Yearwood Favors Reality Over Pretty Illusion

In title and content, Yearwood’s seventh album (due in stores Tuesday) draws a line in the sand that separates her from the purveyors of romantic fantasy who tend to dominate the country airwaves nowadays.

It means the album probably won’t rack up one-10th the sales of Shania Twain’s latest--nothing sells like pretty illusion--but such is her commitment to songs that seek out the realities of love lost and found that it’s hard to believe Yearwood cares about that.

Hers is one of the great voices in all of country and pop, and she applies it unerringly in a variety of settings, from spunky bluegrass to melancholy folk rock to the soaring country waltz of Bobbie Cryner’s securely down-to-earth title tune.

It adds up to the kind of album Linda Ronstadt might have made at her ‘70s country-rock peak. Along the way, Yearwood also proves that a stylistically diverse album with the potential to draw in pop and rock listeners as well as country audiences can do so without falling back on cliche-ridden tunes aimed at the lowest common denominator.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.