Music Review: Various Artists – Country’s Got More Heart

In January, Time Life Music released a compilation of some of the best love songs country music has to offer. One might expect Country's Got More Heart would be an endless supply of ballads, but there are a good number of up-tempo fun tracks too, all perfect for a sentimental soul.

What is nice about a compilation like this is it is a collection of hits. You've most likely heard every song on it, and you know if it's the kind of thing that's going to make it into heavy rotation on your iPod or CD player before you purchase. The downfall is if you are a big fan of any of the individual artists, you probably already own the album the song was originally released on. Still a collection like this is nice, because there is little to no filler and it can be played when all you want to hear are these singles.

Stand-out tracks come from mainstays of country music. Alabama's "As Far as I'll Go" takes the listener all the way back to 1990, probably the oldest song and the closest thing to a country music legend that you'll find on the CD. A majority of the artists are from the '90s time frame and the songs are of a more contemporary country style. In the same vein is "Look At Us" by Vince Gill. The song is a perfect vehicle for his smooth as silk voice and takes the listener back to the early '90s when Gill was a mainstay on the charts.

But it's not all slow stuff. Diamond Rio's "How Your Love Makes Me Feel," kicks it up a bit as does Kenny Chesney's "She's Got it All." The Diamond Rio song is full of comparative examples trying to define the thrill of love, but the real correlation is in the easy and carefree feel of the music, both in tempo and uplifting melody. What Chesney delivers is another tune full of descriptions, but in this case it's all about that special girl.

One of the newest artists to be included on the disc is Montgomery Gentry with their unique country rock-styled "If You Ever Stopped Loving Me." The fiddles whine and cry and the rhythm is a stomping style. It's probably the song least likely to be voted a "love song" but it is the most fun. If you were looking for the most traditional love song on the disc, it would have to be "I'm Already There" by Lonestar. It's a soft flowing dedication to love, family, and forever and also a pretty typical example of what Lonestar offers its fans.

Coutnry's Got More Heart is a collection of some of the better known names of the recent years as well as some of the newer faces. The common thread running through the collection of songs is love and matters of the heart. All in all, it's warm and perfect for picking you up out of bad mood or for the country music fan.