GRETCHEN WILSON

I Got Your Country Right Here

[Redneck Records]

Gretchen Wilson’s 2004 debut album Here for the Party was a bawdy, ballsy blast of old-school attitude that knocked the country music establishment on its ear. But while that album succeeded by being refreshingly different from the moribund mainstream country of the moment, each successive release has been marked by an ever-constricting musical conservatism that has served only to stifle Wilson’s natural charms. I Got Your Country Right Here, her first album for her own Redneck Records label, offers at least some encouragement that Wilson’s spitfire spirit can be revivified. While the album’s first half is disappointingly steeped in outlaw country clichés and aimless namedropping, by the conclusion Wilson has stirred up a pretty admirable ruckus with late-innings winners like the pounding “Walk on Water” and the bluesy scorcher “As Far As You Know.” – CN