Lee Ann Womack

And I'm going to give Lee Ann's new album a listen. I may love it! By the way, she duets with one of my favorite current male artists---the great Buddy Miller, on an album of Buddy's entitled Buddy & Friends: Cayamo Sessions At Sea. It's an album containing all Buddy duets with a different singer on each song, he and Lee Ann performing "After The Fire Is Gone".

I just got the LP version today, and haven't heard it yet. It's on New West Records, a great label specializing in Americana artists (Rodney Crowell, another favorite of mine, is also on the label). The sticker on the front of every New West LP states: "Audio Mastered For Vinyl" ( I hope that means the master tapes have not gone through A-D and D-A conversion, instead kept in the analogue domain). The LP is 180 grams, and the sticker also says "Premium Audiophile. Limited Edition. Manufactured & Hand Assembled In U.S.A.".

I really, really tried to like Lee Ann awhile back. I love Hard Country, Singer-Songwriter type music, most of my favorite current artists being in that genre. It can be a subtle thing, but there is a definite chasm between artists and entertainers. I find Lee Ann to be the latter. Nothing wrong with that---I even like Shania Twain (guilty pleasure)!

Lee Ann and other singers like her---Reba McEntire, Wynona Judd, Lorrie Morgan, Tanya Tucker, and others, just don't have that certain something (depth? artistic vision? coolness?!) that Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Julie Miller, Iris Dement, Jann Browne, Carlene Carter, and Mary Chapin Carpenter do, At least, imo.