for the ride of distributing demos throughout Nashville, going from door to door . While waiting for her breakthrough in the music industry, she focused more on her songwriting than her singing, and performed her demos for other songwriters. At one of Womack's showcases of her demos, a representative of Tree Publishings, a company for songwriters to write and publish their music, liked her songs so much, he signed her under the company in 1995. While co-writing songs with the top name songwriters in the Country music industry, Womack was finally signed as a solo act in 1996 to MCA Records.

Personal

At Belmont University, Womack met and married fellow musician singer-songwriter Jason Sellers in 1990. Together they have daughter Aubrie Lee Sellers(91), before divorcing in 1996 [http://www.amarillo.com/stories/070600/ent_womack.shtml Jan 05 Lee Ann Womack] . In January 1999 daughter Anna Lise Liddell was born and in November 99 she married to record producer Frank Liddell.

Musical career

Country music breakthrough in the late 1990s

In 1997, she released her self-titled debut album "Lee Ann Womack (album)". The album brought her onto the country music scene as a herald of a more neotraditional country music sound, in a genre that had begun to sound more pop-oriented with the likes of LeAnn Rimes, Faith Hill and Shania Twain topping the charts.

When Lee Ann's self-titled debut album was released in 1997, her label was worried that audiences wouldn't be able to differentiate between her and LeAnn Rimes, who was becoming a country sensation at the same time . In 1997, her first single, "Never Again, Again," stunned radio programmers with its traditional country sound and only charted at No. 22. However, with endorsements from Alan Jackson, George Strait and other torchbearers, Womack rose to the No. 2 spot four times with singles on Decca Records including "The Fool", "You've Got to Talk to Me", "A Little Past Little Rock" and "I'll Think of a Reason Later". When the Decca Records label folded, she moved to MCA Nashville [http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/womack_lee_ann/bio.jhtml cmt.com Lee Ann Womack bio] ] .Her debut album was certified "Platinum" by the RIAA.

Her second album, 1998's "Some Things I Know", set the tone for what the pop oriented direction of country music sought to encapsulate in the late 1990s. The album produced two top 10 Country hits, "A Little Past Little Rock" and "I'll Think of a Reason Later", both of which hit No. 2 on the Country charts in 1999. "I'll Think of a Reason Later" was Womack's first entry onto the Billboard Hot 100's Top 40 music chart. The last single released from her second album "Now You See Me (Now You Don't)" was a top 15 Country hit in 1999, failing to make the top 10. This album didn't sell as well as did her previous, only reaching No. 20 on the "Top Country Albums" chart and No. 136 on the "Billboard 200". However, the album did get a "Gold" rating from the RIAA, being it sold about 500,000 copies.

Pop crossover: "I Hope You Dance"

In 2000, Womack released a third album titled, "I Hope You Dance". The album was almost entirely aimed at the Pop market.
The title track, "I Hope You Dance" (featuring background vocals from Sons of the Desert) was a major Country-Pop crossover hit. While Womack's other singles had charted Billboard's Hot 100, only one of which reached the Billboard Top 40. However, "I Hope You Dance" was the farthest charting single Womack released to Billboard's Hot 100, reaching the top 15, peaking at No. 14 in 2000. The song also reached No. 1 on the Billboard Country charts on the week of July 8, spending five weeks at No. 1, and is currently Womack's only No. 1 hit to date and is considered her signature song. "I Hope You Dance" also charted the Adult Contemporary tracks, also reaching No. 1 there. "I Hope You Dance" became Womack's breakthrough Pop smash, which some people considered a strange feat for Womack probably because her previous releases were neo-traditional country.

The album, "I Hope You Dance" was certified 3x Platinum by the RIAA, and is her biggest selling album to date, reaching No. 1 on the "Top Country Albums" chart and No. 16 on the "Billboard 200". Womack's success continued with a string of two successful singles from her "I Hope You Dance" album. The follow-up single, a cover version of Rodney Crowell's 1980 Country hit, "Ashes By Now" was a top 5 Country hit, but peaked outside Billboard's Top 40 on the Hot 100 at No. 48. The third single released from the album, "Why They Call It Falling", was a top 15 Country hit in late 2001. It was followed by a fourth single, the top 25 "Does My Ring Burn Your Finger."

