Search - Rebecca Lynn Howard :: No Rules

"No Rules" Liberates Howard to Be Herself

T. Yap | Sydney, NSW, Australia | 06/18/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Prime Cuts: The Life of the Dollar, What Dying Feels Like, As One as Two Can Be



Without the rules often imposed by major recording companies on their artists, Rebecca Lynn Howard on her new independently released CD lets her hair down and ushers her most honest effort to date. Previously when this singer-songwriter was under the auspices of MCA Records, her two major outing were cookie-cutter Nashville pop-country excursions leaving something more to be desired. Six years later, teaming up Michael Curtis, to release a CD that Nashville would not release. For starters, these 14 songs were recorded in Muscle Shores Alabama, which should is a dead giveaway to the direction of this disc. Hardcore funk and swamp blues with some sensibilities to country earmarked this release: evidence most prominently by its 4 covers which include songs garnered from the repertoire of Al Jarreau, the Temptations and Aretha Franklin. Nevertheless, the cynosure is Howard's vocals--she has never sounded more confident often allowing herself to give in to the soulful tenor of the songs with a refreshingly spiritual abandonment.



The highlights are aplenty, most affecting being the single "What Dying Feels Like." A gorgeous piano-led ballad with some echoes of Bonnie Riatt's "I Can't Make You Love Me," Howard subtlety understated delivery shows her mastery over this musical piece of heartbreak wringing out every ounce of emotion. When love turns out right on the gospel-pop ballad "As One as Two Can Be," Howard's delivery is transcendently divine. She ups the ante in the creativity department with the engaging story song "The Life of the Dollar." With flurries of some delightful fiddling, Howard acts as our tour guide chronicling the odyssey of the dollar note from the pockets of a preacher to the banker to a bum on the street told with Kodak-like perspicuity. Similar picturesque is one of the album's most rustic moments "I'm Over You," a track that begs for a great video and perhaps an offering country radio would embrace.



Howard does step out of her country box into some swaggering blues with her self-composed "New Twist on an Old Groove." Propelled by a funky upright bass line and some smoky horns in the backdrop, Howard spits and struts with brazen sensual appeal on this song that calls for fresh moves to a moldy relationship. She takes on the Temptations' "Shakey Ground" head-on with some Motown funk without giving in to carbon copying the original when Howard adds her own southern charm to the mix. Less convincing is her take on Aretha Franklin's "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man." Vocally Howard does not have the grit and shaft of insights as the Queen of Soul. Quite pointless though is the self-professing "Sisters of Soul."



"No Rules" breaks all the hedges placed around all Nashville CDs. Howard risk-taking creativity adds flavor, texture and color to this entire effort. This CD is a reason to avoid imposing a moratorium on the very tired country genre. Though "No Rules" may not make Howard a country radio darling, but it's a career record that she ought to be proud of in years to come.

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Do You Like It Loud?

B. Lockhart | Davis, CA USA | 07/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To be honest, I had no preconceived ideas of this artist's work. In fact I had never heard her sing before. But this woman's voice is an amazing instrument soaring over 3 octaves managing rocking blues, ballads, and barroom boogie. I'm not sure what came before, but I suspect she was overly produced in a mainstream country fashion. I'll have to check it out. Now she's seemingly come into her own as an independent artist, and she positively shines on this recording. She owns "Do Right Woman - Do Right Man" and I think even Aretha would give her props. No easy task. This is worth a listen. I'd buy a ticket to see her live in an instant."