Family

Performer: LeAnn Rimes
Producer: Tony Brown; Dan Huff; Reba McEntire
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: LeAnn Rimes (vocals, background vocals); Dann Huff (guitar, acoustic guitar); Stuart Mathis (guitar, electric guitar); Kenny Greenberg (guitar); Michael Thompson (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Tom Bukovac (electric guitar); Dan Dugmore, Paul Franklin, Jay Dee Maness (steel guitar); Jonathan Yudkin (banjo, mandola, fiddle); Carl Gorodetzky, Pamela Sixfin (violin); Kris Wilkinson (viola); Carole Rabinowtiz, John Catchings (cello); Tim Lauer (strings, accordion, piano, organ, Farfisa, Mellotron, keyboards, synthesizer); Mark Douthit (saxophone); Doug Moffet (baritone saxophone); Mike Haynes (trumpet); Barry Green (trombone); Tim Akers (piano, organ, Wurlitzer organ, keyboards); Matt Rollings, Steve Nathan (piano, Hammond b-3 organ); Rami Jaffee (Hammond b-3 organ); Charles Judge (keyboards, synthesizer, programming); Jimmie Lee Sloas, Leland Sklar (bass guitar); Chris McHugh, Russ Kunkel (drums); Eric Darken (percussion); Joanna Janet (background vocals). Additional personnel: Mare Broussard, Reba McEntire, Bon Jovi. There are few career paths more difficult to navigate one's way out of than child star. Just like their more publicized counterparts in the acting field, singers who make their first major splash before reaching adulthood have a high probability of either becoming a punch line or, perhaps even worse, a non-entity by the time they're old enough to drink. Country star LeAnn Rimes has successfully reinvented herself at the age of 25 with FAMILY, the culmination of her attempt to refashion herself away from the image of the 13-year-old cowgirl who first hit the pop charts in the mid-1990s. For the first time, Rimes wrote or co-wrote all 12 songs on FAMILY (some limited editions add two bonus tracks including a remix of "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore," Rimes' duet on Bon Jovi's LOST HIGHWAY album), and she reveals herself to be a smart, canny songwriter with a knack for plain-spoken, clear-eyed lyrics about relationships and family. A mainstream country album with few of the pop-crossover nods of Rimes' more recent work, FAMILY is consistently strong, featuring some of her most appealing songs. LeAnn Rimes planned to succeed This Woman, her 2005 return to country, with a pop album called Whatever We Wanna in 2006, but as This Woman continued to sell steadily in the U.S., that album wound up seeing the light of day only in Europe. Instead of issuing Whatever We Wanna in America in 2007, Rimes released an entirely different, brand-new album called Family, a record that was closer to country than her 2006 Europop excursion. Of course, this makes it tailor-made for the American market, where she is still seen primarily as a country singer, not a pop star, but Family isn't quite a crass commercial move. Instead, it's her first album of all original material (many co-written with Dean Sheremet, Blair Daly, and Darrell Brown in some combination or another), which makes this a bit of a relative risk, as Rimes has been known as song interpreter, not a songwriter, in the decade she's been recording. Then again, Rimes hasn't exactly been complacent during those ten years: she's recorded everything from classic country to dance-pop, dabbling in adult contemporary crossovers, inspirational music, and even rockabilly along the way. She's learned a lot in those explorations, as evidenced by Family, which may not touch on everything she's done but is surprisingly far-ranging underneath its soft country-pop veneer. There may be just a bit too much of the smooth crossover material here, particularly on the first half of the record, but beneath that gloss there are some sturdy songs, songs that play like a blend of Reba McEntire and early Dixie Chicks. Also, as the album rolls on, Rimes loosens up, first with the sunny party tune "Good Friend and a Glass of Wine," then eventually rolling to the swaggering Marc Broussard duet "Nothin' Wrong," which kicks up some genuine dirt, and then culminating in the slow, soulful crawl of "One Day Too Long." On songs like these, Rimes illustrates her range as a singer along with some true strength as a writer, and they help make Family a canny blend of the commercial and the confessional -- an album that feels heartfelt, yet is as accessible and enjoyable as her best records. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (p.127) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[S]he scores with a fantasy of the footloose youth she never had and a Tanya Tucker-style tale of childhood strife..." Entertainment Weekly (p.129) - "Rimes displays new maturity in songwriting....She's best on the greasy blues of 'Nothing Wrong'..." Blender (Magazine) (pp.150-152) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Her 10th studio disc throws in some Texas and Nashville, some blues changes and Bon Jovi cameos....Filled with showstoppers."

She'd been wowing audiences with her uncannily adult voice for years, but in 1996, thirteen-year-old LeAnn Rimes turned the country world upside down with her Patsy Cline-soundalike "Blue." The young star, managed by her dad, was showered with accolades, including the Best New Artist Grammy. But as Nashville labels rushed to sign their own teen stars, Rimes was already moving in a pop direction. Her next three studio CDs were odd mixtures of new country, country classics and pop/rock covers, and she scored a string of pop hits from movie and TV soundtracks, including the massive "How Do I Live."

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