★★★★★
Austin's Lovingest Couple
Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison have been married for years, but they have rarely recorded together. They have staked out their own careers in a similar musical field by following separate tracks. That's why it seems so strange that the lovingest couple in Austin, Texas joined together to release an album of cheating songs. Not all the tracks on Cheater's Game have to do with deceitful behavior or being wronged by a loved one...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Kelly Willis & Bruce RobisonCheater's Game (Premium) Extraordinarily talented on their own, Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison prove themselves greater together than apart on Cheater's Game. Of the disc's 13 songs, six are Robison originals and the rest are covers of songs from well-respected writers like Don Williams, Dave Alvin, and Robert Earl Keen...
- www.austinchronicle.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Kelly Willis has the perfect voice for cheatin'-heart lamentations ? as Nashville executives knew when they signed her in 1990, as a 22-year-old rockabilly chick, to the first of three major-label records. Willis can do crystalline-cool and breakup-night-bruised all at once, without ever playing the instant victim. On Easy, her uneven fifth album of not-quite-Nashville roots music, the Austin, Texas, singer-songwriter relies on her voice to transform country-music clichés into age-old truths...
- www.blender.com
2010-08-22
★★★★★
Sometimes the album title says it all, and that is certainly the case with country singer/songwriter Kelly Willis's new release, simply titled Easy. That pretty much sums it up right there: easy on the ears, easy on the eyes, and just an easy listen. And that's the thing about Willis: she doesn't just sing, she soothes. Her angelic voice is strong enough to move mountains, yet balmy enough to cure even the most dreaded hangover...
- www.nudeasthenews.com
2009-07-28
★★★★★
at four tracks in three years, she's not gonna pick a title song called "Going Strong" ("Fading Fast," "Aren't I True")
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Willis loves singing like George Jones loves singing, like Rosanne Cash loves singing, and once a fella notices how hard she tries and how strong she feels, he'll want to hug and kiss her till that smile is back on her pretty little face. But though the tunes are her solidest yet, Don Was's Billy Bremner guitar and Jellyfish harmonies don't set them off any more clearly than Tony Brown's neoclassical taste did. That's mostly because Willis's idea of a good lyric is a simple lyric...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Up till the Joe Ely conceit she goes out on, this 22-year-old doesn't get a single lyric worthy of her lusty-voiced appetite for decent love. She claims she'll wrap her pipes around any original her drummer husband hands her, but since the five on the debut are down to two here, there's reason to hope that next time her Nashville handlers will put her in touch with an actual female songwriter. Would Lucinda Williams be asking too much?
- 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
★★★★★
in love with her own voice, which deserves it, and him for listening, which is a mistake ("My Heart's in Trouble Tonight," "River of Love")
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
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