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Come On Over
The come-from-nowhere success of Shania Twain's previous album, The Woman In Me, proved that the world was ready for a combination of traditional instruments, girl-power themes, and dance-pop dynamics. Whether Twain is a modern-day Dolly Parton or a country music Spice Girl is a matter of perspective. But with her third album, she accentuates the sing-along choruses and simple dance rhythms while downplaying the country elements. As a pop move, it works wonderfully for her, earning Twain a valued spot on MTV, VH-1, and pop radio. The emphasis is on fun rather than depth, of course. But no one can accuse her of being stingy: She and her Svengali-like producer/husband, slick-rock king Robert "Mutt" Lange (Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, AC/DC), load down the album with 16 songs, all of them quite radio-friendly. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
Lucinda Williams makes this whole music
thing seem so simple: Write in plain language about the people and places
that crowd your memory; add subtle flavors of a mandolin here, a Dobro
there, perhaps an accordion or slide guitar; above all, sing as honestly
and naturally as you can. Of course, it took her six years to achieve
this simplicity, an amazing achievement considering the number of knobs
that were turned. Her exquisite voice moans and groans and slips and slides--she
delivers a polished tone in a coarse manner. On the superb "Concrete and
Barbed Wire," soft acoustic guitars are punctuated by electric slide,
accordion, mandolin, and Steve Earle's harmony. Williams's
deeply personal stories are matched with bluesy rumbles, raunchy grooves,
and plaintive whispers. The entire Deep South is reduced to a sleepy small
town filled with ex-lovers, dive bars, and endless gravel roads. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Double Live [BOX SET]
Brooks's obvious inspirations for Double Live were all those 1970s double-album concert recordings from album-oriented-rock influences such as Bob Seger, Kiss, and Peter Frampton. The difference between those classic-rock sets and Garth's latest is that Live Bullet, Alive and Frampton Comes Alive all helped to rescue their respective artists from virtual obscurity. Coming as they did from still largely unknown commodities, they seemingly promised nothing yet delivered everything. Already a superstar, Brooks merely promises more of the same on Double Live. He delivers, too. "You guys already know what's coming, don't you?" he asks at one point. "And you know what? You're right." Loaded with 22 hits (and three new tunes) recorded in any number of unnamed cities (and studios, too) over the past seven years, Double Live finds Brooks exaggerating his most irritating tics--the Wynnona-ish growls, the ridiculously elastic twang--in the process ruining even his finest songs. Still, even those convinced that Brooks is the Garth Vader of country music will be brought to pause as tens of thousands of admiring fans sing earnestly along to "The Dance" or "Unanswered Prayers," and scream their way through the anthem "Friends In Low Places." (Please note: You may receive any one of the album's six different covers.) Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Faith
That Faith Hill would increase the pop elements of her music doesn't come as a surprise. After all, she's a youthful, vivacious woman plenty capable of gaining the mass appeal mined by fellow female country artists Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, and Deana Carter. What is surprising about Hill's fourth album is how she brings new depth to her songs as well as a fresher, more pop-based sound. Instead of trying to out-sing Rimes or out-dance Twain, she works with producers Dann Huff and Byron Gallimore to create a distinctive country-pop style that is as mature as it is entertaining. As her massive crossover hit "This Kiss" proves, Hill and her collaborators know how to make the most of her limited voice and exuberant personality. The album has plenty of songs that use her talents, including the initial smash hit. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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I'm Alright
Jo Dee Messina's 1996 hit, "Heads Carolina, Tails California," was a likable, upbeat slice of Hot Country that promised, at the least, more such work. Her sophomore album, I'm Alright, however, shows whatever edges Messina once owned to have been sanded off by the Nashville production machine. The we-can-work-it-out tone of "Heads Carolina" here becomes little more than feel-good, plucky hackwork. At the album's worst, when confronted with tragedy day after day in newspaper headlines, all Messina can do is throw up her hands and lament that "Even God Must Get the Blues." Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Live In Texas
