January 2016 – Page 2 – Country Universe

Album Review: Andrew Combs, All These Dreams

January 7, 2016 Larry Rogowin 10

Andrew Combs’ All These Dreams thrives in widescreen and close-up. It’s a lush, imaginative production that’s also a series of intimate character sketches.

Single Review: Drake White, “Livin’ the Dream”

January 5, 2016 Jonathan Keefe 3

As a would-be anthem for the contemporary working class, “Livin’ the Dream” is perhaps a bit too unassuming for its own good.

Single Review: Maren Morris, “My Church”

January 4, 2016 Jonathan Keefe 14

The most obvious points of comparison for singer-songwriter Maren Morris and her single “My Church” are to Sheryl Crow’s self-titled masterpiece and its follow-up, The Globe Sessions. Though Crow spent the 1990s as a pop star, her ties to the country genre were clear. “If It Makes You Happy” was always a honky-tonk anthem waiting to happen, while “The Difficult Kind,” “Home,” and “Mississippi” all sound more recognizably country than do current chart-topping hits by Sam Hunt, Kelsea Ballerini, and Thomas Rhett.