Labor of Love

Sammy Kershaw

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 4, 1997)
• Original Release Date: November 4, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mercury Nashville
• ASIN: B000001EXP
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #164,505 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Labor of Love, Sammy Kershaw's 1997 album, kicks things off with a Bob McDill song, "Honky Tonk America," a celebration of every dimly lit, beer-soaked nightclub in the nation--"a blue-collar place" with "a red-blooded crowd." And what kind of music, according to Kershaw and McDill, should one expect to hear in today's honky-tonk? "Louie, Louie," "Proud Mary," and "Wooly Bully."

As much as country purists may hate to hear it, today's Southern factory worker, the sort of person who's the backbone of the country audience, is more likely to dance to "Wooly Bully" on a Friday night than to "New San Antonio Rose." Kershaw is part of that core audience and so it's only natural that his Labor of Love reflects as much rock influence as country roots. Only purists would fault Kershaw for adding cannon-shot snare drums and cranked-up guitars to the fiddles and pedal-steel guitar, especially when these backing tracks sound as good as they do. Still, this set, like Kershaw's previous albums, is unfailingly polite. His voice is a marvelous instrument, and it sounds thick and creamy whether it comes out slow and sad, or fast and funny. The songs are all built around clever puns and catchy chorus jingles, but they never go any deeper than that.

On the album's most country-sounding track, "Thank God, You're Gone," Kershaw and his cowriter Mike Fornes describe a romantic break-up with a captivating ballad melody and the usual lyric details. The singer captures the self-pity of the situation in a gorgeous vocal, but he never quite touches the depths of post-break-up despair where anger, regret, and yearning are tangled in an undoable knot. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sammy's BEST CD, October 13, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Dexter NY) - See all my reviews

This is with out a doubt a must have CD. Love of My Life is the greatest country love song in years. One Day Left to Live is also a great love song with a little twist from the usaul love song. Matches is a unique break up song. Honky tonk america is a great rockin country song. Not one song on this CD is a bad one. It will make you a Sammy Kershaw instantly.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sammy's best work. Much better than his current release!, June 4, 1999

By A Customer

This CD is great! It starts off with a great tribute to the working man, in "Honky Tonk, America" and finishes with the heartfelt "Love of My Life." This is a good mix of all of what Sammy does well, highlighting his great vocal abilities, but not compromising the traditional country style that has made him a great musician.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sammy Kershaw - Labor Of Love, May 14, 2003

By	Xavier Bernard (Belgium) - See all my reviews

Here's an underrated singer whose vocal talent shows he deserves more success than he has achieved.

But furthermore he's also become his own man now on this album and vocal comparisons with George Jones are long gone.

Keith Stegall's production here allows Sammy to breathe and gives full presence to his voice rather than hiding it with banging drums and guitars. Even on the rockiest of songs here like the title track or Roamin' Love, the singer sings the hell out of the songs.

The last song on this set, Love Of My Life, is a beautifully-written ballad whose lyrics are simple, it must be said, but had the song been more involved lyrically, it would have diminished its impact and meaning.

Sammy also reflects on life in One Day Left To Live, gets cajun with Little Did I Know and all the others songs work perfectly for him. This is just his best record to date.