She Rides Wild Horses Explained
She Rides Wild Horses is the twenty-third studio album by American country music singer Kenny Rogers. It was released in 1999 on his own Dreamcatcher Records label. The album includes the singles "The Greatest," "Slow Dance More" and "Buy Me a Rose," which all charted on the Billboard country singles charts, giving Rogers' best success on that chart since 1991.[1]
Singles
"The Greatest," his first release on his own label, brought him to the country charts for the first time in nearly eight years, spending twenty weeks on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts and peaking at 26.[1]
"Slow Dance More" was the album's second single released, peaking at number 67 on the same chart, followed by "Buy Me a Rose," with backing vocals from Alison Krauss and Billy Dean which went to number one on the country charts and number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Rogers his first number one since 1987, and the last number one of his career. The song also made Rogers, who was 61 at the time, the oldest country artist to achieve a number one hit.[2]
Critical reception
Giving it three stars out of five, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic considered it a stronger album than Rogers' 1997 album Across My Heart and a return to his 1980s sound, but said that some of the song selection was "uneven."[3]
Personnel
As listed in liner notes.[4]
- Kenny Rogers – lead vocals
- Bobby Ogdin – keyboards
- Steve Mandile – all guitars (1, 2, 4-9), electric guitar (10)
- Richard Bailey – banjo (1)
- Russ Pahl – steel guitar (1)
- Bruce Bouton – steel guitar (2, 4)
- Steve Gibson – all guitars (3)
- Mark Selby – rhythm guitar (10)
- Biff Watson – acoustic guitar (10)
- Steve Glassmeyer – mandolin (10)
- Spencer Campbell – bass
- Eddie Bayers – drums
- Bobby Taylor – English horn and oboe (4, 5)
- Jonathan Yudkin – fiddle (1), violin (3)
- Michael Black – backing vocals (1, 3, 5)
- Thom Flora – backing vocals (1, 10)
- Billy Dean – backing vocals (2)
- Alison Krauss – backing vocals (2, 4)
- Tammy Fry – harmony vocals (3, 5, 9)
- Yvonne Hodges – backing vocals (5)
- Carolyn Dawn Johnson – harmony vocals (6)
- Billy Montana – backing vocals (7)
- Jack Sundrud – backing vocals (7)
- Strings on Tracks 2-9 performed by The Nashville String Machine; Carl Gorodetzky, concertmaster. Arranged and conducted by Bergen White.
Production
- Tracks 1-4 produced by Kenny Rogers; Tracks 5-10 produced by Brent Maher and Jim McKell for Maher Productions.
- Executive producer – Jim Mazza
- Recorded and mixed by Brent Maher and Jim McKell
- Assistant engineers – Jason Breckling, Otto D'Agnolo, Thomas Johnson, Eric Katte, Mark Niemiec, Gary Paczosa, Paul Skaife and Jamison Weddle.
- Recorded and mixed at Creative Recording, Inc. (Nashville, TN).
- Editing – Eric Conn, Frank Green, Carlos Grier and Mills Logan.
- Mastered by Denny Purcell and Jonathan Russell at Georgetown Masters (Nashville, TN).
- Art direction – P. David Elezear and Nick Long
- Photography – Jim "Señor" McGuire
- Management – Ken Kragen and Jim Mazza
- Booking – Greg Oswald at William Morris Agency
Charts
Year-end charts
Notes and References
- Book: Whitburn, Joel. Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008. Record Research, Inc. 2008. 244. 978-0-89820-177-2.
- Web site: Two for the shows. October 15, 2000. Sunday News. May 7, 2009.
- Web site: [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r414298|pure_url=yes}} ''She Rides Wild Horses'' review]. Erlewine. Stephen Thomas. Allmusic. January 23, 2010.
- She Rides Wild Horses . Kenny Rogers . 1999 . CD insert . Dreamcatcher Records . DCR 004-2.
- Top Country Albums – Year-End 1999. Billboard. June 6, 2021.
