Fans of this well-respected and loved country music singer will immensely enjoy this additional trinket to Reba's overflowing musical treasure chest. Her voice didn�t appeal to me initially, as I prefer "heavier" voices like that of Kim Carnes or Bobby Gentry, but it's actually quite pleasant when she's softly crooning or even belting out rockier material. That being said, I give her a lot of points for refusing to let herself be marketed as a stereotypical redheaded man-eater (whether that's her natural colour or not), as she certainly has the looks to go for it. But you just can't help but like a woman with a Mary Tyler Moore smile!
Also to her credit are the fabulous songwriters she has chosen to interpret (e.g. Kim Carnes' 'The Heart Won't Lie', accompanied by Vince Gill, and Bobby Russell's 'The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia'). Among the best tracks were 'I'm a Survivor' (Shelby Kennedy and Philip White), which any single mother could relate to, and 'Take It Back', written by Kristy Jackson, a barrel-house R&B boogie. As well, there are two excellent tracks by Sandy Knox from Reba's 1994 CD, Read My Mind - 'She Thinks His Name was John' (co-written by Steve Rosen), a then-controversial track about AIDS, and 'Why Haven't I Heard From You' (co-written by T.W. Hale), a great little blues-rocker, where Reba does full vocal justice to that genre. The CD closer is the outstanding 'Sweet Music Man', written by country music legend, Kenny Rogers, with Jerry Douglas on dobro, Alison Krauss on violas and harmony vocals (who also produced this track), Chris Thile on bouzouki, Gary Smith on piano, Jim Keltner on drums, Barry Bales on bass and Ron Block on guitar.
Also performing on the CD are Brooks & Dunn - 'If You See Him/If You See Her' (Tommy Lee James, Jennifer Kimball and Terry McBride) � Steve Gibson on lead guitar, Michael Rhodes on bass, Paul Leim on drums, Steve Nathan and Matt Rollings on keyboards and Russell Terrell and Kim Parent on backing vocals
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