Rhinestoned

1	Something Burning Out 3:25
2	Band in the Window 3:28
3	Train Without a Whistle 4:27
4	Life Has Sure Changed Us Around 4:18
5	Someone Somewhere Tonight 4:52
6	Down by the Water 3:47
7	Crazy by Myself 3:20
8	Bettin' Money on Love 4:42
9	That Was a Heartache 3:41
10	The Hard Way 4:14
11	Over My Head 4:38

Barnes & Noble

A little Dixieland touch on Matraca Berg's sultry "Crazy By Myself"; a brisk talking blues shuffle on "Bettin' Money on Love"; two great Leslie Satcher-penned heartbreakers (the eerie opener, "Something Burning Out," with a touch of Twin Peaks guitar, weeping pedal steel, aching twin fiddles, and a lyric that Tillis delivers with wrenching restraint; plus a classic honky-tonk reminiscence of ill-fated love in the lilting "That Was a Heartache") -- these are but a few of the essential elements of a masterpiece called Rhinestoned by Pam Tillis. Big-voiced Pam can belt with anyone, but she's mastered the punch to the gut that a carefully nuanced phrase can deliver. Having done some acting in her day, she now employs her thespian instincts in service to smart, subtle vocal drama. Maybe it's no coincidence, then, that she's singing with a freedom not always apparent in her early years. Her buoyant take on the uplifting closer, "Over My Head," an is at once the perfect approach to the song's spiritually resonant lyrics and the ideal counterpart to the fanciful, Irish-tinged arrangement. Pam teams with another always-welcome old pro, John Anderson, on one of the album's most engaging tunes, "Life Sure Has Changed Us Around." Abundant in riches, Rhinestoned shines brightly indeed. David McGee

All Music Guide

Let's face it: there is only one Pam Tillis. Her voice, one of the purest country instruments to come out of Nash Vegas in the last 30 years, draws on the music's rich and varied tradition, and points forward to the place where country, bluegrass, rock, pop, swing and soul meet. She may not be recording for the major labels anymore, but, as evidenced by Rhinestoned, she's making better music now than she's ever made in her life. The 11 cuts here, penned by some of Nashville's finest songwriters, are delivered with the kind of savvy and artistry that only a veteran can muster. Tillis delivers "Something Burning Out" with all the ache and confusion of a woman who cannot understand why love itself is not enough. She's not a victim, but an active participant. "Band in the Window," is a honky tonk story song with killer pedal steel by Dan Dugmore. She delivers Jon Randall's "Train Without a Whistle" with all the requisite warning and loneliness about a rounder that a country ballad can bear. And speaking of ballads, her rendering of Jim McBride's "Someone Somewhere Tonight," is full of pure, smoldering and desperate desire. Her soul voice comes pouring out like warm honey from the pit of her belly and out toward the listener like a balm. The banjo strut in "Down by the Water" is one of those two-steppers that makes the boots bound across the barroom floor. That it is also a tune of thwarted desire is poignant in and of itself. The point is, no matter what the tune here, it succeeds. Rhinestoned is a hard country record, coming from one of the music's most signature vocalists who extends that tradition even as she honors it. Thom Jurek