Neal McCoy (Atlantic, 1996)

This is half of a fair album. One weakness is blandness. As you listen - if you're still awake - you never know which song you're hearing because they all sound alike. It is in sore need of some contrast, an upbeat song, a shuffle beat, anything different. Oh, that's right, there's "Hillbilly Rap" with lots of enthusiastic background crowd noise. Something like this may work well with live performance energy; here, it just makes you cringe (the "Ballad of Jed Clampett" done as rap?). McCoy needs some edge in his voice. He has far too much a Dean Martin and not enough Leroy Parnell sound. It's not all bad. "That Woman Of Mine" should hit the charts and a song that's had air play for several artists ("Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye") is on the air for McCoy. Another weakness is throwaway lyrics like "Me Too" offers. If McCoy wants to hit stardom with this vehicle (as the liner notes say), he'd best hitch another ride.