Product Description With career sales topping 5 million units, multiple Grammy award winner Pam Tillis returns with Rhinestoned, her first studio release in almost 5 years following 2002's critically acclaimed "It's All Relative, a Tribute to Mel Tillis." Co-produced by Tillis herself and veteran writer/producer Gary Nicholson (Delbert McClinton, The Judds, Wynonna). Rhinestoned resonates with the same heartfelt and dynamic vocals that made Pam a staple at country radio and one of the genre's most enduring and identifiable artists. Tillis continues to revel in her role as an interpreter of timeless country songs. Rhinestoned features many of Nashville's finest songwriters, including Matraca Berg, Walt Wilkins, Leslie Satcher, Jon Randall, Gary Nicholson and Pam herself. Stepping out of the confines of today's slick and calculated country music, Tillis surrounded herself in the studio with a bevy of cool talent, including mixing engineer Ray Kennedy (Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams). Pam opts for the emotional immediacy of a studio record recorded mostly "direct to disc"... just pure, uninhibited moments. On Rhinestoned, neo-traditionalist Pam Tillis draws inspiration from her love of folk, bluegrass, roots and traditional country and invites the listener to walk with her across the bridge of Country Music's Past and Country Music's Future. Amazon.com Pam Tillis spent decades flirting with folk, jazz, and rock before she finally settled down with country, the genre her father, Mel, bred into her bones. The 1994 CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, she had a powerful, head-resonant soprano, and enjoyed a good run with such bankable hits as "Don't Tell Me What to Do," "Spilled Perfume," and the wonderfully wistful "All the Good Ones Are Gone." Then she lost her commercial verve. In 2002, Tillis smartly paid tribute to papa with It's All Relative, a collection of the stuttering legend's material, and now, five years later, she returns with her first album on her own label. But with three producers on board, the results are mixed, at best. Though Tillis picked a stellar group of musicians (mandolinist Sam bush and duet partner John Anderson among them) and chose material from such memorable writers as Leslie Satcher, Matraca Berg, and Jon Randall, the album never really comes together, and much of what's there fails to catch fire. Her intention was apparently to make what she calls a "hippie country" record harkening to the '70s, but it isn't really that--her production seldom takes chances beyond the wrong-headed use of a clarinet, and her arrangements lack the slouch-shouldered joie de vivre of that decade. Still, Rhinestoned has its moments: Satcher's exquisite "That Was a Heartache," Tillis's own "The Hard Way," and Lisa Brokop's humorous "Band in the Window," which captures the tacky thrill of the honky-tonk life. --Alanna Nash, ISBN13: B000O590FM ISBN10: B000O590FM Material Type: audioCD
