This Woman (CD - 2005)

Personnel: LeAnn Rimes (vocals); Dann Huff (guitar, electric guitar); John Willis, B. James Lowry (acoustic guitar); Charles Judge (keyboards); Jimmie Lee Sloas (bass guitar); Shannon Forrest (drums); Robert Bailey , Lisa Cochran, Vicki Hampton, Bekka Bramlett, Robert Bailey , Russell Terrell (background vocals); Dan Huff (guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Tom Bukovac (guitar, electric guitar); Jay Joyce, J.T. Corenflos (guitar); Keith Urban (electric guitar); Dan Dugmore, Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Bruce Bouton (dobro); Jonathan Yudkin (banjo, mandolin, fiddle); Tim Akers (accordion, keyboards); Steve Nathan (keyboards); Chris McHugh, Lonnie Wilson, Vinnie Colaiuta (drums); Eric Darken (percussion); Dan Tyminski, Joanna Janet, Perry Coleman (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Jeff Balding; Justin Niebank.

Liner Note Author: LeAnn Rimes.

Recording information: Emerald Entertainment; Jane's Place; The Sound Kitchen, Nashville, TN.

Photographer: Frank Ockenfels.

When a teenage LeAnn Rimes burst on the scene in the mid-1990s, country fans were astounded by her uncanny vocal resemblance to the late, great Patsy Cline. Perhaps in reaction to this initial pigeon-holing, Rimes moved further and further away from her straight country roots; as the singer's career progressed, she eventually became a country-pop diva on par with Shania Twain and Faith Hill.

As the title suggests, THIS WOMAN completes Rimes's transformation into an adult crossover artist. Despite the twangy guitar licks of "I Want to With You," the track has much in common with the driving teen-pop anthems of Lindsay Lohan and Avril Lavigne as it does with Nashville's "new traditionalists." "Something's Gotta Give" delivers an interesting hybrid, pairing careening bluegrass violin with electric sitar straight out of a 1960s film soundtrack. Through it all, Rimes's voice remains a powerful, husky instrument imbued with equal parts stadium glitter and honky-tonk sawdust. In particular, "When This Woman Loves a Man" is a bluesy, Hammond organ-fueled tour de force that sounds like Bonnie Raitt on a drunken night out with Janis Joplin. An assertive statement by a fully formed artist, THIS WOMAN showcases Rimes at the peak of her vocal powers. minimize