Rebecca Lynn Howard
Rebecca Lynn Howard's bio describes the 20-year-old Kentuckian as working at her career since age 10. That may seem like hype in a time when karaoke singers land Nashville record deals, but there's some substance here.Reba,Lila McCann,John Michael Montgomery, and Howard's fellow KentuckianPatty Lovelesshave already covered her original songs, and her voice possesses the searing, primal soulfulness of Loveless or even aDolly Parton. She fully reveals her gifts on the sweetly vulnerable "You're Not a Memory Yet" and two snappy, spare honky-tonkers: "Melancholy Blue" (penned by Tom Douglas and Harlan Howard) and "Was It As Hard to Be Together." Of course, producer Mark Wright goes and shoehorns her into predictable, radio-friendly, assembly-line Nashville formulas much of the time, epitomized by the gimmicky "Heartsounds" and "Believe It or Not," a numbingly dull,Whitney Houston/Celine Dion-inspired power ballad. Howard has real potential, if she could avoid conforming to Music Row's same old same old.--Rich Kienzle