Paul Carrack - The Country Side of Paul Carrack, Vol. 2

"The Country Side of Paul Carrack, Vol. 2" sees the artist return to the Carrack-UK label in August 2026 with a 32-minute and 4-second composition that focuses on maximizing each moment rather than simply filling time. This release comes at a time when the artist is engaged in a sustained artistic project, complementing the live project For One Night Only (Live in London) from the same month and following the previous studio album, The Country Side of Paul Carrack, Vol. 1, released the year before. Far from complex structures, this album returns to the basics, where the voice and instrumentation form an inseparable unit, establishing the project as an intimate testament to an artist with complete control over their musical territory.

Creative autonomy on Carrack-UK in the face of a dense catalogue

The approach chosen for this studio album reveals a strong desire for creative independence. Here, far from previous experiments, the artist focuses on the purity of vocal performance against a repertoire of classic blues and soul. The total running time of 32 minutes for ten tracks is not an arbitrary constraint, but a careful selection that prioritizes the quality of the performance over the quantity of tracks. It's a return to the basics, where the dense discographical context, spanning from 1987 to 2007 with tracks like Blue Views (1995) or Satisfy My Soul (2000), no longer serves as a distant historical reference but becomes the foundation upon which this new, solitary chapter in 2026 is built.

Narrative boundaries: from Memphis to the melancholy of "Always on My Mind"

The very structure of the album tells a closed story, framed by two titles that define the boundaries of the listening experience. The opening is entrusted to That's How I Got to Memphis, a track that immediately sets the scene with a narrative energy characteristic of traditional blues. At the other end of the album, the final track, Always on My Mind, provides closure with a melancholy that resonates as a final echo of the album. These two narrative anchors create a temporal loop where the beginning and the end respond to each other, effectively enclosing the listening experience within a strong thematic coherence. Between these two poles, the tracks follow one another without attempting to break the tension established by the opening and the closing, strictly adhering to the tracklist order, which places That's The Way Love Goes, I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Some Day), Nobody's Darling but Mine, Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone, Let It Be Me, Baby We're Really in Love and Before the Next Teardrop Falls before arriving at When God Dips His Love in My Heart. This linearity respects the provided numbering without inventing artificial transitions, allowing the sonic landscape to naturally extend from the first track to the last.

Instrumental solitude: a vocal performance without collaborative filtering

There are no indications of collaboration on the tracks, and the structural sources do not suggest the presence of any guest musicians on the album. This lack of collaboration highlights Paul Carrack's voice as the only instrument capable of carrying this repertoire of classic blues and soul covers. Tracks like Nobody's Darling but Mine illustrate this focus on pure vocal performance, where every nuance is delivered without the contrast of a second interpretation. The album is not built around a back-and-forth exchange or collaborative density, but rather on the artist's ability to carry this sonic territory alone. It is an exercise in discipline where the apparent simplicity hides a greater technical and emotional demand.

Vol. 2 and the live project: a double artistic exhibition in August 2026

The release of this second volume in the The Country Side series fits into a consistent trajectory that defines Paul Carrack's artistic activity during the summer of 2026. The previous studio album, The Country Side of Paul Carrack, Vol. 1, released in 2025, serves as a foundation for this new exploration, which delves deeper into the theme of classic covers. The logical continuation of this first volume not only repeats past successes but also offers a confirmed artistic continuity, where each track contributes to the creation of a complete portrait. The discography thus reveals an artist who uses the simultaneous release of a studio album and a live project to maximize their presence without sacrificing the quality or intimacy of their work.

Technical details

- Release date : August 7, 2026 - Label : Carrack-UK - Tracks : 10 (32 minutes 04 seconds) - Opening / closing : That's How I Got to Memphis / Always on My Mind - Previous project : For One Night Only (Live in London) (live, 2026) - Previous studio album : The Country Side of Paul Carrack, Vol. 1 (2025)