Big & Rich: Comin' To Your City : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On the follow-up to their multiplatinum 2004 debut, "Big" Kenny Alphin and John Rich show again why they are Nashville's most lovable crossover act. They breeze through party-starting arena-country and elegant slow stuff with big-eared flexibility and a well-defined pop sensibility. Comin' to Your City's opening salvo is exhilarating: After a goofball intro, Big and Rich drop a barnstorming lead single, a little outlaw country complete with hoedown violin and AC/DC riffs ("Soul Shaker"), then some graceful adult pop ("Never Mind Me") and a Nelly-quoting honky-tonk vignette in which mismatched lovers join the Mile High Club ("Caught Up in the Moment"). Every song has some charm, but the album's best cut is "Leap of Faith," a gorgeously harmonized heart-on-fire ballad that underscores the fact that Comin' to Your City is as expert as it is exceptional.