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Single Review: Sunny Sweeney, “From A Table Away”

August 5, 2010 Leeann Ward 22

Due to lack of mainstream attention, not enough people know about Sunny Sweeney’s debut album, Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame, which was nothing short of a pure honky tonk delight. Her crisp nasal voice sounds as if it’s only meant to sing country music, which is probably, somehow, underselling her range of talent, but good for the prospect of permanence in the genre nonetheless.

For better or for worse, the first single from her sophomore album, this time produced by Brett Beavers (Dierks Bentley), has a slicker sound than that of her first album. As one can expect from a big name producer, the record is tighter both in instrumentation and vocal performance. Of course, these factors are hardly criticisms, but merely something to become accustomed to as someone who thoroughly enjoyed the looser nature of her more relaxed independent project.

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Single Review: Gwyneth Paltrow, “Country Strong”

July 30, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 12

A moment of honesty, please. Just by listening to “Country Strong”, would you have any idea that this was recorded for an upcoming film by a Hollywood-born star who grew up in New York?

There’s nothing substantively different about Paltrow’s new single and all of the other “country and proud of it” songs that are out there. If it was recorded by any other new female singer that didn’t have an established public persona, it wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow.

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Single Review: Darius Rucker, “Come Back Song”

July 23, 2010 Tara Seetharam 11

There’s a small pool of mainstream country artists whose careers I watch intently, patiently awaiting the day their material catches up to their incredible talent. Darius Rucker falls into this pool, but if “Come Back Song” is any indication of his sophomore album, due out in October, it’ll be another few years before he hits that magic moment.

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Single Review: Joey+Rory (feat. Zac Brown Band), “This Song’s for You”

July 18, 2010 Leeann Ward 26

I’ve written it before, but full disclosure requires me to reiterate my biased stance toward Joey+Rory. Their debut album with Sugar Hill Records was organic and delightful. They were my first and only (so far) interview for Country Universe.

Anyone who is aware of the down-to-earth couple can instinctively assume that they were genuine and gracious and made the experience one of the highlights of my Country Universe tenure. Therefore, I will not feign detachment regarding the trajectory of their career. I simply want them to succeed and I make no apology for my steadfast position on the matter.

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Single Review: Kenny Chesney, “The Boys of Fall”

July 17, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 11

Chesney’s made a career out of nostalgia trips like this one. Here, he’s reminiscing for the glory of being on the high school football team. He’s been down this road before, more times than I can count at this point.

But I dare say this one’s just a little different. Chesney sounds older, much older. Not wiser, mind you. Just older.

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Single Review: Danny Gokey, “I Will Not Say Goodbye”

July 13, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 30

There’s the core of a good song idea here. Really. And he’s singing from the heart, clearly addressing this song to his late wife. It’s hard not to feel guilty criticizing this record.

But I’m gonna have to do it anyway. If I didn’t already know Gokey’s back story, I’d think he was just trying to imitate Rascal Flatts. Listen to the chorus, which he sings like it’s a carbon copy of the verse from “What Matters Most.” In that hit, it was “I’m not a-fraid to cry, every now, and again, even though, with going on, with you gone, still upsets me.” In this song, it’s “I will laugh, I will cry, shake my fist, at the sky, I will not say goodbye.”

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Single Review: Reba McEntire, “Turn On the Radio”

July 7, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 79

How to review this new Reba McEntire single?

I could…

A. Write something short and not particularly clever:

Turn off the radio!

B. Moan that this is a record beneath the talents of a future/should already be present Country Music Hall of Famer:

Why is the great voice that brought us “You Lie” and “Somebody Should Leave” singing this?

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Single Review: Jerrod Niemann, “Lover, Lover”

July 5, 2010 Dan Milliken 15

Country music legend tells of a certain powerful, polarizing breed of radio single, said to have been spun together out of pure cane sugar by Aphrodite herself (or her Southern Baptist counterpart, April-Jean the Angel. Depends who you ask.) The single appears only sporadically, sometimes waiting years to fully reemerge – but when it comes, it walks loudly and carries a big, hooked stick.

It’s been known to travel under many names: “Ooo, Turn It Up!”; “I’m Getting Kind Of Sick Of This Song”; “Oh God, AGAIN?”. All of them worthy monikers, to be sure. But for the purposes of this review, we’ll keep things straightforward and call it the “Shameless Pop Ditty.”

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Single Review: Joe Nichols, “The Shape I’m In”

July 3, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 6

I remember thinking when I first heard Sara Evans sing “Cheatin'” that it was the best record Reba McEntire hadn’t recorded in a long time.

Listening to the new Joe Nichols single “The Shape I’m In”, I’m thinking the same thing about George Strait.

Perhaps it’s just because “The Breath You Take” is still a fresh disappointment in my mind, but I can’t help thinking Strait would’ve knocked “The Shape I’m In” out of the park.

That being said, Nichols does a good job himself, in a vocal performance that is so inspired by Strait it might as well be an homage.

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