Good things come to those who wait, right?
That sounds like the case for Nashville producer Steve Dorff, who waited about a decade before finding "the right voice” for a song co-written by his late son Andrew Dorff and “Pontoon” penman Barry Dean.
The tune — a thundering ballad called “That Kind of Song" — demanded an impassioned and vocally empowering performance, which Dorff found in country music newcomer Liv Charette.
“That Kind of Song” enters wide release Friday. Spin an exclusive first listen, paired with a music video filmed at the Franklin Theatre via The Tennessean in the player above
“It’s a very special song, both musically and lyrically,” said Dorff, a Songwriters Hall of Fame member whose credits include George Strait and Dolly Parton. “It’s relentless in its drive. It just drives. From the opening moment of the song, it never stops.”
He added: “The minute I heard her sing it, I knew it was the right voice for the right song.”
LIV CHARETTE
And, as the song’s “drive” requires both feet pushing pedal to the floor, Charette can be heard cruising smoothly at full speed with both hands confidently gripping the wheel. For a Canadian-raised singer working to climb the ranks in Nashville, cutting “That Kind of Song” was a “meant-to-be moment,” Charette said.
“The essence of song and message and dynamics,” Charette said, “honestly I don’t know if we could capture that again. That is a take that everybody dreams to have.”
Each line of the song “brings you somewhere,” Charette said.
In the first verse, she sings: “I love Jesus, but this ain’t a song about Jesus/ No, this ain’t about a broken heart, or picking up all those little pieces/ No, this ain’t that kinda song/ It’s all looking back at the questions you ask or losing people way too soon …”
The chorus belts, “This is a song about my life/ This is a song about you …”
“Everybody’s interpretation could be different,” Charette said. “(It could be about) a loved one, a friend. A person that matters most to you in your life. I loved how many pictures it had in the lyrics.”
Steve Dorff arrives during the 49th annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards gala at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on June 14, 2018 in New York.
Charette and Dorff cut “This Kind of Song” in December, the last in seven songs they tracked together. On the song, Dorff used an instrumental track captured when he first started working on it.
He had intentions to re-cut the music, but after dusting the track off, Dorff said all it needed was a “great mix and great vocal.”
Safe to say, he found both.
“It was the right place, the right time for the song,” Dorff said.