Nine years after their last outing, the trio reunites and, with help from a passel of Nashville aces, turns in a performance that sounds like they'd never taken a break. All but three of the tracks are original; a spirited cover of "Squeeze Box" proves that
Pete Townshend could fit right in on Music Row if he had to. In its details and in the broad picture,
Amarillo Sky is tight, seamless, a bit impersonal in the commercially acceptable sense, and chopped into radio-friendly bits; only one track tiptoes near five minutes in length. (The album as a whole is concise even by LP-era measure.) It is, in other words, emblematic of contemporary country music, no warts and all. ~ Robert L. Doerschuk