Lorrie Morgan - To Get to You: Greatest Hits Collection
A tough but wary edge often lurks beneath the surface of Lorrie Morgan's sweet, arresting country soprano. That should be no surprise, really: with three failed marriages behind her (including a tragic union with the late singerKeith Whitley), Morgan is a battle-weary, road-tested survivor who has no doubt lived through what younger and callower-sounding songstresses merely sing about. Yet Morgan's vocal resolve often wages an inner war with her abiding vulnerability and longing, which is what makes her so utterly powerful and believable on distraught confessionals like the bitter "Good As I Was to You" and her magnificent reprise ofTammy Wynette's lament "Another Lonely Song." An added treat is her fervent live version ofSarah McLachlan's "Angel." Morgan is every bit as incisive on a hard-edged shuffle like "Trainwreck of Emotion" (her debut 1988 single, which is included here on CD for the first time) as on a spirited romantic plea like "We Both Walk." There are a few clunkers on this 17-song hodgepodge of old and previously unreleased material that masquerades as a "greatest hits" package--worst of the worst is "Maybe Not Tonight," a gooey, mismatched duet withSammy Kershaw. Still, the overall effect ofTo Get to Youis to remind us in no uncertain terms what an expressive and perennially underrated singer Morgan is.--Bob Allen