Changed, Rascal Flatts' seventh studio album, and the first with the Big Machine Label Group, was recorded in bassist Jay DeMarcus' studio, and includes tracks produced by the band and the group's longtime producer Dann Huff. Recording information: Blackbird Studios, Nashville, ...

As a rule, tribute recordings are a mixed bag; they tend to be well-intentioned yet fall short of the mark musically. Jamey Johnson's Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran is a risky offering because it's his follow-up ...

Maybe it's just the times but Toby Keith has had drinking on his mind, calling his 2011 album Clancy's Tavern, which rode up the charts on the back of the boozy hit "Red Solo Cup" and now, for its sequel, ...

2011 collection from the late Folk/Pop superstar. This collection features all his great hits and ends with Denver's biggest songwriting success, 'Leaving On A Jet Plane', which now seems inseparable from Peter, Paul & Mary. But to hear Denver sing ...

After spending much of 2011 touring with his Staind, Aaron Lewis returned to the studio to create a full-length follow-up to his country EP Town Line. Like that 2011 EP, The Road is a modern country album celebrating Lewis' redneck ...

This is an enjoyable budget sampler highlighting Gene Watson's Capitol honky tonk hits. These 18 tracks include his earliest chart-toppers from the mid- to late '70s, including "Love in the Late Afternoon," "Farewell Party," "Cowboys Don't Get Lucky All the ...

Jason Aldean isn't a country music traditionalist -- unless one counts the pop- and rock-edged new country that emerged in the 1990s as a tradition, and since it's cruising well into a second decade as the dominant music on country ...

One of the most comprehensive Conway Twitty collections on the market, 2006's two-disc GOLD spans the country star's entire career, from his late-1950s rock-&-roll days to his final recordings in the early '90s. This impressive 40-track set acknowledges Twitty's short-lived ...

Recording information: Average Joe's Multiplex, Atlanta, GA; Big Studios, Nashville, TN; Fat Shan's House; Music Row Studios, Nashville, TN; Phivestarr Studios, Atlanta, GA.

Just prior to his death in 2002, Waylon Jennings headed over with some regularity to the home studio of his longtime friend and producer Robby Turner. Featuring nothing more than Waylon's own guitar and Turner's bass, these recordings were spare ...

Reuniting with his band Crazy Horse for their first album together in some nine years, Neil Young puts his own wild stamp on the notion of Americana with a set of classic folk tunes, including versions of "Tom Dooley" and ...

Few songwriters are as driven as Ray Wylie Hubbard; at 65, he's writing, recording, performing, producing, touring, and scoring movies, and doesn't give a damn if you don't get it. His D.I.Y. aesthetic would make a punk rocker proud: he ...

This posthumous anthology is the perfect introduction to the astonishing vocal talents of Eva Cassidy, a young, relatively unknown singer who died of cancer at 33, just as her career was beginning to gain steam. Cassidy, a native of Washington ...

Jerry Clower's clean, country humor gets proper representation on this well-assembled Greatest Hits, a collection that, since its release in 1994, has launched many a hunting season with some down home laughs. All of Clower's most colorful characters are here, ...

Beginning with the trippy backwards guitar of the First Edition classic "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)," the collection offers a five-track sampling from Rogers's late-1960s/early-70's folk-rock years. The collection then delves into a broad ...

Even the title of the three-disc George Jones collection 50 YEARS OF HITS should be enough to tell you that the man being anthologized is one of the all-time giants of country music. A towering influence on all that followed ...

Although country icon George Jones had made gospel albums before this 2003 recording, both solo and with duet partner Tammy Wynette, this one bears a special significance. The two-disc set of spirituals marks the first time he'd tackled such material ...

Lionel Richie's birthplace is Tuskegee, Alabama so for his 2012 country duets album, Tuskegee, he is trumpeted as the country boy returning to his roots. And there's something to that: as a songwriter, Richie has had success on the country ...

Over the course of these 20 tracks, listeners get to encounter the rare and focused genius that was Gary Stewart. Covering his career from the late '60s through the 1970s while he was with RCA, these songs testify to a ...

After becoming the highest-selling artist of 2008 and 2009, Taylor Swift returns in 2010 with her third album, having written all the material without outside help. Speak Now finds her sticking close to the country-pop hybrids that made her famous, ...

Toby Keith's newest studio album, Clancy's Tavern, was inspired by his grandmother's club, which he visited frequently as a child. Featuring Keith's signature sharp and bold songwriting, the deluxe edition adds four bonus tracks recorded live at New York's Fillmore ...

SOUVENIRS is a compilation of songs from albums Vince Gill recorded for MCA between 1989 and 1992. It also features duets that originally appeared on albums by Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton, and a cover of the Eagles' "I Can't ...

Relieving the pressure of delivering her eagerly awaited fourth album, Miranda Lambert formed the Pistol Annies with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, two similarly minded singer/songwriters whose profile doesn't come close to matching hers. Lambert may be the star, but ...

Unknown Contributor Roles: Nelson Larkin; Ron Reynolds. Personnel: Kelly Back (guitar); Bobby All (acoustic guitar); Buddy Emmons (steel guitar); Hoot Hester, Audrey Haney (fiddle); Dirk Johnson (piano, keyboards); David Smith (bass guitar); Jerry Kroon (drums). Liner Note Author: Chuck Young.

Photographers: Kristin Barlowe; Russ Harrington; Jim Shea; Señor McGuire. Loaded: The Best of Blake Shelton, is a solid collection of the country singer's singles, hits, and favorites from his five studio full-lengths, and the two six-track EPs he released in the ...