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Heather Myles |
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Track List Sweet Talk & Good Lies Nashville's Gone Hollywood Never Had A Broken Heart One Man Woman Again Little Chapel By The Time I Get To Phoenix One and Only Lover Big Cars The Love You Left Behind If The Truth hurts Homewrecker Blues Sweet Little Dangerous Cry Me A River
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(Rounder) As with most
critically acclaimed country music, Heather Myles' songs are rarely heard on
mainstream country radio. These days, when a magnifying glass is almost
mandatory for anyone trying to find the smallest speck of country
music anywhere on a CD, that ought to account for something. Fortunately,
that problem never arises with Heather's "Sweet Talk and Good Lies." Her
straightforward country roots hit you square between the eyes from
the first to the last track.
Not since the glory days of country, when Loretta and Tammy could easily be found on the airwaves, has their been a finer example of a female country singing artist. Heather twangs, rocks and croons in all the right places. There's no saccharine sweet, overly glossed sentiments here. Sweet Talk and Good Lies follows up Heather's 1998 hardcore country release "Highways and Honky Tonks." With the refreshing candor of Loretta, the understated class of Tammy Wynette and the voice of a hillbilly angel, Heather Myles gets straight to the nuts and bolts of what a good country song should be. Real life. If you're listening Nashville: demographically speaking, there are more than a few of the female species that are tired of "perfect love songs." Penning all but two of thirteen tunes on the album, Heather repeatedly demonstrates she's in touch with what country music fans have been longing for. There's nothing subliminal about the "can't bring myself to say goodbye' heartache twang of the album's title cut, Sweet Talk & Good Lies. This song would have been a chart contender in better days. I freely admit, I'm drawn to anti-formula-country songs, and it's obvious Heather knows what she's talking about in Nashville's Gone Hollywood. With the clear-cut honesty, and a healthy helping of unapologetic twang she tells it like it is: You won't need a steel guitar in your
watered down rock and roll; Dwight Yoakam joins on Little Chapel for a little Bakersfield-drenched country tale of two young lovers bound and determined to elope in Vegas. Heather's plaintive hardcore twang easily makes the shift to torch on the album's duo of covers: By The Time I Get To Phoenix and Cry Me A River. Testing her wings, Heather easily proves her musical versatility, without once losing her footing on the Buddy Holly influenced honky tonk of One and Only Lover or the contagious rockabilly of Sweet Little Dangerous; and sardonic edges are catchy and sharp throughout the wry 'I've been done wrong woe' of "Homewrecker Blues." Heather sings country the way it was made to be sung, with sincerity of someone who's life echoes the words she sings. 'Been there done that' is written all over this album. Heather Myles gets it. She is what she is, more importantly, she sings what she is. Uncompromisingly sincere. Thank goodness.
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Laurie Joulie Take Country Back June
2002