Lady And Gentlemen is a creative concept album co-produced by LeAnn Rimes, country superstar Vince Gill and successful writer, Darrell Brown. It features country classic songs by the likes of George Jones, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings, all sung from a modern female s perspective. Says LeAnn, "This album was born out of the memories of when I first fell in love with country music and in reflecting, I realized that almost all of my favorite country songs from back then were sung by men. I am honored to take a step back in time and sing these songs from a woman's perspective and hopefully help reintroduce them to a new audience." The album features the Grammy Award nominated song "Swingin " (Best Female Country Vocal Performance) along with the moving single "Give," "Crazy Women" and an anniversary edition of "Blue" as bonus tracks.Not many artists can boast a ! greatest-hits album by their 21st birthday, but then not everybody logs a Lolita-ish hit at age 13, as the precocious Rimes did with the retro "Blue" in 1996. In many ways, that auspicious debut was her finest hour, full of hypnotic, yodel-laced magic and savant-like promise. Since then, she's recorded a fair amount of bankable pop ("One Way Ticket," "Can't Fight the Moonlight") and a seemingly bottomless well of tripe ("You Light Up My Life," "Written in the Stars" with Elton John). It all sits back-to-back on this collection of 16 familiar tunes, braced with a second DVD disc and three new audio recordings: "This Love," "Last Thing on My Mind" (a duet with Ronan Keating), and the holiday favorite, "O Holy Night." Alas, of the new songs, the first two point up the weakness of much of Rimes's career--her connect-the-dots emotionality. That leaves the heralded Christmas classic, on which she attempts some nervous Whitney Houston canoodling. Best advice: Put the player on "r! epeat," and enjoy the royal "Blue" treat that got this career ! rolling, before the aerobicized videos and the embarrassing lawsuit with Daddy.
--Alanna Nash
