| Read My Lips | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Lou Ann Barton |
| Cover: | File:Read My Lips - Lou Ann Barton.png |
| Caption: | LP cover |
| Border: | yes |
| Released: | 1989 |
| Genre: | Blues, rock and roll |
| Label: | Antone's Records and Tapes[1] |
| Producer: | Paul Ray |
| Prev Title: | Forbidden Tones |
| Prev Year: | 1986 |
| Next Title: | Dreams Come True |
| Next Year: | 1990 |
Read My Lips is an album by the American singer Lou Ann Barton, released in 1989.[2] [3] The Plain Dealer called the album a throwback to a time when "regional styles flourished, were celebrated and enriched popular music."[4]
Barton's two earlier 1980s albums were already out of print by the time of Read My Lips release. The album's title is a reference to George H. W. Bush's 1988 campaign promise.[5]
A covers album, Read My Lips was recorded with several guest musicians, including saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman and members of the Fabulous Thunderbirds.[6] [7] The main players included guitarist Derek O' Brien, bassist Jon Blondell, and drummer George Rains.[8] The album was produced by Paul Ray.[9]
Spin thought that the album "captures the sound and spirit of a 50s Excello or Duke recording without sacrificing 80s technology."[10] The Austin American-Statesman wrote that "'Shake Your Hips', in particular, is a masterful use of rock 'n' roll, gutter guitar licks bolstering a mean, low-down and dirty blues song about a dance undoubtably outlawed except in the darkest of clubs."[8] The Daily Breeze opined that Read My Lips "sounds like just the kind of thing you'd want to hear blasting away in a Texas roadhouse—lowdown, sweat-drenched rhythm-and-blues."[11]
The Toronto Star wrote: "The good thing about Barton, unlike so many blues-by-number advocates, is that it is hard to know which way she'll turn next. She takes a playful novelty piece like Slim Harpo's 'Te Ni Nee Ni Nu' and invests it with almost inappropriate urgency, while her cover of 'You'll Lose A Good Thing' is casually ironic instead of emotionally heated."[12] The Chicago Tribune deemed the album "down and dirty Texas blues and boogie."[13] The Tulsa World determined that Barton's "version of Wanda Jackson's 'Mean, Mean Man' is hard-driving, pouty rock 'n' roll, sounding like what might have happened if Betty Boop had sung lead with the Flamin' Groovies."[14]
AllMusic wrote: "Wisely free of attempts to update or modernize her timeless Texas-style blues-rock, Read My Lips is a rockin' good time." The Rolling Stone Album Guide called the album "a set of scorching performances that remind us not of what she might have been, but what she is—a natural-born singer who's learned hard lessons by living them." The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings argued that Barton's "métier is rock rather than blues."