Trisha Yearwood - Greatest Hits Review
by Dan MacIntosh
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It's not unusual for Trisha Yearwood to give props to Linda Ronstadt in concert. Not only is this multi-genre-crossing artist an inspiration for most aspiring female vocalists, but Yearwood also sounds a whole lot like Ronstadt at times. She's not one of those Mariah, high note show-offs. Instead, her voice is full-bodied and powerful enough to blow you away and this Greatest Hits package displays many of her best recorded moments.
Like all excellent singers, Yearwood is equally at home with both fast and slow songs. Enthusiastic tracks like "She's In Love with the Boy" and "XXX's And OOO's (An American Girl)" jump for joy every time the radio plays 'em. And while it was a massive hit, the Diane Warren penned "How Do I Live" is a slow one that is more painful to sit through than driving school. Better by far is "I Would Have Loved You Anyway". It features honesty rare in country music and rarer still in the pop world. Even if a relationship ends – perhaps, before its time – many lovers would still enter into certain doomed partnerships -- despite knowing about the bad end from the beginning.
This retrospective includes a few new tracks, as most compilations do. One titled "Just a Cup of Coffee" describes a meeting with an old flame. In it, the singer is resolved to make this nothing more than an innocent encounter with an old someone "only passing through." I like how Stephanie Davis wrote this lyric because the listener doesn't quite know for sure what the singer's character will do. She says it all means nothing, but because she's also wearing perfume and having an internal dialogue/debate about it all, it could easily turn into something more. Its mostly acoustic arrangement brings these words their necessary warmth, without sacrificing the mystery.
The other fresh song is called "Nothin' to Lose". With its upbeat fiddle and mandolin work, it's a little jazzy, a little bluegrass-y. "I've got nothin' to lose since I lost you," its lyric states. It's a road song, which mixes a little hope with a lot of regret. The future's wide open, but only because her former lover shut the door on their relationship.
Yearwood's a singer that you'd willingly listen to, even if she was singing crap lyrics. But fortunately she's been blessed with many a fine song over the years, most of which are included here.
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Trisha Yearwood - Greatest Hits
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