One Voice

1	Little Things 2:25
2	I Think She Likes Me 3:07
3	What's Forever For 3:27
4	One Voice 4:10
5	Spend Another Night 3:46
6	Little Bitty Pretty One 2:32
7	Snake Song 3:12
8	I Wanna Get to Ya 3:37
9	Oklahoma 4:04
10	There's a Hero 3:26
11	'Til I Can Make It on My Own 3:10

Barnes & Noble

Remarkably assured for a tender lad of 12 years, country sensation Billy Gilman gets the support of some top Nashville session players and producers on his debut album. And guess what? ONE VOICE gets the job done. Gilman brooks comparison to another kid phenom of years past, Tanya Tucker -- not just in the urgent timbre of his voice, but in his tackling, with maturity, situations you hope the typical 12-year-old doesn't have to worry about. Maybe the sober "What's Forever For" is Gilman's way of voicing the child's hurt in an all-too-common scenario of couples uncoupling, rather than an adult's questioning of whether to take the plunge again. And "Spend Another Night," an out-and-out love song, finds the tyke pledging eternal devotion to the gal of his dreams. Now who are we to suggest there's anything wrong with puppy love? He's got time to wise up. In the meantime, Billy tosses in some lively interpretations of Bobby Goldsboro's "Little Things" and the evergreen "Little Bitty Pretty One." The bonus track closes the album on a stirring note: Billy's right-on interpretation of Tammy Wynette's classic heartbreaker "'Til I Can Make It on My Own," complete with a booming production and a bravura vocal performance that startles with its sheer force. If he can hang in there until he reaches drinkin' age, the old boy might turn out to be a real champ. Seth Kaufman

All Music Guide

Since "One Voice" made Billy Gilman the youngest person ever to place a song in the country singles charts, his pre-pubescent age is the unavoidable subtext of his debut album. Certainly, he's not the first pre-teen to make popular music, but the same problem always has to be faced: the usual subject of pop lyrics is romantic love, and what does that mean when the words are being sung by an 11 year old? At very least, there's a certain awkwardness, and the implications can be even more objectionable depending on the song. The producers of One Voice have mostly obviated this difficulty by choosing or writing harmless material. For example, the album begins with a rousing remake of Bobby Goldsboro's "Little Things," which perhaps can be viewed as a song being sung by a boy to his mother in this context. But what is one to make of the "bonus track" that closes the album, Tammy Wynette's "'Til I Can Make It on My Own"? The song's point, which in Wynette's version was that a woman might not be able to make a complete break with her romantic partner all at once, is out the window, but it would be a stretch to apply any other reading to those words, especially when Gilman, a sort of country-style choir boy, is singing it androgynously in Wynette's register. He is on much safer ground with the novelty "The Snake Song" and even the title track, which addresses grade school violence with religious platitudes. From LeAnn Rimes to Britney Spears, youth has been a major trend in popular music of the last few years, and Billy Gilman represents a new extreme, at least as far as country music goes. He can certainly carry a tune, and you can only hope that he won't be a has-been by the time his voice changes. William Ruhlmann