Waking Up Laughing

1	If I Had Your Name 3:43
2	Cry Cry ('Til the Sun Shines) 3:06
3	Tryin' to Find a Reason 3:26
4	For These Times 4:16
5	Anyway 4:40
6	How I Feel 3:48
7	I'll Still Be Me 3:49
8	Beautiful Again 2:56
9	Everybody Does 3:27
10	House of a Thousand Dreams 3:53
11	Love Land 3:56

Barnes & Noble

In a career marked by more than one country music milestone, Waking Up Laughing is Martina McBride's strongest album yet. Fully realized in all respects, it finds the artist not only singing like there's no tomorrow but also co-writing a few songs and producing the entire affair. Steering her own record, she didn't cut corners. Her studio band includes stellar players on the order of guitarists Dan Dugmore, Bryan Sutton, and Steve Gibson; keyboardists Steve Nathan and Double Trouble's Reese Wynans; steel picker Paul Franklin; fiddler Larry Franklin; and the formidable rhythm section of drummer Matt Chamberlain and bassist Glenn Worf. These simpatico players impressively walk the line dividing traditional country stylings from more rhythmically driving, contemporary mainstream approaches (check out the pulsating, razor-edged attack on the rebound anthem, "Everybody Does," complete with snarling electric guitars and robust B-3 fills complementing its triumphant, soaring chorus). The lead single, "Anyway," a McBride co-write with Warren brothers Brad and Brett, alternates tender verses with a roaring, power-ballad chorus. "For These Times" by Leslie Satcher uses a guitar and mandolin attack to establish a down-home atmosphere for its musings on the dire state of the world and closes on an inspirational note with a full-on gospel chorus. McBride ends an album rich in topicality with "Love Land," a piano-driven ballad about a couple's sustaining love after losing a newborn child. Suffice to say that the touching final verse exemplifies the optimism and strength of character that makes Martina McBride's music so compelling. She chooses life. David McGee

All Music Guide

Martina McBride scored big with Timeless, her collection of classic country tunes in 2005. It was yet another feather in the singer's cap. McBride's reign near the top of country music's pantheon has been near constant. She's picky about the songs she chooses to sing, she works with sympathetic producers, and her voice is, well, timeless. She's got the Southern twang, but its timbre carries within it a vast scope of American music. Check "Anyway," the first single and video from 2007's Waking Up Laughing, and one of two tunes on the set McBride had a hand in writing (and she produced the set herself -- she's earned the right). It's subject is to pray regardless, take the action and leave the result in the hands of Divine Providence: "God is great, but sometimes life ain't good/When I pray it doesn't always turn out like I think it should/But I do it anyway/I do it anyway." It's anthem to the beauty of failure, the courage in tenacity, and a testament to the willingness to do the right thing no matter how it turns out. It's got a massive string section, a slow, pronounced piano. The guitars crash against the strings in the refrain and the entire thing nearly lifts off the ground. The only thing holding it steady is McBride's big contralto. This kind of drama is her stock-in-trade. Celine Dion has nothing on her. Song itself is where McBride's quest as an artist resides. In the opener, "If I Had Your Name," rocking guitars, fiddles, mandolins, and big bad drums underscore McBride's scathing indictment of another's character flaws: "If I had your name/I'd be changin' it by now." A popping bassline and twin lead guitars fill the middle with menace and rage. "Everybody Does" feels like a flip side for "Anyway," with the subject of failure in love. "Loveland" and "House of a Thousand Dreams" have less of that large, theater-sounding dynamic. They are more traditionally "country" songs, a term that in the 21st century can mean almost anything -- and yes, that's good: it simply stands for American music these days. Waking Up Laughing is another brick in Martina McBride's astonishingly consistent catalog. Her continual affirmation for Christian faith may alienate some but will no doubt register with many country fans. Any way you look at it, Waking Up Laughing is a winner. Thom Jurek