REVIEW: Lauderdale’s “Game Changer”: A Legend At His Best // Americana Highways

Game Changer is Americana icon Jim Lauderdale’s 35th album, a body of work whose quality and quantity clearly mark him as a Nashville institution.  In fact, this year he is nominated for the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame which would be added to his Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association.

So let’s cut to the chase:   if you enjoyed most of Lauderdale’s previous 34 albums, you are going to enjoy Game Changer.  Game Changer has everything you would want in a Lauderdale album – interesting and moving songwriting, remarkable musicianship across the board, and his singular voice.  That is not to damm Game Changer with faint praise; it is, rather,  to acknowledge the remarkable consistency of Lauderdale’s recordings.  Lauderdale himself is well aware of the challenge his own history creates.  He says that  “It’s a constant challenge to try to keep making better and better records, write better and better songs. I still always feel like I’m a developing artist.”… Read more…