Welcome To My World (CD - 2007)

Personnel: Darrell Young, Terry Lee Palmer (acoustic guitar); Jeff Matthews, Jeff Matthews (drums); Paul Franklin (steel guitar, lap steel guitar, dobro); Jonathan Yudkin (resonator guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, cello); Jim Hoke (harmonica, saxophone); Dennis Wage (piano, keyboards).

Audio Mixer: Matt Coles.

Recording information: Emerald Studios, Nashville, TN; The Sound Kitchen, Franklin, TN.

With a big voice and a dozen songs, Delana Stevens offers her version of contemporary country music. Hard-luck stories like "Welcome to My World" and "Don't Sweat the Little Things" tell the listener a little about life and utilize catchy phrasing just this side of cliché. In a sense, life and love may be hard for everyday folks, but that's just the way things are, so a person should try to make the best out of what he or she has to work with. The problem for Stevens and many other country star wannabes is how to separate oneself from the Faiths and Gretchens who already dominate the radio dial with similar material. They've all left the country for better things, lost their virginity at the drive-in, and learned that love's not always easy. The attempt to match Stevens to contemporary production style is less than perfect, with her voice just a little too bright and loud in the mix. The material is solid, though, and Stevens is a good singer; her backing band also provides good cushioning for her big voice. There's a good mix of upbeat and ballad material on Welcome to My World, and the performances are well wrought. Still, Stevens has fallen short of defining herself against the plentiful competition around her on Welcome to My World. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. minimize