Ultimate Clint Black

1	A Better Man 3:06
2	Killin' Time 2:49
3	Nobody's Home 3:31
4	Walkin' Away 2:51
5	Loving Blind 3:58
6	Where Are You Now 3:11
7	We Tell Ourselves 4:41
8	When My Ship Comes In 3:37
9	A Bad Goodbye / Wynonna 3:42
10	State of Mind 3:56
11	A Good Run of Bad Luck 2:44
12	Wherever You Go 4:15
13	Summer's Comin' 2:50
14	One Emotion 2:44
15	Like the Rain 4:23
16	Something That We Do 4:00
17	Nothin' But the Taillights 3:54
18	The Shoes You're Wearing 3:55
19	Dixie Lullaby / Bruce Hornsby 3:20
20	Been There / Steve Wariner 5:35

Barnes & Noble

No one was hotter than Clint Black in the late '80s-early '90s country resurgence, and the reason why is amply documented in the 20 tracks here, which span 1989-2000. In one of country music's most fruitful artist-producer relationships, Black and James Stroud sculpted a sound that resonated with traditional country elements in its acoustic guitar and fiddles, but they also embraced pop-flavored string arrangements in its ballads and electric instruments to juice up the barn burners. As a writer -- Black wrote or co-wrote every tune here except a cover of Leon Russell's "Dixie Lullaby," a duet with Bruce Hornsby -- Black showed a flair for ingenious wordplay, which made his 1989 chart-toppers, "Better Man" and "Killin' Time," and 1994's No. 1 "A Bad Run of Good Luck," as rich lyrically as they are in melody. Vocally, Black possesses a rich, expressive voice that is a marvelous instrument on its own, but his smart phrasing and emotive intensity raises everything to another level. He can trade bluesy, soaring phrases with Wynonna on 1993's heartrending, string-laden ballad "A Bad Goodbye" and give off some sparks of his own that seem to bring out the best in Wy, or tear through a full-throttle country-rock nugget such as "We Tell Ourselves" with commanding bravado. Good stuff here, and it has aged well. Today's mainstream could use a dose of it real bad. David McGee

All Music Guide

There have been a few Clint Black compilations -- an initial Greatest Hits in 1996, a sequel in 2001, two identically titled Super Hits with different track listings -- prior to 2003's Ultimate Clint Black, but this is the first to take full stock of his ten-year stint at RCA Records. Appropriately, this was released at the end of that run, a few months before he released his first record on Equity, so it was perfectly timed to summarize his peak years as a popular recording artist. Does it do a good job? More or less, yes. It's a mixed blessing that it covers so much ground, since it does wind up giving a full portrait of his '90s stardom, but at the expense of his better, earlier harder country, as well as several country Top Ten singles. Nevertheless, this has the bulk of his biggest hits, from the timeless "Killin' Time" to the Steve Wariner duet "Been There," making it a satisfying retrospective from one of the best new traditionalists of the '90s. Stephen Thomas Erlewine