On April 3, 2023,
Tanya Tucker
was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame alongside singer
Patty Loveless
and songwriter
Bob McDill
. Four years earlier, the outlaw legend ended a 17-year recording hiatus with
While I'm Livin'
, co-produced by
Brandi Carlile
and
Shooter Jennings
. Despite offering a sound alien to the tech- and pop-obsessed music of 21st century Nashville, from six nominations, it took home Grammys for best country album and best country song. On
Sweet Western Sound
,
Tucker
and her production/songwriting team refuse to mess up a good thing: they double down on roots country with a small cast of musicians and writers. While
Carlile
and twins
Phil
Tim Hanseroth
wrote the lion's share of material for the previous outing, and they return here,
is credited with four co-writes, and songwriter
JT Nero
of
Birds of Chicago
and the team of
Billy Don Burns
Craig Dillingham
penned a song each.
"Tanya" opens the album; it's a poignant, sung voicemail from the late
Billy Joe Shaver
, a lifelong friend. With only the sound of a desert wind blowing, it reveals
's openness, vulnerability, and steely candor. Set highlight "Kindness" was written by the Hanseroths and reveals the cost of living so close to the bone of
Shaver
's narrative. Acoustic guitar and rumbling, reverbed tom-toms accompany
's weathered, resonant voice as she delivers a lyric about restlessness and becoming, things she intimately understands. Just as a pedal steel begins whining, she sings, "I've seen beauty that some might not understand/I found glory in the ruins of the best laid plans," as she petitions her beloved for kindness. Its simple, poetic truth informs the entire album. "Breakfast in Birmingham" was co-composed by
Elton John
lyricist
Bernie Taupin
. It, too, illustrates the pleasure, pain, and wanderlust of the road as it changes the protagonist.
Jennings
' "Waltz Across a Moment" was written especially for
. Accompanied only by pedal steel and gospel piano, is sees her offer, with resignation, acceptance, and a shred of hope: "Just like the California sun, I think I'm going down/Come meet me in the shadows of this drunken broken town/Don't curse your mind with yesterday/Just waltz across the moment to that sweet western sound."
co-wrote the gorgeous "Ready as I'll Never Be." With a gospel choir backing,
sings this prayer/spiritual manifesto with conviction and resolve.
's "City of Gold," weds pastoral country, gospel, and Americana in reflecting the interior treasure of a lover's heart, one that has been scarred and wounded by hurt, loss, and betrayal.
Burns
Dillingham
's "When the Rodeo Is Over (Where Does the Cowboy Go)" is an old-school hard-country paean to a way of life all but erased by history.
closes
with a reprise of
's voicemail that underscores all the truth revealed in the preceding songs. This is a major work that stands with the finest in
's long career. ~ Thom Jurek