"Just to See You Smile (Radio Edit)" Released: September 2, 2022
"Lucid Dreams (Radio Edit)" Released: November 25, 2022
"If I Was an Angel (Radio Edit)" Released: March 17, 2023
Chasin' Wild Trains is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Kim Carnes. It was her first full-length album since Checkin' Out the Ghosts (1991) and her first internationally-released studio album since View from the House (1988). Carnes self-released the album in the United States through Sparky Dawg in 2004, before it received an international release through the Dutch label CoraZong on September 16, 2005.
Carnes produced ten of the twelve tracks, with Angelo Petraglia and Chuck Prophet co-producing "Lucid Dreams" and Matraca Berg co-producing "If I Was an Angel". "One Beat at a Time" and "Just to See You Smile" were both released as singles.
Writing and production
Carnes decided to record Chasin' Wild Trains after writing "One Beat At a Time" with Marc Jordan. "I went in the studio and cut it with my guys," Carnes told PopMatters. "The minute I did it, I thought [it was] time to make an album. This is going to be cut one. Everything has to measure up to this."[1] Carnes described Chasin' Wild Trains as a "rootsy songwriter album" written with her friends and musical collaborators.[2]
Carnes originally co-wrote "If I Was An Angel" with Matraca Berg for her album Sunday Morning to Saturday Night (1997). Berg co-produced and sang backing vocals on Carnes' new version for Chasin' Wild Trains.[3]
"Goodnight Angel" was originally written for an unreleased companion album of songs inspired by the 2002 film We Were Soldiers. "You Made My Skin Burn" featured in the soundtrack to the 2006 film The Moguls.
Release and promotion
Carnes self-released Chasin' Wild Trains in 2004 through Sparky Dawg and sold the album to fans at her concerts.[2] On September 16, 2005, the album was released internationally through the Dutch label CoraZong. In the following year, it was released again as a Limited Edition with live acoustic versions of "Bette Davis Eyes" and "Just to See You Smile" as bonus tracks recorded during Carnes' appearance on American Connection, a show broadcast by KRO Radio 2 in 2005.[4][5] On 9 November 2005, Carnes performed "Bette Davis Eyes" and "Just to See You Smile" live on Des mots de minuit, broadcast by France 2.[6][7]
The cover art for Chasin' Wild Trains features an image of Carnes taken at age 3 sitting on a toy 'honeymoon' car. She had been playing 'wedding' with her next door neighbor, David Lindley.[8]
"One Beat At a Time" was released as a single on September 5, 2005,[9] and "Just to See You Smile" followed in 2006.[10] In 2022, Carnes began releasing shortened edits of selected tracks as singles, beginning with "Just to See You Smile" on September 3, followed by "Lucid Dreams" on November 25.[11]
Chasin' Wild Trains received overall positive reviews from music critics. Joe Viglione of AllMusic opined that Carnes sounds like "the Eagles going acoustic", echoing the songwriting of Stevie Nicks with songs on the subject of time, dreams and angels.[12]
In The Tennessean, Peter Cooper described the songs on Chasin' Wild Trains as "rich, with memorable melodies" and noted "If I Was an Angel" as the album's highlight.[14] Writing for the Dutch online magazineKinda Muzik, Jelle Schuilenburg described Chasin' Wild Trains as "simply a beautiful album", featuring songs with "a nice mix of Americana, singer-songwriter and country rock". She compared Carnes' vocals to contemporaries like Lucinda Williams and Melissa Etheridge.[15] In Country Music Today magazine, Stephen L. Betts opined that Chasin' Wild Trains is "one of 2004's best albums in any genre".[16] Dutch website Muziekwereld noted the "sparse solo guitars and atmospheric keys" giving Carnes' "emotional voice more space than the chilly, fashionable production of [the 1980s]". They likened the album's sound to the music of Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison and John Coltrane, concluding that Carnes "proves how mature pop music can sound."[17] In Break Out, a German music magazine, Birgit Bräckle wrote that Chasin' Wild Trains is a "melancholic" album with "sparsely instrumented songs, infused with Nashville country and blues influences".[18]
^Schuilenburg, Jelle (September 9, 2005). "Kim Carnes – Chasin' Wild Trains" (in Dutch). Kinda Muzik. Archived from the original on February 15, 2022. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
^Betts, Stephen L. (November–December 2004). "Kim Carnes: Chasin' Country Hits". Country Music Today. Vol. 5, no. 15. New York City: Country Music Television. p. 28.
