Linda Ronstadt's Welcome Homecoming - New Country - May 1995

[Partridge]

I found this magazine, New Country, May 1995 issue. It's a magazine I used to subscribe to that came with a sampler country CD each month. This issue featured Linda Ronstadt, unfortunately not on the cover-- that was Neal "Take a Knee My Ass" McCoy.

I hope you enjoy the article: New Country, May 1995 - Linda Ronstadt's Welcome Homecoming

[Partridge]

And from the July 1995 issue of Stereo Review is this review of Feels Like Home. It shared Best of the Month honors with Elves Costello.

[erik]

I've often said that Feels Like Home was an album that I liked, but it wasn't one I actually loved, not without a fair amount of reservations. I've gone back to listen to it at least six times from start to finish since it was last mentioned in detail on the forum at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020, partly because I've gotten a fair amount of flak for not liking either "High Sierra" or "Lover's Return".

Spoiler alert: My opinions of "High Sierra" and "Lover's Return" have not altered in that time--I still don't care for them; and after all this time, I probably never will.

I do think "The Waiting", "After The Gold Rush", "The Blue Train" and the title track are among the best things Linda did during the 1990's; and I also still think that "Walk On" should have been a bigger country hit than it was (especially since Linda's version earned the Good Housekeeping Seal from the song's writer Matraca Berg).

As for the others--"Teardrops Will Fall"; "Morning Blues"; and "Women Cross The River"--well, I am really on the fence on them. They're not bad, but, in my opinion, they're not really all that great either.

So at this point, Feels Like Home is still an album that I like. But it's still not one that I love. I would really put it somewhere in the middle of favorability of all of Linda's studio releases.

[eddiejinnj]

I agree that it is not my favorite Linda album of the 90's. There are superb moments such as "The Waiting" (which is awesome live), "High Sierra", "The Blue Train" (which I heard on the radio a decent amount and really loved when it was first out. Since then I like it a lot but it is not as fresh as when first released), "After the Gold Rush" (Not enough Linda distinction in the vocals. It was very nice artistically for her to allow Valerie such prominence) and "Teardrops Will Fall" (I thought it ironic that Mellencamp chose the song and had a minor hit with it).
I am not a fan of "Lover's Return". Her voice is pretty but it just doesn't spark great interest for me. The same with "Women Cross the River".
"Walk On" is THE standout for me. Erik and I both very strongly believe it should have been a BIG country hit. It has a great beat, attitude, kick butt vocals and instrumentation. It probably would have been focused on more by country radio if the album was categorized as a Country album or maybe given no category at all. Also, the '90's country became more corporatized and older artists were getting a hard time getting airplay if I remember correctly.
It was Shania, Martina and the "Bro" artists. I think there was a lot of good music that came out but how artists got heard impacted the variety available on country radio, imo. eddiejinnj