Search - Sawyer Brown :: Wide Open

Another fine album but no big hits

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 01/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Three singles were released from this album. My baby's gone is a song from the fifties that had been revived by the Judds on their 1984 album, Why not me? Old pair of shoes is a lovely ballad. It wasn't his child is actually a Christmas song, being about Joseph. It was not included on Sawyer Brown's own Christmas album when they eventually recorded one, but Trisha Yearwood covered it so if you've heard her excellent Sweetest gift album, you'll know the song. None of these singles did enough to make it on to a Greatest hits album, but they are worth listening to, as are the other tracks here.The title track is an up-tempo rocking country song. It begins with an intro that reminds me of Eddie Cochran's Summertime blues, but that is where any similarity ends. Ax to grind and Running out of reasons to run are other great up-tempo sings. What am I going to tell my heart and Falling apart at the heart are sad but fine ballads. Perhaps the oddest song is Field hand, a love song in which the singer would gladly be the field hand if his woman were the field. I've come across many strange metaphors in country music but this is one of the strangest. Still, if you get used to the idea, it's a nice song.Because of the absence of any major hits, this is an album that is easy to overlook, but it is full of wonderful songs that should appeal to Sawyer Brown fans everywhere."