Turn down the lights, turn down the bed, turn down these voices inside my head...

Mike Reid, former pro-football star for the Cincinnati Bengals and country singer/songwriter, was unfortunately caught in the middle of having a stronger career in the music world as a singer by having his success in the nebulous early 90’s, before the deluge led by Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, and Garth Brooks. His first album, Turning For Home, produced five country hits, including the #1 "Walk On Faith". Sophomore effort Twilight Town came out at the wrong time, and floundered. Even though the set is dated, and has the requisite 80s-early 90s cliché-ridden lyrics at times, does have worthwhile material, as well as a couple classic songs made more famous by others. Both of those songs are at the end, with “Love Without Mercy”, covered later on by Lee Roy Parnell, and the sublime yet heartbreaking “I Can’t Make You Love Me”, which Bonnie Raitt converted into an adult-pop classic. Personally, I like Reid’s more mournful take on “I Can’t” than Raitt’s, while Parnell’s “Mercy” narrowly outshines Reid’s more bluesy rendition, but not by much. Singles “Keep On Walkin’” and “Call Home” are standard pop-country fare, though simple enough to not be of the “rhinestone cowboy” kind. The pleading “One Night” and rock-ish “Back In The Fire” are the better album cuts, while the rest are pretty much unmemorable. Twilight Town isn’t a bad find in a used record shop, where the best moments are the previews of hits-tb-be.

Grade: C+
Best Cuts: “I Can’t Make You Love Me”, “Love Without Mercy”
Weakest Links: “Workin’ With The Right Tools”, “A Man With A Hammer”

Twilight Town hit #59 country albums.
"Keep On Walkin'" hit #45 country singles.
"Call Home" hit #43 country singles.

Listen: "I Can't Make You Love Me" [Click here to listen]

Buy: You can pick up Twilight Town at websites like here and here.

And here's the clip for "Keep On Walkin'" (short ad before the song)...

Mike Reid - Keep On Walkin'

Posted Nov 07, 2006

And here's the second, "Call Home"...

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