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Pam Tillis - Pam Tillis
Pam Tillis's voice seems absolutely tailored for singing country music, even if you don't know her background or anything about her family. The shivering sound of her vocals is enough to stamp her "country." So it would seem but before returning to her country roots, Pam was
struggling as a pop/punk singer, writing songs for other artists and crooning television commercial jingles. But finally she came back to where she belonged and released Put Yourself In My Place, which thundered onto new traditional country radio with the powerful "Don't Tell Me What To Do," which was pure "girl power" long before anyone ever heard of Shania Twain. And while Pam was making her mark as a songwriter, she took the Harlan Howard/Max D. Barnes song up the charts with her sweet, melancholy, and in-your-face voice, a strong female country singer in the tradition of Loretta Lynn and Tanya Tucker. She wasn't going to take any guff from anyone.
Following "Don't Tell Me What To Do" came "Maybe It Was Memphis," another track Pam didn't write. The mournful Michael Anderson ballad firmly planted Pam as a rising star. Soon enough the title track was following the first two singles up the charts. But the singles are not
the only gems on this disc. Pam's own tracks sparkle, from the Celtic-inspired sound of "Melancholy Child" to the strong honky-tonk beat of "Already Fallen." She demonstrated immediately that she had a fine gift for lyrical phrase, well complimented by her co-writers.
While country audiences were introduced to Pam as "Mel Tillis's daughter," Pam quickly made her own name and her own place in the country music hierarchy. With this first major release, Pam showed she had her own voice, as well. Quirky, sharp, vibrant; Pam demonstrated what a country female voice sounded like, and it still shines today.
Review by Kathy Coleman.
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