Rating:
Genre:
Country
Release Date: 09/03/1996
Run Time: 41:19
Deana Carter's debut album may have seemed like the arrival of an overnight sensation, but that was hardly the truth.
Carter cracked it finally at 30, after trying since she was 17 as the daughter of kicking
country guitar picker
Fred Carter. With its ironic odd title and its mix of
singer/songwriter folk,
new traditionalist country, and
pop,
Carter came up with a winner. Produced by
Chris Farren and
Jimmy Bowen,
Carter's album features six originals, including the title track,
"Count Me In," the amazing opener,
"I've Loved Enough to Know," with its hooky guitars, shimmering fiddles, and cascading pianos, the gorgeous
"Love Ain't Worth Making" and
"Before We Ever Heard Goodbye," and
"How Do I Get There." These are the album's strongest tunes, full of passion and sincerity regarding love, its fulfillment and impossibility, as well as its mystery. And the woman can write a hook. There's a radio-friendly
rock and
pop feel to tracks such as
Mac Wiseman's hard
country tonkin'
"If This Is Love" and
Matraca Berg's pedal steel-ringing
"Strawberry Wine." That she sold a few million copies of this record to
country fans is not surprising at all; that she sold a few million more to AAA radio fans and to those whose musical tastes are dictated by
NPR is. Most of these folks bitch like crazy about "young
country," and
Carter defined it with her very first record in all the best ways: using the
country tradition to make fine, well-crafted music that appeals to a broad range of tastes.
~Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
;)
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