HEATHER MYLES
Sweet Talk & Good Lies (Rounder)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Oh yeah. From the opening notes of the Bakersfield flavored title track, I knew I was gonna like this one. It's been four years since Heather Myle's last release, and she's obviously used the time well. Sweet Talk & Good Lies offers 11 originals and a pair of covers that might as well be original considering how effectively she takes ownership of the performances.

This is the kind of country music that country radio never plays - you know, the good stuff. Myles is a throwback to the days when Merle, Tammy and Loretta controlled the country airwaves with well crafted songs about real people and real emotions. Rounder's making a major play to get "Never Had A Broken Heart" some airtime, and I wish them the very best. I might have picked another track (I'm particularly taken by "Big Cars," her duet with Dwight Yoakum on "Little Chapel," "Sweet Little Dangerous" and her deeply effective cover of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix"....hell, I just love the whole damn album), but I'd be delighted to hear anything on the album fill my car when I push the country station button, which gets used less and less these days.

If the radio people still don't get it, well, I've got the CD, so I can avoid their lapses in judgment. I encourage you to do the same. Sweet Talk & Good Lies is the best country album I've heard in '02, and maybe for some time before that.

Track List:

Sweet Talk & Good Lies * Nashville's Gone Hollywood * Never Had A Broken Heart * One Man Woman Again * Little Chapel * By The Time I Get To Phoenix * One And Only Lover * Big Cars * The Love You Left Behind * If The Truth Hurts * Homewrecker Blues * Sweet Little Dangerous * Cry Me A River

© 2002 - Shaun Dale