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Contemporary country hitmakers Lonestar rock their winning formula a bit on Coming Home, produced by Justin Niebank. The music and vocals both boast a compelling edge -- lead singer Richie McDonald has never sung a pledge of love with the intensity he drills into the surging country power ballad "I'll Die Tryin'," which Niebank neatly frames with keening pedal steel and razor-edged guitar lines snaking through a powerhouse percussive assault that dominates the triumphant choruses. For pure get-down rowdiness, check out McDonald's slyly salacious reading of "Wild" set against a pounding rhythm, stinging, Skynyrd-like guitar solos, and a furious fiddle uprising (fiddle duties are shared by two masters of the instrument, Aubrey Haynie and Stuart Duncan). An appreciation of small-town life and values, "Little Town" is done not as the usual reflective folk poem but rather in rock 'n' roll terms, as it celebrates down-home virtues in a brisk shuffle arrangement marked by exuberant, wailing guitar solos. So it goes on this homecoming -- some southern rockstyled barnburners, some rock-based introspection, and some thoughtful balladeering (of special note is the country-rock love song "I Never Needed You," featuring labelmate Sara Evans). Throughout, the boys display exemplary writing, picking, and singing. Whatever Lonestar thought they might have mislaid on the way to multi-platinum success seems to have been found on this journey back to what made its music special in the first place: heart, and lots of it. David McGee, Barnes & Noble
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February 28, 2006: First, I would like to say, I have been a life long Lonestar fan. From the first time I heard No News, I loved their music. Now, I would like to say, I have not bought this CD, nor will I ever buy it, or another Lonestar CD again. My reason for that is, two songs on this CD, You're Like Coming Home, and I'll die trying, were sung by another country act, not more than five years ago. And, when I first heard I'll die trying, which was a song that I liked by the other singer, I wished someone would put Richie out of his misery. He butchered two good songs, his voice is too old and too whiney to do this music.