Exile has many reasons to celebrate as 2023 marks 60 years since the band formed. The year also serves as the 45th anniversary of their first No. 1 hit, “Kiss You All Over.” To celebrate the occasion, Exile has released their first studio album and radio single in more than three decades.
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A Million Miles Later, available today (August 25), sees the band reuniting with some of their longtime collaborators. Exile’s J.P. Pennington and Sonny LeMaire wrote the majority of the project’s 16 tracks with the exception of album closer “Sixteen Tons,” originally penned by Merle Travis and made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955.
At the band’s listening event at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios on Monday (August 21), Exile previewed a verse and chorus of each song. Throughout the playback, they also shared the stories behind some of the material. Below, Pennington and LeMaire offer details of writing several tracks on A Million Miles Later in their own words.
“A Million Miles Later”
(Written by J.P. Pennington, Sonny LeMaire, Sharon Vaughn)
LeMaire: “As we were coming up with ideas for the title of the album, we decided we needed to write a song that would encompass all these years we’ve been playing and we hit on a title ‘A Million Miles Later.’”
Pennington: “Should be ‘10 Million.’”
LeMaire: “A lady that’s not here, Sharon Vaughn, another songwriter, that we worked with on the project, Hall of Fame songwriter, she is a co-writer on many of the songs that we have written. We wrote the song on Zoom.”
“Too Far Gone”
(Written by J.P. Pennington, Sonny LeMaire)
LeMaire: “We wrote everything, just about, on Zoom. As we were writing it, we’re trying to determine oftentimes whether J.P. is going to sing it or Les [Taylor] or me on occasion. This is kind of an R&B thing. We got horns on it and Les is singing this.”
“After You”
(Written by J.P. Pennington, Sonny LeMaire, Paul Jefferson)
LeMaire: “A couple of songs on the project were written some time ago. This is one in particular [with] right here, my pal Paul Jefferson. Paul, J.P. and I wrote this around 2010 at my office on South Street here. We were writing and I put together from GarageBand on a CD, just a drum track. It’s kind of a retro-sounding drum track and from that, we wrote this song.”
“Daydreamin’”
(Written by J.P. Pennington, Suzie Pennington, Jessie Brassfield, Chadley Brassfield)
Pennington: “Wrote this with my family. Wrote with my wife Suzie, and my daughter Jessie and her husband Chadley. We wrote this on FaceTime.”
“Valentine Sky”
(Written by Sonny LeMaire, Sharon Vaughn)
LeMaire: “This one has a bit of a story. It was written back in 2004. The inspiration came from my child over here, my youngest child, Chloe. Her birthday is February 15, Valentine’s Day, and the day before we were going to Kroger to get some groceries. That night as she was sitting in the car seat [while I was] driving into the market and she said, ‘Daddy, a Valentine sky.’ I was writing the next day with Sharon Vaughn, and we had already started a song. I said, ‘Wait, I gotta tell you what happened.’ And so we wrote this in about a half an hour, and we wanted it to be a lullaby. Something that fathers or parents would sing for the kids and I played for the guys we did a demo. They loved it.”
“Paint the Town”
(Written by J.P Pennington, Sonny LeMaire, Sharon Vaughn)
Pennington: “This is kind of a protest song.”
LeMaire: “In a way. I read in The Tennesseean, the morning the story broke about Ernest Tubb Record Shop closing down. They were getting rid of it and I thought, ‘They’re getting rid of everything in Nashville. Studios, all kinds of places [on Music Row].’ This is our little protest, but it doesn’t sound like it.”
“Nothin’ But Sunshine Now”
(Written by Sonny LeMaire, Clay Mills, Mark Selby)
LeMaire: “Wrote this with my good pal right here, Clay Mills. Clay and I’ve written a lot of songs. He has written a lot of big hits, so if you want to know how to write songs, just hook up with somebody who knows how to write. Clay and I and our dear departed friend Mark Selby, a great guitar player and singer, just loved him dearly. We sat down and wrote this quite a few years ago. It’s about a guy that’s down on his luck, but there’s some sunshine now.”
“Down In Cold Water” featuring The Isaacs
(Written by J.P Pennington, Sonny LeMaire, Sharon Vaughn)
LeMaire: “We, J.P., Sharon and I, we wrote something pretty different. We had an idea so we just went with it. It’s a gospel song and when we were writing it, we said, ‘It would be awesome to have them the Isaacs on this,’ and they graciously agreed. It has blown my mind. They’re spectacular.”
(Photo Credit: Bill McClintic – 90 East Photography)
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