★★★★★
The album opens with the Flatt & Scruggs classic "Somehow Tonight," with a vocal that shows that Diffie isn't just a country singer trying to do something new. He sings like a broken man on Shawn Camp's heart-rending "Lonesome and Dry As a Bone," and Camp also appears as a co-writer on the humorous and appropriate "Rainin' On Her Rubber Dolly Now," with music from the Grascals...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
A debut hit that was an ode to the old home place. A voice that could soar up high just as easily as it could dip down into honeyed Whitley-like tones. That one long, anguished note toward the end of "Ships That Don't Come In." If we didn't know Joe Diffie had some bluegrass in him, perhaps we should have guessed. As a '90s neotraditionalist, Diffie's blessing and curse was that he had the vocal chops to sound like just about anyone...
- www.the9513.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
Newcomer Joe Diffie scored four No.1 hits on his debut, A Thousand Winding Roads, largely by soundinglike his heroes, George Jones, Buck Owens, and Merle Haggard. On thisfollow-up, Regular Joe, Diffie has the confidence to sing in his natural voice, asupple tenor that stretches all the way to Alaska...
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
No one sings a "hurtin' song" better than George Jones, although these two newcomerswould like to try. Chesnutt, who hails from Jones' hometown ofBeaumont, Tex., and got the Master to endorse him in his liner notes,has a comely, smooth baritone and a supple way of moving through hisvocal range...
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
Diffie's ninth album A Night to Remember ? a theme record about the dissolution of relationships and the fear of never loving again ? features an updated sound, a strong batch of songs, and a surprising depth of feeling. In dropping most of his George Jones inflections, Diffie, long underrated as an interpreter of honky-tonk fare, finds something startlingly new ? his own voice.
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Although he is still
considered something of a lightweight in the industry, Joe Diffie is
maturing into a first-rate interpreter of working-class woes. On Honky Tonk Attitude, with
few exceptions, his songs resonate with blue-collar experience,
whether they're celebrating small victories or mourning major losses.
Now if only the quality of his voice didn't sound just like every
other guy's on the radio.
- ew.com
2009-06-12