Lee Ann Womack
Country music isn’t what it used to be. It has become a mixture of pop lyrics and rock beats under the title of country while not really clinging to the original context of the genre. I’m a longtime fan of country music sticking to it through all the ups-and-downs and stylistic changes. I even like much of the new pop-country music hybrid that most people will argue ruined the genre altogether. In America it helped to bring a new, younger audience to the music, and luckily, over the past few years, there’s been important and successful artists like Josh Turner, Blake Shelton, Jamey Johnson and Lee Ann Womack, who have directed these new young fans back towards the genuine roots of modern country music.
Lee Ann Womack’s seventh album, CALL ME CRAZY, reaches back into time to highlight the twang of country through heartaches and love. Produced by the legendary Tony Brown, the sound doesn’t differ greatly from her past albums, but the candid subjects of her songs open a new arena of country love songs. There are songs ranging in content from cheating to getting over a lost love, barroom laments to joy of lasting love as Lee Ann touches on all aspects of romance, not just the idealistic view of true love.
Besides being her finest album to date, the album is also proof that traditional country music—the kind that owes a great deal to the classic recordings of the 1960s and 1970s—can still be made on Music Row for a major label. “Somebody has to drive the ship,” Lee Ann says. “Somebody’s got to have the vision. A lot of times, [label executives] have to take an act and give it direction or shape it into something. But when you’ve got somebody like me, who’s been making records for more than ten years—I think they were glad that I was just able to say: ‘Here’s the record.’ They listened to the music, and they got it right away.”