Martina McBride: Waking Up Laughing

CML call number: CD COUNTRY McBride
Kelefa Sanneh wrote in the New York Times: "More than just about any other singer Ms. McBride knows how to deliver a heavy-handed message with a light touch. Because she keeps her phrasing gentle as the melody soars, you get the feeling she really likes these characters, who suffer so much on her behalf. There's plenty of suffering on 'Waking Up Laughing.' A girlfriend is verbally abused, a niece is molested, a pregnant bride is married and then miscarries; no one does suburban melodrama like Ms. McBride. Yet the mood is upbeat, as the title suggests. This is the first Martina McBride album she produced herself. … 'Tryin' to Find a Reason' is a first-rate power ballad. … And then there's 'Anyway,' which Ms. McBride wrote with the Warren Brothers, a country duo. Until now she has been known only as an interpreter, and this is an audacious way to branch out: with a supersized inspirational ballad. From the first piano chord you know what's coming: quiet verses, triumphant choruses, an avalanche of strings. But that doesn't make it any less pleasurable, the first time or the 15th" (4/2/07).