Track Listing

1. Comfort Me
2. Tickin' Away
3. Home
4. Red Ragtop
5. That's Why God Made Mexico
6. Watch The Wind Blow By
7. Illegal
8. Sleep Tonight
9. I Know How to Love You Well
10. Sing Me Home
11. She's My Kind of Rain
12. Who Are They
13. Real Good Man
14. All We Ever Find
15. Tiny Dancer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61940 in Music
• Released on: 2002-11-26
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Full Title - Tim McGraw & The Dancehall Doctors. The country star's 2002 album combines a 70's vibe with rock & pop as well as country. Featuring the first single 'Red Ragtop'. Curb Records.

Amazon.com
Just as his wife, Faith Hill, gets slicker and more hermetically sealed on each album, Tim McGraw reaches back on this record to a time-honored, if now rare, country music tradition--recording with his road band. Like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard before him, McGraw craved the artistic freedom and rawer sound he enjoyed with his road boys, and he was correct in thinking the Dancehall Doctors would leave their own honest stamp on the music, as well as a '70s rock & roll feel. Retreating to a studio in upstate New York, they recorded 15 keepers. Only one, a cover of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer," lands with a thud, as McGraw tries to duplicate John's vocal nuances and never takes control of the song. But elsewhere, he and the band are surprisingly emotional, soulful, and vulnerable. Together, they turn "Red Ragtop," a song about teen lovers who abort their child, into a universal lyric about choices and regrets, and fashion the two songs about revisiting the people and places that shape who you are ("Sing Me Home," "Home") into something profound. The album sags in spots, and McGraw and his coproducers misstep in adding faux R&B vocal washes here and there. But this is a good, solid effort to make music and not just the radio charts. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

Tim is Real, Sexy and Raw on this cd!
I love Tim McGraw on this cd; the lyrics, the voice, the Dancehall Doctors - it all comes together perfectly. Tim is real, sexy and raw on this cd and this is my favorite Tim McGraw cd to date!

My favorite songs are "She's My Kind of Rain" and "Real Good Man" and I feel that this - by far - has some of Tim's best work on one cd. I love, Love, LOVE "Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors"; it's a must have for every country collection!

Now you get the Real Tim!
The Dancehall Doctors are here!
If you've ever seen Tim in concert, you know how great this band is. Darren Smith is one of my favorite guitar players of all time. He and Tim have a chemestry on stage that carries over very well in studio... Along with the rest of this band.
Here's a small review of a great CD.

The Songs:

Comfort Me is an upper-mid tempo song that was recorded in the wake of the September 11th attacks on our home land. Very patriotic song, but unlike any others that came out around this time. Tells the listener about the the great things that are a part of our country, no war, no negativity at all.

Tickin' Away is a little slower, tempo-wise, that the first track, but is no less powerful. Tim talks here about this figurative and literal staring at a clock on the wall as the hands keep moving and life ticks away. The stuborn man sits and waits for miss perfect to walk back into his life, but is realizing slowly, that its not going to happen.

Home. What about this one? Its just like the title says. Its a southern style country song about coming back to visit your family. The descriptions are priceless. This song paints one beautiful picture after another. Mostly acoustic, very country.

Red Ragtop starts off with Bob Minner pluckin' the banjo, as another of the more country sounding songs on this record slowly works its way to go. A mid-tempo song about a love that happened when the 2 were young, and didnt know everything yet. The memories of the good things and the bad things that come with the mistakes that most of us made when we were late-teenageers. Even though the love is long gone, every time that car drives by, she in it... If only for a moment.

That's Why God Made Mexico is a country ballad that ties in a couple different stories of love gone wrong and hard times that are cured only by a simple trip accross the border. A trip to the place with the white sands and the tiki huts that make you forget all about your problems and hardships, to only have to live for the moment. Lighthearted lyrics are rarely turned into such a heartfelt song as this one.

Watch the Wind Blow By is a great slow love song about just letting the world go by as the 2 just stare into each-others eyes and think about nothing but being in love. This song is the perfect example of the love that you can see Tim and Faith sharing. It's also a great song to slow-dance to.

Illegal. Turn it up! A country rocker with a simple lyric about the girl that you cant keep your eye off of. The addition of Don Henley and Timmy Schmidt on harmony vocals make this song sound very much like something you heard on a late 70's Eagles' record, but with that unmistakable Tim McGraw rock n country sound.

Sleep Tonight is another mid-tempo song about making the night at hand last and last. Tim belts out his love for his current situation, and how badly he doesnt want to call it a night. It's a fun lyric, not slow by any means, but you might still get away with singing this one to you best girl.

I Know How to Love You Well. This one is another one of those slow country ballads. The man in this song continually proffesses his undying love to the girl. The song is musically tight... Something you might have come to expect out of the typical nashville studio band.

Sing Me Home. A pause, and a moment of relection is needed after this song... OKay, now back to the review. This song is a slow, mellow, southren rock style ballad about getting back to your roots. The carachter in the song talks about hearing his song after being gone for so long. Weather figurative, or literal, it is unknown, but he openly asks the listener to let that song sing him back to where he's from... Back to simpler times. Back to the life he's always loved.

She's My Kind of Rain is a loud country ballad full of figurative statements that help to tell the world how the singer feels about the woman he loves. The lyrics may be hard for the casual listener to follow, but each verse, each line in fact, paints a great picture. Very colorful song.

Who Are They Is an up-tempo country rock song that asks one simple question... Who are these people who make up all these rules that society is supposed to abide by. Everyone always says "They say your not supposed to lalalalala..." Whatever. Tim's mad here, and rightly so. This song is about breaking out, getting away from the mold that society as a whole has conformed to. Great song pick here.

Real Good Man is a rocker. In the style of Renegade from Tim's early days, this is the most guitar-driven song on the album. The singer tells the girl that even though he's a gentleman, that he still knows how to party. Or, as Tim says in the song, he may be a real bad boy, but he's deffinatly a real good man.

All We Ever Find is a mid-tempo ballad that seems to touch lightly on not knowing what the world hold for the future. And as such, the man is telling the girl to lay it all on the line, to be completely honest and open about everything, so the relationship can keep moving forward on its way to forever. In case forever doesnt come. That way, no time is wasted on things that dont mean a thing. Another really tight song musically, as are the lot on this album it seems.

Tiny Dancer is a great rock n roll remake of a classic by Elton John. This song, even tought from a country band, rock harder and louder than Elton's original ever did. This song was even used as the opener on the tour to support Tim's previous stufio effort.

All in all, this album is by far, the best that Tim has done up to this point. The fact that this album is the effort of an entire band shows in the way it sounds. These men are obviously a close knit group of musicians that have benn around each other for a while. They have a chemistry that is not unlike that of some of the great classic rock bands in history. Think Boston, Journey, Bad Company and others in that style, and then put that fiddle and steel guitar in there where they're supposed to be, and you've got the Dancehall Doctors. A great album, a great singer, a great band. Great Job guys!

Not his best
Tim has had better albums. Personally I'm not crazy about thuis one. It's my least favorite.