Concurrent with the release of Bluegrass State of Mind, his new album with Pinecastle Records, Danny Paisley has a single from the project to share.
Have I Stayed Away Too Long is, like Paisley himself, a classic, first recorded by Tex Ritter in 1944. Since that time, country artists from Willie Nelson and Glen Campbell to Charlie Pride and Sammi Smith have covered the song, with strikingly different arrangements. But it’s taken Danny Paisley to give it a definitive bluegrass treatment, which embraces you like a warm hug.
The song was written by Frank Loesser, who was known for his many Broadway and film compositions, like Baby, It’s Cold Outside, Heart and Soul, Inchworm, What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve, and On A Slow Boat to China. This one was initially pitched towards the cowboy song era in the early 1940s.
Danny takes it and breathes a new life into this 80 year old number, along with some of Nashville’s finest. Behind Paisley’s vocal are his son, Ryan, on mandolin and harmony vocal, Scott Vestal on banjo, Andy Leftwich on guitar, fiddle, and mandolin, Josh Swift on reso-guitar, Darrin Vincent on bass, and Greg Cole on percussion.
If you wonder how such a simple song has endured for so long, and been chosen by so many gifted singers, just give this version a listen. It’s a gem.
Check it out.
Have I Been Away Too Long, and the full Bluegrass State of Mind album, are available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
