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Editorial Reviews

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 rock–styled 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

Customer Reviews

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