Search - Terri Clark :: Long Way Home

Clark's Rewarding Way Home

T. Yap | Sydney, NSW, Australia | 09/14/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Prime Cuts: The One You Love, You Tell Me, A Million Ways to Run



Despite her earlier successes with hits like "If I Were You," "When Boy Meets Girl," and "You're Easy on the Eye," Clark's musical muse seem to have kept a distance with her later singles starting from her "Fearless" CD back in 2000. 4 years since her last CD, Clark's back on home tuff with her aptly titled new disc "Long Way Home." Instead of chasing manufactured trails from Music Row, Clark has returned home to Canada to record these 11 tracks. She has also returned to the people who brought her to the dance in collaborating with the song writing team that formerly gave her biggies such as Leslie Satcher, Gary Burr, and Tom Shapiro. Nevertheless, she has not lost an iota of her competitive spirit evident in her enlistment of country music scribal movers and shakers such as Bobby Pinson, Karyn Rochelle and Jim Collins. Relatively to her last few albums, the songs on "Long Way Home" have a more intimate down home organic focus. Perhaps inspired by her mother's recent battle with cancer, Clark's performance is more engaging, real and personal.



The most appealing part of this new CD is Clark's respect for tradition. Though "The One You Love" first surfaced on Clark's "Pain to Kill," this time around Clark resurrects it as a stone cold country ballad deeply entrenched in mournful steel and fiddles and Vince Gill's plaintive harmony vocals. The album's most honest moments come with the devastating "A Million Ways to Run" where Clark tells of an encounter at a church with a lady who has become suicidal. However, instead of running, she has decided to take the hard road of facing up with her demons. Lyrically developing upon similar lines is "You Tell Me," this time finding Clark giving advice to a couple to stick it up in a troubled relationship. Canadian new artist Johnny Reid's rugged rock tenor acts as the perfect backdrop to Clark's soaring Southern alto. Karyn Rochelle who wrote Kellie Pickler's "Red High Heels" and Trisha Yearwood's "Georgia Rain" gets to co-write with Clark on the moving "If I Could Be You"--a poetically crafted ode to friendship that showcases a gentler side of Clark calling to mind her big hit "If I Were You."



Yet not all is slow in tempo: lead single "Gypsy Boots" is a hard core honky tonk tunes with flushes of 70s rock. Unfortunately "Gypsy Boots" is plagued with far too many name dropping and clichés such as "well my momma was a hippie and my daddy was a rollin' stone." With the greatest potential to crack country radio again for Clark is the Clark/Mia Sharp composition "What Happens in Vegas" that wows with some breathtaking guitar riffs over a kicking melody. "Poor Girl's Dream" is a so-so swampy bluesy rocker that trumps in its details with regards to the protagonist struggling to find a better life. Much better is the sensuous "If You Want Fire" with its soft rock 80s sultry vibe.



On the whole Clark is back to great form. Her attention paid to details when she crafts a narrative song is movingly real. Vocally, Cark has never sounded more engaging. Save for a few songs that tether towards the average, this is one of Clark's best CDs to date. Her long way home is indeed rewarding and picturesque.

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