Fanatic is a music marketing company established by Josh Bloom in 1997 to build fan-to-fan connections between artists and the media. For 25 years, Fanatic has continued to help launch careers through the strategic advocacy of creative talent.
Friday, August 13, 2021
“Calling your album ‘I Am Not Cool’ is probably not a great career move, but I’m OK with that,” Chris J Norwood tells Dallas Observer.
Album out Aug. 20, containing suicide prevention
advocacy song “Good Guy With A Gun” about untimely death of Norwood’s father. +++
Chris
J Norwood as photographed
by Alyssa Leigh Cates +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE Chris J Norwood | “Good Guy With A Gun”
[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/ChrisJNorwood-GoodGuyWithAGun +++ Listen to “Good Guy With A Gun” from I Am Not Cool by Chris J Norwood at The
Bluegrass Stuation or at the link above. Norwood discusses
the song with Dallas Observer here. “I struggled with whether or not to include this song
on the album,” Chris J Norwood says
of his latest single “Good Guy With A
Gun,” from the upcoming I Am Not Cool (Aug. 20th, State
Fair Records), but I realized that losing a parent at a young age is always
going to be a part of me, it’s part of my story, and it’s good for me to keep
singing about it. “As a country, we need to talk more openly about
suicide,” he continues. “Especially as it relates to the gun debate and gun
culture. I feel like suicide is often overlooked in the debate about guns here
in America. We’ve been given fruitless answers about how to stop a bad guy with
a gun, but little in the way of how to stop a good guy with a gun. “I don't have any solutions to offer,” he concludes, “but
my hope is to encourage dialogue, and my hope is also that anyone who needs
help will feel the courage to seek it out. Please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255.” Norwood points out the song's lyric, “Daddy was a good guy,
and always did the best he could. He’d do anything to protect the ones he loved.
That's how I chose to remember my father.” +++ Chris J Norwood I
Am Not Cool Aug. 20th, 2021 (State Fair Records)
Track Listing: 01. I Am Not Cool (Prologue) 02. The Final Girl (VIDEO) 03. Good Guy With A Gun (STREAM) 04. Creature of Bad Habits 05. Leaving Louisiana Behind 06. I Am Not Cool (STREAM
| VIDEO | LYRIC VIDEO) 07. 85 Feet 08. Grandpa Was A Farmer 09. I Need You (To Quit Breaking My Heart) (STREAM
| VIDEO | LYRIC VIDEO) 10. Home Is You And Me 11. Love And Mercy 12. I Wrote You A Song +++ Chris J Norwood | Live
[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VpibyXuq-s [LYRIC VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejVboc8Uj50 [STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/ChrisJNorwood-IAmNotCool-Single +++ Check out the video for the title track
from I Am Not Cool by Chris J Norwood
at The Boot
or listen at Americana
Highways or at the links above. “This
video was so much fun to make,” says Chris
J Norwood of the clip for “I Am Not
Cool,” the title track from his new album (Aug. 20th, State
Fair Records). “Getting to wear fancy clothes, getting to pretend I have
fans, and win awards. It’s a pretty perfect picture of my life and pretty
perfectly captures the sentiment of the lyrics.” Norwood’s wife and bandmate Carrie Norwood agrees, “Preparing for this video wasn’t too
different from performing with the band. I lined up a babysitter, put on the
only make up and dress I’ve worn all week, had a great time singing with Chris, and came back home to kids who
will be waking up early needing breakfast.” +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE Chris J Norwood | “I Need You (To Quit
Breaking My Heart)”
[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=652HDyRNsFI [LYRIC VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfFLWwKWihI [STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/ChrisJNorwood-INeedYouToQuitBreakingMyHeart +++ See
the video for Chris J Norwood’s “I Need You (To Quit Breaking My Heart)” at
Twangville.
