SHINEDOWN's BRENT SMITH And ZACH MYERS Perform KENNY WAYNE SHEPARD, SOUL ASYLUM (Video)

Atlantic Records has announced the release of "(Acoustic Sessions)", the forthcoming EP from SMITH & MYERS, better known to rock fans everywhere as Brent Smith and Zach Myers of SHINEDOWN. The EP arrives on the iTunes Store and at all leading digital retailers on January 28.

"(Acoustic Sessions)" sees Smith and Myers tackling a half dozen classic songs by such legendary artists as THE CLASH, METALLICA, Otis Redding, Kenny Wayne Shepard — who makes a surprise cameo on the recording of his own "Blue On Black" — BLACK CROWES and SOUL ASYLUM, all selected by SHINEDOWN fans as the tracks they'd most like the band to cover. The stripped-down recording sessions were filmed in their entirety by SHINEDOWN's longtime collaborator, filmmaker Darren Doane, resulting in intimate companion videos for each of the EP's six tracks. The fifth and sixth songs/videos from the collection to be unveiled, KENNY WAYNE SHEPARD's "Blue On Black" and SOUL ASYLUM's "Runaway Train", can be seen below. Videos for each of the EP's remaining tracks will premiere there daily leading up to the collection's January 28 release day.

"This is for the fans," says Smith. "They picked the songs and we recorded them — it's as simple as that. And I must say that our audience has great taste."

According to The Pulse Of Radio, SHINEDOWN initially planned to release an album of acoustic cover songs this year, but the original 10-song set turned into a six-track EP somewhere along the way. Smith told The Pulse Of Radio that the band's idea of posting videos on YouTube of them recording all 10 songs was what caused the problem. "Some of the artists were cool with letting us put them up, like basically on YouTube, and like show the video of the song being recorded," he said. "Some of the artists were cool with the video and some of the artists weren't cool with the video, and that's totally their decision. So the first six were approved and good to go and you could show the video with it and everything else, so those are the first six that we're gonna release."

The four songs left off the EP — which include BON JOVI's "Wanted Dead Or Alive" and ADELE's "Someone Like You" — will eventually surface without videos on iTunes.

SMITH & MYERS - "(Acoustic Sessions)" EP track listing:

01. London Calling (originally performed by THE CLASH)
02. Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay (originally performed by OTIS REDDING)
03. Nothing Else Matters (originally performed by METALLICA)
04. She Talks To Angels (originally performed by BLACK CROWES)
05. Blue On Black (originally performed by KENNY WAYNE SHEPARD)
06. Runaway Train (originally performed by SOUL ASYLUM)