If you’ve read my last two reviews, then you know that I have very little tolerance for the current state of country music. After dissecting the Dixie Chicks and skewering Shania Twain, you’re probably expecting that I won’t have much positive to say about Lee Ann Womack, either. But I couldn’t bring myself to do a three-part rant on country music without doing at least one positive review, and this is it.

You may wonder why I picked Lee Ann, out of all of the country artists out there, to say something good about. It’s quite simple, really – she’s the country artist who caught my attention. As I mentioned before, I’ve never hated country music overall – I can think of a few songs by Garth Brooks, Deanna Carter, Susan Ashton, etc. that I really like. But I’ve never been able to sit through an entire country album without major complaints until now. Lee Ann first caught my attention in Hawaii, of all places (you don’t exactly hear a ton of country music there, though I do recall the radio playing a cheesy Hawaiian-ized version of John Denver’s “Country Roads”, with all of the locations changed, but that’s another story). My girlfriend and I were driving around Oahu with a friend of hers from high school who now lived there and had a one-year-old son. One of the local radio stations that leaned more towards adult contemporary was the music of choice as she showed us around the island, and one day, Lee Ann’s hit song “I Hope You Dance” came on. It was the first time I had heard it, though my girlfriend loved it for its inspirational message about not taking life and faith for granted, and our Hawaiian hostess told us that the song described the way she felt about her son, not wanting him to become jaded as he grew up in a world that would inevitably hurt him. I heard the song later that week as we drove around Kauai, and I was hooked. While something in the back of my brain screamed “one-hit wonder” – the music was fairly middle-of-the-road and it was just one of those songs with a magical aura about it that would be impossible to recreate – I still had to investigate more of Lee Ann’s music when I returned to L.A. So, I downloaded the album I Hope You Dance, and I was pleasantly surprised.

The Healing Kind
Another December and the cold winds blow, and nights without you are so long...
I’ll admit, things didn’t sound so promising at first. It seems a bit too traditional to start off an album with a ballad like this – I’ll admit, my tastes lean more towards rock, where albums need a certain momentum. This song seems to throw you right into the world of Lee Ann’s heartache unprepared, opening with its sad strings and Lee Ann’s sweet voice singing about a lover that left her all alone. There ain’t much hope to be found here. All she can see is that “The pain just grows stronger every day”, because she just can’t stop thinking about him. She even still has pictures of them up and everything. Her only conclusion is that she’s just not “the healing kind”. To Lee Ann’s credit (or rather, that of her songwriters, since she did very little co-writing on this album), this is a common stage of a breakup – the point where you feel like you’ll just never get over it. Lee Ann seems okay existing at that point in time instead of wrapping things up neatly. But it does make for a jarring contrast between this song and the next one.

I Hope You Dance
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance, never settle for the path of least resistance...
Without a doubt, this song is a lyrical masterpiece, the song that put Lee Ann on the map outside of her genre. It rolls along on a comfortably understated beat, on top of which float a soft electric guitar and strings that are lush but not overpowering. Lee Ann is singing to a friend or possibly a child – someone who is at a point of transition where he or she is about to go out into a bigger world, and Lee Ann wants to encourage this person to hold onto a childlike faith and innocence. That may sound like a cliché theme that every pop star has attempted, but the lyrics here are incredibly disarming. “I hope you never lose your sense of wonder/Get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger.” “Loving might be a mistake, but it’s worth making”. “Don’t let some hell-bent heart leave you bitter.” My personal favorite line, “I hope you still feel small when you stand behind the ocean”, will forever remind me of our friend’s little boy as he grows up and looks to the world beyond the island paradise he calls home. All of this lead’s to the crux of the song: “When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.” Those of us who are a bit shy on the dance floor can relate to this sentiment – stop worrying about what everyone else will think of you, and just get out there and make a difference. Lee Ann is joined on the chorus by the soft but rugged male vocals of Sons of the Desert, as they sing, “Time is a wheel in constant motion, always rolling us along/Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone?” Simply lovely.

After I Fall
On the edge lookin' over, all I see is a four leaf clover, maybe a sign of things to come, should I jump, or should I run?
Once the extended fadeout of the previous epic is done with, this song kicks in with a slightly more upbeat feel, though it seems half-hearted next to the few other upbeat songs on this album. This is one of those songs that is borderline in the country department, but the production remains organic enough to keep it from being too “pop”. The lyrics, however, are a little closer to the typical young female pop song – Lee Ann is falling in love with a guy and having a hard time convincing herself to trust him completely. She wonders what will happen after she gives in and goes for that first date, first kiss, first sleepover, whatever it may be (I’m inclined toward the latter, since one of the lines mentions that the sunrise will bring the answer). Will he fall for her as well, or just have fun for a night and then disappear? It’s not a bad song, but not the best this CD has to offer.

