Search - Chely Wright :: Definitive Collection

The Definitive Singer

David Jones | North Wales, United Kingdom | 05/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In my view, Chely Wright is one of the best singers in music in any genre. I have every album she's made, including an autographed copy of this, The Definitive Collection and an excellent retrospective to showcase her talent. Chely has been on the Country Music scene since 1994's Woman on the Moon, and since then has made Right in the Middle of It (1996), Let Me In (1997), her breakthrough album Single White Female (1999 - RIAA certified Gold), Never Love You Enough (2001) and something I personally consider to be a masterpiece of songwriting, vocal delivery and musicanship, 2005's The Metropolitan Hotel. She is also currently working on another album.



If you're interested in buying this "best of", then do so, as it is a great place to start. Chely has a wonderfully unique voice. She sings in alto and, I think, makes every phrase a portrait of perfection.



Chely works with a whole host of excellent songwriters and is also an accomplished songwriter in her own ... wright, as Back of the Bottom Drawer, among others, will show. This CD also shows how her musicality has grown. In the first couple of tracks from her debut album, they are undeniably country, but then go into soft ballad territory in the songs from Let Me In, like "Just Another Heartache" and "I Already Do". One of my favourite songs by any artist "The Love That We Lost", is also here. We then go into Country Pop waters with "Single White Female", which sees Chely putting an ad in the paper: "I'm a single white female/Lookin' for the perfect lover/To put it in a nutshell/A one woman man who doesn't want no other".



And we also touch ballads again with the gentle "Picket Fences", which is another Chely wrote herself. "Never Love You Enough" takes us further into pop: "I could kiss you in the rain forever/Turn all of your pain to pleasure/Fill up all your days with sunlight/Make the passion last every night."



And then we reach "Back of the Bottom Drawer", the lead single to The Metropolitan Hotel, in which she plays a woman who keeps old mementoes of past, mildstone relationships in the back of her drawer.



"A napkin that is stained with time

Has a poem on it that didn't quite rhyme, but it made me cry

In a 'Dear Jane' letter from a different guy

He broke up with me and he told me I'm not always right

And a stolen key from an old hotel room door

In the back of the bottom drawer"



The last song is the famous "Bumper of My SUV", which Chely wrote after a woman past her in the car, saw a sticker saying United States Marines and derided Chely, assuming she knew the patriatism and pride which made Chely put the sticker there in the first place. The song, which Chely performed while entertaining American troops in Iraq (something she has done repeatedly since - on the front line) was never initially planned to be a single, but through word of mouth, drifted over the Atlantic and was played on radio so much that it eventually became yet another hit for Chely.



This is The Definitive Collection, from who I consider to be The Definitive Singer, Chely Wright."

Biggest Collection of Chely Wright Ever

James E. Bagley | 03/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Don't waste your money on 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Chely Wright because it's missing 6 tracks. This collection also features all singles from her out-of-print Woman In The Moon album from 1994. I recommend this to any county music fan."

Looks at this Lady

OLD but not DEAD | Houston | 02/06/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you can not see the beauty in this lady you gotty be BLIND And she can Sing"