Pam Tillis: It's All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

This is the album that Pam Tillis has waited all her life to make. From the outset of her career, the country star and Grand Ole Opry member refused to trade on the name of her famous father, singer/songwriter Mel Tillis, carving out her own place in Nashville with more than a dozen hits, gold and platinum albums and producer credits. At age forty-five, Tillis has finally put her stamp on the songs she heard growing up. It's All Relative retools thirteen Mel Tillis originals in a range of styles, from staples of the younger Tillis' live repertoire like the honky-tonkin' "I Ain't Never" and atmospheric ballad "Heart Over Mind" (updated with harmonies by Emmylou Harris), to songs recorded by country legends such as Patsy Cline (the stardusted "So Long"), to the unreleased treasure "Not Like It Was With You." Tillis slows down the great kiss-off "Mental Revenge" with sexy and sinister guitar and invokes a touch of bluegrass on "Violet and a Rose" with help from Dolly Parton (vocals) and Marty Stuart (mandolin). Delbert McClinton, Trisha Yearwood, the Jordanaires and Mel himself also make cameos on this winsome tribute.

MEREDITH OCHS
(September 3, 2002)