‘Back To Tennessee’

‘Back To Tennessee’

Billy Ray Cyrus (Lyric Street/Walt Disney) Grade: C

Billy Ray Cyrus chose the title of his new album “Back To Tennessee” purposefully — and he may have followed its message too literally.

On 2007’s comeback album, “Home At Last,” the father of Miley Cyrus presented a schizophrenic combination of classic-rock covers and contemporary country originals. “Back To Tennessee” arrives with a clearer focus: Build on the momentum Cyrus has regained recently with country music fans.

A few songs mime current country trends too explicitly: The first single, “Somebody Said A Prayer,” treads overly familiar ground in tying a spiritual message to everyday life, while the corny “Like Nothing Else” strings together over-the-top platitudes about a woman. A duet with his daughter on “Butterfly, Fly Away” — from the soundtrack of “Hannah Montana: the Movie” — underscores that ballads are neither’s strong suit.

Cyrus fares best, as always, when bringing something fresh to the contemporary Nashville sound. The title song and “Love Is The Lesson” bridge breezy California pop with down-to-earth Nashville themes. Just as good, “I Could Be The One” and a Sheryl Crow cover, “Real Gone,” allow Cyrus to flash that amiable Kentucky cockiness that made him a country star in the first place.

— Michael McCall, Associated Press

‘Chris Botti In Boston’

Chris Botti (Columbia)

Grade: A

Chris Botti is a musical alchemist who tastefully mixes genres for his own brand of fusion on this live concert recording. “In Boston” is a sequel to the trumpeter’s hit 2006 CD/DVD, “Chris Botti Live with Orchestra and Special Guests,” but on a grander scale, thanks to the rich orchestral backdrop provided by the Boston Pops under conductor Keith Lockhart.

Botti takes special delight in shaking things up by getting his musical friends to stretch outside their typical repertoire. Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler not only rocks hard on his own “Cryin’,” but touchingly sings the Charlie Chaplin ballad “Smile” to his father, seated in the front row. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma duets with Botti on Italian film composer’s Ennio Morricone’s romantic “Cinema Paradiso.” John Mayer transforms himself into a ’50s Sinatra-like crooner on the Rodgers & Hart tune “Glad To Be Unhappy,” while classical crossover vocalist Josh Groban duets with Sting on the rock legend’s soft ballad “Shape of My Heart.”

The nearly two-hour concert DVD with 19 songs recorded over two nights features eight selections that couldn’t be fit into Botti’s recently aired PBS special — most notably performances with his own superb jazz-rooted combo on Miles Davis’ moody “Flamenco Sketches,” filmed in black-and-white to give it an appropriately retro feel, or his haunting duet with his band’s guitarist Mark Whitfield on Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

Although much of the music is available on a 13-track CD, Botti’s performance is best savored on the DVD which captures “American Idol” runnerup Katharine McPhee’s playful flirtiness on “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and the emotive expressiveness of violinist Lucia Micarelli’s face on “Emmanuel.”

— Charles J. Gans, Associated Press

‘Wide Open’

Jason Aldean (Broken Bow)

Grade: B

Country music openly parades its hard-rock influences these days, and no one flaunts that aggressive edge more than Jason Aldean. The grunge-metal stomp Aldean puts into his songs has made him one of Nashville’s few big-selling acts on an independent record label.

The title of his third album, “Wide Open,” suggests he’s not about to throttle his rock edge. The songs “Crazy Town” and the title cut rock like Guns N’ Roses or Motley Crue, but with a fiddle and a swampy beat. Aldean’s big, dramatic voice sounds best with a fast-thumping tune pushing him into overdrive.

But, surprisingly, the best songs on “Wide Open” find Aldean taking time to reflect. He’s not the most nuanced of ballad singers, but as with many rockers who soar through a power ballad, there’s a sense of drama and dynamics in how Aldean sings the tender emotions expressed in “Don’t Give Up On Me” and “Fast.”

Aldean occasionally slips into modern-country clich s, as in the stereotypical redneck traits listed in “She’s Country,” which wastes a solid, countrified AC/DC arrangement on predictable lyrics. Aldean is right to add crunching chords to country; he just needs to stay as ahead of the curve in his lyrics as he does in his rocking arrangements.

— Michael McCall, Associated Press