This Woman's Heart
While Chalee Tennison'sself-titled debutshowed potential, it also seemed tentative and suppressed in places, a stigma that sometimes plagues freshman efforts. This time her confidence explodes as she demonstrates her full range. Her twang, attitude, and taut passion make her the closest thing we have to a postmodernTammy Wynette. The material, including seven songs she cowrote, is consistent and first-rate. Her vamping, flirty "I Ain't" seems almost tongue-in-cheek, while she approaches "I'm Healing," a song of renewal cowritten with Dean Dillon, with an almost religious fervor. She carries that intensity to the optimistic "This Woman's Heart," "Under Your Skin," and "Somebody Save Me." Her approach may seem modern on "Go Back," yet it's actually one of those timeless, sentimental yarns country singers have spun for decades. She tackles heartbreak from two different directions. Anguished denial permeates "What I Tell Myself," while "You Can't Say That" meets it head on. Nothing, not even the blaring, abrasive, and one-dimensional arrangements, gets in her way.--Rich Kienzle