Tracy Lawrence's "I See It Now"


This review originally appeared in the January 27- February 9, 1995 issue of "The Country Road Gazette" located in Milford, Pennsylvania. Republished in Entertainment Magazine On-Line (EMOL), June 1995.

 

"CD/MUSIC REVIEW OF TRACY LAWRENCE'S I SEE IT NOW"

(ATLANTIC RECORDS, 1994)


by: Sandra L. Toney

Tracy Lawrence's latest release, his third since 1991, I See It Now, may not be his best, but it is certainly worth buying if you are a fan of Lawrence's "hillbilly" style of country music. His last release, Alibis (Atlantic Records, 1993), heralded quite a few hits and a lot of recognition for this young star. "If the Good Die Young," "My Second Home," and the title song, "Alibis," are going to be very difficult for Lawrence to top.

I See It Now, however, definitely has its share of possible chart-topping hits. Lawrence teams up with country music legend, John Anderson, on the sensational song, "Hillbilly with a Heartache." This tune is that down-home, hillbilly style of country music that not every country music fan will appreciate. For the die-hard country fan, however, the teaming of Lawrence and Anderson on this number will give you chills as the chorus characterizes a broken-hearted hillbilly, "You wouldn't want to tangle with a grizzly bear or step on a copperhead snake/So if you cross his path you better beware/Been wounded by a woman/He's a hillbilly with a heartache."

The title hit, "I See It Now," which is currently climbing the country charts, is the typical "love that has been lost" scenario. The song tells of spotting an old lover with her new love and how he sees a look in her that he never saw when they were together. Unfortunately, when its too late for him, he sees it now . . .

The best song on the album was co-written by Lawrence himself. "If the World had a Front Porch" is a song about a certain place, in this case a front porch, and how important it has been in the singer's life. He fondly recalls all the momentous events that happened right there on that front porch: "It was where my mama sat on that old swing with her crochet/It was where grandaddy taught me how to cuss and how to pray . . . Where the bulldogs had her puppies and us brothers had our fights." The vast difference between learning how to cuss and how to pray gives the song a heartwarming credibility that shows us how precious life is and that we all need "a front porch" to make memories on (the good and the bad ones).

"Texas Tornado" is a touching account about a man thinking he's over a woman but finding out how wrong he is upon seeing her again. He knows she doesn't want him but still lets her make him her fool yet again. He feels like he's caught up in a tornado. Other songs on the album include such self-explanatory titles as "Guilt Trip," "I'd Give Anything To Be Your Everything Again," and "As Any Fool Can See."

My least favorite song on the album, "God Made Woman On A Good Day," is an insult to women as it throws us all into one category. "Legs, long legs stretchin' all the way up from the ground to her thin waist," implies that only this long-legged, thin-waisted woman was made on a good day. Sorry to have to break it to you, Tracy, but women (as well as men) come in a variety of shapes and sizes. When did the short-legged, thick- waisted woman hit the scene? According to this song, they don't even exist.


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