Rockie Lynne

1	Lipstick 4:24
2	The Only Reason 4:49
3	More 3:54
4	Super Country Cowboy 3:40
5	That's Where Songs Come From 3:28
6	Do We Still 3:57
7	Big Time in a Small Town 2:54
8	Don't Make This Easy on Me 3:39
9	Love Me Like You're Gonna Lose Me 3:34
10	Every Man's Got a Mountain 3:40
11	Holding Back the Ocean 3:29
12	Red, White and Blue 3:37

Barnes & Noble

North Carolina native Rockie Lynne has knocked around a bit, but he's making the most of his major-label break, with a chart-topping country single and now a solid debut album that nods to the mainstream while revealing and reveling in tradition. Writing or co-writing all of the album's dozen songs, Lynne's a true country romantic, he's expecting things to work out, and he's delirious when they do. He loves being in love. The opening cut, "Lipstick," is a twanging, scorching bit of hillbilly rock à la Marty Stuart (whose former producer, Tony Brown, is behind the board here), about reconciling and celebrating getting "back to us." In the urgent ballad "The Only Reason," against a backdrop of moody B3, acoustic guitar strums, fiddle moans and pedal steel cries, Lynne shouts his vow to a woman for whom he's leaving his beloved Texas, headed for Louisiana and "a place he can finally call home." A lilting, fiddle-rich George Strait-style love ballad, "More" finds Lynne crooning extravagant sweet nothings to his paramour. Admirably rocking out on "Super Country Cowboy," tearing it up on guitar on the bluesy, philosophical "Every Man's Got a Mountain," and waving the flag for our men and women in uniform in the gently thumping "Red, White and Blue," Lynne shows he's got the goods to parlay this promising start into a significant career. David McGee

All Music Guide

On the cover of his eponymous 2006 debut, Rockie Lynne looks a little like a little brother of Australian country hunk Keith Urban and his blend of contemporary country, melodic pop, and anthemic rock is not all that dissimilar to Urban, either. And like Urban, who can never quite escape his roots in New Zealand and Australia, Lynne is most certainly the product of his homeland, but Rockie is from the American South, so his modern country feels a little more genuinely country than Urban's. Even when Lynne's music seems a little calculated -- and there are plenty of times where it does, especially on the ridiculous watered-down Big & Rich of "Super Country Cowboy," the sappy "That's Where Songs Come From," and the well-intentioned we're-all-American clichés of "Red, White and Blue" ("The black man, the white man, and the Sioux/The middle class, the poor, and the well to do/They're red, white, and blue") -- it is a calculation that's purely American, and feels genuine. Plus, even if these songs pander a little, they do illustrate that Lynne knows how to craft songs that push the right buttons to get him heard and get him on the charts, and that hits at the heart of what makes Rockie Lynne an appealing debut: behind his good-looks image, Lynne is a solid songwriter and singer, turning out friendly, sturdy modern country, whether it's on lightly rocking tunes like "Big Time in a Small Town," surging country-pop like "Lipstick," or sentimental ballads like "More." He may not push the boundaries of the genre much, but he works well within its confines, hitting the mark more often than not. Not every cut here works, but the ones that do are quite good and add up to a mainstream country debut that's both satisfying and promising. Stephen Thomas Erlewine