Tanya Tucker

While I’m Livin’ First album in 17 years from the iconic Texan. It’s been an eventful trip from the era when a 13-year-old Tucker first astounded the world of country with her mature rendering of Delta Dawn. She knew how to sell a song then and, with a voice that has acquired additional gravel, she knows more than ever that not one word of a lyric is there to be wasted. Aided by a fine Shooter Jennings-Brandi Carlile production job, Tucker has created an album that should endear her to those who still raise the outlaw flag while also appealing to hard-edged pop-tinged rock believers. The rewarding song tally includes covers of Miranda Lambert’s The House That Built Me, Josefus’ rockin’ Hard Luck and High Riding Heroes, a 1987 hit for David Lynn Jones and Waylon Jennings. But, emotionally, the most impressive is the closing Bring My Flowers Now, an original, accompanied solely by Carlile’s piano. Fred Dellar