Trace Adkins Album: “Cowboy's Back in Town”

This is a great CD! If you are a Trace Adkins fan, a country music fan, a Toby Keith fan (you can feel the influence) you will enjoy this CD. There are wonderful love songs and laugh out loud fun songs included. This CD just solidifies Adkins status as a country super star. RECOMMENDED

Like Izcait, I too am an unabashed Trace Adkins, having followed him through his blossoming career, tracking his high points & his low ones, & remaining faithful to the belief that like artists such as Toby Keith, George Strait, Alan Jackson, et all, his best years (and albums) are yet to come. He possesses one of the greatest voices in country music, and has the ability to rock the house, charge the heart, & soothe the savage beast, depending on what he is singing. However, unlike Izcait, I am not going to award an album five stars, when it simply does not deliver the quality Trace's previous outings have. I'm no doubt going to be in the minority here, but hey, this album is not a scratch on "Dreamin' Out Loud" (my personal favourite of all his records), or any of his other albums. On this album, Trace excells with his ballads. These are clearly the high points here. Numbers like "Hell I Can Do That", "Still Love You", "Break Her Fall", & "A Little Bit Of Missin' You", are powerhouses, with Trace's great voice delivering them with real passion & sensitivity. Yet Of the more up-tempo tracks, only the title track, "Cowboy's Back In Town" seeems to make the cut. The rest are mediocre at best. Then there's "Ala-Freakin'-Bama". This song stands alone as a true example of what the word abysmal means. Surely not even the most generous minded person would consider this piece of literary garbage suitable for inclusion on any country album. Perhaps it could be added to a compilation albums featuring artists such as Slayer, Megadeath, and the like, where this would probably be right at home. C'mon Trace, you're one of the best country artists in the business; don't waste your great talent on the likes of this. Your fans deserve better. Three stars - and I'm being generous.

I have every CD this man has out and I love this one just as much as the others! Big fan!

I ordered this CD for one song. I found that I enjoyed all of it. Trace Adkins is a star act!

I like a few of todays new country artists, but Im still a big fan of classic country. I was raised with the likes of Buck Owens, George Jones and other classic country artists playing in my home. What I find interesting about todays country music is that you can hear the influence that southern rock has had on many of todays male country artists. That influence can be found mostly in the guitar playing. The twin lead guitar solos, riffs, hooks and arrangements are all examples of the influence of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, .38 Special and the Outlaws (writers of Green Grass and High Tides).

Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Shooter Jennings, Eli Young Band, Uncle Kracker, Randy Houser, Toby Keith, Jimmy Aldridge and the duo of Big & Rich are all examples of todays country artists who grew up listening to southern rock...especially Lynyrd Skynyrd. Lynyrd Skynyrd is the band that has had the most influence on todays male country artists...in my opinion.

Randy Houser on the influence Lynyrd Skynyrd has on his music: "Lynyrd Skynyrd is rock and roll. But I ain't never seen a country boy that didn't love some Lynyrd Skynyrd," he continues. "I have so much Skynyrd influence in the stuff that I write and play. But...it's considered country to me. There's a very, very fine line between Merle Haggard and Lynyrd Skynyrd to me." (Note: Skynyrd covered Haggards "Honky Tonk Nighttime Man" on Street Survivors, the last studio album they did before the plane crash in 1977.)

On this particular cd, Trace Adkins even mentions Lynyrd Skynyrd in Ala-Freakin'-Bama. On another song titled "Ladies Love Country Boys", from another cd, he mentions Skynyrd again.

The guitar work on "Cowboys Back In Town" is excellent, and this is a fine cd overall.