| Dusty Drake | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Dusty Drake |
| Cover: | drakealbum.jpg |
| Genre: | Country |
| Label: | Warner Bros. Nashville |
| Producer: | Billy Crain Paul Worley Clarke Schleicher |
Dusty Drake is the debut studio album by American country music artist Dusty Drake. It is also his only studio album, having been released in 2003 via Warner Records Nashville. "And Then", "One Last Time", and "Smaller Pieces" were all released as singles.
The album contains three singles: "And Then", "One Last Time", and "Smaller Pieces". All three made the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts between 2002 and 2003, with "One Last Time" reaching number 26 in early 2003.[1] "One Last Time" is a memorial to the passengers on the planes of 9/11.[2]
Ray Waddell reviewed the album favorably in Billboard, praising Drake's songwriting and the variety of tempos in the music. He also compared Drake's voice favorably to that of John Anderson. Writing for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine also described Drake as having "songwriting smarts", noting influences of both traditional country music and arena rock. He concluded his review by saying that "A taste for sentiment and silliness may keep this from being continually engaging, but at its best, Dusty Drake is tuneful, rocking, memorable modern country, beating Toby Keith at his own game", rating the album four out of five stars. Country Standard Time writer Stuart Munro was mixed, praising the lyrics of "Smaller Pieces" and "The Wish" while criticizing the same of "Too Wet to Plow" and "Ain't Nobody's Business". He described Drake's singing as "emotive" on "One Last Time", but added that the production "opts for a bombastic Southern rock or arena country sound...And Drake seems prone to mistake passion for singing at full throttle".
| Chart (2003) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums[3] | 30 | |
| U.S. Billboard Top Heatseekers[4] | 22 |