Fearless
While Nashville's unwritten rules say Terri Clark should just recycle her spunky-yet-slight early hits, she has instead grown more willing to reject New Country formula with each new album. On 2000'sFearless, she eschews the overinflated production and nervous energy of most current country in favor of arrangements that are frequently nothing more than her voice backed by acoustic midtempo rhythm tracks. And her songs, cowritten with folks likeMary Chapin Carpenter,Kim Richey, andBeth Nielsen Chapman, have her experimenting with a shoe-gazing angst and have a downright singer-songwriter feel. All interesting developments, but often foiled by vocals that can be oddly tentative, lyrics that search only hard enough to discover different clichés, and stripped-down arrangements that go nowhere. Still, cuts like the easy-rocking "Getting There," where the journey beats the destination, and the spare, closing "Good Mother," where "Be yourself" is repeated like a mantra, hint Clark may still have something substantial to offer, even if it hasn't completely come out yet.--David Cantwell