On August 7, the soundtrack to the new Ethan Hawke film "the Hottest State" will be released. The soundtrack features sixteen songs, plus two score passages, all recorded exclusively for the film. Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Jesse Harris composed the score and wrote all the music for the soundtrack and serves as the album\'s co-executive producer along with Hawke. Together they assembled a peerless group of artists to record Harris\' songs: Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Cat Power, Bright Eyes, Feist, The Black Keys, M. Ward, Brad Mehldau, Tony Scherr and Argentinean newcomer, Rocha, whose song "Never See You" is performed in the film and soundtrack three times in both English and Spanish. Jesse Harris also appears in the film. The soundtrack will be released through Hickory Records.
"From our first conversation, I was overwhelmed by the quality of Jesse\'s songwriting and how perfectly matched it was to my aspirations for the tone and mood of the film," recalls Ethan Hawke. He continues, "An idea began to develop: What if we scored the film entirely with original songs written by Jesse and performed by contemporary artists hand-picked to match certain scenes? To my mind this would give the entire film a continuity of authorship while still providing massive shifts in energy."
Harris, who has known Hawke since the early 1990s, has released six albums as a solo artist. His songs have been recorded by Madeleine Peyroux, Pat Metheny, and Lizz Wright, and in 2003, he won a Song of the Year Grammy, for writing Norah Jones\' smash hit "Don\'t Know Why."
Adapted by Ethan Hawke from his novel of the same name, \'The Hottest State\' is a bittersweet romance that distills the joy, pain, erotic highs, and emotional lows of first love. Hawke directs and co-stars in the film along with Mark Webber (`Broken Flowers\'); Oscar-nominees Catalina Sandino Moreno (`Maria Full Of Grace\'), Laura Linney (`Mystic River,\' `The Squid and the Whale\'), and Michelle Williams (`Brokeback Mountain\'); and Sonia Braga (`Kiss Of The Spider Woman\').
Hickory Records is an imprint of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. \'The Hottest State\' soundtrack follows the debut album from American Idol finalist Elliott Yamin, released on Hickory earlier this year.
\'THE HOTTEST STATE\' TRACK LISTING \'
01 Rocha - "Ya No Te Veria Mas (Never See You)"
02 Willie Nelson - "Always Seem to Get Things Wrong"
03 Feist - "Somewhere Down the Road"
04 Bright Eyes - "Big Old House"
05 Emmylou Harris - "The Speed of Sound"
06 Jesse Harris - "It Will Stay With Us"
07 The Black Keys - "If You Ever Slip"
08 M. Ward - "Crooked Lines"
09 Norah Jones - "World of Trouble"
10 Brad Mehldau - "Never See You"
11 Cat Power - "It\'s Alright to Fail"
12 Jesse Harris - "One Day the Dam Will Break"
13 Tony Scherr - "You, the Queen"
14 "Morning in a Strange City (Cafe)"
15 Rocha - "No More"
16 Jesse Harris - "Dear Dorothy"
17 Rocha - "Never See You"
18 "There Are No Second Chances"