Rest assured, it's highly unlikely that
Martina McBride will ever issue another record that sounds like
The Time Has Come. With co-producers
Paul Worley and
Ed Seay (who also worked with her on her breakthrough,
The Way That I Am),
McBride delivers a set of neo-traditionalist country and progressive country-inflected folk songs that showcase her ability to get to the heart of a song and turn it into something communicative and thought provoking. With a host of Nashville superpickers and backing vocalists from
Garth Brooks and
Carl Jackson to
Kathy Chiavola,
McBride turns in intense performances of the
Emory Gordy/
Jim Rushing classic "Cheap Whiskey" for a neo-honky tonk feel, as well as the stompin' nightclub country of the
Longacre/
Wilson-penned title track and the
Lonnie Wilson/
Charlotte Wilson/
Herbert Wilson weeper "Losing You Feels Good." The album ends with
Gretchen Peters' "When You're Old," a meditative love song delivered with the empathy, grace, and elegance that have become
McBride's trademark. This is a very solid debut, even if it resembles none of her other work. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide