Terri Clark Albums (6)
'Life Goes On'
Release Date 11/1/2005
Tracks 12
Label Mercury Nashville
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
If 2003's Pain to Kill was Terri Clark's venture into country-pop, her 2005 follow-up, Life Goes On, is her return to straight-ahead hard country. But there's a difference between this and her last hard country effort, 2000's Fearless -- where that album was devoted primarily to original material, this only has a handful of Clark-penned tunes, all arriving at a cluster toward the end of the record. Since Clark is a strong songwriter, this might initially come as a bit of a disappointment, but she also has a strong ear for material, finding songs that showcase her voice in the best possible light. While the nine professionally written tunes do not stretch the boundaries of neo-traditional contemporary country -- they're firmly within their genre and play by its conventions -- they're also not run of the mill; they're sturdy, memorable, sharply written songs, and Clark invests them with grit, passion, and an appealing swagger. It also helps that the production -- largely by Byron Gallimore but with a couple of cuts by James Stroud -- is lean, clean, and muscular, staying true to the sound of classic country while retaining a bright, fresh sound. The end result may not be as revelatory as Fearless or as risky as Pain to Kill, but Life Goes On is every bit as satisfying as either of those records, acting as further proof that Terri Clark is one of the most reliable country singers of the last decade. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Pain to Kill is Terri Clark's pop-country release after the artistic triumph -- yet commercial failure -- of Fearless. There are many things on Pain to Kill that are different. For one, like Fearless, this is the work of a mature, fully realized artist. She's well aware of her strengths and uses them to her advantage in every song on the set. Secondly, veteran producer Keith Stegall worked on only half this record -- the latter half. Byron Gallimore produced the first half, including the first single, "I Just Wanna Be Mad." Thirdly, none of Clark's songwriting contributions to the project appear until the second half of the record. One has to ask why. Clark is a fine songwriter, either alone or in collaboration with others. Gallimore likes country music, he likes lots of guitars (layers and layers of them), and he likes very slick production styles. His drum loops and compression on the guitars squeeze everything so tight that Clark's voice is so far out front she no longer feels as if she's part of the musical accompaniment. It's not bad; it's just very different, jarring even for someone who's been listening to her records for a while. "I Just Wanna Be Mad" was an obvious choice to open the record with a grab-you hook and tough-woman stance. But this is a tough woman who believes in standing by her man even though she's pissed. The title track is a rock & roll prime mover with Skynyrd-styled slide guitar, with about a million fiddles sawing through the mix. Clark growls her way through the lyric like she's in Black Oak Arkansas -- yes, that is a compliment. The Stegall half of the record begins with a Clark and Gary Burr ballad, with a lilting piano, shimmering acoustic, and glistening pedal steel carrying the message about those who love self-destructive people. It's devastatingly real and there's no false solemnity in the body of the tune. "Almost Gone," written with Stephony Smith and Lisa Scott, is an exhortation -- prodded by rows of acoustic guitars and a B-3 -- for a man to get his act together because the woman is on her way. The disc closes with "God and Me," written by Clark and Carol Ann Brown. Once again, here is self-determination, as well as absolute and relative truth, all considered on Sunday morning while watching preachers on television. It's simple affirmation and acknowledgment. Stegall surrounds Clark's vocal with Brent Mason playing Mark Knopfler-styled electric guitar, mandolins, acoustic guitars, and rim shots on top of floor toms. The effect is inspirational without being dogmatic -- easy, light, and free with a beautiful coda. As a new chapter in the catalog of an artist who will be with listeners for a long time, it's a fine one. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Fearless is the most accurately titled album in Terri Clark's catalog. It's an attempt at breaking out of the bonds of contemporary country without leaving the music entirely behind. She's since distanced herself from it because Nash Vegas -- in its typical, screwed-up intolerant way -- disowned it as not format friendly. Her label, thanks to visionary Luke Lewis and Keith Stegall, encouraged her to make the record she wanted to make, and promoted the hell out of it. But country radio balked. Nashville critics, and the country music press in general, didn't know what to make of it and consequently it was a commercial failure. The bottom line is her songwriting collaborations with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Angelo, and Gary Burr are all dead-on. Her own songs, a killer cover of Carlene Carter and Susanna Clark's "Easy from Now On," one from Tammy Rodgers, another from Jann Arden, as well as a Carpenter and Kim Richey collaboration prove one thing: This woman knew how to pick songs that fit around a theme, taking chances and moving toward destiny. The opener, "No Fear," penned with Carpenter and featuring Steuart Smith's trademark electric guitar slashing, is sung with resolve yet without hysteria or false bravado. And along with a statement of purpose like this in life comes one in love as well. "Empty," written with Burr, is the most poetic and naked she's ever written. In the refrain, her voice begins to crack as she sings: "I want to call out for love 'til I can't breathe/I want to stare at the truth until I can't see/I want to pour out my soul 'til I'm empty. Empty, until only the flesh and bones remain...." On another of their co-writes, "Getting There," Benmont Tench drives the track as Stuart Duncan's fiddle paints the backdrop and Smith's guitars crunch the entire middle into a solid country-rocker. With its mandolin, banjos, and gentle drum loop, "Sometimes Goodbye" is one of the freshest sounding tracks to come out of Music City in 20 years. Listening to it years later, it's so obvious that Clark is not only a bright talent, but an original one. Never has a statement of broken love and a personal decision to end it sounded so affirmative. Covering "Easy from Now On" after Emmylou Harris' definitive version took guts, but in keeping with the previous track it made sense. And it's an absolutely chilling version with Harris providing the backing vocal. Like the