Love in a Small Town (CD - 1990)

Personnel: K.T. Oslin (keyboards, background vocals); Barry Beckett (guitar, keyboards); Don Potter, John Willis, Keith Hinton, Mitch Watkins, Reggie Young , Richard Bennett , John D. Willis, Dino Zimmerman (guitar); Terry McMillan (harmonica); Costo Davis, Joe VanDyke, Bill Cuomo, Bobby Ogdin (keyboards); Mike Lawler (synthesizer); Harry Stinson, Larrie Londin, Eddie Bayers, Owen Hale (drums); Joe Scaife (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Jim Cotton ; Joe Scaife; Scott Hendricks.

Recording information: Castle Studio, Franklin, TN; Emerald Sound & Masterfonics, Nashville, TN; Music Hill, Nashville, TN.

Oslin built this loosely defined concept album from 10 years of song, including the first one she wrote. Oslin sings of the guises romance wears in the small-town South: Nelda Jean Prudie waxes nostalgic about weekend dances of her Texas youth; a young girl enthuses about a pick-up-driving Romeo named Cornell Crawford; and people searching for perfect partner wind up lonely. Love in a Small Town also contains a low-key version of the 1946 standard "You Call Everybody Darling" and a cover of Mickey And Sylvia's "Love Is Strange." Oslin's coyness isn't always flattering, and the arrangements sometimes border on a new countrypolitan, but those moments are rare. On most of Small Town, Oslin displays her best assets: her worldly sensibility and complex maturity. ~ Brian Mansfield minimize