★★★★★
A very successful star during the 1990's hat act country boom, John Michael Montgomery has seen his share of hits and is at a point in his career where new hits aren't exactly required to have successful concert tours. Still, if he can find a periodic hit like "The Little Girl" or "Letters Form Home," John Michael is able tour even longer around that one hit. That seems to be what is at the root of John Michael Montgomery's latest album and first for his own record label "Stringtown Records...
- roughstock.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-17
★★★★★
Nashville belched up the usual candidates for ritual slaughter this year, but most of them just weren't worthy. From ten-gallon wimps like Clay Walker to Village People rejects like Tim McGraw, the hunk boom of the early '90s is already playing out, and though Clint Black could have been so much more, in fact he still shows flashes even if he did check in with a Christmas album. This guy is slipping from lower on the evolutionary ladder and higher up on the heap...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
With his 1992 double-platinum debut, Life's a Dance,
neo-honky-tonker John Michael Montgomery may have simply copied
his idols -- Hank Williams Sr., Merle Haggard, Garth Brooks -- but
he did it with wit and style. By the time he released the
triple-platinum Kickin' It Up in 1994, however, he was a
ballad-loving cog in the music-biz machine, churning out what
consultants correctly promised would be radio hits.
Now comes his weakest offering, JOHN MICHAEL MONTGOMERY
(Atlantic)...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Or, Attack ofthe Garth Babies. Newcomer John Michael Montgomery has a promisingvocal style ? his lower register invokes just enough George Jones andMerle Haggard to make him sound legit ? but he's clearly being groomedby handlers to fit in with the Brooksian hat squad. How else toexplain the low-placed "Beer and Bones," or Life's a Dance's title cut, a fairlyblatant rip-off of "The Dance." And that one's a hit, yet. Oy. D
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
At a time whenmost Nashville roads lead to L.A., John Michael Montgomery mixes his poppylove ballads with old-fashioned country songs about grateful sonsand bus trips to Birmingham. The pleasant sampler Brand New Me is at turnsaffecting and predictable, but Montgomery might do well to take anod from kid brother Eddie (of Montgomery Gentry) and put newswing in his old country step. B-
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Montgomery's latest offering, Home to You, starts off as standard dance fare, segues into three powerful ballads about love lost and found, then finishes with the most enigmatic song to come out of Nashville this year, Waylon Jennings and Tom Douglas' "Nothing Catches Jesus by Surprise." Maybe not Jesus, but the rest of us, yes.
- ew.com
2009-06-12