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Crystal Sands -
The Hard Times
A cut by cut in
the artist's own words
Label – Ah-Ha Music Group
Interview by: Cheryl Harvey Hill, CSO
Senior Staff Journalist
 Her
new album may be titled The Hard Times but hard times may be
a thing of the past since lady luck was definitely smiling on
Crystal Sands when she was named Female Vocalist of the Year
at the 2009 Texas Music Awards in the same month her
sophomore album was wrapping up. Sands had co-written on a couple of
tunes on her debut album but on this one she flies strictly solo.
That's pretty gutsy for a new artist but when you consider that
Sands was born and raised in Maryland, where the state motto is
“Manly Deeds, Womanly Words,” and you combine her pilgrim roots with
the bravado she picked up while living in Texas; well, she's not
only immensely talented, she's downright fearless. Sands wrote every
song on this album and in her cut by cut, she gives you a
personal glimpse into the inspiration for every track. I was the
very first country music journalist to interview this young artist,
before she even recorded her debut album, so I was eager to catch up
with her career and I definitely was looking forward to going over
her new album with her. We wasted no time getting started:
“Every song on the album has a very special meaning
to me,” she says,
“and they are all very personal stories. I never
thought of my songwriting as therapy before but after recording
these songs, and hearing the final cuts, I can honestly say it's a
relief to have these emotions out.” she adds with a laugh, “Now that
I think about it, that's exactly how I feel when I finish the last
line of every song.”
Looking
back I see now the whole process as being on an emotional roller
coaster but I'm proud of the outcome. I think as you listen to the
album, the situation that inspired each song is almost self
explanatory, starting with the very first track.”
Track one:
Chris Young's Guitar
- “The
inspiration for this song is obvious by the title and I'm pretty
sure that a lot of his fans will relate, especially since Chris
Young, the 2006 Nashville Star winner, won the title of 'Country's
Hottest Bachelor' in a recent Country Weekly poll.
Obviously, I am not the only one who wishes I could be his guitar,”
she says with a huge grin. At this point I ask if she recalls our
very first interview and she immediately starts laughing and says, “Oh
no, don't even go there! Don't you dare embarrass me!”
Sorry, Crystal, I can't resist. You see, when she was still an
aspiring singer back in high school, I asked her what what her goal
in country music was, and without thinking, she blurted out,
“To marry
Chris Young!” She
immediately retracted that comment however, and said that she was
only kidding. I knew she was merely joking, of course, but she
wasn't sure I was joking when I said that her comment would be the
headline for our interview feature. I'm sure she didn't sleep much
until that interview went out and she realized I was only kidding
too. Now that she has put all those feelings into a song, well, I'm
pretty sure it's okay to tell that story.
As for
me, this first track is an up-tempo, radio friendly, toe tapper with
clever lyrics. The instrumental riffs are also strong and I don't
know how Chris Young's fans will feel about the song but I'm quite
certain that Chris will be flattered; and rightfully so.
Track
two: Match Made in a Honky Tonk -
“This is the
fast paced two-stepper of the album. While I was living in Texas I
sang at several honky tonks. As a people watcher, I guessed that a
lot of the couples who were dancing either just met that night, or
perhaps they met there a long time ago, and still came out to dance.
This song is about one of those couples who fell in love to a
country song. I envisioned a heartbroken lady at the bar, only there
to have a drink, and a lonely man, whose heart has also been broken,
he asks her to dance and there you have your 'Match Made In a Honky
Tonk.' I may be a bit naive but I think it happens all the time.”
Track
three: The Hard Times - “The
third track on this album is the title track; The Hard Times.
This is how I have felt at difficult times in my own life and I'm
sure a lot of people will relate to the lyrics due to the economy we
are now suffering through, but others will find that these words fit
like a glove during other difficult times in their lives. I'll let
the lyrics speak for themselves on this track.”
Sands may
be willing to let her lyrics speak for themselves on Hard Times
but I have to say that as a two time cancer survivor, who is now
suffering from COPD/emphysema, when I heard Sands sing “...but
I keep on movin' and hold my head up high / because there ain't
no easy way out of the hard times,” I fully understood those
words more than I ever wanted to. “I feel like I'm always just
barely getting' by / can't win for losin' in this game they call
life.” For me, this was most definitely the strongest track on
the album. Absolutely, brilliantly, written and splendidly sung with
gut-wrenching emotion.
Track
four: He Ain't Coming Back - “Like just about
everyone who is going to hear this song, I have had my heart broken.
