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"Fearless"
While Nashville's unwritten rules say
Terri Clark should just recycle her spunky-yet-slight early hits,
she has instead grown more willing to reject New Country formula
with each new album. On 2000's Fearless, she eschews the overinflated
production and nervous energy of most current country in favor
of arrangements that are frequently nothing more than her voice
backed by acoustic midtempo rhythm tracks. And her songs, cowritten
with folks like Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kim Richey, and Beth Nielsen
Chapman, have her experimenting with a shoe-gazing angst and
have a downright singer-songwriter feel. All interesting developments,
but often foiled by vocals that can be oddly tentative, lyrics
that search only hard enough to discover different clichés,
and stripped-down arrangements that go nowhere. Still, cuts like
the easy-rocking "Getting There," where the journey
beats the destination, and the spare, closing "Good Mother,"
where "Be yourself" is repeated like a mantra, hint
Clark may still have something substantial to offer, even if
it hasn't completely come out yet. --David Cantwell |
