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GARY ALLAN
TOUGH ALL OVER
MCA Nashville

Concept albums are rare in mainstream country music, and it’s rarer still to find Nashville product that favors darkness over light. That makes Gary Allan’s sixth full-length, Tough All Over, a Music Row anomaly on two counts. The disc confronts the suicide of Allan’s wife of three years and serves as a reminder that the California-born singer with a punk-rock-loving history to his credit is the thinking-man’s hat act. He’s graced with a tough but tender tenor — a voice that turns Vertical Horizon’s frat-rocking "Best I Ever Had" into a heartbreaking ballad. "I Just Got Back from Hell" is as jarring as a punch to the stomach. But the disc’s highlight is the pulse-racing "Nickajack Cave," a tune that tells the story of a failed suicide attempt by Johnny Cash. It’s a little heavy-handed, particularly when Allan, as a voice from the heavens, barks out, "Get up, Johnny Cash, I ain’t through with you yet." But Tough All Over is a heavy album.

BY WERNER TRIESCHMANN


Issue Date: January 6 - 12, 2006
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