aforementioned, it's a strong statement of determination, of affirmation, and of feminist principle in defining oneself in one's own terms. Certainly one can read plenty of autobiographical interpretations into songs like this and examine Clark's personal life, but it's irrelevant to the work of art in the disc player as it affects the listener. "The Real Thing" is a kicking bit of country-rock with a riff that comes out of Prince's "When You Were Mine." The album closes quietly with Jann Arden's "Good Mother," dedicated to the woman who raised her, and a hymn to personal transformation from the ruin and waste of past mistakes to a future uncertain but supported by the maternal connection to unconditional love. It whispers to a close with acoustic guitars and Jonathan Yudkin's cello, and in the silence, the listener feels empowered, emboldened, and just a bit wiser. Screw Nashville; this record will be regarded as a classic one day. One can only hope that Clark will reconsider one day that what she made here wasn't a mistake, but a real work of popular art. If Shania Twain displayed on her records an ounce of the integrity delivered here in full, she'd be a recording artist instead of a pop star. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
With Just the Same, Terri Clark proved she was going to be around for a while, and that the impression her self-titled debut made was no fluke. And like most acts Luke Lewis oversees, she's been allowed to grow with each release. How I Feel opens with one of the best songs written in the country genre in the preceding decade or so, Kim Richey's testimonial anthem "I'm Alright" from her own Bitter Sweet album. In Clark's interpretation, the song is less Americana and more mainstream pop-country, but Clark's voice is no ordinary instrument. She delivers both the humor and the pathos in the tune without forcing the issue. Produced by Keith Stegall, Clark is allowed to let her natural voice more fully into the mix. Her inflections are her own, and the songs are well suited to her forthright style of delivery. To say that Clark is emotive is one thing, to say that her voice is the sound of emotion itself is another, and it is the latter that's true -- take a listen to "Everytime I Cry" or Clark's own "Not Getting Over You," a ballad ruled by her throaty contralto, gorgeous pedal steel fills, and synth strings that sound natural. "Till I Get There" displays just how comfortable Clark is with traditional country music. Despite the presence of a B-3 in the mix, the tune itself comes right out of the early '70s. Further, there is Melba Montgomery's classic "Cure for the Common Heartache," a honky tonk pearl handled expertly with the righteous brokenhearted Western swing blues bustin' out all over it. The sum total of these 12 songs is Clark's restlessness as a vocalist and as a songwriter. Her attempt to be true to country's traditions while riding the pop-country wave of the present creates a wonderful tension that never seems resolved. In addition, Clark's songwriting is stronger, more assured, and as recognizable as her voice. A fine effort. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Terri Clark may be a glamour queen, with lots of high style and flash. But then so is Dwight Yoakam, and he's a hell of a singer and songwriter, right? Clark is a honky angel singer with ambition, taste, looks, and a voice that's as big as a canyon. Oh yeah, and she's a fine songwriter as well. So bring on the glamour if it brings out the music. Luke Lewis over at Mercury has got to believe in this woman -- she gets a producer's credit alongside Keith Stegall! Not every country singer or songwriter gets a production say on her second record. And this one develops the strengths that made her debut so compelling, even if it was flawed. Choosing to cover Warren Zevon's "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" after the Linda Ronstadt version takes guts. But Clark has more than that; her version is as valid as her predecessor's and as full of rock & roll heart as the songwriter's own version. Other than this, Clark, Chris Waters, and Tom Shapiro wrote the majority of this album. They're a decent team, though the fullness of Clark's potential as an emotive artist -- without sentimentality -- is not exploited in these songs. They are solid, they belong here, and they're good listening, but given what she is obviously capable of, they are workmanlike. Other than the aforementioned, the best two tracks on the set are "Something in the Water," where Clark gets her blues growl out into the mix, "Twang Thang," which is as tough as anything Alan Jackson ever wrote and sung with twice the verve and grit, and the ballad "Keeper of the Flame," which Clark wrote on her own. In this song, the protagonist's hope is what keeps a relationship together, and in the grain of her voice one can hear both weariness and determination; when she gets to the top of her contralto in the refrain, chills run down the listener's spine and recall the fine songs of Lacy J. Dalton, Trisha Yearwood when she was a singer instead of a status symbol, and Loretta Lynn when trying to deliver a countrypolitan song with Kentucky grit. She's not there yet, but so close you can hear the train coming all the way round the bend. Pick it up. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Terri Clark'
Release Date 1/1/1995
Tracks 12
Label Mercury Nashville
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Canadian country singer Terri Clark made her American major-label debut with Mercury Nashville. Co-produced by Keith Stegall and Chris Waters, this solidly assembled set of 12 songs signaled the arrival of a star. Clark wasn't only a pretty face with a voice; she arrived in Nashville a polished, accomplished songwriter who was given the "rare opportunity" (some call it stubbornness, and some call it recalcitrant artistic integrity, but they're both the same thing in this case) to record her own songs on her first recording. In Nash Vegas, that's done rather infrequently -- even Vince Gill was only able to contribute two tunes to his MCA debut. Clark wrote 11 of 12 here and scored immediately with her blend of hard honky tonk-style traditionalism, classic country balladry, rock & roll aesthetics, and pop savvy. "Better Things to Do" is a fine display of this, as is the swaggering, bluesy "Flowers After the Fact." "Was There a Girl on Your Boy's Night Out" is a lean and mean honky tonk rocker, and of the ballads, "If I Were You" and "The Inside Story" are delivered with conviction and sincerity. Terri Clark is an auspicious debut, but hindsight being 20/20, it only hints at what she was really capable of, as displayed on later recordings. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
