And the Crowd Goes Wild (CD - 2003)

Personnel: Mark Wills (vocals); Tom Bukovac (acoustic & electric guitars); Biff Watson (acoustic guitar); J.T. Corenflos (electric guitar); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Tim Akers (keyboards); Jimmie Lee Sloas (bass); Lonnie Wilson (drums); Eric Darken (percussion); Wes Hightowewr (background vocals).

Recorded at Ocean Way, Cartee Day, Aimeeland Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.

Digitally remastered using HDCD technology.

Warning: All attempts at pigeonholing Mark Wills as a standard-fare country singer will run sharply afoul of reality. While the romantic, piano-laced ballad "That's a Woman" and the self-explanatory "He's a Cowboy" may live up to what most people expect to hear coming out of Nashville, they are the exceptions rather than the rule. The NASCAR-friendly title track to Wills' fifth album sounds more like Smashmouth with mandolin than anything else, while a Southern accent and some twangy guitars are all that keep "Nothin' But a Suntan" from seeming like an N Sync outtake. When you find out that Wills started out on the pop/rock side of things before inching over to country, it all makes sense. Hey, if Meat Loaf can cover Alan Jackson (see the former's contemporaneous release), everything is fair game. minimize