01. Strange 3:00
02. Just When I Thought I'd Stopped Loving You 3:50
03. I Keep On Lovin' You 3:13
04. I Want A Cowboy 3:39
05. Consider Me Gone 3:38
06. But Why 3:28
07. Pink Guitar 2:53
08. She's Turning 50 Today 4:05
09. Eight Crazy Hours (In The Story Of Love) 4:04
10. Nothing To Lose 4:47
11. Over You 3:57
12. Maggie Creek Road 4:50
13. I'll Have What She's Having 2:57
Carrie Pitzer
Six years in between solo projects can feel like an eternity for fans. Each year increases expectations that can often lead to disappointment. While full of emotion, there's no room for disappointment on Reba McEntire's "Keep On Loving You." In stores next week, Reba didn't pull any punches and lands a knockout of a debut with The Valory Music Co.
The provocative lead-off single, "Strange," brings an immediate sense of control and comfort heard throughout the album. With a renewed energy not felt since "Rumor Has It," her first project with longtime producer Tony Brown, there's never a doubt that this is the real Reba. There's no costume changes, no acting. Just good music.
She's a vulnerable daughter, wife and mother in "Eight Crazy Hours (in the story of love") and a woman forced to start anew in "She's Turning 50 Today," a song she co-wrote with Liz Hengber and Tommy Lee James, who have both penned numerous hits for the Oklahoma redhead. But Reba is also dedicated in "I Keep On Lovin' You," shows a youthful sassiness in "Pink Guitar" and displays honesty, realism and strength in "Consider Me Gone."
Reba wrote the book on finding relatable music. And if there's a theme for the album, it's being comfortable in your own skin ¬- no matter age, status or other unknown variables called life.
She still has her trademark ability to stretch single-syllable words into sentences, but Reba allows the lyrics to speak for themselves, enhancing songs with her vocal prowess instead of work too hard to create power.
With 55 million albums sold, Reba has nothing left to prove, except that she's recording the best music of her career. This album proves the best music is created when you're true to yourself, and "Keep On Loving You" is clearly the best country album released so far in 2009.
A big voice that's big on girl power JAMES REED
ESSENTIAL "She's Turning 50 Today" Performed by anyone else, "Strange," the ready-and-raring first single from Reba McEntire's new and 31st album, would make you pity the protagonist whose man has just left her. But this is Reba McEntire, so instead of a hanky she's waving a victory flag. "Strange, I oughta be in bed with my head in the pillow cryin'/ Over us/ But I ain't/ Ain't love strange," she sings with serious attitude on the defiant chorus. The song, with the top of the country charts dead in its sights, is a snapshot of McEntire's mindset on "Keep on Loving You": No matter how bad it gets, her sass and her spirit keep her afloat. It's a sturdy and at times exuberant country album with big production and McEntire's even bigger voice leading the charge on low-key ballads ("I Keep on Lovin' You''), rocking kiss-offs ("Strange"), and her signature story songs about ordinary lives ("Maggie Creek Road"). Only a few of these songs ("But Why," "Over You") feel faceless, the kind of power ballads that could be hits for McEntire, or Martina McBride, or Faith Hill. Of course, this being a radio-friendly record, there's the requisite tip of the cowboy hat to spitfire women who buck the odds ("Pink Guitar") and rugged, downhome men ("I Want a Cowboy"). Tellingly, "She's Turning 50 Today," the sole song that really aims for the heart and the head, is the only one where McEntire gets a co-writing credit. It's classic Reba, from premise (a woman at the crossroads on her birthday) to resolution (she's going to be just fine, thank you).
Bruce Leperre
It's been over 5 years since country music's biggest female hit-maker, Reba McEntire, has released a solo album of all new material. Her latest release finds the 54 year-old award-winning singer and actress on a new label and the fresh start has her sounding rejuvenated and more alive than she has in some time.
Lead single, Strange, is unusually saucy and edgy pop. Just When I Thought I'd Stopped Loving You showcases funky guitar and an R&B flavour. I Want a Cowboy and Pink Guitar both rock out with twang. Maggie Creek Road is a dramatic cautionary tale. Nothing to Lose is a steel guitar and fiddle-infected barnburner. I'll Have What She's Having is traditional western swing. Consider Me Gone and She's Turning 50 Today are female power anthems. The rest of the disc is fleshed out with the ballads Reba is known for.
All in all, the new 2009 Reba doesn't travel down any highways she hasn't previously been down before, but she does have a full tank of gas and her finely tuned engine is running on all cylinders.
Whitney Pastorek
Reba (McEntire leads off her 31st album with "Strange," an addictively sinister kiss-off that the next 12 tracks struggle to match. Though her voice has aged well, few of these tunes( provide it enough of a challenge, and the ones that do often sound like something she's already done better. Such strong, (female-centric lyrics are too rare nowadays, but if they're not catchy, how will the message sink in? B-
Over the past three decades, Reba McEntire has become country music's reigning queen of twangy kiss-offs, earnest declarations of love or heartbreak and big-voiced women's anthems.
