Canter Bridge

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Trisha Yearwood has one of the big, bad female voices on the country scene. Better yet, she can work it in a full menu of directions.

‘Easy’ and ‘sad’ mark the rhythm and the tone, respectively, of the album’s opening track. ‘There Goes my Baby’ is a classic country lament of lost love:

‘There goes my baby, like the sun fallin’ out of the clear blue sky.’ It may be conventional, but it’s so good under Yearwood’s stewardship. A bit of self-loathing colors the edges: ‘Maybe this empty heart is all that I deserve / What kind of fool / Finds a perfect jewel and can’t see how it shines / Til she’s alone and cryin’.

Yes, it’s good. But it’s only a teaser to some even better tracks on this showcase album.

For example, love lost on track one is recovered on track two, the oh-so-easy ‘Never Let You Go Again’. And the self-loathing of track one turns to steely self-confidence in the face of an unfaithful lover in the jaunty ‘This Town Has Eyes’.

The first peak of this CD’s multiple-peaked range comes with ‘Love Wouldn’t Lie to Me’, a plaintive articulation of love’s disingenuous possibilities. Here Yearwood’s voice is full of injured strength, beautiful, seductive in its pain. Rarely do the edges of sanity shine so golden.

From there the CD rolls on it soulish way with hardly a moment that is less than superb.

You could conclude that Trisha Yearwood is to country music what Diana Krall is to jazz and not end up too far off the mark. There is an unhurried lushness in the voice of each of these women and a strength that exudes even from the most wounded lyrics.

Yearwood aims high with Where Your Road Leads. Better yet, she hits her target.