A Man Ain't Made Of Stone
No one sings about wedding rings better than Randy Travis. He launched his career with a song about a man staring at the ring "On the Other Hand." On "Day One" from this album, a man stares at the ring his wife left behind, and the bottomless ache of Travis's baritone purr captures the husband's anguish. Real country music is marriage music. It's not about brand-new love; it's about love that's been around the block a few times, and Travis makes you hear the history behind every betrayal, every separation, every reconciliation. Coproducers James Stroud and Byron Gallimore crank up the pop-rock drums and guitars, but in the center of it all is one of the greatest country voices of all time. Not all the material is worthy of that voice, but when Travis sings about a macho husband falling apart or a wife getting ready to leave or a husband inadvertently mentioning the other woman, no one can touch him. Who else under the age of 50 could be as convincing on a song called "The Family Bible and the Farmer's Almanac"?--Geoffrey Himes