Martina McBride - Greatest Hits (2001)

With that powerful voice of hers, it didn't take long for this small-town Kansas girl to go from selling Garth Brooks T-shirts to joining him the top of country charts. This best-of CD features 13 of her biggest smashes, plus four tracks exclusive to this release. You can also own her Greatest Hits as a 11-song DVD featuring exclusive interview footage with the star.

In the abstract, there are two Martina McBrides heard in this ample collection, which features 14 hits from the Kansas-born singer's studio albums, along with four inspired new cuts. At one extreme there's the demure cover-girl-pretty warbler who serves up fervent and endearing love pledges like "Wild Angels," "Safe in the Arms of Love," and "I Love You." Then there's the mature, poised, socially conscious mother of two who grapples with darker topics like poverty and inequality ("Love's the Only House") and child and spousal abuse (the wrathful "Independence Day" and the ineffably sad "Concrete Angel"). There are certainly impressive samples of both Martinas on this anthology. On other cuts--like the bluesy, naughty new track "When God-Fearin' Women Get the Blues" and the angry "Life #9"--the forces of light and darkness, anger and felicity, commingle in a manner that's no less intriguing and provocative. --Bob Allen