Startin' Fires [PA]

Performer: Blake Shelton
Artist: Miranda Lambert
Engineer: Jacob Murry; Bryan Graban; Steve Marcantonio
Producer: Scott Hendricks
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Bryan Sutton (acoustic guitar); Brent Rowan (electric guitar); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Jonathan Yudkin (mandolin); Chip Davis, Melodie Crittenden (violin, background vocals); David Davidson , David Angell (viola); Monisa Phillips Angel, Kristin Wilkinson (cello); Bobby Braddock, Tim Lauer (strings); Gordon Mote (piano); Rim Lauer (Hammond b-3 organ); Glenn Worf (bass guitar); Shannon Forrest (drums); Wes Hightower (background vocals). Arrangers: Bobby Braddock; Tim Lauer. The fifth album by Nashville star Blake Shelton, STARTIN' FIRES continues the singer-songwriter's winning mix of tongue-in-cheek wit (a previous album was called PURE B.S.) and heartfelt sentimentality. On STARTIN' FIRES, Shelton's sardonic humor is best heard on the album's closing track, a saucy duet with Shelton's girlfriend, country star Miranda Lambert, called "Bare Skin Rug," as well as similarly PG-13 material like "This is Gonna Take All Night" and "Country Strong." His more serious material includes the patriotic "Home Sweet Home," the wistful "I Don't Care," and a fine pair of lost-love ballads, "I'll Hold On" and "100 Miles."

Rolling Stone (p.126) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "His fifth album leans toward slow, thoughtful stuff, like "Home Sweet Home,' in which Shelton flees the Nashville circus for the comforts of a bread-basket backwater." Entertainment Weekly (p.119) - "[Shelton] definitely knows how to craft a sturdy country tune....These FIRES are fueled by mid-tempo beer-joint grooves..." -- Grade: B- Billboard (p.77) - "[M]ostly Shelton is in L-O-V-E and overjoyed to sing about it. 'Country Strong' offers an anthemic salute to boot-wearin' men and women..."

Country star Blake Shelton's popularity is due not only to his rakish good looks, easy-going country croon, and tuneful songwriting, but also in part to the fortuitous failure of Warner subsidiary Giant Records. After the label folded in 2001, Warner Brothers picked up Shelton's contract and helped catapult him to the top of the charts with hits like "Austin," "The Baby," and "Some Beach."

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