Crystal Gayle
Saints preserve us, and Crystal, from the Sheldon Kurland Strings. She's noticeably looser and more relaxed-sounding on this album when they put down their bows. She also lapses into her ersatz funk sound on the semidisco Keepin' Power. But there are some real charmers here, too, such as the up-tempo Livin' in These Troubled Times, an energetic reprise of Bill Withers' 1972 hit Lean on Me, and a quiet little tune called Tennessee. On it, Gayle, backed only by Charles Cochran on piano and Buddy Spicher on the fiddle, sings her little heart out about "my home sweet Tennessee." It's more or less an authentic emotion too; while Gayle was actually born in Kentucky and grew up in Indiana, she now lives just outside Nashville.
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