Stronger than I Am
First one step and then another, she goes along, and if she falls and skins her knee, she cries a while and smiles at me, and just goes on...
This was the song that made me decide the album was worth getting, that there were more excellent songs than just the title track. Though it is a slow, sad ballad in the vein of “The Healing Kind”, this song fills out a story much better. Here Lee Ann plays the role of a single mother left to raise a baby girl on her own (or perhaps the husband is just away on a long trip or something; I’m not sure). The song almost takes the form of a letter to this lost love, telling him how the daughter is doing, and how she is such a joy, always embracing the good in life. Kids do that – they get hurt and throw fits, but then they get right up and keep toddling around as if nothing happened. What tugs at the heartstrings is that Lee Ann is admitting to the estranged husband that her daughter seems to be stronger than she is. She misses daddy as well, but still seems generally pleased with life and able to deal with the loss. She’s “just like her old man”. A reference to the daughter finally learning to sleep by herself at night also brought back memories of our trip to Hawaii – our friend’s husband was gone on a military trip to Kuwait while we were visiting their home, and during that time, the mother started slowly getting her son used to sleeping in his own room, which is never an easy thing for a parent or a child to do. But I’ll stop here before I go completely ga-ga over babies. (Yes, guys do that sometimes as well.)

I Know Why the River Runs
I could play the message that you left for me, I can hear your voice and I could still believe that you will send me home, but you will never come...
This was evidently another radio single, though I’m guessing that it didn’t break too far out of the country format. It’s a mid-tempo tune of longing, written by hired-gun country songwriters Buddy and Julie Miller, who seem to resurface on quite a few country albums these days. I don’t know; I haven’t been all that impressed with this tune. It has a nice backbeat and the mournful fiddle really helps – it starts to evolve into a strong jam session toward the end, but it seems too mired down by its tempo. I can’t completely figure out what the song is supposed to be about, other than probably longing for the return of a lost love. Guess I don’t know why the river runs after all.

Why They Call It Falling
It's like soarin', it's like glidin', it's a rocket ship you're ridin', it's a feelin that can take you anywhere...
This one really caught me off guard. The first time through the album, it was starting to tick me off that nothing in the first half of the record was all that upbeat, and so I was thinking, “Another ballad?!” Then Lee Ann’s sweet voice began to lay down a series of overused metaphors for the feeling of falling in love, and I was pretty sure that I was witnessing an unfortunate attempt at pop crossover. The only thing that saved the song was a fairly soft musical backdrop that sidestepped the problem of overproduction (for the most part), but I was baffled when she got to the chorus, “Why they call it falling, I don’t know.” I suppose I should’ve expected that Lee Ann couldn’t remain on cloud nine for a whole song without something tragic happening. Midway through the song, she asserts that no matter how high up romance takes you, you eventually have to come back down, and suddenly the metaphors turn from syrupy to sour, my favorite one being “It’s like someone takes a pin to your balloon”. And now she knows why they call it falling. While the overall tone is sad at the end, and it’s not always true that sweeping romances end in tragedy, it is true that love will reach its points where it feels tragic, like there’s no hope left in restoring the feelings you once had. Lee Ann doesn’t offer solutions to this problems, she just makes sure that we know it exists. She took a well-traveled lyrical route to get there, but I’m glad it ended up where it did.

Ashes by Now
The moments of pleasure never do last, they're gone like a suitcase full of your past...
At long last, Lee Ann has a little more spunk. The music fits the mood here, with some more “fiery” country-style guitars and some very strong harmonies during the chorus. Here Lee Ann is pleading with a lover who can’t seem to pin himself down to just her, who is “running all over town” and burning both her spirit and her reputation. Honestly, I don’t know where she finds these guys (not the real Lee Ann, of course, but the broken-hearted character she takes on in so many of her songs), but at least she’s got the courage in this song to speak up to a guy who is basically a gigolo. This is definitely the best of the few upbeat songs on the album.

Thinkin’ with My Heart Again
Seemed like a lifetime between his "goodbye" and "by the way, how have you been?"
Moving back into the slow and light mood of “Why They Call It Falling”, this is a short but decent song about an old lover who comes back into Lee Ann’s life when they bump into each other at the supermarket. She knows in her mind that he’s not good for her, but as they talk, he stirs up all of the old memories and gets her talking about forever once again. She knows she’s falling hard and can’t stop herself. Poor woman. I really hope Lee Ann isn’t like this in real life.

