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Totally Country II - Various Artists | |
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Reviewed by Matt Bjorke
After the massive success of the pop music series of Now That's What I Call Music compilations of the most recent hits, the country music labels got together, and decided to release a few compilations simply called Totally Country. Early this year, RCA/BMG released the first disc and it immediately sold well and has been certified gold.
Totally Country, Vol. 2 is being released via Sony/Epic while in 2003 Warner/WEA will release the third and supposed final installment of the series. If volumes two and three sell as well as the first, I can see the labels continuing to release one or two of these albums a year.
The opening track is the Travis Tritt hit "Modern Day Bonnie And Clyde." This blues-country rockin' Top 10 hit was the final single from Travis' comeback album Down The Road I Go. I liked it on that album and I like it here.
Chris Cagle's "I Breathe In, I Breathe Out" was his first No. 1 hit as a writer and performer. The third of four singles from his Gold selling debut album, Play It Loud, I really liked this song when it appeared on a David Kersh album a while back and I like it even more now.
"My Town" is the first single from Montgomery Gentry's new album of the same name. As one of the two current singles from this collection, this track is just hitting the Top 10. Jeffrey Steele's song about loving your hometown is one of my favorite songs these guys have ever done.
Keith Urban's "But For The Grace Of God" was a No. 1 hit this past year and fits well on this collection of hits. This track is from keith's Gold selling debut self-titled album.
"Ten Rounds Of Jose Cuervo" was Tracy Byrd's first No. 1 hit single in quite a while, and was one of the biggest hits from the summer of 2002. From the Ten Rounds album, this fun song is one of Tracy's best performed songs in a while.
"Ol Red" by Blake Shelton was his second Top 10 hit from his 2001 self-titled debut. A song about a guy who escapes from prison via the warden's dog was originally recorded by George Jones in the early 1990's. Blake does a wonderful job with the song and it was my favorite song off of his album.
Joe Nichols' "The Impossible" became a Number One hit on the Radio & Records charts this fall. A wonderful song about not ever giving up, this track is from Joe's fine Man With A Memory CD.
Rascal Flatts' "I'm Movin' On" also became a Top 10 hit for the group. This song alone propelled their album to sell over 600,000 copies to bring it to Platinum status for sales over one million copies. This is probably my favorite single from 2001/2002 and I am glad it's on this album.
With other hits by George Strait, Phil Vassar, Brad Paisley, Trick Pony, Gary Allan, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Tammy Cochran and Lee Ann Womack, Totally Country, Vol. 2 is an album that delivers from start to finish. This is one album that has enough to offer for that casual country music fan. There's no filler on albums like these and with a nice price around 15 bucks, why not pick up a copy, it's the next best thing to listening to the radio.
Song List:
Sound clips courtesy of Barnes & Noble.
Album cover, used with permission of Sony Nashville.
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