[.ca] Milestones

daddy's nads is vaudeville craziness at its best:
this is for sure the most underrated record of the last few years. featuring ex members of breakwater and mblanket. they have the tom waits/the cramps atmosphere but a sound of their own. evryone should listen to it at least one time because they will bring you on a ride you have never been before.

Where are you Holly ???:
I went to a show of Hollys at our Country Fair and she was great. It was about the time that (You Really had me going) came out, that is about 91. After that tremendous show i went out and bought everything that she ever did on cassette tape because that was what i had in my car at the time, but now i have a differant car with a CD player in it and i cant play tham. I have looked every where trying to replace these gems on CD but they are no longer available, what a shame that is! Holly is one of the greatest singers in nashville but she isnt recognised for her talent.Buy this Milestones CD it's real genuine country like Pam Tillis and Barbara Mandrell . Love you Holly

I sang beside her in church and her voice was beautiful:
This is a great CD but to hear Holly sing in person is awesome. Holly's father was our preacher back in San Antonio, and sometimes I would sit near the front of the church where the teenagers would sit. I would stop singing just to listen to Holly harmonize. Her voice is a gift and Nashville needs to wake up!!! Tammy Hopf Hughes/South Bend, IN

Almost Complete:
This stunning Texas preacher's daughter packs a rifle-shot tenor into her pint-sized frame. During her early years on the now-defunct MTM label, she insisted on snappy guitar, mandolin, and fiddle instrumentation and the result was an infectious mix of neo-rockabilly, Bakersfield shuffles, folk ballads, and bluegrass, set to traditional (and occasionally pop/rock) arrangements which garnered her an impressive, largely self-penned string of up-tempo hits. The best of that period is represented here, and it's hard to argue with the Grammy-nominated duet with Michael-Martin Murphy "Face In The Crowd," or her finest moment, the touching ballad "Daddy's Hands." There are some glaring omissions, however: two early MTM gems are missing (the rollicking "That's What Your Love Does to Me" and "My Anniversary of Being A Fool," but Dunn may have wanted to include only songs she had written or co-written on this collection.) Her self-penned, nostalgic 1990 ballad "No One Takes The Train" was included instead and released as a single to promote the CD, but even with her voice still on track, the stark, pop-flavored solo piano accompaniment and complete lack of traditional country instrumentation took early 1990 country fans and radio by surprise and the single summarily stalled on the country charts. Her first MTM CD, "Across the Rio Grande," remains her finest effort but is out of print.

A brief but brilliant hit-making career:
In the late eighties, Holly Dunn was highly successful on the American country charts despite being on a small independent label, MTM, which was established by actress Mary Tyler-Moore. Eventually MTM closed and Warners took over Holly's music. Not all the hits are here - it does not include Just across the Rio Grande, a song also recorded by Reba McEntire, and there are a couple of other omissions. The set opens with Daddy's hands, the song for which Holly is perhaps best known, in which Holly praises her father while acknowledging that he could be hard when the occasion demanded it. Maybe I mean yes was Holly's last big hit, but caused a lot of controversy. Holly asked for the single to be pulled and radio stations to stop playing it. It seems to have killed her career, which is a pity. Although she continued to record great music, the radio stations were no longer interested. The other nine songs here are all wonderful examples of country music at its best. Most of the songs are upbeat in outlook, though there is the occasional tinge of sadness, as in Strangers again. Perhaps one day somebody will release a more generous compilation of 16 or 20 tracks, but until then, this CD provides an excellent sampling of Holly's music.

• Daddy's Hands
• Only When I Love
• (It's Always Gonna Be) Someday
• Love Someone Like Me
• Face in the Crowd - Holly Dunn, Michael Martin Murphey
• Strangers Again
• Maybe I Mean Yes
• There Goes My Heart Again
• Are You Ever Gonna Love Me
• No One Takes the Train Anymore
• You Really Had Me Going