One decade's oddity is the next decade's institution. Or at least that's been the case with Lyle Lovett. The Lone Star eccentric emerged in the 1980s ostensibly as a country artist, but it became clear pretty quickly that a Southern accent and a pair of cowboy boots does not a Nashville favorite make. In time, however, Lovett's free-range brand of swing, blues, gospel, folk, and whatever has been embraced by a coterie of fans who have as little interest in genres as their hero. Live in Texas is something of a valentine to them--as well as an in-concert 13-year career summary for the uninitiated. Rife with live staples ("That's Right," "If I Had a Boat," "She's No Lady," and "North Dakota," which features an appearance by Rickie Lee Jones), the 14-track showcase certifies what loyalists have known for years: Lovett is one of the best bandleaders around. He and his crack crew get big and get small as needed, punching up uptempo numbers with brass or stripping down to the bare essentials for ballads. Taking it all in, one can't help concluding there's absolutely nothing odd about that. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Lucinda Williams
Because this 1988 album produced hits for others ("Passionate Kisses" for Mary-Chapin Carpenter, "The Night's Too Long" for Patty Loveless), Williams is best known as a songwriter. She certainly deserves the rep': her "Side Of The Road," for example, expresses the tension between loving another and remaining yourself better than any song ever written. But what makes this album so special is her voice. When she sings about wanting to visit "Crescent City," she packs more sheer longing into her delivery than even the greatest of songs could express. And, bonus, Lucinda Williams is chock full of great songs. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back
To Bountiful)
Few performers these days take the time to pay tribute to the artists whose work shaped their sensibilities. Fewer still make the effort to track down those artists and include them in a project that calls attention to their greatness. Nanci Griffith , on the other hand, has done it twice. Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful) is the sequel to Other Voices, Other Rooms, Griffith's first such collection, which was a triumph on almost every level. The new album is nearly its equal, featuring performances from more than two dozen guest artists, including luminaries such as Ian Tyson, Guy Clark, Lucinda Williams, Richard Thompson, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, John Prine, Rodney Crowell, and Dave Von Ronk. The effect is not unlike that of an old-fashioned (albeit unusually large) guitar pull, with traded vocals, inspired musicianship, well-selected material, and genuine camaraderie. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Party Doll And Other Favorites
In addition to subverting the conventions of greatest-hits discs--only 5 of these 17 tracks appear in the hit versions from Carpenter's studio albums--Party Doll does a better job of balancing the singer/songwriter's moods than any of her releases since 1992's Come On Come On. Here, upbeat celebrations such as "Down at the Twist and Shout" (included in a live Super Bowl take) and "I Feel Lucky" comfortably rub shoulders with the quietly sweet ("Dreamland," originally on an early-'90s various-artists set of lullabies) and brooding ("Stones in the Road") sides of Carpenter's work. Finally, her rendition of Mick Jagger's title tune hints that she has vital work yet to do. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Pearls in the Snow
"Kinky writes from the bottom of his heart and/or the heart of his bottom," explains Captain Midnight in the liners to this engaging 17-song tribute to the ultimate "Texas Jewboy." Friedman's songs offer a most unusual blend of insight and irreverence, of scathing social commentary and absolute inanity, wrapped up in traditional country clothing. "Ride 'em Jewboy," despite its lighthearted title, is a moving rumination about the Holocaust, delivered sympathetically by Willie Nelson. Lee Roy Parnell assuredly honky-tonks through "Nashville Casualty & Life," a poignant ode to a mistreated Music City busker, while Dwight Yoakam dips his drawl into "Rapid City, South Dakota," a song about runaways and unwanted pregnancy--perhaps the only pro-choice country song around. Lyle Lovett invests the proper amount of resignation into "Sold American," Friedman's lament on fleeting stardom and capitalist betrayal. Guy Clark, Tompall Glaser, Tom Waits, Billy Swan, and even the Kinkster himself also issue noteworthy readings. Perhaps the impressive roster of interpreters here will show him to be more than a mere novelty--or maybe they'll prove him to be the most weighty novelty act in town. Either way, the corned beef will come by and by... Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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![Country Music: Garth Brooks - Double Live [BOX SET]](garth1.gif)
