Play It Loud

1	My Love Goes on and On 3:05
2	Laredo 3:51
3	The Safe Side 4:47
4	Country by the Grace of God 3:28
5	Ton of Love 4:05
6	Play It Loud 3:04
7	Are You Ever Gonna Love Me 3:47
8	Who Needs the Whiskey 3:32
9	The Love Between a Woman and a Man 3:52
10	Lovin' You Lovin' Me 3:32
11	Rock the Boat 3:04
12	I Breathe in, I Breathe Out 4:06

Barnes & Noble

Investing heavily in a Garth Brooksian mix of '70s rock, southern boogie, and honky-tonk tradition, Louisiana-born, Texas-raised Chris Cagle comes roaring out of the gate on his debut effort with a collection of songs (eight of which he co-wrote) that demand the album's title sentiment be taken seriously. The searing "Country By the Grace of God" ought to wake up anyone within earshot with its raucous fiddles, white-hot twin guitar riffing, and pounding drums fueling Cagle's snarling, in-your-face vocal. The steady driving "Laredo" describes a man's struggle to hold onto a good love as it showcases an effective yearning side of Cagle's muscular baritone voice. But whereas uptempo is Play It Loud's dominant mode, Cagle leavens the boisterousness with a couple of well-crafted sensitive moments. The slow-boiling "Who Needs the Whiskey" speaks to the sustaining power of a good woman's unconditional affection, and "Lovin' You, Lovin' Me" features Cagle crooning, and then declaiming, a vow of devotion over a gently swaying, fiddle-rich track that hooks the heart. The album comes to a roaring close on the barn-burning "Rock the Boat," marking an impressive start for an artist who figures to be around for awhile. David McGee

All Music Guide

Like many young country music artists, Chris Cagle didn't grow up with country music so much as he did country-influenced pop and rock; his touchstones are the Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd, not Hank Williams and Merle Haggard. While his debut album Play It Loud unquestionably deserves to be filed under country, it's best to think of it just as much in the Southern rock category. Listening to it, music fans will be reminded most frequently of the Marshall Tucker Band and, especially, the Charlie Daniels Band. Cagle is most at home on up-tempo tracks like "Country by the Grace of God," "Rock the Boat," and the title track, also showing an affinity for swamp rock on "Love Between a Woman and a Man." Hence the leadoff track, "My Love Goes on and On," released months ahead of the album as Cagle's first single, is a good representation of his style, since it is another driving country-rocker. Necessarily, Cagle mixes in a few ballads, but they are not among the album's most impressive tracks. It may be that, with slower tempos and more emphasis on lyrics, such songs reveal Cagle's formulaic songwriting approach less flatteringly. The cliché-ridden, stereotypical declarations of romantic devotion would require a more distinctive balladeer to put it over successfully. The chief exception is the heart-rending "I Breathe In, I Breathe Out," actually Cagle's first song to be recorded (David Kersh cut it in 1997), which was added to the album for its Capitol Records reissue in June, 2001, along with another bonus track, "Are You Ever Gonna Love Me," and some multi-media content including the video for "Laredo," the album's second emphasis track and second chart hit. Cagle is an enthusiastic and engaging performer on his first album, but not yet a fully developed talent. William Ruhlmann