One would think that a Dallas native like Jessica Simpson would recognize true country music. Unfortunately her new album proves that the country really can be taken out of the girl, if she stays in Los Angeles too long.
Do You Know is the same cookie-cutter country that has plagued the genre since Buck Owens and June Carter Cash left the music scene. Simpson and many others in pop country need to learn that just adding a steel guitar and a few fiddle lines does not a country album make.
It is admirable that Simpson took on new responsibilities by co-writing all but three songs on this album. Some would say, however, that co-writing with John Shanks, who has written for everyone from Alanis Morissette to Dexter Freebish, does not help her country chops. Shanks' days with SHeDaisy only show that he is in tune with today's mainstream country and that's a bad thing.
Simpson commits a major faux pas on the title track. She shoves one of the best female country singers, Dolly Parton, to the background, behind her own strained attempts at high notes. For a good country song, Simpson should know better than to put Parton in the back, especially when she wrote the song. Parton holds the only emotion in the entire tune.
Do You Know lacks energy and just slides along lazily. That is, when Simpson's not yanking at her voice to reach its old range, as in Still Don't Stop Me and Man Enough.
The songs on this album make it seem as if she's trying to get back to her innocent past, before reality shows and marriage, but her voice has aged since then and sounds a little out of practice.
Most of the time she has a monotone vocal style, deeper than her usual. She goes after high notes, but it seems to be more of a reach than it ever was on In This Skin or A Public Affair. None of this makes the country sound at all authentic.
If any emotion showed up on this album, it was Simpson's desperation to get back into music. Her power is in pop ditties, not earthy, soulful country. As far as country albums from pop artists go, Jewel has her beat. But Dolly puts them all to shame.
st839705@ohiou.edu
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Susan Tebben
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