About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

Blessed with an expressive, masculine baritone and a sensitive soul, Rodney Atkins makes an impressive debut with a collection of songs about family, friends, fortitude, and self-reliance. Atkins doesn't preach, but it's traditional values he celebrates, as on the stomping, fiddle-fired country rocker "These Are My People": church league softball, working hard at a day job, and so on, "giving this life everything we've got / and then some." In the churning "Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)," he recalls how his girlfriend's dad laid down the law to him on a first date, reminding him "he'll be up all night / cleaning this gun," and reflects on the far-off moment when his own daughter finds "that teenage boy just like me." A lesson of a different sort is taught by his young 'un in "Watching You," a driving, acoustic-based story that starts when a young son cuts loose with a four-letter word, which sets off a series of insightful reflections on parental responsibility set to thundering drums, sizzling guitar, and soaring pedal steel. Persevering through hard times is the message illustrated in the hit title song, a tune cloaked in Celtic finery (via bagpipes) and traditional country strains that seems to sum up the appealing essence of this most promising young artist. Keep an eye on him. David McGee, Barnes & Noble

Customer Reviews

• Listener Rating:
• Ratings: 4Reviews: 2