New Album Defines Artist

Douglas Boultinghouse
Staff Writer

Courtesy of Pickler's MySpace

   Very few albums can define a person's career and personality. Kellie Pickler's sophomore effort does just that. Only fitting, she titled the album "Kellie Pickler."

   The down-to-earth and silly blonde who charmed her way into the hearts of American on "American Idol" in 2006 lets every bit of that charm shine on her new album.

   The album follows her successful debut album "Small Town Girl," which featured the hits "Red High Heels," "I Wonder" and "Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind."

   The album opens with the first single, "Don't You Know You're Beautiful," an inspirational and up-beat track targeted to young girls.

   "Hey little girl with your tangled hair, your tattered clothes / You're 15 and you're about to bloom just like a rose / You're wishing that you had designer jeans / Like the ones you see in magazines / Yeah I know you'd give anything just to fit in / But your worth ain’t on a price tag / It comes from within / Don't you know you're beautiful? / Don't you know you're beautiful just the way you are," she sings.

   Later in the song she sings the verse, "Hey there, little homecoming queen in that back seat / I bet his brown eyes are telling you everything / And I know you want to be just like your friends / But he'll still love you if you don't give in / If those girls were being honest that have been where you're at / I bet they'd tell you they wish they had their innocence back / Don't you know you're beautiful."

   Continuing at an upbeat speed, she slides "I'm Your Woman" into the second spot.

   "If you want someone who will turn your head / I'm your woman / If you want something that you ain't found yet / I'm your woman," she sings with a series of "woahs" and "ohs."

   In the few seconds between the second and third tracks, Pickler turns into a woman with her eye on revenge for "Rocks Instead of Rice," one of the five songs she co-wrote on the album.

   She begins the song with "Long, white limousine pulls up to the church / A sick part of me wishes it was a hearse / I didn't get an invitation / But I'm here anyway / And I don't care if I'm crashing their big day."

   She lets it rip on the catchy chorus with "Well it might not be too Christian of me / And it might not be too nice / But I wish we were all just standing around / Throwing rocks instead of rice."

   The funniest and most clever verse comes after the chorus as she taunts, "Long, white dress / This must be some kind of joke / Virgin, please / She ain't foolin' these folks / If the three of us were on Jerry Springer / I'd be pullin' her hair / And I'd kick that lying sack of should've known better / In the you know where..."

   To slow things down a bit, she included a re-recording of the song "Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You" from her first album.

   Pickler's vocal ability has clearly grown since that album and the new version of this song shows just how much.

   "Didn't you know how much I loved you / Didn't you know how much I loved you baby / I gave you everything, every part of me / Didn't you feel it when I touched you / Didn't I rock you when I loved you / Baby tell me / Didn't you know how much I loved you," she soars.

   She lets the sultry songstress in her loose for "Lucky Girl."

   Backed by a few drums and a steel guitar, the Pickler begins, "Lucky girl / She got the diamond / But I got the world / It's my oyster and it's full of pearls / So, honey, tell me who's the lucky girl."

   She turns to the guy, "You lucky boy / Did you tell her she's your second choice / Cause I wouldn't be your little toy / Ain't no man inside a lucky boy."

   For the chorus she steams things up, "I guess you finally found someone / Who's everything that I couldn't be / I just couldn't see myself as / Mrs. You Can Walk All Over Me / So tell me who's the lucky / Tell me who's the lucky girl."

   The tender side of Pickler and the budding song-writing genius surfaces on the heartbreakingly sad "One Last Time."

   "I wanna lay in your bed / Stare in your eyes / Feel your heart beating with mine / One last time / One last time / There won't be any tears / That's not why I'm here / Baby, turn out the lights and let's disappear / One last time / One last time," she sings.

   She belts in the spine-tingling chorus, "I'm not here to fight about who's wrong or right / I just want your kiss / I wanna feel just like this / One last time / One last time."

   "And when you fall asleep / I'll kiss your cheek / Whisper goodbye and I'll just leave / One last time," she closes the song.

