Womack advises someone to stand in awe of life, give faith a fighting chance, avoid the path of least resistance and never take a single breath for granted (“I Hope You Dance”). She excitedly stands on the threshold of a new love on “After I Fall.” A remake of the 1981 Don Williams hit “Lord I Hope This Day Is Good” reverently recognizes the value of prayer, the need for thankfulness, and the relative emptiness of fortune and fame. It even acknowledges, “You’ve been the King since the dawn of time,” however . . .
The song also reveals subtle misunderstandings of God’s character. One mild profanity mars “Lonely Too.”
With fiddles, pedal-steel guitar and vocals reminiscent of ’70s country crooners, Lee Ann Womack possesses a rootsy, unpretentious, coal-miner’s-daughter quality increasingly rare in this age of pop crossovers like Shania Twain and Faith Hill. Most of the songs on this release (Womack’s third) deal with lost love and its emotional fallout in a neutral manner. Problems are few. And what’s good—most notably the title track—is very good.
