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At the age of thirteen, Grammy Award winning
singer/songwriter LeAnn Rimes first made her international debut
in 1995 with Bill Mack’s sensational song “Blue” giving her
a hit single and the album of the same name selling over six
million copies. By the age of 24 she had sold over 37 million
albums. She has won an American Music Award, two Grammy Awards,
three Academy of Country Music Awards, and twelve Billboard
Music Awards. She holds four important records in the music
industry as the current youngest person to win a Grammy.
Released on 8th October Family
is the first album with all the songs co-written by LeAnn, her
husband Dean Sheremet and other friends. Now 25, LeAnn says
“I’ve been working on this album since I was 23 and I felt at
that point in my life I could only write or make an album from
a place that was incredibly honest.” Family
reflects her priorities in life. “This whole album is about
real relationships,” says LeAnn, who has been married to husband
Dean for five years. “It talks about relationships between a
husband and wife, between mother and daughter, and also my friends,
who are very much my extended family.” She goes on to say “This
 really
is a great way to get to know me as a person. I’m not hiding
anything on this album, I’m writing it very much on the side
of just being a human being.”
14 tracks see duets with Marc Broussard on
the rock styled “Nothing Wrong”
that they co-wrote with Blair Daly, legendary rock star Bon
Jovi on “Til We Ain’t Strangers”
and fellow country diva Reba McEntire for “When
You Love Someone Like That”. LeAnn was thrilled that
Reba joined her on the album and says “she’s very much like
a big sister.” At the time of writing this review Family has
already peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Chart and the first
single “Nothin’ Better To Do” was
sitting at #19….the track is preceded on the album by the catchy
up-tempo title track.
Family is very much in tune with today’s
contemporary style of country music, while at the same time
keeping traditional qualities with numbers such as the lovely
“Pretty Things” with Tim Akers’
haunting pedal steel lingering in the undertow.
Personally I’m not overly fond of much of
the modern music that Nashville is putting out as country, but
saying that LeAnn Rimes has taken a step towards a more traditional
sound with a large portion of the music on Family,
which I find more in tune with country music dinosaurs such
as myself. I like this album and pleased to see LeAnn include
a little country blues with “One Day Too
Long” which she wrote with he husband Dean and Darrell
Brown. I recommend that you get hold of a copy and give Family
a good coat of listening to!!!!!!!!!!
Graham Lees Oct 2007 |
