Kim Dickinson

Smokey Mountain Queen
Country Discovery Records

Website www.countrydiscovery.com
E mail codisc1@aol.com

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Twenty five year old Kim Dickinson was born in Liverpool, England, but now resides over the water in Ireland. This album was recorded and produced by Mike Headrick at his studio's in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. Mike, who is an extremely talented musician and songwriter, has also written or co-written five of the tracks on the album.

The 15 track album kicks off with "Tired Of Blaming You," this song, penned by Mike Headrick is an extremely catchy shuffle that certainly wets the appetite for a what's to come.

Other Mike Headrick penned tracks on here include the recent single, "No Account Man" a lively, cajun flavoured tune that did well in the European charts and no doubt helped to make her the 'Most Played Artist' in the WW Charts recently, as well as two songs co-penned by Mike with wife Teri, "The Danger Zone" a good two stepper that is sure to be popular with the dancers and "Smokey Mountain Queen" a song that has also been recorded by Norwegian artist, Benté Boe. Mike also teamed up with Marsha Britton to write, "A Safe Place To Land" another song that is sure to please the dancers.

The rest of the album is made up of covers of some very well chosen songs like Patsy Cline's "Leavin' On Your Mind" and one of my all time favourite P.C. songs, "Strange." Patsy's version can't be bettered, but Kim turns in a fine performance of this Mel Tillis penned classic.

There are also good versions of Billie Jo Spears 70s hit, "'57 Chevrolet," and the Paul Davis/Buddy Emmons penned "Love Me Like You Used To" a song that was recorded by Tanya Tucker back in the 80s. The song suits Kim's voice to a tee and I would go so far as to say that this version is every bit as good as the one from Ms Tucker.

Merle Haggard also provides material via "Somewhere Between," a duet with Roger Cooper previously recorded by Suzy Bogguss, with other tracks making up this fine album coming from Shel Silverstein, "Here I Am Again," Debbye Custer, "He's Gone Crazy," Bobby Atkins "I Couldn't Care Less" Bob McDill "If I Were Only Her Tonight" and Nancy Peppers "The Words That Go Unspoken."

The accompanying information states that, "Kim is a genuine country singer who thrives on steel guitars, fiddles, dobros, mandolins and lyrics that deal with all the vagaries of human relationships, whether it be tales of first love, break-up, a deceitful lover or family ties, Kim Dickinson serves up country music in the old-fashioned way, but with a healthy dollop of a modern girl's free-wheeling attitude." After listening to this fine album, I certainly wouldn't disagree with that.

Over the years, the City of Liverpool has become famous for producing a wealth of talent in all kinds of music, and Kim Dickinson can certainly be proud to count herself among them. To the people who say the British can't sing Country Music as good as the American's, I say, take a listen to this album and be ready to be proved wrong. Kim Dickinson is as good as many and better than a lot more!

Excellent!