Customer Reviews

Devoted

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you watched American Idol, Season 7, you'll be familiar with Kristy Lee Cook, who finished in the Top 10 at number seven. In 2005, prior to her Idol days, she released this debut album under the name Kristy Lee, comprising ten relatively short songs, three of which are covers of classic songs.

Of the covers, she sings a straight-up version of Tammy Wynette's country staple "Stand By Your Man", and as she smoothly potters around that famous song "Unchained Melody", you'll recall how many times you watched that Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore scene from "Ghost". The third cover is a pitch perfect copy of LeAnn Rimes' "Blue".

The other tracks are standard country songs, "Good Luck", "Hold Your Horses" and "Clean Break" being the better songs, while "Put Your Heart Into It" sounds like a combination of Shania Twain's "If You Wanna Touch Her, Ask!" and Collin Raye's "That's My Story". I liked the faster tracks because when she increases the tempo she sounds like she's truly enjoying herself.

My one criticism is that she needs to define and claim her own unique sound and style, as this album proves her more of a musical chameleon, particularly on the covers, which although good, aren't "her own" (to quote Randy Jackson, the man of a half-dozen catch phrases.)

She's not only a talented country music singer, but also a model, actress (commercials) and yes, even horse trainer, and it will be interesting to see her parlay the training and experience from AI7 into a career in the entertainment industry.

Amanda Richards, June 16, 2008

I rooted for this gal on AI, and I was sorry when she was voted off. But what a nice surprise to find this CD of hers from 2005, ready to download. I think she comes across best in the ballads ("Devoted", "Perfect Love"), but she shows a lot of spirit in the up-tempo tracks too, especially "Put Your Heart Into It", which has humorous lyrics that she has fun with ("You don't need to talk French to make me giddy/You don't need to fly me off to some foreign city"). And best of all, she handles 3 well-known songs in ways that reveal the potential of a big talent ready to break out. "Stand By Your Man" has a bouncier feel than Tammy Wynette's, and it works. Different from Tammy's, but good in its own way. "Blue" sounds just gorgeous to me. She closes the album with "Unchained Melody", and gives it all she's got, including some notes that I never heard her hit on AI. All in all, if this is just the beginning, I will certainly be looking for whatever our girl has in store for us in the future, with a bigger budget to work with and experience from the Idol tour to strengthen her voice and increase her confidence.

The song Unchained Melody is a must buy. Loved it !

Way to go, Kristy !

This CD under the name Kathy Lee was done about three years before he appeared on American Idol as Kathy Lee Cook where she finished either 5th or 6th as I recall. However, the CD reveals an amazingly talented young country western singer with a superb style and vocal range. I attribute her ranking on American Idol as more the product of the fact that there was so much great talent this year than her lack of star potential. We'll certainly be seeing a lot of her in the future.

An excellent album of old and new favorites in the country genre. I'd heard Unchained Melody in many versions including the original by Al Hibbler and of course the most well-known version by the Righteous Brothers (as re-popularized in the movie 'Ghost'), but I'd never heard a countrified version like this one.

Of course the other songs that are not covers of popular songs are even better, in my opinion. Very fresh music by an excellent country singer. I can see Nashville offering her a contract in the very near future.

Also the Amazon MP3 downloader is super fast! Who needs to pay for and wait for shipping a CD? Besides that, the MP3 album is half the price of the CD!

***************** UPDATE 31 JULY 2008 *****************************

After this review was written, Kristy Lee was signed by Arista Nashville, the same label that produces Carrie Underwood (the reigning Queen of Country) and Kellie Pickler! Kristy will have a new album coming out in September and I can't wait.