Best available single disc of a mistreated artist...
William E. Adams | Midland, Texas USA | 03/01/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"How is it that Lacy, a woman with a unique voice and style, sexy, sassy and stimulating, has such a small CD catalogue? Her output on vinyl for Columbia and Capitol didn't happen all that long ago...but she produced high-quality performances for both labels and over many albums. This collection isn't bad at all, but some real gems are missing: "16th Avenue" and "China Doll" and "My Old Yellow Car", "Hillbilly Girl With The Blues", "Don't Fall in Love With Me" and "Hard Times." None are here. Also missing are "Crazy Blue Eyes" and "You Can't Run Away From Your Heart." Those are all wonderful songs, performed winningly. So what is good on this British product? Well, my favorites are "Black Coffee", "I'm a Survivor", "Love Hurts", 'Turn to the One" and "Lonesome as the Night is Long." They also are among Lacy's top 25 efforts. The first time I ever heard her sing, back about 1984, I was hooked and now l8 years later, I still don't think there is any woman in country music who has been as good. Columbia needs to put out a two-disc set of her best work for them on its Legacy imprint. She needs a rediscovery and a re-evaluation by the critics. The woman had (and most likely still has) something special. If you don't already know most of her catalogue, this item is a good introduction. If you, like me, had almost everything, but all on vinyl or tape, you will wonder why so much good stuff has not been transferred to CD yet."
Lacy's Universal and Capitol recordings
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 08/18/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A previous reviewer asks why a lot of Lacy's classic songs are missing from this collection, but it's simple - this only covers her four albums recorded between 1989 and 1992 for Universal and Capitol. Six tracks are taken from each of Survivor, Lacy J and Chains on the wind, but only two from Crazy love - clearly the compiler wasn't impressed by that album, but Lacy never recorded any rubbish, so I can't think why.Lacy's voice is one of the most distinctive in the history of country music, except that it is similar to Tanya Tucker's but richer. It may be significant that Lacy had her biggest successes durining Tanya's wilderness years of the early eighties - perhaps country radio didn't feel there was room for both at the same time.In any event, these recordings were laid down during Tanya's hottest period, and Tanya was also on Capitol at the time, so once Capitol took over Universal, perhaps they were unsure what to do with Lacy. This is a pity, because Lacy's music during this period was as good as it had ever been. Indeed, Survivor is one of my all-time favorite albums, and my favorite of Lacy's.This CD was released in Britain at the height of the line dancing craze, Black coffee (the opening track, and not to be confused with the Peggy Lee song with the same title) is popular with the line dancing fraternity.Lacy demonstrates that she is a very determined lady (I'm a survivor), that she knows what really matters in life (Old friends) and so much else too. There are three covers, including Stay with me (written by Exile in their pop days but a country hit for Dave and Sugar) and two Everly Brothers songs, Love hurts and Bye bye love (the latter a duet with the late great Eddie Rabbitt).Lacy recorded a couple of duets with Glen Campbell during this period (Woodcarver and Shaky ground), but neither of them were included. Still, I'm not complaining - I regard it as a miracle that this compilation was ever released. Thank you, line dancers."
Track Listings (20) - Disc #1