Nashville music publisher Hadley Music Group has launched its label with a bluegrass release by singer songwriter Donna Ulisse. Ulisse was signed to Atlantic Records in the 90’s and received much critical acclaim as a traditional country vocalist. She has been writing for Uncle Hadley Music for the past several years and was naturally writing so much bluegrass material that the publisher brought in guitarist Keith Sewell to produce a project with her. The CD is titled “When I Look Back” with 14 cuts all written or co-written by Ulisse. Other musicians with Sewell on the project are: Scott Vestal, Andy Leftwich, Byron House, Randy Kohrs and Jesse Cobb with guest vocalists Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle, Wendy Sewell and Rick Stanley as well as Keith Sewell.
Ulisse has long been one of the most respected vocalists within the Nashville music industry. When she came to town in the 1980’s she immediately began working as a session singer doing lead and harmony vocals for writers and publishers. Her first session ever as a harmony singer was on a Jerry Reed session. During her time on Atlantic Records she released three singles and two videos and appeared on Hee Haw, Nashville Now and the network show Hot Country Nights with Merle Haggard, Crystal Gayle and Suzy Boggus. After her deal with Atlantic ended, a good friend who was a label head suggested she focus on songwriting and find her true voice through her writing and she took his advice to heart. “When I Look Back” is the result of her journey.
Before moving to Nashville she worked in a local western swing band in the Tidewater area of Virginia where she met and married Rick Stanley, being fully indoctrinated into a bluegrass family when Rick’s cousin Ralph Stanley along with the Clinch Mountain Boys performed at their wedding reception. Ulisse laughs and says, “I knew it was a big deal when people started trying to buy tickets to our reception!”
Hadley Music Group feels that the time is right for publishers who have signed singer songwriters to look at all the new opportunities for taking music into the marketplace and think more like a label when they are taking these writers into the studio to demo their songs.
Ulisse is already writing toward her next bluegrass CD showing a real commitment to the genre and is excited and grateful for the warm response she is already getting from bluegrass radio. For more information on Donna Ulisse visit her website at: www.DonnaUlisse.com
