When You Lie Next to Me
Newcomer Kellie Coffey arrives in Nashville not straight from her Oklahoma home, but via Los Angeles, where she scored a number of jobs singing background for Disneyland, network television, andBarbra Streisand’smillenniumalbum and Las Vegas show. It’s no surprise, then, that she chose a pop producer, Dann Huff, for her debut CD, which is marketed as a country album but has little more than the occasional twang of pedal steel guitar to make it so. This is a big, layered, usually overproduced effort, made memorable by Coffey’sTrisha Yearwood-like vocals and her impressive songwriting. "When You Lie Next to Me," the title ballad, boasts a strong lyric about appreciating the intimacy of a lover and respecting the fragility of life. Like others of her songs, particularly "At the End of the Day" and "Outside Looking In," a duet withLonestar’s Richie McDonald, "When You Lie Next to Me" has a kind of integrity that cuts through the gloppy production and remains something special. Here’s hoping that Coffey, something special herself, can keep her head above the muck.--Alanna Nash