Thanks in part to Womack's Pop breakthrough that year, she received numerous awards and nominations. In 2000, the Academy of Country Music honored Womack with three awards, "Top Single of the Year", "Top Song of the Year" and "Top Vocal Event of the Year"; all of which were for "I Hope You Dance". The CMA awards also gave awards out to "I Hope You Dance"'s songwriters for "Song of the Year" and "Single of the Year". Womack won the CMA award's "Female Vocalist of the Year" award in 2001.

"Something Worth Leaving Behind"

In 2002, Womack released a fourth album "Something Worth Leaving Behind", which again sounded more Pop-tinged. It was an attempt to continue the success from the previous year. The title track of the new album, barely broke the Country top 20, and the second single barely broke the Country top 40. Womack's career stalledled to poor sales, no major hits and a misguided attempt at a glossy, pop-flavored attitude, Womack's career stalled. She strayed even further from traditional country music with the Big Band-inspired Christmas album, "The Season for Romance ".

However, Womack's career was slightly revitalized with the duet with Willie Nelson "Mendocino County Line" that nearly broke the Country top 20 by charting at No. 22. It won the duo a Grammy award in 2003 for "Vocal Event of the Year".

In 2004, Womack released her first "Greatest Hits" album, which featured two new songs. "The Wrong Girl" cracked the top 25, while the other new track "Time For Me To Go" was not released as a single.

In 2004, Womack sang "I Hope You Dance" at the Republican National Convention in which George W. Bush was nominated for a second term as President of the United States of America.

2005: Return to Country roots

In 2005, Womack released her first studio album since 2003, titled "There's More Where That Came From", an album that was aimed to be more Country-sounding. The lead single, "I May Hate Myself in the Morning" was a top 10 Country hit in 2005, Womack's first top 10 since 2001. The song also features from Womack's ex-husband, Jason Sellers. Womack estimates she personally listened to over a thousand songs to find the baker’s dozen on "There’s More Where That Came From" [ [http://www.leeannwomack.com/bio.asp Lee Ann Womack Official Website Bio] ] .The album was certified "Gold" by the RIAA in 2005, and reached No. 3 on the "Top Country Albums" chart and No. 12 on the "Billboard 200". Later in 2005, Womack won three awards at the Country Music Awards: Single of the Year for "I May Hate Myself In The Morning", Album of the Year for "There's More Where That Came From", and Musical Event of the Year for her duet, "Good News, Bad News", with George Strait. The next two singles from the album were not as successful, the second single, "He Oughta Know That By Now" only reached No. 22 on the Country charts and 2005, and reached its peak position on the Bubbling Hot 100 at 116. The third single, "Twenty Years and Two Husbands Ago" only cracked the Country charts at No. 32 in late 2005.

In 2004, she worked with country band Cross Canadian Ragweed on the track "Sick and Tired".

Womack can be heard on the track "If I Could Only Fly" from Joe Nichols' album "Real Things". Womack has also appeared on specials on the CMT network, including their, "100 Greatest Duets", which featured Womack singing the duet with Kenny Rogers, "Every Time Two Fools Collide". The song had been originally recorded by Rogers and Dottie West in 1978 and was a No. 1 Country hit that year. Womack took the place of West during that show, being West had died in a serious car accident in September of 1991. Womack's other honors includes being listed at No. 17 on CMT's 2002 special of their countdown of the "40 Greatest Women of Country Music".

In summer of 2006, Womack announced plans to release a new studio album late in the year on Mercury Nashville Records, titled "Finding My Way Back Home". The album's first single, which was the title track, reached #37 in 2006. The album was later re-scheduled into 2007, because Womack found more songs that she wanted to record, however it was never released and Womack left Mercury [ [http://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_question_of_the_week/article/0,3034,GAC_26416_5489210_,00.html Gactv.com article] "] .

2008-present: "Call Me Crazy"

In 2008, Womack announced plans for a new single for the first time in three years, once again on MCA Nashville. "Last Call" was released on June 30, 2008. It will serve as the lead-off single to Womack's seventh studio album, "Call Me Crazy", which will be released on October 21, 2008.

"Call Me Crazy", produced by Tony Brown, is said to be a very dark album with plenty of songs about drinking and losing love. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081005/people_nm/us_womack_1] The new album will also feature a duet with George Strait titled "Everything But Quits." [ [http://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_headlines/article/0,3034,GAC_26063_5938460,00.html] The set also features a re-make of the George Strait classic, "The King of Broken Hearts," which first appeared on the "Pure Country" soundtrack. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081005/people_nm/us_womack_1] One track on the set, "The Bees," features vocals from Keith Urban [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081005/people_nm/us_womack_1] .

Discography

Awards

References

External links