She Rides Wild Horses

Pop-country warbler Kenny Rogers’s 1999 “comeback” album features a pair of hit singles that returned him to the top of the country charts after a long absence: the lovely, sentimental “Buy Me a Rose” (featuring gorgeous support vocals from Alison Krauss) and “The Greatest,” an even more sentimental story-song penned by Don Schlitz, the same celebrated Nashville songwriter who gave Rogers his 1978 smash “The Gambler.” Sentimentality is, in fact, the operative word throughout She Rides Wild Horses, particularly on homespun, good-hearted homilies like “Slow Dance More” and the title cut, both of which are delightfully reminiscent of some of Rogers’s earliest and best country hits. Of course, this wouldn’t be a Kenny Rogers album if it didn’t include a couple of smooth, satiny pop-flavored ballads. –Bob Allen