Gretchen Wilson - Here For The Party (CD)

All Music Guide

The modern country music idiom is at a crossroads of identification. From pop on the interstate to the throwback sounds rolling down the gravel road, it's getting harder to separate artifice and marketing from the music's goodold themes of salt o' the earth livin' and believing in what's right. It's an argument of semantics, but it figures into Gretchen Wilson's unprecedented debut success. Energized by the refreshingly selfexplanatory single "Redneck Woman," Wilson's Here For the Party debuted at number two on Billboard's country charts. "I'm here for the beer and the ballbustin' band," she sings over the opening title track's emphatic kick drum beat and dirty barroom twang. "I may not be a '10' but the boys say I clean up good." Wilson's brassy delivery not to mention her brazen honesty is a far cry from the cleansed romance of country radio's songbirds; it's closer to the leather pants and poppy honky tonk of Tanya Tucker's 1978 effort T.N.T.. Tucker's referenced in the absolutely... unstoppable "Redneck Woman," as are Hank, Jr., Kid Rock, and oh yeah WalMart, which beats out the fancyass bare essentials over at Victoria's Secret. "Homewrecker" and the softer, but no less direct "Holdin' You" keep the Party going, playing twining pedal steel off of propulsive, nearrock drumming and prominent electric guitar. Sure, "When I Think About Cheatin'" is a nice, classic country ballad in both sound and storyline. But it's the crossbreeds that work best here, cuts like "Redneck Woman," "Chariot," and Wilson's tribute to her hardbitten southern Illinois upbringing, "Pocahontas Proud." Wilson's music is identified as much with the wideopen sound of John Mellencamp and mentors Big Rich as it is with the crafty, combinational qualities of the American Badass, even if country remains her primary musical and thematic source. Wakeup call? Here for the Party is a lawn chair through Nashville's plate glass window. - Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide Read more Less