Paul Carrack, best known for his soulful singing on such hits as “How Long” with Ace, “Tempted” by Squeeze, and “The Living Years” by Mike + the Mechanics, is exploring his love of country music with a new album. The Country Side Of Paul Carrack: Volume 1, arrives August 8, 2025 (and Aug. 1 in the U.K.), via his own label. It’s available for pre-order on CD or LP here and here. Listen to many of the tracks below.

“The man with the golden voice,” as Carrack’s fans know him, flew to Nashville to record it with a stellar cast of local musicians. The album was produced by Steven Wood.

“Growing up, I was hungry for any kind of music,” says Carrack, “but I would listen to people like Chet Atkins, Hank Williams, the Everly Brothers, and I particularly loved to hear Ray Charles. Of course, he was predominantly known for his soul and jazz stuff, but he was also a great country singer. Then when I was gigging across America with Nick Lowe in the ‘80s, country was all we’d play on the bus: George Jones, Willie Nelson and more obscure stuff like the Osborne Brothers. So, I’ve always wanted to do this.”

From the announcement: The Country Side of Paul Carrack is the result of a chance email from Wood, a North Carolina-based country and gospel artist and producer, asking if he could cover one of Carrack’s songs, “Lighten Up Your Mood.” Carrack checked out Wood’s work, loved what he heard and offered to sing and play on the recording. A long-distance friendship blossomed and after lengthy discussions about the breadth and depth of the country genre, they fell into producing the album Carrack had long wanted to make.

The Country Side of Paul Carrack focuses on music from the ‘50s to the ‘70s. The pair selected classics from Hank Williams, Ray Charles, George Jones, Hank Snow and others, plus two of Paul’s self-penned songs: the Eagles hit he co-wrote, “Love Will Keep Us Alive,” and the Carrack-Difford composition, “Cold Light of Day,” each re-imagined by Wood and the six-piece band of Nashville session players he assembled to record them.

Carrack has a 2026 tour planned. Tickets are available here.

The Country Side Of Paul Carrack: Volume 1 Tracklist
Sea Of Heartbreak
Take Me
Love Will Keep Us Alive
Heartaches By The Number
Shelly’s Winter Love
Cold Light Of Day
It Don’t Hurt Anymore
Take These Chains From My Heart
I Saw The Light
My Baby’s Gone

Related: Our archival interview with Carrack