Dreamer

by Blake Shelton

Product Description:

Personnel: Blake Shelton (vocals, acoustic guitar); John Willis (acoustic guitar); Brent Rowan (electric guitar, baritone guitar, Wurlitzer piano); Danny Dugmore, Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Russ Pahl (banjo); Jonathan Yudkin (mandolin, fiddle); Rob Hajacos (fiddle); David Angell, John Catchings, David Davidson, Pamela Sixfin (strings); Charlie McCoy (harmonica, trumpet, vibraphone); Michael Rojas, Tim Lauer, Bobby Braddock (keyboards); Michael Rhodes, Alison Prestwood (bass); Shannon Forrest, Greg Morrow (drums, percussion); Sharon Vaughn Bellamy, Larry Cordle, Neal Coty, Wes Hightower, John Wesley Ryles, Blake Shelton (background vocals).

From the opening guitar riffs of THE DREAMER's first song, "Heavy Lifting," it's clear that there's more than a little rock & roll in Blake Shelton's country music, but that doesn't mean the lad hasn't got a sense of Music City history. In case you thought the country tradition of trucking songs died out with Dave Dudley, Shelton serves to remind that it's very much alive--though now decked out with modern-sounding rhythm loops--on "Asphalt Cowboy." "In My Heaven" finds Shelton imagining his version of paradise, a place where there's no violence, loneliness, or dishonesty. The album's working-man-with-heart-of-gold stance, widescreen power chords, and anthemic choruses suggest that Shelton is something of a country Springsteen, but the bottleneck guitar on "My Neck of the Woods" and the honky-tonk fiddle of "Georgia in a Jug" leave little doubt as to the side of the Mason-Dixon line on which his heart resides.