Album Review: "Two Lanes Of Freedom" - Tim McGraw

"Two Lanes Of Freedom": A-.  The mark of a great album: When I've listened to the album enough times that I know what I'm going to write, yet I continue to listen to the songs again. Such is the case for Tim McGraw's latest release, Two Lanes Of Freedom. This is McGraw's first effort on the Big Machine Records label, after a nasty divorce from his old label, Curb Records. The main bones of contention were the timing of the release of McGraw's last album, Emotional Traffic (reviewed here on February 11, 2012), which the singer wanted to release earlier than Curb's desired date, plus the decision of Curb to put out a greatest hits compilation (2010's Number One Hits) without the McGraw's blessing.

Two Lanes finds McGraw singing songs about some familiar themes, one of which is his love of the South. The title song of his 2009 album, Southern Voice, paid homage to some of the greats in American history (Hank Aaron, Martin Luther King, Michael Jordan, Billy Graham, Bear Bryant, etc.) who hailed from there. On Two Lanes he continues the praise in a general way with Southern Girl, preferring the dixie belles to their counterparts up north, and Nashville Without You, a very clever paean to the stars of Nashville who kept the city from being "just another river town." In the latter song he gives shout outs to the Everly Brothers ("cryin' in the rain"), Johnny Cash ("burnin' round the ring"), Kenny Rogers ("hey gambler"), Dolly Parton ("hey Jolene"), Tammy Wynette ("no woman standin' by her man"), George Jones ("he stopped loving her today"), Patsy Cline ("hey crazy"), and several others, all of whom have or had connections to the Music City.

On his 1995 album, All I Want, McGraw sings a song titled I Didn't Ask And She Didn't Say which is about running into his old flame in the Dallas airport. He wonders if she ever thinks about some of the special times they once shared before they broke up. One of my favorite songs on Two Lanes, Annie I Owe You A Dance, continues that theme, as McGraw sings about another such encounter, this time in a grocery store. He hasn't seen her in twenty years, but before she exits with her little girl the singer and his old sweetheart have a short dance at the check-out lane. (The song also reminded me of Dan Fogelberg's Same Old Lang Syne.) Likewise, Friend Of A Friend covers similar territory in which he runs into a former girl friend who moved to a different part of the country and got married. There is a surprise ending in the last verse, as the song does not go where I expected it to go.

Of course a country album wouldn't really be country without songs about the road, which leads us to a third familiar theme. Whenever an album contains a title track, I am always curious whether that song is worthy of such distinction. The opening song of Two Lanes Of Freedom is, in fact, the title track, and I hereby give it my Seal Of Approval. The song evokes scenes of getting off the interstate and enjoying the country roads. I have driven thousands of miles on North Dakota country roads, and that was the first thing I thought of when I heard the tune.

I know God's working down from that sky blue ceiling,
And he made these old country roads for driving and dreaming,
Mine's coming true, girl, here with you on two lanes of freedom.

The next time I make a road mix, the song Two Lanes Of Freedom will be on it. Two other songs on the new album sharing the road theme are McGraw's first single off the album, the rollicking Truck Yeah, and a duet with Taylor Swift called Highway Don't Care, featuring some heavy duty guitar work by Keith Urban.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that the songs I mentioned above are the only ones worth paying attention to. (I'm sure when you saw my grade of "A-" you realized that.) Three of the best of the rest are (i) One Of Those Nights, a song about the anticipation of knowing you are about to embark upon an evening you'll be remembering a long time from now, (ii) Book Of John, about a scrap book the singer's deceased father had stuffed away in the attic, only to be discovered just as the family was ready to toss it out, and (iii) Number 37405, a lament from a man finishing up a fifteen year prison sentence for vehicular homicide.

Well she used to come and see him every other weekend
And bring him all the news from way back home,
It's been two birthdays since he's kissed her,
Five seconds since he's missed her,
Now the perfume on those letters ain't that strong.

A final Public Service Announcement, and one which I've made before with regard to other CDs: If you are inclined to purchase the album Two Lanes Of Freedom, be sure to cough up the extra three bucks that it takes to acquire the three bonus tracks. They include Annie I Owe You A Dance, a live version of Truck Yeah, and a very good "apology song," Let Me Love It Out Of You.