Customer Reviews

Steve Wariner

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

 

 

If you like the old songs Jimmy Webb wrote for Glen Campbell, you'll love this CD. I bought this record back in 1982 on vinyl and am pleased that it was finally reissued on CD. While the music and production are a little dated, it's still his best record ever.

Steve Wariner has definitely made a mark on Nashville, and it was very decent of RCA (BMG) to reissue the album that started it all...and an album that features 6 top 40 Country singles is nothing to throw a stone at. "All Roads Lead To You" is and always will be my favorite song by Steve Wariner. It is truly a song with depth and great music. For those of you that are only familiar with the mid '80's to '90's music of Steve Wariner, however, you are in for a surprise as young Steve presents a completely different sound to his music that may largely be described as country-pop. Not only that, but the bonus track, the original version of "I'm Already Taken" makes this album something that collectors of Country Music can't let get away.

Now, all we need is a box set that features ALL of Steve's singles including his RCA hits and misses (three albums from 1984 to 1986 slipped by unnoticed in part due to his subsequent MCA releases and in part due to the weak content). Some of the songs from the lost albums were featured on the now OOP "Best of Steve Wariner" released by BMG.

This was a very high quality item and just exactly what I was looking for.

Steve Wariner's first album release in 1982 could almost be seen as a "greatest hits" type package, seeing how several of the tracks had already been released as singles that made it into country music's top 40. When Steve first signed on with RCA, he was strictly a "singles artist", meaning his recorded material could only be found on 45 rpm singles at that time.

Most of the material on this album was produced by Tom Collins, who at the time was producer for some other big country talents such as Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, and Sylvia (who, by the way, provides some of the backing vocals on this CD). A lot of the music heard here has much of that country-pop sound that Collins was associated with while producing some of the before-mentioned country singers. Wariner would later hook up with producer Tony Brown, who would go on to be one of Nashville's most respected producers in the 1990s and beyond.

I, myself, prefer this early Steve Wariner outing as compared to his later releases. There are several wonderful tunes to listen to such as "Your Memory" (Steve's first top 10 hit!), "By Now", "Kansas City Lights", and Steve's first number one, "All Roads Lead to You". Some of my other personal favorites on this set include "Don't Plan on Sleepin' Tonight", "Don't it Break Your Heart", "She Never Meant a Thing to Me", and "Daybreak". Many of the songs here are backed by beautiful string arangements penned by D. Bergen White, the same studio musician who has composed horn and string arrangements for countless other singers through the years.

In conclusion, I would have to say that this album is one of which I have enjoyed listening to the most. Most CD's I've bought over the years contain at the most just two or three songs that I like, but this one I loved all the way through!