No Time To Kill (RCA) (CD - 1993)

Personnel: Clint Black (background vocals); Hayden Nicholas, Larry Byrom (acoustic guitar); Dann Huff (electric guitar); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Jerry Douglas (dobro); John Wittenberg, James Getzoff, Barbara Porter, Ezra Kliger, Joy Lyle, Tibor Zelig, Spiro Stamos, Bonnie Douglas, Brian Leonard, Maria Newman, Paul Shure, Berj Garabedian (violin); Rob Hajacos, Stuart Duncan (fiddle); Brian Dembow, Harry Shirinian, Raymond Tischer, Mihail Zinovyev (viola); Jan Kelley, Dennis Karmazyn, Harry Shlutz, Larry Corbett (cello); Dane Bryant, Matt Rollings (piano); Ed Greene, Eddie Bayers (drums); Lenny Castro (percussion); Kenny Loggins, Steve Real, Timothy B. Schmit, Tommy Funderburk (background vocals).

Recording information: Masterfonics, Inc, Nashville, TN; Mesa Recording, Nashville, TN; WEstlake Studios, Los Angeles, CA.

Photographers: Greg Gorman; Alberto Tolot; Firooz Zahedi.

Unknown Contributor Role: Ron Keith.

Arranger: Steve Dorff.

Clint Black's albums seems to alternate between the remarkable and the merely pretty good. No Time to Kill, which plays off the title of his first album, is one of the latter. All of this is acceptable, though little matches quality of the title track. Black does a duet with Wynonna Judd called "A Bad Goodbye." ~ Brian Mansfield

Love is an often-used theme of NO TIME TO KILL, Clint Black's fourth album. "Thinkin' Again" runs on the premise of "overthinking" love; "A Good Run Of Bad Luck" deals with love and obsession; "Half The Man" and "Back To Back" elaborate on love's ability to create one soul out of two.

The power of music is the dominant focus of "State Of Mind," a track praising that place where music reigns supreme. In "Happiness Alone," which Black co-wrote with party-boy Jimmy Buffet, the song is tempered by the sentiment that there's more to life than a good time. It's also a theme of "No Time To Kill," the seasoned response to his prior hit "Killin' Time." On the fiddle-driven "I'll Take Texas," he extols the virtues of his home state. The fun song of the album is "Tuckered Out" in which, over a frenetic instrumental track, he utilizes the names of several dozen country stars in a pun-filled tribute to country music ("I'm Haggard worn and Waylon from the bottom of my Restless Heart...").

NO TIME TO KILL is a country album of substance, ranging from driving rockers to sensitive ballads, all complemented by the intense vocals of one of country music's most talented stars. minimize