Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Help Me Make It Through The Night
2. Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You)
3. The End of the World
4. Oh Lonesome Me
5. I Can't Stop Loving You
6. Me and Bobby McGee
7. Can't Help Falling in Love
8. Let It Be Me (with Vince Gill)
9. Singing the Blues
10. I Really Don't Want to Know
11. A Fool Such as I
12. Always on My Mind
13. ('Til) I Kissed You
14. Loving Arms
15. Are You Lonesome Tonight

Disc 2:

1. Make the World Go Away
2. Anytime
3. You Don't Know Me
4. Bye, Bye Love
5. Vaya Con Dios
6. Take These Chains From My Heart
7. For the Good Times
8. Sea of Heartbreak
9. She'll Have to Go
10. I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) / I'm a Fool to Care
11. Blue, Blue Day
12. That's The Way Love Goes
13. I Fall to Pieces
14. All I Have to Do Is Dream
15. Tennessee Waltz

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44990 in Music
• Released on: 2002-10-22
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Customer Reviews

A Musical Archive
Country Croonin' ranks with Anne Murray's self-titled album of 1996 as the best she's ever done. The musicians are clearly having a ball with the material - wait 'til you hear the laughing clarinet echoing the sentiments of the lyric on the second track, 'Someday.' It gets better with every song, and there's 30 of them (for the price of a single CD)! Murray still delivers her trademark understated reading of the lyrics with perfect pitch, but the voice is grittier, and well suited to some of the more uptempo rockabilly numbers here - 'Oh Lonesome Me,' 'Singing the Blues,' 'Bye Bye Love,' and 'Blue Blue Day.' Some of the midtempo numbers stand out as well - 'A Fool Such as I,' and 'Anytime,' but the showstopper on the album is the honky tonk, 'Take These Chains.' And once you've heard her update of 'I Fall to Pieces,' you'll no longer want to call it a Patsy Cline song. Anne Murray has always been a fine singer, but since she took control of her career and moved her production back to Canada, the integrity of her music has improved consistently, and she has never sounded better. While Nashville tries to figure out where country music has gone, Murray has created a wonderful archive of its early days, and she has made it sound so simple, so effortlessly.

Anne shows her musical roots
Anne's hitmaking days are over and she now seems content to record covers. I don't mind that, because Anne has a lovely, warm voice which is well suited to these classics. This time, Anne has covered a great selection of songs, mostly from the fifties and sixties although there are songs from other periods too.

It has always been difficult to classify Anne's music and this album confirms that difficulty, since many of the original artists were country singers who went pop, or pop singers who sang country. Most of the songs are covers of songs associated with Eddy Arnold, the Everly brothers, Don Gibson, Kris Kristofferson, Elvis. Les Paul and Mary Ford, Ray Charles and Patsy Cline, as I showed on one of my Listmania lists.

This is not the first time Anne has covered the Everly brothers as she recorded a brilliant version of Walk right back in the late seventies. Anne clearly loves Tennessee waltz (which was a huge hit for Patti Page and also a big hit for Les Paul and Mary Ford), having previously recorded it for the same album (Let's keep it that way) that included Walk right back.

I don't have any particular favorites, perhaps because I got exactly what I expected. Some people complain that Anne is too predictable, but that's exactly why I love about her music. It won't win any new fans for her, but if you enjoy Anne's previous music, you will enjoy this, because Anne's voice is as good as ever.

Fabulous collection of country classics by great vocalist!
We had the pleasure of hearing Anne Murray in person last fall in Nashville, backed up by the Symphony Orchestra. To our delight, in her late 50's, Anne's voice is just as sultry and clean as it was 25 years ago! She took the opportunity in this concert to showcase quite a few of the tracks on this CD, a 30-song (!!) collection of early country music powerhouse hits. We bought the CD just days later after being thrilled with what we heard. Anne's classic country band -- drums, acoustic and electric guitar, piano, bass, with an occasional light sax or Dixieland clarinet -- coupled with judicious use of string sections and background singers, makes for a most harmonious background to her strong alto vocals. Even though the theme throughout is hits from the 40's and 50's, such classics as "For The Good Times", "I Fall To Pieces", and the "Tennessee Waltz" are complemented with early "cross-over" hits like "End of the World" and the Everly Brothers' "'Til I Kissed You" and "All I Have To Do Is Dream". For variety, Anne lays down catchy and upbeat covers of "Oh Lonesome Me", "Anytime", and "Blue, Blue Day." There's also plenty of lush ballads to choose from, including "Let It Be Me", featuring duet-meister Vince Gill.

For like three albums for the price of one, this dual CD is sure to please and entertain for a couple of hours. With lovely arrangements and clear straightforward vocals, this is one for everybody's country collection, featuring the enchanting Anne Murray at her finest!