Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

First of all, I should point out that Mr Chesney is the composer of the words and music (and the writer of the poetry); the performers are Bobby Sinclair on guitar, Patrick Mandara on keyboards, and Jenny Simpson on vocals. Let's dispose of the poetry first. It's not very well recited, which does no favours to the best verse in the world (listen to some folks trying to read Shakespeare aloud, and you'll hear what I mean). Unfortunately, it's not very good poetry either. So let's turn to the music. Sadly, the quality of lyrics on these songs is the same as the poetry, i.e. not very good. Stylistically, it isn't really country; most of the songs are a variation on a three-chord pattern at a slow or medium 4/4 tempo, which gets very samey after a while, although "Everybody Pray" has a boogie-woogie bass and keyboard riff, and "Read The Bible" bounces along with a rhythmic backing, but even here the lyrics let the side down. The musicians and the singer do their best (Jenny's singing voice is OK, even if her poetry reading voice leaves something to be desired), the production quality is okay, but much better songs are definitely needed.

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