Lead Single "Golden Ring" from George Jones & Tammy Wynette Tribute Album
HUSBAND & WIFE DUO
ALYSSA & WAYNE BREWER
ANNOUNCE GEORGE JONES & TAMMY WYNETTE TRIBUTE ALBUM
A&W SING GEORGE & TAMMY
DUE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
VIA SGM RECORDS - SONY / THE ORCHARD
LEAD SINGLE
“GOLDEN RING”
OUT TODAY WITH NOSTALGIC OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
Above: “Golden Ring” single artwork
NASHVILLE, TN (July 14, 2023) — Today, Alyssa & Wayne Brewer deliver “Golden Ring” — the lead single off their George Jones & Tammy Wynette tribute album, A&W Sing George and Tammy, due Friday, September 15. With the goal of crafting an album to warm the hearts of longtime fans and kindle interest from a new generation, the pair has joined forces at a sweet intersection between youthful passion and timeless songs, resulting in a creative crossroads where everything old seems new again. “Golden Ring,” which was unveiled exclusively with The Bluegrass Situation earlier this week, acts as the perfect introduction for the duo and what to expect from their tribute to country legends George Jones and Tammy Wynette.
Pre-Save / Pre-Add A&W Sing George and Tammy here.
Premiering exclusively with Americana Highways, the track's official music video blends nostalgic clips recounting the pair's iconic history with moments of vibrant modernity and fresh personalization, providing an immersive visual experience which emphasizes their highly intentional approach to each detail in the project. Music journalist Melissa Clarke raved, “the vocals and the harmonizing are shiny and just wonderful. Plus, the outfits in the video show high praise themselves and pay perfect homage to the country pillars George and Tammy.”
Stream / Purchase “Golden Ring” here.
Alyssa & Wayne pour their hearts into this country love song which is perhaps George and Tammy Wynette’s most iconic duet. “We have both loved this song and it’s been a personal favorite of ours for many years,” they admit about the tune. With Alyssa’s achingly vulnerable vocals and Wayne’s earnest approach & sultry twang, the duo captures the endearment George & Tammy had for one another.
Wayne Brewer, a sixth-generation musician well-known for his work with Gary Brewer & The Kentucky Ramblers, and his talented wife Alyssa teamed to salute country legends George Jones and Tammy Wynette. The Brewer’s debut album finds the couple covering such well known classics as the first single, “Golden Ring” and “We’re Gonna Hold On,” in addition to lesser known gems like “Rosie Bokay.”
“Me and Alyssa hand-picked every person that plays on this album and that’s why I feel that it’s unique,” says Wayne, who notably is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the youngest person to be on the Grand Ole Opry at just 18 months old. The roster includes some of the hottest musicians in the current country / roots landscape with Pedal Steel Guitarist Nathan Fleming (Charley Crockett), heavy-metal pianist Josh Balz, fiddler Jenee Flener (Blake Shelton), & Gary & Mason Brewer (The Kentucky Ramblers.) “George Jones and Tammy Wynette are unrivaled as the two best country singers of all time and that’s why we wanted to do this. Even though this is a George Jones and Tammy Wynette tribute, it’s different because we let these incredible musicians have their own way with these songs. It’s definitely a supergroup that helped us bring these songs to life for a whole new generation.”
Wayne and Alyssa approached the project with equal amounts of unbridled enthusiasm and humble trepidation. “We committed and agreed to do our debut release as a tribute to the two best country singers of all time. It was a major undertaking,” Wayne recalls. “We did all these in the original keys that George and Tammy cut them in, except I did ‘Rosie Bokay’ as a nod to Bobby Osborne, who cut it up a key high. All the rest of the songs are in the original keys, which I thought was important.”
Married since 2015, Wayne says recording a duet album has been a goal since he and Alyssa began dating.A friend at SGM’s distribution company, Sony/The Orchard, encouraged them to record an entire album and suggested they revive the Jones/Wynette catalog. Both Wayne and Alyssa had grown up listening to the country music icons and the project seemed a natural fit. “We’ve always been big fans of theirs, but who isn’t? Everybody knows George’s range was unlike anybody’s that ever has been or ever will be, so it was an undertaking,” Wayne says.
Yet the couple rose to the challenge, even though they were recording at the same time they were adjusting to being first-time parents. “After we had a baby, we started working on it when she was a newborn, so we waited until we had the least amount of time to start this,” Alyssa laughs about the challenging circumstances. “This was only my second time ever in the studio, but I had a lot of guidance from Wayne because he’s been producing so many albums over the years.”
Above: Alyssa & Wayne Brewer; Credit: Katie Kauss
The 10-track A&W Sing George and Tammy — coming out via SGM Records — became a labor of love for the young couple and the recording sessions were intimate and emotional with Wayne alone in the control room and Alyssa singing directly to him. “I said, ‘I’ll sit on the board, and you’ll be in the tracking room, looking right at me through the glass. I’ll track all your vocals with you singing directly to me,’” he recalls. “So that’s how this was cut, and I feel like you can hear that in the album.”
Indeed, there’s a tender intimacy to such love songs as “All I Have to Offer You is Me” and the heartbreak of “Someone I Used to Know” sounds palpable. Alyssa’s voice is an achingly beautiful instrument, combining Wynette’s tear-in-the throat delivery with a sweet vulnerability reminiscent of a young Dolly Parton. Though she possesses some of the timeless qualities of her heroes, and Wayne’s admiration for his influences is reflected in the production, the couple deliver a finely crafted project that never veers into imitation, but remains rooted in their own unique gifts.
In addition to such duets as “Southern California” and “Two Story House,” the couple also shine as they take individual turns. Alyssa delivers a sassy rendition of Wynette’s “Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad” and Wayne serves up a personality-packed cover of “Rosie Bokay.” “Our goal with this was to bring George and Tammy’s legacy to the new generation,” Wayne shares. “Just like bell bottoms and vinyl albums, everything comes back into style. Young people love this stuff, but it’s all in the way you present it, so we wanted to present it in a modern way with a little flare but still give the original feel and that vintage vibe.”
With the recent mini-series about the life of George Jones and Tammy Wynette, starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, and the recent multi-artist tribute concert starring Jelly Roll, Brad Paisley, Tracy Lawrence among others that is slated to be a television special this fall, interest in George and Tammy’s music is at an all-time high.
Above: ‘A&W Sing George & Tammy’ Artwork
A&W SING GEORGE AND TAMMY TRACKLISTING:
“Someone I Used To Know”
“Golden Ring”
“We’re Gonna Hold On”
“Why Baby Why”
“Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad”
“All I Have To Offer You Is Me”
“Two Story House”
“Southern California”
“Rosie Bokay”
“Rolling In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”