Obviously tastes vary and Kevin would probably like a few of Willie’s albums that I consider to be garbage, just as I regard Alan Jackson’s lastest album as the weakest of his career as an album, despite a number of excellent songs

First, thanks for all of the intelligent and thoughtful comments! If you ever want to write for the site, you are more than welcome to!

You make an interesting and very valid point regarding Wilson being criticized for repeating herself. It is definitely true that male artists get away with that all the time. From my point of view, that’s why I tend not to enjoy many male country artists, and why it was the female country artists of the early nineties that hooked me into the format. Every album was different, with its own sound. You can put all of Kathy Mattea’s albums on shuffle, and still tell by the sound of the track which album it came from. Same with Patty Loveless and Pam Tillis.

That’s the standard I’m comparing Gretchen against (and I do it with the male artists, too.) I absolutely love the most recent Alan Jackson album, and it’s precisely because it’s so different from what he’s done before. I always buy Willie Nelson records as soon as they come out to hear what he’s experimenting with this time around.

As for Gretchen, I liked her first album but she’s lost my interest over time. I think it’s not just that she’s repeating herself thematically, but that the songs and performances are getting less interesting as she goes along. I thought “When It Rains” from her first disc was incredibly clever, and “Chariot” made me think she was going to push some boundaries with the format. Now she just sounds like she’s in a rut to me.

And I’ll be honest, never understood the whole “she just does the same thing every time” argument. How many guys can we say the exact same thing about, who have been doing the exact same type of songs year after year, album after album. I do feel its a bit of double standard.

I think if you are a singer I think your damn lucky to find what works for you pretty early instead of just jumping from one style to the next to the next trying to find what fits.

Do you really want to her sing some kind of Martina-type song. I don’t think it would sound believable at all. Its just not her. I think she sings the songs that she can relate to or that fit her well.

I will agree that “Heaven Help Me” sounded better on the DVD that came with her book. It was a stripped down acoustic version with just her, a banjo and guitar. That was the version they should have used.

Best track is actually the bonus track at Circuit City “Wasting Whiskey”….a knockout song…best she might have ever done. Darn shame it will never get released to radio. This is the type of song Loretta or Tammy would have sung years ago and had a massive hit with.

I do feel that she has almost exhausted this vein of music and will need to diversify her approach in future albums in order to remain interesting