Reba McEntire, “Keep on Loving You” (Starstruck Records)
Bad girls. Troubled women. Neglected wives whose husbands have run off with woman half their age. Reba McEntire knows her audience, and she gives them just what they need with this memorable collection: musical anthems designed to warn them off naughty boys and coach them through the perils of middle age.
The tricks in McEntire’s gal- power toolbox? Fortitude, faith, sexy black dresses and, in one case, a handgun.
It’s typical Reba, and that’s both a warm and welcome thing. She sounds great on this disc, produced by Mark Bright and Tony Brown, bouncing through everything from contemporary country to big ballads to updated swing. And she believes, selling songs even when the lyrics reduce to shameless cornball, which they often do.
McEntire swims surely through the weepy waters of “Eight Crazy Hours,” about an ordinary mom’s suicidal tendencies. She cheerleads and counsels on “She’s Turning 50 Today.” She amps up the camp for the dark, story-song “Maggie Creek Road.”
It’s not just her audience McEntire respects here, but her legacy. These sharp tunes tie together an amazing, themed catalog that includes women-first classics like “Whoever’s in New England,” “You Lie” and “Fancy.”
It’s an important, late-career recording and definitely worth adding to any Reba collection. Ray Mark Rinaldi
Marilyn Ashford Brown, “Just Doing Me!” (Ash2brown Entertaiment)
Marilyn Ashford-Brown isn’t the sort of R&B vocalist who needs to rely on songwriters for inspiration, and her output almost always seems tailor-made to suit her talents and capitalize on her influences. The veteran vocalist insists that she’s “old-school” on her latest release, “Just Doing Me!” an album almost entirely devoted to original songs.
Listeners scarcely need to be reminded of her musical roots when she alludes to Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke on the inspirational opener, “I’ve Got a Feeling,” or when she lets her voice soar from sassy tones to falsetto flourishes on other cuts. Producer-keyboardist Derek Willie underscores her ties to vintage R&B and classic soul with arrangements laced with funk accents, double-stop guitar licks and dramatic modulations.
Still, for all her old-school passions and yearning balladry, Ashford-Brown is very much a contemporary artist. An alliance with rapper Lasalle Marciani comes off without a hitch on “Commitment,” a cover of “Louisiana Sunday Afternoon” shines brightly and there are times, on “Don’t Be Stupid” and other tracks, when the lyrics prove topical and pointed. In the end, Ashford-Brown covers a lot ground, with personality and assurance to spare.
Mike Joyce, The Washington Post
