Check out the Wichita Times Record News review of It’s America
Rodney Atkins' CD well-textured
Don Chance/Times Record News
Friday, April 24, 2009
Let’s do it.
“IT’S AMERICA” BY RODNEY ATKINS. As regular readers know, I’m not all that impressed with most of the new country radio chart-toppers. They all start sounding alike to me. That’s why I was surprised to actually like the new Rodney Atkins release, “It’s America.”
Atkins’ last studio album generated four No. 1 hit singles, and it would have been a huge temptation to recapture some of that success on the new set. But instead of going into a Nashville studio, according to press materials, Atkins recorded in his home studio, which gives it a refreshingly non-Nashville country feeling.
“Tell A Country Boy,” “Got It Good,” “Fifteen Minutes,” “The River Knows,” “Rockin’ of the Cradle” and the title track would make formidable chart contenders.
There are a few distorted guitar licks spaced through the collection, but they’re the exception and not the rule, which is really rare on country albums nowadays. What’s here is tight and inventive backup, with plenty of organic country textures that never overshadow Atkins’ unabashedly countrified country vocals or the honest sentiment of his lyrics.
I’m impressed. (NEXT rating: B+)
Don Chance/Times Record News
Friday, April 24, 2009
Let’s do it.
“IT’S AMERICA” BY RODNEY ATKINS. As regular readers know, I’m not all that impressed with most of the new country radio chart-toppers. They all start sounding alike to me. That’s why I was surprised to actually like the new Rodney Atkins release, “It’s America.”
Atkins’ last studio album generated four No. 1 hit singles, and it would have been a huge temptation to recapture some of that success on the new set. But instead of going into a Nashville studio, according to press materials, Atkins recorded in his home studio, which gives it a refreshingly non-Nashville country feeling.
“Tell A Country Boy,” “Got It Good,” “Fifteen Minutes,” “The River Knows,” “Rockin’ of the Cradle” and the title track would make formidable chart contenders.
There are a few distorted guitar licks spaced through the collection, but they’re the exception and not the rule, which is really rare on country albums nowadays. What’s here is tight and inventive backup, with plenty of organic country textures that never overshadow Atkins’ unabashedly countrified country vocals or the honest sentiment of his lyrics.
I’m impressed. (NEXT rating: B+)