Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Hillbilly Deluxe’

After the success of Red Dirt Road, the duo had issued a second volume of Greatest Hits, and unusually the new singles released from that (‘That’s What It’s All About’ and ‘It’s Getting Better All The Time’) had done very well. Their next studio album, 2005’s Hillbilly Deluxe, shares its title with a Dwight [...]

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Red Dirt Road’

Following the momentum-reviving Steers & Stripes album, Brooks & Dunn released Red Dirt Road in 2003.  This album would continue the evolution of the sound of the duo, with more pop-leaning tracks and fewer of the high-octane honky tonk that defined their 1990s work.
Another generous helping of music from the duo – the 15 tracks [...]

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Steers & Stripes’

1999’s Tight Rope was a commercial failure by Brooks & Dunn’s standards; it yielded no major radio hits and became the duo’s first studio album not to be certified platinum. Not surprisingly, they made some some changes for their next project, in their attempts to break out of the artistic and commercial rut in [...]

Album Review: Brooks and Dunn – ‘Tight Rope’

The duo’s sixth studio album, 1999’s Tight Rope, saw them in bit of a rut. After a string of multi-platinum sellers, this album remains their only studio effort to date (apart from their latest, Cowboy Town) not to be classified platinum, and none of the three singles was a really big hit. Each [...]

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘If You See Her’

Brooks & Dunn spent 1997 on tour together with Reba McEntire as co-headliners.  One night Reba would open for Brooks & Dunn and the next night they’d switch.  At the end of that tour, Reba and Ronnie Dunn would perform ‘You Don’t Know Me’ as a duet before being joined onstage by Kix Brooks for [...]

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Borderline’

Brooks & Dunn’s fourth studio album for Arista Records was released in April 1996. The title — Borderline – is an unusually though probably unintentionally descriptive one, as it sums up perfectly the quality of this uneven and somewhat disappointing collection.
A month before the album’s release, things got off to a good start [...]

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Waitin’ On Sundown’

Brooks and Dunn’s third album was released in September 1994. Produced like the first two by Don Cook and Scott Hendricks. In theory, Kix and Ronnie had equal billing, each singing lead on five songs, but Ronnie’s lead vocals were showcased on four of the five singles. This may have been the [...]

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Hard Workin’ Man’

Following the mega success of their debut album, Brooks & Dunn released their sophomore effort, Hard Workin’ Man in early 1993.  Like its predecessor, Hard Workin’ Man proved to be a critical and commercial success and furthered the pair’s status as the new superstar duo in country music following The Judds’ retirement in 1991.   [...]

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Brand New Man’

In 1990, Tim DuBois, an executive with Arista Records’ newly established Nashville division, introduced two struggling solo artists named Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn and suggested that they record together as a duo. Few, if any, realized at the time that the meeting would result in the formation of one of the most successful [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘On Your Way Home’

2003’s On Your Way Home marked Patty Loveless’ return to mainstream country, following her critically acclaimed bluegrass album Mountain Soul. She and producer Emory Gordy, Jr. revisited the formula that had worked so well for them in the nineties, combining traditional country with the best contemporary songs they could find, drawing upon writers such as [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘Mountain Soul’

After 2000’s lackluster Strong Heart failed to chart any significant or memorable hits for Patty Loveless, she took a different approach with the material for her next record.  But these songs were really nothing new to Loveless, who had been including one or two of these sort of rootsy chestnuts on each of her mainstream [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘Trouble With The Truth’

When we were divvying up the albums that we wanted reviewed for this month, I called dibs on Trouble With The Truth because I knew I would be busy and it’s one of my absolute favorites. First I want to tell a short story: At the end of last year, I was working on my [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘When Fallen Angels Fly’

Hot on the heels of the success of 1993’s Only What I Feel,  Patty Loveless and Emory Gordy Jr.  headed back to the studio to record her sophomore album for Epic Records.    A lot was riding on this follow-up album; Patty’s album sales had been inconsistent throughout her career up to that point [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘Only What I Feel’

After the breakthrough of Honky Tonk Angel, it must have been very frustrating for both Patty Loveless and her label that her career seemed to have plateaued. The next two albums, 1990’s On Down The Line and 1991’s Up Against My Heart, did not sell as well, and although her singles were still charting, [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘Honky Tonk Angel’

Patty Loveless’ third album, released in 1988, marked her real commercial breakthrough. It was her first gold-seller (and eventually reached platinum status), and it also built on her growing success on country radio. No less than five of the ten tracks were released as singles – an unusually high number at the time. [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘If My Heart Had Windows’

Signed to MCA in 1985, Patty Loveless enjoyed some modest success on the singles charts, which did not translate into album sales by the time her eponymous debut disc was released in 1987. Her second album, released in 1988, didn’t fare much better at retail, but it did provide a much needed breakthrough at [...]

Album Review: Patty Loveless – ‘Patty Loveless’

A teenager of 14, Patty Loveless first came to Nashville with her brother Roger in 1971. Roger had a job on one of the most popular shows of the day, the nationally syndicated Porter Wagoner Show.  Brother Roger arranged a meeting with Wagoner one day, and after hearing her sing ‘Sounds of Loneliness’, Porter offered [...]

Album Review: George Strait – ‘Somewhere Down In Texas’

In 2005, twenty-four years into his hit-making career, George Strait released Somewhere Down In Texas, a collection of laid-back songs that contrasted 2003’s Honkytonkville’s hard honky-tonk sound.  The album landed at the top of the country albums chart as well as the all-genre Billboard 200 and was certified platinum.  It also provided Strait with another [...]

Album Review: George Strait – ‘Carrying Your Love With Me’

George Strait’s 1997 album Carrying Your Love With Me came out when he was at the peak of his commercial success. It followed up the triple platinum Blue Clear Sky, released the previous year, and achieved the same status itself (the last of his studio albums to do so to date). It was [...]

Album Review: George Strait – ‘Blue Clear Sky’

Blue Clear Sky was George Strait’s seventeenth studio album when it was released in 1996.  At the time, country music was still riding the wave of the 90s sales boom, and George Strait was right in the thick of things for the duration of that period.  This was the first Strait album I ever bought, [...]