There's More Where That Came From

On There's More Where That Came From, multiple Grammy-winner Lee Ann Womack's got the controls of country's Wayback Machine set 30 years in the past. The album cover, a soft-focus portrait of the Texas-born singer along with a list of songs, recalls the days when elegant, emotive vocalists like Tammy Wynette, Lynn Anderson, and Tanya Tucker ruled the charts. Yet the real magic's in the traditional-sounding arrangements, colored by gently weeping steel guitar, piano, harmonica, and fiddle; unhurried tempos; and, of course, Womack's lightly sugared confection of a voice. She explores classic themes like cheating ("There's More Where That Came From") and marital collapse ("Painless"), and draws on her own experience for "Twenty Years and Two Husbands Ago." Womack does concede a bit to the present with the dirty guitars and big rhythm of "When You Get to Me." But just a bit, as she proves the enduring appeal of sweet and sad ballads sung from the heart, and bucks the flash that makes so much modern country go pop--and fizzle. --Ted Drozdowski