Consumer Guide Album

Reba McEntire: My Kind of Country [MCA, 1984]
Though it enabled her to waltz off with the Country Music Association's artist-of-the-year award in her gender division, this longtime up-and-comer's second MCA album may pass outsiders right by. Its vaunted neotraditionalism is long on detail work--a thick hillbilly accent so soft-spoken it never intrudes, songcraft so steeped in the canon it splits the difference between evocation (side one) and cliché (side two). Those who miss the good old days are advised to think of her as Tammy Wynette with a natural and take what breakthrough they can get. B+