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Guest vocalists to include Mike Farris and the McCrary Sisters, Jeremy Lister, Matthew Ryan, Joel Dahl from De Novo Dahl,Thad Cockrell, Eric Lehning from Non Commissioned Offers, Chris Mitchell, J.D Dickerson from Lenny, and Brian Nutter from Keith Urban's band.

THE JOSHUA TREE 

Using the textured sonics of The Unforgettable Fire as a basis, U2 expanded those innovations by scaling back the songs to a personal setting and adding a grittier attack for its follow-up, The Joshua Tree. It's a move that returns them to the sweeping, anthemic rock of War, but if War was an exploding political bomb, The Joshua Tree is a journey through its aftermath, trying to find sense and hope in the desperation. That means that even the anthems — the epic opener "Where the Streets Have No Name," the yearning "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" — have seeds of doubt within their soaring choruses, and those fears take root throughout the album, whether it's in the mournful sliding acoustic guitars of "Running to Stand Still," the surging "One Tree Hill," or the hypnotic elegy "Mothers of the Disappeared." So it might seem a little ironic that U2 became superstars on the back of such a dark record, but their focus has never been clearer, nor has their music been catchier, than on The Joshua Tree. Unexpectedly, U2 have also tempered their textural post-punk with American influences. Not only are Bono's lyrics obsessed with America, but country and blues influences are heard throughout the record, and instead of using these as roots, they're used as ways to add texture to the music. With the uniformly excellent songs — only the clumsy, heavy rock and portentous lyrics of "Bullet the Blue Sky" fall flat — the result is a powerful, uncompromising record that became a hit due to its vision and its melody. Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal.

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusicGuide

TRACK LISTING

Where the Streets Have No Name

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

With or Without You

Bullet the Blue Sky

Running to Stand Still

Red Hill Mining Town

In God's Country

Trip Through Your Wires

One Tree Hill

Exit

Mothers of the Disappeared

 The Long Players are:

 Steve Allen, John Deaderick, Steve Ebe, Bill Lloyd & Brad Jones.

The Long Players are a group of Nashville-based musicians who have, since 2004, taken classic albums and performed them live in their original sequence. Recruiting guest artists from their exceptional musical community, the band has celebrated over 35 seminal albums over the last four years and gained national notoriety with features by NPR Radio and in The Associated Press. Their faithful renditions of LP’s like Bob Dylan’s “Blonde On Blonde” (with sidemen from the original album, Al Kooper and Charlie McCoy sitting in) or The Rolling Stones “Sticky Fingers” (when Stones sax man Bobby Keys sat in), have raised the bar of what “playing in a cover band” is all about. Their sporadic shows are treated by both fans and the band as a celebration of the music that shaped their lives. The founding members of The Long Players include Bill Lloyd (from 80’s hit country-rockers Foster & Lloyd), Steve Allen (from LA power-pop icons 20/20), Steve Ebe (from Memphis rock band Human Radio), John Deaderick (sideman to Michael McDonald/Dixie Chicks/Patty Griffin/etc.) and Garry Tallent (Bruce Springsteen’s E. St. Band). When Tallent moved from Nashville in 2007, The Long Players enlisted musician/record producer, Brad Jones (who has worked with Josh Rouse, Jill Sobule and many others) to take over bass duties. The Long Players not only tap into Nashville’s amazing talent pool for their guest singers but also for guest players, when the “platter du jour” calls for horns, strings or other additional players.

At each of the band’s public shows, The Long Players have chosen to take a portion of the proceeds and donate it to charity. On more than a few occasions, the money has gone directly to musicians to supplement health care expenses when insurance wasn’t enough. At other times the money has been donated to organizations like Music Cares, The Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Alive Hospice and others.

With an average of around five public shows a year, the crowds line up early whenever the band plays. As busy as the individual members of The Long Players are, they are committed to finding the time it takes to learn, rehearse and perform these classic albums for an audiences happy to hear their favorite records brought back to life.