Trisha Yearwood is back with a new country album, and back on the road

Seems like it was just yesterday that Trisha Yearwood released her last country studio album, “Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love.”

But a quick check of the country singer’s discography reveals more than a decade has passed. Time flies when you’re writing cookbooks, hosting a hit cooking show on the Food Network (“Trisha’s Southern Kitchen”), releasing a Christmas duets album with your husband (“Christmas Together”) and an album of Frank Sinatra standards (“Let’s Be Frank”), being a stepmom to three daughters — and touring the world with the aforementioned hubby, Garth Brooks.

Yearwood admits she didn’t realize just how much time had gone by since she focused on her music, but she knew the time was right to get back in the record-making saddle. The 55-year-old released “Every Girl” (MCA) in August and is now on the road in support of the project, a collection of ballads, uptempo rockers and a few duets with some big-time collaborators.

Yearwood recently chatted with the Sun-Times ahead of her show Thursday night at the Chicago Theatre.

Q. It’s been a while since you released a country album and toured solo. What was the genesis of this new chapter in your career?

A. I do so many things, and I love all the things I do. And I realized after a four-year-tour with Garth, and the cooking show taking up so much time when I wasn’t on the road with him, that I hadn’t made a new album in a long time. It wasn’t an intentional hiatus. So I took 2018, when I knew the world tour was ending with Garth, to work on music. I made two albums last year, the “Let’s Be Frank” Sinatra covers, and then I started working on this country album.

The cool thing is I have been doing this for a long, long time and so I don’t necessarily feel at 55 years old I have huge expectations of what’s gonna happen with an album. I just knew I wanted to go into the studio and play songs and make music.

Maybe not having the pressure created this atmosphere that was just fun. It was just the freedom to find songs that we loved, and I got really encouraged by some of the first songs I heard. ... I’m so pleasantly surprised that it’s being so well-received and it actually is being played on the radio, which is something I wasn’t expecting.

Getty Images

Q. The album’s lineup is a great mix of ballads and uptempo cuts. How did you decide on the material?

A. I’ve never set out to make a certain kind of album. All of my albums — this is number 14 — have been the songs you find. I’m not really a writer so I don’t write enough songs for an album. So the songs that come across my path make the album take shape. And usually I am really struggling to find a tempo, really struggling to find happy songs. [Laughs] It’s easy to find the depressing ballads. But this album felt like a cool mix of fun, uptempo songs and then of course there’s ballads that I love.

But even on the sad songs I just hear the joy in my voice of being in there. It reminded me, the whole process, honestly, that of all the things I do that I love, this is what feeds my soul. This is what I need to do for me to feel like I’m fulfilling my purpose.

Q. You have several collaborations on the album — Patty Loveless, Don Henley, Kelly Clarkson and Garth Brooks. Were duets always part of the mindset for the project?

Gwendolyn Records/MCA

A. The songs really lead the way. When you’re done recording “What Gave Me Away” — that song about a person in your life that has your number — I can’t imagine anyone singing on that but Garth. Because I live with him, I guess he would have to sing on my record if I asked him to [laughs]. But I also don’t want to expect him to. I have to make sure the song is right. … He came to the studio and just nailed it. He and I have sung together for so many years now that it’s almost like you don’t have to have a conversation about it. You just know what to do.

I’ve known Don Henley for 27 years and I don’t want to call him to ask him to sing on something unless I feel it’s the right song. Patty Loveless was the one I was so excited about because I’ve never worked with Patty. So to get to sing with her was amazing. And then Kelly Clarkson is like a unicorn. She has another gear, so if you want that high harmony that’s really strong and powerful you call on the big guns and that’s Kelly.

Q. What’s it like being on the road in a solo tour again?

A. It’s wonderful and it has been scary. It’s been five years since I toured solo and being on the Garth tour is awesome because he is responsible — I came out in the middle of his show and he’d already worked everybody into a frenzy! I got to come out and be a shiny quarter and do five No. 1 records. It was like come out, hit ’em hard and be gone. It was wonderful.

This is different. This is going back to what I call being conversational with the crowd. A more intimate setting so you can really talk to the crowd and have them hear what you’re saying. They can also talk back to you.

Q. The Sinatra album surprised many. Were you always a fan of his style of music?

A. I have this part of me that feels like I was born late. I grew up loving this music. ... It took me 20 years to actually get it done. [Laughs] But then last year when I realized I hadn’t made an album in a while it taught me, don’t wait. That whole album was recorded in four days because we used a live, 55-piece orchestra and time is money. So we recorded three songs a day and mixed after that in four days, so the whole project was done in eight days.

AP

Q. You and Garth have been very involved with Habitat for Humanity. Can you talk about your work with that organization?

A. The first build we went on was in New Orleans after [hurricane] Katrina. We’ve done 11 now with [president Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter], most recently in Nashville. You feel like you want to say, ‘Oh, I’m tired, my hands hurt.” And you look over at a 95-year-old gentleman who’s working very hard, and you can’t complain. I don’t have any right to be tired. It actually gives you energy because they’re both so positive. It’s one of the greatest things I get to be a part of in my life.

Q. What do you get from your other passion — cooking — that you don’t get from music? Or are they intertwined?

A. I think when you’re playing music for somebody, you get that instant gratification of applause and people appreciating what you do. Or you get letter about how a song has gotten them through something. Food is very similar only the applause is people [laughs] making “yummy” noises. Doing something for people that you love and seeing how much they love it is just a cool thing. So I don’t know that I get something from one that I don’t get from the other. I think they’re very similar. It’s all about sharing something you love with someone else and having them love it, too.

AP Photos