Everybody Knows (CD - 1996)

Personnel includes: Trisha Yearwood (vocals); Billy Joe Walker, Jr., Biff Watson, Bobby All, Steuart Smith, Fred Knobloch, Dan Dugmore, Paul Franklin, Brent Mason (guitars); David Davidson (violin); Rob Hajacos, Aubrey Haynie (fiddle); Kris Wilkinson (viola); John Catchings (cello); Kirk "Jelly Roll" Johnson (harmonica); Fats Kaplan (accordion); Matt Rollings (piano, organ); Steve Nathan (organ, keyboards); Sam Bacco (marimba, congas, shakers, cymbals, clavei, dumbek); Leland Sklar, Dave Pomeroy (bass); Eddie Bayers, Owen Hale (drums); Tom Roady (tambourine); Andrea Zonn, Dennis Wilson, Raul Malo, Cindy Richardson-Walker, Garth Fundis, Kim Richey, Matraca Berg, Harry Stinson, Mac McAnally, Becky Priest, Vince Gill (background vocals).

Recorded at Sound Emporium and Sound Stage, Nashville, Tennessee.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

EVERYBODY KNOWS was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Country Album. "Believe Me Baby (I Lied)" was nominated for 1997 Grammys for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song.

Trisha Yearwood makes perfect country-rock radio singles, with stinging electric-guitar riffs, sighing pedal-steel leads, lilting dashes of rock piano and organ, and choruses a young Linda Ronstadt would have paid the Devil handsomely for. All of which would be as meaningless as any other cowgirl's latest studio project if not for Yearwood's steadfast refusal to be a cowgirl at all. EVERYBODY KNOWS, her sixth album, is filled with songs about nice young boys who grew up to be corporate tyrants ("Little Hercules") or couch potatoes ("I Need You"), and nice young girls who have finally figured out how to move on ("I Want To Live Again," "Hello, I'm Gone").

This is anything but stand-by-your-man country, and it ends with a stunning, piercing folk-rock song, "A Lover Is Forever" (written by Steve Goodman and Fred Knobloch, and previously recorded by Rosanne Cash), in which the other woman in a man's life excoriates him for settling for the wife he already has. The message here isn't break up the family. It's something much more powerful and complicated: Don't renege on your love.

Personnel: Billy Joe Walker, Jr., Fred Knobloch, Bill Watson, Steuart Smith, Bobby All (acoustic guitar); Brent Mason (electric guitar, gut-string guitar); Dan Dugmore (12-string guitar, steel guitar); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Connie Ellisor, Mary Kathryn Vanosdale, Carl Gorodetzky, Pamela Sixfin, David Davidson , Lee Larrison, Alan Umstead, David Angell (violin); Rob Hajacos, Aubrey Haynie (fiddle); Richard Grosjean, Kristin Wilkinson, Gary VanOsdale (viola); John Catchings (cello); Jelly Roll Johnson (harmonica); Fats Kaplin (accordion); Matt Rollings (piano, organ); Steve Nathan (organ, keyboards); Sam Bacco (marimba, congas, claves, cymbals, dumbek, shaker); Eddie Bayers, Owen Hale (drums); Tom Roady (tambourine).

Audio Mixer: Chuck Ainlay.

Recording information: Sound Emporium, Nashville, TN; Sound Stage.

Editors: Carlos Grier; Don Cobb.

Photographers: Russ Harrington; Norman Jean Roy.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Paul Franklin; Sam Bacco.

Trisha Yearwood firmly enters middle-age with Everybody Knows, a collection of ballads and country-pop. Even when she kicks the tempo into high-gear, Yearwood and her band lay back, easing the beat along instead of pushing it. Similarly, the country-pop is engaging and relaxed, gently winning you over. But the heart of the album lies in her ballads, which are appropriately theatrical and grandiose -- it's big music with big melodies. The quality of the songs are a little uneven, but Yearwood continues to improve as a singer, which means she brings conviction even to the lackluster material on Everybody Knows. ~ Thom Owens minimize