You eventually get to that place after you have split up with
someone where it starts to sink in that it really is over and he/she
isn't coming back. You come home from work one day, toss your coat
on the chair and you have this flashback to when he or she would be
sitting there, just waiting for you to get home. Now you're all
alone and reality hits hard. Like most songwriters, writing a song
about what ails me, has become my therapy; this is one of those. “
Track
five: “'He Never
Held Me,' is the most personal song I
have ever written and I cried the entire time I was writing it.
Sadly, I am sure that a lot of people whose parents are alcoholics
will relate to these lyrics. I never really talk about this subject
and I have never told my birth father how I feel. Every word of this
song was painfully extracted from a deeply hidden part of me. I
found out he started drinking again about a week after I wrote this.
I don't really want to say much more about it except that I am glad
I finally have gotten these feelings out and maybe my song will
touch another father who is holding a bottle instead of their child.
I sincerely hope so.”
Track six: What Are We
Together For? - “I wrote this song, start to
finish, in just a few minutes and I'm told that I'm not the only
songwriter who does that. The first verse and chorus came to me,
just how you hear it on the album, within about two minutes. I was
just sitting there with my guitar and I could hear this really sassy
melody rolling around in my head and I just went with it. I love it.
It is one of my favorite songs on the album.”
Track seven: That Woman -
“I didn't have any particular guy in mind when
I wrote this song. It's about a woman who is in love with a friend.
He has no idea that she is in love with him and he has never even
thought of her in the romantic ways she thinks of him.”
This is a truly beautiful waltz and if you
don't get goosebumps on the chorus when you hear Sands touching
vocals; well, you better get your emotion meter checked because it's
broken!
Track eight: Lying Eyes -
“This song tells three separate stories with a
common link; one about alcoholism, another about cheating, and a
third, about physical abuse. The chorus is the link between the
stories and describes how love can disguise the truth. I have been
through, or witnessed, all three situations in one way or another.
These are problems that a large percentage of the world experiences.
When a woman doesn't face the truth about someone she loves, that
can be dangerous. If you love a man, you want to forgive him, but
some things are just unforgivable. In more than half of abuse
situations, it seldom happens only once. I hope this song
opens some eyes and prevents that second chance from ever
happening.” This is a very powerful
song with an important message.
Track nine: Nashville,
Tennessee - “I was on the way to perform at a
show in Maryland. I was stopped at a red light when I noticed the
truck in front of me had Tennessee tags. They had a couch, a bed
frame, a dresser, and things like that, piled up in the bed of the
truck. Of course whenever I see anything that says 'Tennessee',
Nashville immediately pops into my mind. From where I was performing
in Maryland I quickly figured out that it was roughly about 1000
miles from Nashville. So I thought 'Man! That should be me on my way
down to Tennessee.' I might make it, you never know unless you try,
right? Well, one of these days I'm going to have an answer to that
question.”
Track ten: Hurts More at
Night -
“This is the
first full song I ever wrote. I never had the opportunity to record
it before so I just had to put it on this album. Whenever I was
heartbroken, my mom, like most moms, would tell me things to try and
help ease the pain. If she ever heard me crying at night, she would
come in my room and talk to me. One thing she said has always stuck
in my head, 'It will get better everyday, but it always hurts
more at night.' That's when you lie there thinking about him and
its simply the loneliest time. This is in my top three favorite
cuts. I love how the musicians brought this song to life for me. I
think the music intro sounds like a lullaby which really adds a
special touch to the song.”
“There you
have it, there are the ten songs on this album. I feel like I have
ten babies. I am in love with each song. They all mean so much to me
in their own unique ways. I couldn't be happier with how this album
was produced. The musicians did amazing, It is unbelievable how it
turned out; just like I heard it in my head. I am so thankful. I
feel really proud and blessed to have this album.”
My guess is
that these wonderful songs will soon be heard in a lot of places
other than the head of the beautiful Ms. Sands. Every track is a
definite keeper and that's not something I say very often, in fact,
I don't think I've ever said it in my more than ten years of
reviewing albums.
The album is true country to
the core but with enough gusto to please everyone. I think Sands
will soon be making the transition from The Hard Times to
Easy Street.
Chris Young's Guitar
Match Made in a Honky Tonk
The Hard Times
He Ain't Coming Back
He Never Held Me
What Are We Together For?
That Woman
Lyin' Eyes
Nashville, Tennessee
Hurts More at Night
www.crystalsandscountry.com
www.myspace.com/CrystalSandsCountry
www.myspace.com/CrystalOpry
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