Rockin' In The Country (E1, 2009)
Daryle Singletary
Reviewed by Michael Sudhalter
Singletary helped write just 1 of the 12 songs - the soft-sounding ballad, She's A Woman but he employed an impressive list of songwriters, including Paul Overstreet, Billy Lawson, Billy Yates and Jimmy Wayne. Singletary has the ability to turn what would probably be a pop-country song - the Wayne-penned, Going Through Hell (With You Again) into something so unabashedly country.
He also scores big on a pair of cover songs by late country stars Vern Gosdin and John Denver, respectively. How Can I Believe In You shows that Singletary is carrying the torch for the type of music that Gosdin spent a lifetime performing; Singletary's bonus track, Take Me Home, Country Roads proves to be far more of a country song than Denver's original version. Singletary's rich baritone serves him well on the romantic Love You With The Lights On.
The highlight, however, is clearly She Sure Looks Good In Black where Singletary steps into He Stopped Loving Her Today territory with a tale of a dead man narrating his widow's presence at his funeral. To set the tone, Singletary's piano player, Gordon Mote, opens the song with a southern preacher's opening words at the funeral. There are powerful lyrics in the song like, my momma hates her, my daddy blames her, my sister swears it's all an act. If she had wore red, she could have raised the dead, but my lord, that woman, sure looks good in black."
There are a few missteps, such as the incredibly sappy That's Why God Made Me and They Know How To Grow 'Em. The latter is too silly and does little to separate Singletary from his peers the way the rest of the album is able to do.
CDs by Daryle Singletary
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