   The bitter rock-thrower returns. This time she brought in reinforcement by the name of Taylor Swift.

  Pickler co-wrote the song "Best Days of Your Life" with Swift while on the road opening for Brad Paisley in 2006. Swift sings background vocals on the song.

   "Ain't it a shame / A shame that every time you hear me name / Brought up in a casual conversation / You can't think straight / And ain't it sad / You can't forget about what we had / Take a look at her / And do you like what you see / Or do you wish it was me," she sings.

   Swift chimes in on the chorus as they sing "Cause I'll be there in back of your mind / From the day we met to the very last night / And it's just too bad / You've already had the best days / The best days of your life."

   She continues her rant with "I heard you're gonna get married / Have a nice little family / Live out my dreams with someone else / But I've been told that a cheater is always a cheater / So I've got my pride / And she's got you."

   Like every human being, Picker faces vulnerability. She turned all of the pain she has experienced from failed relationships, a mother who abandoned her and the loss of the grandmother who raised her, whom she calls her "angel," into the tear-jerking song "Somebody to Love Me."

   "Sometimes the nights seem so long / When you lie in bed all alone / And tomorrow seems so far away / I don't wanna live another day this way / Scared to let someone in / Can't bear to get hurt again," she sings

   The chorus begins, "I just want somebody to love me / I just need somebody to hold me / Somebody to love me," and builds to the painful ending, "I'm hurt and I'm scared and I'm lonely / All I want is somebody to want me / Cause I've got so much to give."

   As the song ends and she sings the last lines, "I just need somebody to hold me / Somebody to love me," you can hear her fighting back tears.

   "I think 'Somebody To Love Me' and 'One Last Time' are the best songs I've ever written," Pickler told The Tennesseean. "And I don't think I'll ever write a song better than those. I went through a really dark period in my life. My career was going great, but everything in my personal life was crumbling. I was insecure and I think it's crazy sometimes, the people you want to love you the most don't. I have so many people who love and support me — friends, fans and the people I work with. That's great. But there are other people who are absent from my life whose love I long for."

   She puts her vocal range to use on the upbeat country-pop track, reminiscent of a Shania Twain song, "Makin' Me Fall in Love Again."

   "All you gotta do is look at me that way / And there you go / Makin' me fall in love again / There you go / Makin' me fall in love again / Oh and I've gotta tell you / There's nothing better / You and me together / Working on forever," she sings.

  The last song on the album, appropriately titled "Going Out in Style," defines Kellie Pickler as a person.

   "When my time comes to an end / Don't be sad / Don't you shed one tear / Take me back to the place I love the most / Where all my best memories were made in my time here," Pickler sings.

   She leads you to believe this will be a tearful ballad and then out of nowhere, the goofy young woman who named her publishing company Pickle Butt Publishing chimes along in big band style "Don't be sad or broken-hearted / Spread my ashes in the shoe department / Everybody knows that's where I wanna be."

   She continues with "For all eternity, sounds like heaven to me / Why be sad when you can smile / If I must go / I'm going out in style."

   The song ends with hilarious dialogue with a salesperson discussing shoes. It makes sense, Pickler will forever be known as the girl in red high heels.

   Many artists suffer from what the record industry dooms a "sophomore slump." With "Kellie Pickler" being a step up from "Small Town Girl," the chances of Pickler falling in that slump diminish.

   Picker crafted a solid and infectious album that shows her growth into adulthood. The young woman finding her way might have found the future “Album of the Year” at next year’s country music awards.

   In the album liner thank you note she wrote, "I would like to dedicate this album to 'my angel,' Faye Pickler. I miss you Grandma."

   She released the album Sept. 30, a date she donned “Pick Up Pickler Day” on her MySpace, in three formats. In retail stores, you can pick up the standard album of 10 songs or a deluxe edition that includes a bonus DVD that shows a day in the life of Pickler and Pickles (her cat). You can also purchase a digital deluxe edition from iTunes that includes three bonus tracks: "Anything But Me," a cover of the Keith Whitley classic "Don't Close Your Eyes" and "Happy."

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