Trisha Yearwood Real Live Woman CD

Personnel includes: Trisha Yearwood (vocals); Dan Dugmore (acoustic, electric, slide & lap steel guitars, dobro); Al Anderson (acoustic & electric guitars); Darrell Scott (acoustic guitar, bouzouki); Richard Bennett, Johnny Garcia (acoustic guitar); Mike Henderson (acoustic slide guitar); Kenny Vaughan (6- & 12-string electric guitars); Sam Bush (mandolin); Stuart Duncan (fiddle); Steve Nathan (piano, harpsichord, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards); Steve Cox (Wurlitzer piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Keith Horne (bass); Greg Morrow (drums, maracas, tambourine); Tom Roady (percussion); Stephanie Bentley, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kim Richey, Matraca Berg, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, Bob Bailey, Vicki Hampton, Kim Fleming (background vocals).
Recorded at Sound Emporium, Nashville, Tennessee.
REAL LIVE WOMAN was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Country Album and "Real Live Woman" was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Personnel: Dan Dugmore (acoustic guitar, lap steel guitar); Johnny Garcia, Richard Bennett (acoustic guitar); Kenny Vaughn (electric guitar); Mike Henderson (slide guitar); Sam Bush (mandolin); Stuart Duncan (fiddle); Bobby Wood (piano); Steve Cox (organ); Greg Morrow (drums, tambourine); Eddie Bayers (drums); Tom Roady (percussion).
Audio Mixer: Chuck Ainlay.
Recording information: Sound Emporium, Nashville, TN.
Photographer: Andrew Southam.
Once an artist like Trisha Yearwood enters her second decade of recording, it's easy to take her for granted. Why? Well, consistency doesn't make for quite as dramatic a story as dramatic swings between brilliance and failure. That may be unfair, but that's the way it is. Yearwood has never swung between such extremes. She has released some exceptional albums, plus a couple of sub-par efforts, but for the most part, she has remained an artist that is reliable -- you pay your money, and you know you'll get something satisfactory. Real Live Woman is one of those records; it may not rock your world, but it will hardly disappoint. A little more mature and straight-ahead than even her latter-day efforts, Real Live Woman is a measured, deliberate record in the best possible sense. The tempo never gets too heated, but the songs never drift into laziness, either. The tunes are always melodic and always well-chosen. They don't just play to Yearwood's strengths, but they're solid songs in their own right, whether it's a new Matraca Berg and Al Anderson song ("I'm Still Alive"), an overlooked Springsteen tune ("Sad Eyes") or a Linda Ronstadt chestnut ("Try Me Again"). Yes, there are a couple of moments where the momentum drags ever so slightly, but as soon as they occur, the album perks back up with the next song. Real Live Woman isn't significantly better or worse than the average Trisha Yearwood album, but that's not a bad thing, since few people do this mainstream country -- meaning, by late-'90s/early-'00s standards, country music that still sounds country but is also melodic enough for pop -- quite as well as this. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
The last cut on Trisha Yearwood's ninth CD, REAL LIVE WOMAN, is called "When A Love Song Sings the Blues," and that's no coincidence. Drawing on stellar material from Matraca Berg, Linda Ronstadt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kim Richey and even Bruce Springsteen, REAL LIVE WOMAN focuses on the downside of love, and Yearwood sings about it with the gut-wrenching emotion of someone who's definitely been there.
Though she brings in famous pals like Emmylou Harris and Jackson Browne to provide backing vocals, her own voice is the highlight here. From the Bonnie Raitt shadings of bluesy numbers like "Some Days" and "Wild For You Baby," to the falsetto of "Sad Eyes," to the pleading tones of "Try Me Again," Yearwood simply sings rings around her country/pop compatriots. Other highlights include the gospel-y "One Love," the funny, rollicking "Too Bad You're No Good" and the chiming "Where Are You Now." But theEntertainment Weekly (3/31/00, p.71) - "...a satisfying mix of Ronstadt's California confessionals, Raitt's country blues, Springsteen's melancholia, and the romantic yearnings of some of Nashville's hippest female writers..." - Rating: A-
Q (6/00, p.117) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...A class affair...'When A Love Songs Sings The Blues' is an especially lavish curtain closer."