Lucky Man
Through this song cycle of love's salvation, Hal Ketchum tries to renew the commercial success he enjoyed a decade ago with "Small Town Saturday Night" without sacrificing the critical respect he earned with his previous release,Awaiting Redemption. The plainspoken simplicity and heartfelt sincerity of "You Can't Go Back" and "Richest Man in Texas" bring out the best in Ketchum's reedy tenor, while overblown duets withDolly Parton("Two of the Lucky Ones") andLisa Brokop("Keep Mom & Dad in Love") succumb to schmaltz. The sound is generally slicker and sweeter than one might expect from producerRodney Crowell, though Ketchum's soulful reading of a pair of Crowell originals, "Loving You Makes Me a Better Man" and "Dreams of Martina," reflects an artistic kinship.--Don McLeese