Victoria Shaw (Warner, 1997)
Victoria Shaw
Reviewed by Jeffrey B. Remz
Victoria Shaw may be best known as a songwriter working with Garth Brooks, but it's quite clear there is nothing here Brooks would have wanted. The lead off on Shaw's second disc, "Just to Say We Did" is quite clunky lyrically ("when was the last time we had a pillow fight/and ended up making love") and "Different Drum" is nothing more than workmanlike. Pleasant, but it ain't Linda Ronstadt.
Shaw shines best on the tender "In Spite of It All" where the woman shows her strength after a failed relationship.
But otherwise another modern country album with little to say lyrically or musically. On "Wild Rose," another good cut, Shaw sings about having a "restless spirit and a wandering soul." In making this, the songwriter apparently forgot to incorporate both.
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