On "Keep on Loving You," her first solo album in six years, the Oklahoma native deftly strikes a balance between pleasing her longtime traditional country followers and reaching the new fan base she has cultivated through her self-titled sitcom and recent tour with "American Idol" Kelly Clarkson.
The album, due out Tuesday, is the first since McEntire switched to the Valory label after spending all her long career on MCA. The change seems to have given the flamed-haired songstress a new zest, allowing her to build on the momentum from her 2007 hit album "Reba Duets," which paired her with the likes of Clarkson, Justin Timberlake and Rascal Flatts.
The album opens with her sassy top 10 hit "Strange," which ranks along with "Fancy" and "You Lie" as my favorite Reba songs. She plumbs more pop influences with the rollicking yarn "Pink Guitar," and she stays feisty with the raucous "I Want a Cowboy." The bossa nova beat makes "Just When I Thought I'd Stopped Loving You" an interesting listen, even if it doesn't quite work.
McEntire's old-school fans will appreciate her sweeping ballad "Consider Me Gone," the swampy revenge tale "Maggie Creek Road" and the relatable storytelling of "She's Turning 50 Today," which she co-wrote. She playfully embraces traditional country with the boot-stomping "Nothing to Lose" and the Western swinging "I'll Have What She's Having."
The enhanced CD includes the "Strange" music video and her performance of "Consider Me Gone" from CMT's "Invitation Only: Reba McEntire," premiering Aug. 21.
1. "Strange" (Wendell Mobley, Jason Sellers, Neil Thrasher)
"I liked the way it has a lot of different melodies to it. It has great range, but the main reason I like it is because it's so sassy. I love the attitude of it. It's totally different, but it reminds me of the attitudes of `Can't Even Get the Blues.' I seem to have success with sassy attitude songs. This song is about a woman who has been left behind from her partner or boyfriend, and she is trying to feel sad, but it's just not working, so she's going on with her life. It's a strong woman song."
2. "Just When I Thought I'd Stopped Loving You" (Mark Nesler, Rivers Rutherford)
"This is the song that Rivers Rutherford wrote with Mark Nesler. I loved the beat and the melody. It reminded me of a Rascal Flatts song in the first part of it. It's really catchy.
"It's a song that I'd be singing the middle of the night when I woke up, so I knew it would be a great song when it is in your subconscious like that. I would say this is the least powerful woman song, because she is like, `Oh, I can't give in and take you back one more time, I can't,' but then she does. I hate to say it's a booty call song, but it does remind me of that. I guess this is my booty call song!"
3. "I Keep On Lovin' You" (Ronnie Dunn, Terry McBride)
"We were in the studio recording with Tony Brown, and Tony had said they were just finishing up some of the Brooks & Dunn songs. He said, `You ought to listen to this one song.
"I just love the song. I think it is wonderful. I think it can relate to a couple who have been together for a short time or a long time, but basically a long time. We've been through the highs and lows and ups and downs, we've fought and gotten back together, but no matter what we go through, I'm going to keep on loving you. I think it's an anniversary song."
4. "I Want a Cowboy" (Katrina Elam, Wayne Kirkpatrick, Jimmie Lee Sloas)
"Katrina Elam co-wrote this song. I am a huge fan of Katrina Elam. She is one of the best singers I've ever heard.
"I asked Tony to ask Katrina if I could cut `I Want a Cowboy.' She came in and sang some of the harmony on it too. It's a great kick-ass song that is good attitude. And I'm a cowgirl; I've rodeoed 10 years and I'm a third-generation rodeo brat, so I thought it was just perfect."
5. "Consider Me Gone" (Steve Diamond, Marv Green)
"It's a strong woman song. I'm sure there are tons of women who get the cold shoulder when the husband comes in from work. He's had a rough day and she's had three kids at home, especially if it's summer. He doesn't want to talk, something's going on and it's confrontation time. If you are giving me the cold shoulder, if you're not wanting to talk to me, and if things aren't getting any better and if I don't turn you on, consider me gone. Here's the way the cow eats the cabbage. It's like, let's poop or get off the pot. Tell it like it is. It's a pretty cool song and it's confrontation time. That is one thing that is wrong with relationships, that there's not enough communication."
6. "But Why" (Jason Sellers, Neil Thrasher)
"I love the melody. It's one of those love songs that I usually don't record. It's also a strong woman song: `I can do this by myself, but why would I want to when I can share it with you?' It's a real sweet love song. It's a very soft song."
