Recovering country singer mounts a solid comeback

After finding quick fame with her 1996 debut Ten Thousand Angels, McCready embarked on a career that declined and then disassembled. Her follow-up, If I Don’t Stay the Night, managed gold sales, but 1999’s I’m Not So Tough had little success and she was dropped by her label. A self-titled album in 2002 scratched the bottom of the charts with the single “Maybe, Maybe Not,” and McCready soon became more infamous than famous. A well publicized arrest of her ex-boyfriend for attempted murder, suicide attempts, drug addition and multiple entanglements with the law replaced studio sessions, hit singles, live concerts and awards shows.

Of course, a troubled life doesn’t have to run a country music career aground. Personal demons can just as easily provide grist for an artist’s mill, and as McCready shows here, she’s willing to invest some personal travails into her music. The album’s title track and lead single, written by McCready in jail, is a moving confession of survivorship with a lyric of emotional clarity that’s a foundation for long term physical sobriety. McCready’s other two co-writes, the twangy “I Want a Man” and the ballad “The Way You Make Me Melt” resound with the appetite of someone who’s recently rejoined the living. It’s a wonder her voice – emotional and physical – is in such good shape after what she’s put herself through.

Though the bulk of the album was written by industry pros, McCready’s picked songs that fit the theme of recovery and reawakening. The addictive romance of “Wrong Again” takes on secondary meanings of rehabilitation as McCready works through powerlessness, forgiveness, inventorying and amend making, the sorrow in “By Her Side” could signal a farewell to a previous life rather than a lost lover, and “I Hate That I Love You” could be a recovering addict’s lament. The Nashville-modern production strays from McCready’s country roots, but her vocals are terrific throughout. She charges into each song with the ferocity of someone saved by making music, and back story or not, her commitment and determination are stirring. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com] 

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