Listen at
Americana UK or at the links above. “‘I Need You (To Quit Breaking My
Heart),’ a duet with his wife Carrie, captures the back and forth of
a bickering couple,” says
Twangville in its premiere
coverage of the latest single from Chris
J Norwood’s upcoming I Am Not Cool. “Yet Norwood sets the quarrel against a
happy-go-lucky melody, making the song more charming than exasperating.” Norwood adds, “Carrie
and I thought it would be fun to tell the story of the song in a
tongue-in-cheek modern day context. We thought, “What would it look like if you
got to see the couple in the song’s intimate heated exchange play out over
their Instagram stories,’ and we really cracked ourselves up trying out
different filters for the video. Singing hot dogs will always be funny! Best
viewed on a mobile device.” About the song, Americana UK says, “It’s a sassy
take on the form, with great lyrical hooks – who could resist listening on
after hearing ‘I hope this letter finds you well but I need some time to
myself… PS: here are my regrets’?”Having reeled you in the Dallas based singer-songwriter makes the stay
more than worth the while.” +++ Chris J Norwood | About
Chris
Norwood isn’t cool. Or Chris J
Norwood, as the Dallas-based singer-songwriter bills himself, is not cool. So “not cool” that when searching for a synonym for “uncool”
that starts with “J” in order to complete a lame joke, this writer could not
find one. Pretty damn uncool. Norwoodis honest,
however, and in a world that becomes more cynical by the moment, the kind of
honesty that he conjures and delivers so eloquently and elegantly on his new,
very uncool, album I Am Not Cool (Aug. 20th,
State Fair Records), well, that kind of uncool is... cool? The album is the follow-up to Norwood’s much-praised 2017 debut record Longshot. In addition to Norwood’s
genial ability to say things you may not want to hear and leave you
appreciating the experience, he is also masterful at a kind of tongue-in-cheek
levity that is sorely missing from this genre. There’s only two kinds of music / What’s true and what
ain’t / It only takes three chords to set the record straight Norwood sings these lyrics on the “I Am Not Cool” title cut, a perfect example of how his economy of
words is quizzical, meta, and puts a smile on your face all at the same time. But, wait, there’s more. Norwood really gets going on the album’s second single “I Need You (To Quit Breaking My Heart),”
which is such a plainly evocative song title that other songwriters should be
shaking a fist in Norwood’s general
direction for thinking of it first. A universal sentiment succinctly stated. “It’s a 10-year marriage kind of love song,” he says
of the tune, and as if to hammer that description home, Norwood’s wife Carrie
joins him on vocals, which adds a whole new level of “what is going on here?!”
to the proceedings. Further on, “Good
Guy With A Gun” will remind listeners of the political rhetoric it
references, but is more tragically tied to the songs from Norwood’s debut album, which dove head-first into his very personal
story of growing up as a child of a father who died by his own hand. “This song is about that,” he explains, “But more than
that it’s about the ridiculous theory that the NRA likes to tout. The only way
to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun? My dad was a good guy
with a gun, so how were we supposed to stop him from killing himself?” Once again, it is astounding how Norwood is able to take such personal matters, write about them
with conviction and clarity, make it catchy and memorable, and make you feel
like you challenged yourself and had a chuckle all at once. Uncool? Hmm. Frankly, Norwood
says that claiming himself “uncool” may be an awful career move. “I’ll either
make it or break it as uncool Chris J
Norwood,” he opines on the topic. But, the thing is, Norwood’s work is righteous no matter how it is perceived by anyone
who makes judgments about “career moves.” This brand of vulnerable, self-effacing
songwriting, salted with a bit of required brainpower... it’s unique. And it’s
here to stay. Maybe the J stands for “justified?” I Am Not Cool, the second album by Chris J
Norwood arrives via State Fair
Records on Aug. 20th,
preceded by the singles “I Am Not Cool”
(May 21st), “I Need You
(To Quit Breaking My Heart)” (June 18th), and “Good Guy With A Gun” (July 23rd). Chris J Norwood is
available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom
at Fanatic for more information. +++ Chris J
Norwood | Links ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE
: STATE FAIR RECORDS +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
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