A Tribute To Jim Reeves (Music City, 2001)

Country Hall of Famer Pride's latest release – his first new music in a long time – has gotten attention mostly for its purportedly copy-proof technology. Anyone accustomed to playing CDs on a computer will find it an annoyance; you can't play the CD directly, having to register instead with an online service in order to download the individual tracks before you can listen – not exactly a user-friendly approach.

That's too bad, because the music itself should be the center of attention. Pride's in great voice here. Reeves isn't an especially obvious antecedent for the hard country sound Pride built his reputation on, but judging by his performances, the singer feels a deep affinity for Reeves' urbane take on the Nashville Sound; the collection skips his early hits in favor of the smoother, later stuff, and Pride does each one justice with arrangements that are faithful to, if slightly sparser than the originals.

This is, then, a winner in almost every respect; it loses a few points for the obnoxious anti-copying scheme, but in every other way, former baseballer Pride has hit a home run.