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1. Chariot - 5/5 - I love the little rap in this song. It works so well and the chorus is absolutely amazing.

2. When It Rains - 5/5 - A good song to listen to when you're feeling down.

3. Redneck Woman - 5/5 - A great song. Total emphasis on 'Girl Power' without the whole Spice Girls thing.

4. Here For The Party - 5/5 - This is the song you listen to when you want to feel a little wild and break out of your shell.

5. Holdin' You - 4/5 - A good love song without the drawn out, dripping sappiness that some have.

6. What Happened - 4/5 - This song has the makings of a great single, the only downfall is that it could move along a bit faster.

7. The Bed - 4/5 - This is a beautiful song and can really open your eyes about a lot of things. It also reminds me of my parents in my youth.

8. Pocahontas Proud - 4/5 - Great song about the struggle to get where she is now and how she never lost her pride.

9. Homewrecker - 3/5 - This song moves a little too slow for my tastes and I think it's overdone, but still good all the same.

10. When I Think About Cheatin' - 3/5 - This song sounds like something Shania Twain would sing, but after time you become used to it.


Oh, hell yeah!   May 12, 2004
 15 out of 20 found this review helpful

"I'm an eight ball shooting double flisted drinking son of a gun," Gretchen Wilson sings on the opening song to "Here For the Party," her stellar debut CD. I was gonna do a whole stint about how this is a new dawn for women in country music...but I think I'll get to what matters...the songs!

Wilson cowrote most of these songs with John Rich, of Big & Rich. The opener sets the tone for the album: butt-kickin honky tonkers that take no prisoners. The smash debut single "Redneck Woman" is a highlite, but not the only great song here. Try "When I Think About Cheating," a hardcore country, emotionally packed, stand-by-your-man anthem. Or Leslie Satcher's "Chariot," a biblical, butt-kickin Christian girl's tune. "What Happened" and "The Bed" are heart-wrenching numbers, while the autobiographical "Pocahontas Proud" says it all (she's from the same state as me, how cool; finally, an Illinois singer other than Allison Kraus).

Gretchen Wilson is the most successful (not counting Kid Rock, of course) member of the new Musik Mafia. Other members are (and the plugs for their albums): Big & Rich (the awesome "Horse of a Different Color); and James Otto (the incredible "Days of Our Lives"). I think there are other members, but those are the ones i know about.

Anyway...Gretchen Wilson. A talented, genuinely COUNTRY singer/songwriter. She's "Here for the Party", so you better open the door and let her in...or else she'll kick it down! Don't you dare miss this album, not for the world. It'll renew your faith in country music.


Good Start   July 21, 2004
 15 out of 19 found this review helpful

The pre-released single Redneck Woman absolutely kicks. The title track, follow-up single is formula but well done. The rest shows surprising range of style. She has been called an antidote to Shania and Faith. As I am not able to keep anything down while listening to Shania or Faith, I have little need for an antidote. Fans of in-your-face honky tonk will enjoy this album. Fans of Shania and Faith who like Redneck Woman because - well, because they follow the pack, would do better to buy the single and call it happiness. Let's face it. While Gretchen may "know the words to every Tanya Tucker song," most of her audience is more likely to recognize Kid Rock in his cameo than Tanya Tucker in hers on the video. Like Tanya Tucker, who mixed country with rock (and today, most of the good rock is coming out of Nashville), Gretchen has mixed some hip-hop rap in with the country rock. It works, somehow. I like the edge it gives her. I like this album and I hope to hear more from her. However, unless she keeps her edge (it does not have to be raucus, but it does need to be edgy in a way that works for her) she may wind up as a novelty - the subject of wise-cracking clips in a VH1 production of I Love the 00's. If there is truly an audience for a new Tanya Tucker, Gretchen will do well.


excellent. Gretchen Wilson is not a one hit wonder.   May 21, 2004
 13 out of 17 found this review helpful

Redneck Woman may have brought you here, but songs such as Pocahontas Proud, When it rains, Here for the Party, will make you a Gretchen Wilson fan for life.

I agree with other male country music fans above. There has not been a real female country music artist that regular guys can listen too for some time. Too sappy, whiney, commercial, etc.

Here, Gretchen bares a real person in her songs. Example: Pocahontas Proud (which may be even a better song than Redneck woman, if that is possible) is about her roots, her struggle to where she is, and the fact that she has not, and will not loose site of that.

If you are a Yokam fan,"When it rains" will really strike a chord. Even before I listened to the words carefully, I had Dwight in mind. I was pleased to see the lyrics validated that.

What this album has is a little blues, a little twang, a little soul, a little rap (yep - but it works, really), traditional country themes, and A WHOLE LOT OF DEPTH.

This debut album has more class than the so called "high class broads" of country music will ever obtain.

PREDICTION: Pocahontas Proud will be Gretchen's second number one hit.
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Who will likely enjoy this album: Those who like Foster and LLoyd; Dwight Yokam; Junior Brown; Toby Keith; Tracy Lawence; George Strait; Dixie Chicks; Jo Dee Mesina; Terri Clark, etc. and of course, old school Haggard, Nelson, Daniels, Tucker, etc. ALSO: those who love country music, but are not "into the country music scene" and those who like music, but are not so dedicated that they can tell you what every band member had for breakfast 22 years ago, or insist on albums because CDs sound sterile (Give me a break!).
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Who will not likely appreciate Gretchen Wilson: Faith Hill fans,
Country music listeners, who now listen because many songs sound like Pop music with a steel guitar, and think that Britney would do well as a country artist, if she would only add a fiddle to her band. (I would have liked that country song, if it was not so twangy; why do they always have to have life problems?)
If you love whiny cry baby ballads from so called male artists showing their sensitive side, than this is not for you.

If you enjoyed the Faith Hill Muzak in the elevator on the way to the office, this is also not for you.
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ps. Thank you Big & Rich. I am now a big fan of yours as well.