Family

From the time she burst onto the music scene as a teenager with the smash hit "Blue" to the release of her new studio album "Family," she has seen it all while taking it with a grain of salt. Some people will always see her as the little girl with the booming voice. She wants to change all that, and part of that process will start with her latest album "Family." For the first time, LeAnn wrote or co-wrote every song on the album. From the autobiographical first track "Family" to the hit single "Nothin' Better To Do," she pours out her soul for the world to see. While the album is incredibly personal, LeAnn managed to create music that is incredibly universal. Her confident, compelling voice helps to solidify her as one of the premier vocalists in Country music. "Family" showcases her diversity as a vocalist from engaging duets with Marc Broussard on "Nothing Wrong" and Bon Jovi on "Til We're Not Strangers" to the soul searching song "What I Cannot Change." Through LeAnn's journey to adulthood, growing up, and developing as a writer and vocalist, she has produced an album that is one for the ages that chronicles the myriad relationships and experiences that have shaped the life of one of America's most successful artist.

LeAnn Rimes Photo

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This sounds like a pivotal release for Rimes, who made her breakthrough as a childhood prodigy with an uncanny vocal resemblance to Patsy Cline, and then evolved into an eclectic diva who couldn't quite decide what she wanted to be when she grew up. She's all grown up now, as both the sensual "Upper Hand" and the spiritual "What I Cannot Change" attest. Rimes had a hand in writing all the material (except for the bonus-cut duets with Jon Bon Jovi and Reba McEntire), and themes of family--though not always her family--pervade the lyrics. Musically, this is grittier, harder-edged, and more propulsive than much of her previous fare, with the title cut and "Nothin' Better to Do" evoking the Southern country soul of Bobbie Gentry, her duet with Marc Broussard on "Nothing Wrong" riffing like the Rolling Stones, and "One Day Too Long" sounding like the female Otis Redding. She's lost none of her supple upper register, as the balladry of "Pretty Things" attests, but Leann Rimes in no longer just a pretty voice. --Don McLeese