Lonestar Let's Be Us Again Audio CD

Lonestar has been working crowds and winning fans for nearly a decade now, and with its eighth album, the band proves that they haven't forgotten where they came from or what's important.

Let's Be Us Again continues Lonestar's tradition of celebrating some of life's simple pleasures, and it offers up 13 tracks that are a testament to this Texas band's appreciation for the obvious. Opening with the rollicking "County Fair," Lonestar jumps right into its love for life, perfectly capturing the sights and sounds of a small-town fair with a collection of well-turned phrases that transport the listener to a completely different world. Celebrating big tops, big crowds, big hair and big fun; it's a smile-provoking song that isn't quite destined for radio success but will easily become a crowd favorite.

The title track is a stirring song that resonates with each and every couple who has ever had a fight. Written in the cooling down phase of a lover's quarrel, it runs through all of the emotions that follow harsh and unkind words. "Let's Be Us Again" is a beautiful and sentimental ballad that makes an eloquent apology, followed by an earnest plea for forgiveness and a request to return to normal.

On "Women Rule the World," the boys in the band state what many men have already figured out -- that the so-called fairer sex often has the upper hand. It's a fun song, one that offers up an honest admission of weakness in the presence of a beautiful woman.

"Mr. Mom" is a fun and timely tune that any man who has lost a job will relate to. Thinking he'll stay home, kick back and watch the kids, the man gets a huge and rather rude wake-up call as he learns the reality of being a stay-at-home mom. It's one of the disc's most animated and enjoyable songs, and women will relish the acknowledgment that a woman's place is in the home only because she's the only one tough enough to handle it.

Keeping in the current trend of capturing the evening news in country songs, Lonestar serves up the very moving "Somebody's Someone," which tells the story of watching the news and learning of another soldier's death. Unlike most songs, which deal with an extremely up-close and personal recollection of the war, this song looks at the emotion stirred by the loss of a stranger and the recognition that someone is grieving the loss deeply.

This disc is exactly what an album should be -- it is consistent from start to finish, with nary a weak or throwaway track to be found. Like life itself, it runs a gamut of emotions and, in the end, recognizes that all those elements are just pieces of a much bigger puzzle that lets us be us.

By Paula Felps