7. "Pink Guitar" (Ed Hill, Jamie O'Neal, Shaye Smith)
"This is just a kick-ass fun song. I can see lots of little girls going, `Yeah, I want to play guitar.' When I was growing up, guitars were for boys; that was the men's instrument, especially an electric guitar. Girls could play an acoustic guitar. I remember the girl who played on one of the awards shows with Carrie Underwood. She got out there and played her butt off. That was when I found `Pink Guitar.' I said, `She's going to love this song.'
"I love the attitude of it. It's still country; it's almost like `Fancy.' This girl had this dream and she went on to survive and succeed. It's real cute and I love to sing it."
8. "She's Turning 50 Today" (Liz Hengber, Tommy Lee James, Reba McEntire)
"It's a song about a woman who found out that her husband left on Saturday for a woman who is half her age. She spent the day lying in bed, but then on Monday got up, loaded up her pickup truck and began a new chapter of her life. She went on with her life and didn't look back.
"I wrote the first two lines of `She's Turning 50 Today' and sent it to Liz Hengber. I said, `Why don't you work on this a little bit and email me back what you've got?' Two years went by, and I said, `Liz, what about that song?' She said, `Tommy Lee James and I are going to work on it.
"So by the time this album came around to start recording, they sent me an MP3 of it while I was in the studio. I rewrote the second verse to make it more personal and relate to me when I left Stringtown, Oklahoma, in 1987. So in a way it's about me leaving a relationship, but it was certainly years ago, but put the two together."
9. "Eight Crazy Hours (In the Story of Love)" (Leslie Satcher, Darrell Scott) "This is a song I was on the fence about because it was so deep that I just didn't know how to take it. And so I let Autumn McEntire Sizemore, my niece, listen to it. She started crying and said, `You've got to record this song.' I let more people listen to it and they were like, `Oh my gosh!'
"It didn't hit me as hard as it did a lot of other people. I guess I haven't had to get away. I think my music is my release. Whenever I am menopausal or whatever, I can release things in my music when I sing. That is my therapy. It touched so many people that I recorded it. When I sang it live it choked me up so much that I couldn't get through it.
"This woman has a meltdown and she is just putting sheets on the bed and winds up in a bunch of dirty clothes on the floor, crying her eyes out. She checks into a cheap motel and lets it all out, crying in the bathtub. It was just as simple as picking up the kids and she's back in life again. She just needed to go away and take time for herself. Eight hours later, they're sitting around table eating chicken and laughing. It's eight crazy hours and the story of love."
10. "Nothing To Lose" (Kim Fox)
"Nothing to Lose" was on Melonie Cannon's album. When I was working with (Melonie's father) Buddy Cannon years ago, he gave it to me. I love Melonie's voice. `Nothing to Lose' was one of those songs that I said, `Man, if I could ever record that...,' so I did. I told everybody, `I want to feature the band on this,' so we let the band play two or three times. Everybody had an instrumental. It's about a woman leaving on the bus going down to Georgia. She doesn't know where she's going and doesn't know what lies ahead, but she doesn't care. It's another strong woman song."
11. "Over You" (Michael Dulaney, Steven Dale Jones, Jason Sellers)
"Whew! That is a sad song, kind of like Anne Steele. It's a beautiful melody. (My husband) Narvel said he loved this song. He would play the demo over and over. It's just one of those about `I knew the day would come when we would see each other again. You look great and got on with your life, but I'm still not over you.' It's really sad."
12. "Maggie Creek Road" (Karen Rochelle, James Slater)
"We were in the studio and I was having trouble with my resonance; I wasn't getting my soft voice at all. During lunch I saw Dr. Richard Quisling, my throat doctor in Nashville, and he opened up my sinuses or resonances or something. I came back to the studio and started singing again and Tony Brown's mouth dropped open, `My gosh, what did he do to you?' `He lasered out a little infection.' I put Dr. Quisling on my album thanks-yous. He is just a miracle worker.
"I had been on the fence about this song, but Tony really wanted me to record it. While I was coming back in, I said, `Let's do `Maggie Creek Road' next,' and he said, `Yes!'
"It's about this woman who has a daughter that is almost déjŕ vu for this mother. The little girl is leaving with evidently an older man on a date. This is what happened to the mother 20 years ago. She isn't going to let history repeat itself, so she follows them. They are parked down by the river and she opens the door and takes care of the situation. As the song says, `You don't want to see Mama go to war.' Mama was protecting her daughter. It's one of those swampy Louisiana songs with that feel."
13. "I'll Have What She's Having" (Jimmy Melton, Georgia Middleman)
"This is a cute song. I loved it the first time I heard it. They had horns on it and I said, `Of course we'll change it to fiddle and steel guitar.' It's real sassy. A woman is walking into a bar and she's looking for a man. She sees a woman having a good time, dancing with a man. `I'll have what she's having... and by the way, that looks hot.' We'll have fun with it onstage."
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