Search - Keith Stegall :: Passages

A mixed bag from an old Nashville insider

Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 06/30/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After a brief run of midlevel hits in the early '80s, songwriter Keith Stegall settled into a comfortable mode as a top producer, working with numerous artists, many with a rootsy bent to their work. This solo album opens with a great uptempo number, "Roll The Dice," then settles into a series of slower, sappier ballads, with skillful yet strained accompaniment. When the next honkytonkish song comes up, "Every Time It Rains," it seems clear that Stegall's real strength lies as a full-throated hard county singer -- he's got a great voice for the material, but he kinda loses you on the slower stuff. Still, since he wrote most of these songs himself and produced the album, it's kind of hard to blame its shortcomings on "them" -- Stegall's a Nashville man, and shares Music City's shortcomings, even on his own albums. Sure do like them two songs, though!"