Turn It Up

Kristin Chenoweth goes country

June 2, 2011 0 Comments

The recently-wrapped second season of Glee may have been uneven at best (a view even Mr. Schue and Coach Bieste seem to support), but there’s no doubt one of the highlights was the return of April Rhodes in the Fleetwood Mac-centric “Rumours” episode. Trying to resist the sunny ray of light that is Kristin Chenoweth is ridiculously futile.

Outside of her involvement with several Broadway cast recordings (You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Wicked, Promises, Promises), Chenoweth has released solo albums of showtunes and jazz standards, Christian music, and holiday songs. Her forthcoming fourth album, Some Lessons Learned, arrives this fall, adding country-pop to the list.

Photo: Erik Asla, WireImage

The project was the brainchild of songwriter extraordinaire Diane Warren, who, after catching one of Chenoweth’s appearances on Glee exclaimed to herself, “She’s Carrie Underwood’s big sister!”

Following her Tuesday night stroke of genius, Warren contacted the Oklahoma-born Chenoweth, who was hired at 19 to sing at Opryland in Nashville, and shared her idea. “I had this vision and she embraced it — hired great country producers and we ended up with this Carrie Underwood/Faith Hill record that I wrote five songs for.” The tongue-in-cheek first single, “I Want Someone (Bitch About),” was released on Tuesday. Stick with it past the first 10 seconds, which never should have happened:

A music video for “I Want Someone (Bitch About)” premieres next week, with Chenoweth ramping up promotion for the single and Some Lessons Learned with appearances on the live season finale of CMT’s Next Superstar on June 10 and Live with Regis & Kelly on June 15.

Purchase Kristin Chenoweth – “I Want Someone (Bitch About)” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.

Read more about what’s going on in Diane Warren’s world, including a new Beyoncé track, “I Was Here,” that she calls the best thing she’s ever written.