Tanya Tucker – Sweet Western Sound (Fantasy)

Tanya Tucker follows up her Grammy Award winning 2019 album, While I’m Livin’, with another set of classic country tunes that is pure Tanya.

Like its predecessor, Sweet Western Sound was co-produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings. And why not? As anyone who has seen the documentary The Return Of Tanya Tucker (on Apple +) Carlile and Jennings know how to make the now 64 year old Tucker comfortable in the studio.

They can also write, sing and play with the best of them. Jennings’ piano playing on Waltz Across A Moment makes it a highlight of the record as does Brandi’s songwriting and singing on Breakfast In Birmingham , a tune Carlile co-wrote with Bernie Taupin who starts the song with a lyric about ‘static breakin’ up the Beatles’ and a nod to the great Arthur Alexander.

Speaking of nods, Tanya pays tribute to her hero Linda Ronstadt in the appropriately titled Letter To Linda, co-written with Shooter.

The first voice we hear on Sweet Western Sound is that of Billy Joe Shaver leaving a phone message, singing, “She looks like a heavenly angel but Tanya is meaner than hell”. But Tanya’s voice has never sounded better.

There’s something about Country Music Women that makes them get better as they get older. Consider Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Rosanne Cash and then add Tanya Tucker to the list.

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Marty Duda

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