I Feel Like I’m Forgettin’ Something
Feelin' good, great big smile, first time in a long long while, you ain't been the first thing on my mind...
At last, a number that is both upbeat and confident! Just when you’re beginning to think that Lee Ann has nothing to sing about but her broken heart, here is a song for everyone who has ever thought they’d never get over somebody. The message in this fun, steel-guitar laden, highly-danceable number is the polar opposite of “The Healing Kind” – life is moving on and Lee Ann is finally letting those old memories fade. And it feels darn good. The first verse is cute – she’s driving to work, trying to remember what she forgot to do at her house in the morning (find your keys, lock the door, etc.), and using the common phrase in a vague realization that, Oh, yeah, that’s what I’m forgetting. That old boyfriend of mine. It’s probably the closest thing on the record to a tune the Dixie Chicks could have recorded. A playful piano solo and a deep male backup voice during the chorus adds a lot of enjoyment to this song. But don’t breathe easy just yet – there’s still a little more heartbreak to go. Yes, I know, it’s exhausting.

Lonely Too
So here's to the lovers for old times' sake, who don't hold each other to the promise they break, and smile through the window, and wave on the street, 'cause that's all you want now from me...
This is likely the most old-school country tune on the album. It’s a slow, waltz-like tune with very twangy guitars and a very whiny fiddle. Here, Lee Ann isn’t so much describing a lover who left her (thank God), but a relationship in which two people seem to have grown apart. She feels lonely even though they see each other all the time and likely even live in the same house. They pass each other by during the day and act like any other normal acquaintances would. And he doesn’t seem bothered by this in the slightest, which leads Lee Ann to conclude, “If you ever loved me the way I loved you, you would be lonely too.” But apparently, he doesn’t love her all that much. Boo hoo.

Does My Ring Burn Your Finger
Was there somethin from the past buried in a shallow grave? Did you think that it was too far gone to save?
I know this is a cover, since covers are a given on almost any country album, but I can’t think of who did this song first. The darker-toned guitars and banjo picking evoke images of a Johnny Cash song, for some reason. Here Lee Ann rails against an unfaithful husband, almost taunting him with the phrase that is the title of the song, implying that he doesn’t have the guts to follow through with a marital commitment. She’s not harshly bitter like Alanis Morissette, but it’s clear that she wants him to feel her pain, likely as a catalyst to get him to stop messing around. The most chilling line in the song is “So I’ll sit here and wait for my dearly departed”, which denotes that he’s as good as dead in her eyes (not that she’s going to kill him, but that he’ll wish he was dead. Or something like that.) I’d like to hear the original for comparison’s sake, but it seems like she did a great job with this one.

Lord I Hope This Day Is Good
I don't need fortune and I don't need fame, send down the thunder, Lord, send down the rain...
Another common trend in country music is for artists to include a “Gospel” song, usually at the end of an album. Mentions of God and Jesus are prevalent in many country albums any way – it’s actually surprising that this is Lee Ann’s first mention of anything spiritual (that I’ve noticed) other than the endorsement of faith in “I Hope You Dance”. Sadly, there is much more “hope” in that song than this one. The song lopes along lazily like an old cowboy alone on a dirt road, as Lee Ann sings a rather weak and generic prayer. I hate to say that, since I usually appreciate a mainstream artist’s attempt at tackling a religious song, but this one just comes up dry. She asks God “plan a good plan for me”, as if all she really wants is a day without any inconveniences, and towards the end she sticks in “All I’m asking in a little less crime”, perhaps to show that her prayer isn’t entirely selfish, but it seems just stuck in there to rhyme with the previous line. It doesn’t make for that great of a conclusion to the album, even if it does end on a more positive note. After the lyin’, cheatin’, and heartache of the last six songs (save one), it would have been nice to end with some sort of a positive love song or something.

Overall, there are a number of good songs on this CD, proving that Lee Ann has talent and taste, and she can evoke hope as well as sadness quite well. The song selection and the pace of the CD may work against the true talents of Lee Ann and her players and songwriters at times, but she’s still a face to watch. She may never top “I Hope You Dance”, but I’ve got the feeling that she’s got some good songs left in her, both heart-breaking and uplifting. Let’s just hope that when the option of selling out to the Nashville machine comes up, she reconsiders, and that she focuses a little more on the real world where the positive and negative meet on the next album, instead of devoting a song entirely to the one or the other. It’s when she mixes those elements, as in “I Hope You Dance”, “Stronger than I Am”, and “Why They Call It Falling” that she is at her best emotionally.

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: I Hope You Dance, Ashes by Now, I Feel Like I'm Forgettin' Something
Good: Stronger than I Am, Why They Call It Fallin', Does My Ring Burn Your Finger
Decent: The Healing Kind, After I Fall, Thinkin' with My Heart Again, Lonely Too
Weak: I Know Why the River Runs
Skippable: Lord I Hope This Day Is Good

Website: http://www.leeannwomack.com

Recommended: Yes