Doug Stone scored 18 Top 20 country hits in the 1990s before he committed the unpardonable sin of aging into his mid-forties and being unceremoniously dumped off the rosters of the major labels. To his credit, he has not only continued touring, he has also continued to record.
My Turn finds him producing himself for the first time, and the result is an album that contains several more potential country hits, or would if it had the promotional muscle it takes to score hits. "We're All About That" and "That's How We Roll," both written by the team of Rusty VanSickle, Terry Clayton, and Jeff Jones, are up-tempo stompers full of redneck pride. VanSickle, Clayton, and Jones also reflect on a man's tendency to learn his lessons "The Hardway," but they turn all sensitive and romantic on the ballads "Ain't That Just Like a Woman" and "She Always Gets What She Wants." "Don't Tell Mama," by Kim Williams, William Brock, and Jerry Laseter, is a cautionary tale about drinking, driving, and dying, while Williams and Tim Johnson's "Nice Problem" is one of those philosophical "stop and smell the roses" messages in which it takes a man's encounter with a beggar to make him appreciate his family, his mortgage, and his broken washer. Most of these songs could have come from any era in country music, from the halfway point on in the last century on, and some of the musicians who played on
Stone's early hits join him to give the tracks a timeless country feel. For his part,
Stone sings with as much fervor and sincerity as ever. Maybe these songs won't ascend the country charts like his music used to, but they will fit in well when he plays them in between the hits at his shows. ~ William Ruhlmann