Rating: *****
Only six years have passed since a painfully awkward Trisha Yearwood stepped on stage to open for Garth Brooks. Given that, Songbook represents the steepest learning curve in country music history. Yearwood proved immediately that she possessed some of Nashville's most powerful pipes; even more astounding was her command of subtlety and nuance. Yearwood boasted a defiant innocence on early hits like "She's in love with the boy" and "Wrong side of Memphis," and on "The woman before me" and "Walkaway Joe" she conveyed complex (and often contradictionary) emotions with ease. The three new tunes here only add to Yearwood's status. "How do I live" (which she sang for the Con Air soundtrack after the film's producers rejected LeAnn Rimes' version) is a spine-tangling ballad of devotion and desperation. The duet with Garth Brooks, "In anothers' eyes" (co-written by Brooks) is a complex tale of two friends expressing their mutual insecurities, and their common fear that their lovers will realize their shortcomings. The album's standout-track, however, is Stephony Smith and Sunny Russ' "Perfect love" which declares that romantic bliss is found not in fireworks, but in insignificant moments like reading the sunday paper together. Its irressistible melody (and clear-eyed outlook) makes it one of Yearwood's most exhilarating tracks to date. Even though it omits killer tunes like "Everybody knows," "Believe me baby (I lied)," and "I wanna go too far," Songbook is an embarrassment of riches from an artist who ups the ante for every other country singer she steps to the mic.
