Audio By Carbonatix
On her new Timeless, a self-produced collection of covers of classic country tunes, Martina McBride pays tribute to the music of her (and older people’s) past without trashing the present–a real accomplishment in C&W, where somebody’s notion of authenticity is always getting in the way of a good time. (Even McBride can’t resist a little boasting: “Martina and I were striving for an authentic sound,” her engineer husband John writes in the CD’s liner notes, reporting that they “stayed in the analogue domain for 99 percent of this record.”) The focus here is on the songs and McBride’s terrific voice, the way she can make “Today I Started Loving You Again” sound sad and “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden” happy by simply bending a few choice notes in certain directions.
