Lee Ann Womack

One Liner: "I Hope You Dance" and some other classics with a great voice.

Wikipedia Genre: Neotraditional country, country pop, Americana
Home: Nashville (via Jacksonville, Texas)

Saturday

Thoughts:  Another one of these where I feel like I should know who this is, but before clicking play on the first track, I couldn't have told you anything she sings.  But, for sure, her top song is very well known.  But we'll get there.

Her original sound brought up comparisons to Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette.  She was born in Jacksonville, Texas (like fellow TSI poster-person Neal McCoy!) in 1966. the daughter of a disc jockey who frequently took her to work.  After high school, she attended South Plains College in Levelland, Texas (freaking amazing song, by the way, named after that town) because it was one of the first in the nation to offer a degree in country music.  She left Texas and transferred to Belmont College in Nashville, where she interned at MCA Records, but apparently had a kiddo and left school before a degree.  That daughter, Aubrie Sellers, actually came to ACL a few years back and I dug it.  After a few years of raising her daughter, she scored a recording contract and got into making music for real.  Since then, she's scored a Grammy, five Academy of Country Music awards, and six Country Music Association awards.

Her first album is an instant classic.  At least it sounds that way to me, listening to it for the first time 27 years after its release.  1997's Lee Ann Womack starts out with "Never Again, Again," which only has 2.2 million streams on Spotify, but sounds like the most classic of classic country.  The second song title cracks me up, because it is listed on Spotify as "A Man With 18 Wheels - From "Black Dog" Soundtrack."  Which sounds translated from Chinese or something, and also is a factoid that seems devoid of usefulness since I've never heard of that movie.  A quick research and it starred Swayze, Meat Loaf, and Randy Travis, and has a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes.  Seems like a Patrick Swayze movie would be one that everyone knows, but apparently not.  It would be fun to go through his whole filmography just to see the ups and downs.  Anyway, the big hit from this opening album is "The Fool," which was her first top 2 single.  6.1 million streams.

Classic heartbreak ballad that is well-sung and lovely.  Also, cheesy as hell and the schmaltzy kind of thing that turned me off of country when this sort of song was up against (holy hell, I just looked at the top Billboard songs of 1997, and it is just a wasteland of crap I never listened to - Puff Daddy, Third Eye Bling, "Pony," B.I.G., and Sheryl Crow.  The majority of that list is freaking wild, man.) uh, other music.

Her next album was 1998's Some Things I Know.  Even the low-stream-count songs are really nice - I never realized how much she sounds like Alison Krauss.  By the way, I have to look up how to spell Alison Krauss every time I type it.  Shout out to her parents for keeping me on my toes with the double-letter-intensive-name-without-double-letters.  Two big songs on that disc - "A Little Past Little Rock" (5.3 million streams, but doesn't sound familiar to me at all), and "I'll Think of a Reason Later," which is a jam with 11.2 million streams.

I really like that one, the petty ass lyrics about hating someone (although because it was a million years ago this was looking at a photo in the newspaper instead of on social media) are top tier.  Great stuff.  Strangely, some of these songs have super low stream counts, like the otherwise good "When The Wheels Are Coming Off" that features Ricky Skaggs.  Streaming numbers are just weird for older albums that were likely heavily purchased via physical media back in the day.

But the big blockbuster album finally landed with #3, 2000's I Hope You Dance.  The first track, again, really sounds like Krauss.  But it is the title track that is her biggest hit by a mile.  117.8 million streams.

Her looks at the camera are so severe, and that dress is really something.  This feels like the kind of song that has become a staple at graduations and weddings.  But I'll admit that I like some of the lines, even if they are dripping in schmaltz.  The background harmony singers also kind of rule.  But that tune not only hit #1 on the country charts, but also crossed over and made the top 15 of the regular Billboard chart as well.

After that, 2002's Something Worth Leaving Behind, 2002's The Season for Romance (Christmas songs), 2005's There's More Where That Came From, 2008's Call Me Crazy, 2014's The Way I'm Livin', 2017's The Lonely, The Lonesome, & the Gone, and some recent EPs all fail to come anywhere near those highs.  One of the 2008 ones even has King George on it, but only 260k streams.  The closest is "I May Hate Myself in the Morning," from that 2005 album, with 10.6 million.

That seriously sounds to my ear like a cover - I swear I've heard someone else sing that before.  But, lovely little tune, that is well-sung and good lyrically.  Also, her look had radically changed from those early videos where she's rocking brown hair cut in the Rachel style, to the blonde-wavy-from-the-beach look here.

Call Me Crazy is actually a solid album, even through it didn't get the spins of other discs.  I'd go watch this.  Not the top pick for me for the whole weekend, but her voice seems like it is still as strong as ever and she has some really good ones.