With her second album, Warner Bros. artist Anita Cochran has taken every dimension of her multi-dimensional talent-so vividly showcased on Back To You, her acclaimed 1997 debut album-and raised it to a breathtaking new level. On her new album Anita, this award-winning, Michigan-born singer/songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist writes soulfully, sings passionately and plays guitar and mandolin with fire and bravado. As never before, her sometimes painful, sometimes celebratory musical explores the complications and mysteries of love, and of life.
"My first record was really important to me; the songs on it represented who I am," explains Anita, whose profile was raised dramatically by "What If I Said," her self-written and self-produced 1998 hit duet with Steve Wariner. "What If I Said" became her first No. 1 Single, as well as a No. 1 CMT video. It also won a TNN/Music City News Award for "Vocal Collaboration of the Year."
"I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I think that comes through on these new songs. Anita is more mature -if that's the right word," adds the singer/songwriter who garnered CMA and ACM Award nominations for the music on her first album. "I live here in Nashville now. I have a farm. I take care of things. I've grown as a person, emotionally and spiritually. I think that comes across on Anita. I worked very hard on this record to make some great music and touch people's hearts. I'm very proud of it."
Despite her devotion to her music, Anita has also ventured down some new creative avenues--once again redefining the term "multi-talented." She can now add actress to her already amazing resume. Her acting debut comes in the made-for-TV movie "Dukes Of Hazzard: Hazzard In Hollywood," which is set to air on CBS during the all-important May sweeps period. The producers, so impressed with Anita's work, even named the character she plays Anita Blackburn and used her track "Good Times" (co-written by Bob DiPiero) as the show's theme song. In this case, one great opportunity has led to another.
While shooting the final scenes for the "Dukes" film, her manager, Dick Williams received a call from General Motors requesting a song for GM's "Good Times Savings 2000" campaign." This promotion involves legendary NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhart and pop art icon Peter Max. Max has painted Earnhart's Millennium car for the Charlotte races this season. Anita's song "Good Times" will be used in television and radio advertising as well as in print advertising throughout the year. Anita will also appear as a spokesperson for GM, as well as touring during the campaign.
But while such high visibility roles may offer a great opportunity to expose a larger audience to her music, Anita is quick to point out that her focus will always remain right where it is now: on her music.
Her fierce creative commitment is captured vividly on Anita. She not only wrote or co-wrote seven of the eleven songs--including masterpieces like "Every Time It Rains" and "You With Me"-she also played all the electric and acoustic guitar and mandolin leads.
Additionally, she co-produced her new album with Warner/Reprise President Jim Ed Norman, who shared the same duties with her on Back To You. People kept asking Anita, "Why are you taking so long, why are you taking so long?" during the months she spent making Anita. The answer is simple: she's simply not like most other artists who just come in and sing their vocals, then they're done. She was there in the studio for everything-from the very first tracking dates right on through the final overdubs and the mixing. She essentially wears four hats when she makes a record-writer, singer, session musician and producer. So it takes a long time.
Considering how much in demand she's been for interviews and personal appearances (which have taken her to France, Poland, Canada and Japan in recent months), the process of making Anita was all the more arduous. She gives special credit to Jim Ed Norman for allowing her to take her time and do things right.
"Jim Ed lets me have so much freedom," she says with a slightly amazed expression. "I'm very lucky. I talk to other artists and they don't have that. I've never had to record a song I didn't like. Jim Ed also knows how important the musicianship is to me. He realizes that guys like Matt Rollings, Paul Franklin, Steuart Smith and Eddie Bayer that I've used on my albums have been big influences on me through the years. So, if there's a particular steel player or fiddler that we wanted for a certain song who was booked for a couple of months, we'd wait."
The 11 songs on Anita are proof positive that the end result was more than worth the wait. Above all, these tracks demonstrate the dimensional strength of Anita's musical and emotional range. Kicking things off is "Good Times", followed by the light-hearted, semi-autobiographical "Let The Guitar Do The Talkin'." On this sizzling, hard-country-rockin' cut, Anita delivers an over-the-top vocal and a riveting electric lead guitar solo. She brings similar raw, hard-hitting intensity to "God Created Woman," a lusty blues number on which she and Wynonna go head to head and toe to toe on a dazzling duet.
As emotional counterpoint, Anita serves up soulfulness and confessional honesty on ballads like "You With Me," "That's Not What I Said" and "Thanks For Reading My Mind." "When I write songs or pick songs someone else has written, it has to be something I've either experienced, or my close friends or family have experienced," Anita explains. "It's not typical of me to sit down and make up a story. Some of these songs will make you want to cry, the way they made me want to cry. But that's okay; it means they're helping you deal with something that you need to deal with."
Another treat for listeners is Anita's stellar electric and acoustic guitar (and mandolin) solos, which are heard throughout Anita. Even though Mary Chapin Carpenter wrote the song and Wynonna had the hit with it, Anita is the quintessential "Girl with Guitar." She's been playing since she was three-and-a-half, when her dad bought her a Martin D-35 (which she still has). That ax in her hand has simply always been a big part of who she is.
"I never looked at a girl playing guitar as being different, or that a woman shouldn't do that," insists the 1998 winner of Gibson Guitar's annual Best Country Guitarist (Female) Award. "When I was growing up my mom played guitar, all my aunts played guitar, and they all played well. Musically, everything I've ever done has been me and my guitar." "To me, the guitar sound, the sonics, on the new album are also much better," she adds. "For one thing, I got a new guitar, which made a huge difference-a `69 Telecaster that I absolutely love. It's beat up and banged, but it plays incredibly. Playing it on this album, I kind of bypassed all the digital stuff and went back to the basics. I couldn't be happier with the results."
This total immersion in the creative process of recording is second nature to Anita, who literally lives and breathes music. It stems from her teenage years when she sang, produced, engineered and played a variety of instruments-she's professionally competent on seven different instruments-in local studios in the Detroit area, where she grew up.
"For me, the best part of making a record is writing the song and demoing it in my home studio, then bringing it in on tracking day and seeing it become the record," she says. "Often I'll spend an afternoon writing a song and then I'll work alone in my home studio until 4 a.m. making the demo. I have a blast! I play all the instruments. When I'm done it's a mess! All those instruments scattered everywhere!" she laughs. "I have one big room in my new house where I can work, so at least I don't have to turn my living room into a studio anymore!"
For Anita, the new album not only marks the fruition of a long, gratifying process of musical and emotional self-discovery, it also offers the world a picture of where she is in her life right now, and of the dream she's living. "I'm a firm believer that I was put on this earth to do something, and it feels like that's exactly what I'm doing now," she says with a soft smile. "I'm finally living the way I've wanted to live, doing the things I've always wanted to do, and living the dream I've always dreamed of living...And it feels great!"
"Anita" has been released April 18, 2000.
