Big Love (CD - 1996)

Personnel: Tracy Byrd (vocals); Biff Watson (acoustic guitar); Billy Joe Walker, Jr., Brent Mason (acoustic & electric guitars); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Stuart Duncan (fiddle, mandolin); Vinnie Ciesielski, Steve Patrick (trumpet); Matt Rollings (piano, B-3 organ); Michael Rhodes (bass); Lonnie Wilson (drums); Thom Flora, Vince Gill, John Wesley Ryles, Harry Stinson (background vocals).

Byrd doesn't do anything too fancy here, he just sings with a keen understanding of his material, and in the process, turns good songs into excellent ones. The songs range from the upbeat title tune "Big Love" to the slow romantic ballad "I Love You That's All" to the humorous Western Swing of "Cowgirl." Byrd's take on "Don't Take Her She's All I Got," the Johnny Paycheck hit from the early Seventies, is dead-on solid, but don't let its inclusion fool you into thinking Byrd is just a revivalist. On tracks like "Tucson Too Soon" (co-written by Byrd) and "If I Stay", Byrd infuses the feel and energy of late Sixties-early Seventies country into songs that fit right in on '90s radio. They just sound a little deeper than what others are producing. BIG LOVE offers continued proof that Byrd is one of the few current Nashville stars able (and willing) to make "contemporary country" records that successfully manage to be both "contemporary" and "country." minimize