Small Town Girl
| Kellie PicklerSmall Town Girl
Small Town Girl is the debut studio album by American country music singer Kellie Pickler, which was released on October 31, 2006. The album was produced by Blake Chancey and released by BNA Records (a Sony BMG country label) in association with 19 Recordings. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on January 18, 2007.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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That title makes it crystal clear what Kellie's persona is: she's the girl next door made good, and while she may be on her way in the big city, her heart belongs back home, where she can eat cheeseburgers, not calamari, where girls like her can act like one of the guys, where wild ponies run, and where grandmothers are saints. Some of this does bear the trace of biography -- Pickler indeed is a small-town girl turned into a celebrity, her grandmother was indeed her "angel," raising the young Kellie, whose mother had run off and whose dad was in jail -- but it all plays a bit like a story invented for those fans who loved Pickler's act on AmIdol, and frankly the record is better for it.
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Rolling Stone
In "Gotta Keep Moving," which has a cool late-Seventies Kenny Loggins vibe, Pickler stops repairing her truck to reconnect with her boyfriend; both of them, Pickler marvels in her game jet-fast soprano, will have "messed-up hair." "Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You" pines and speeds away like Tammy Wynette, while "I Wonder" just breaks your heart.
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Rate Your Music
Horrible release. Over production couple with corny lyrics and no sence of creativity at all. The singing is okayish for what it is, but the rest of it is just really bad and they drag the whole release down.
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Common Sense Media
This small-town girl delivers gentle messages of empowerment and also knows how to have a little fun.
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JD Matthews
The truth is that once you listen to the album, you'll realize that even though she does go into head voice sometimes, she always has complete vocal control. (And honestly, whatever else is left is easily handled by the back-up singers.) Still, in her proper element, any shortcomings she might have just melt away. And she's loads better than she ever was on any of the Idol shows.
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Country Standard Time
"Small Town Girl" became the best-selling debut album this year by a new country artist, with more than 79,000 units sold.
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Sounds Like Nashville
We’ve come to the conclusion that Miss Pickler has grown tremendously since her first release, “Small Town Girl,” back in 2006. Kellie is obviously a talented girl and we aren’t discrediting her first album in any way- We’re just proud of her progress over the past two years!
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Alive
Her 2006 debut album, “Small Town Girl,” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, sold 900,000 copies, and spawned the certified-gold hit single “Red High Heels.”
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Academic
The album produced three Top 20 singles: The RIAA certified "Red High Heels", "I Wonder", and "Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind" Gold. "Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You" was re-recorded for Kellie's self-titled second album, and released on August 30, 2009, as that albums' third single and a Top 20 hit for Pickler.
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Genius
Small Town Girl is the debut studio album by American country music singer Kellie Pickler, released on October 31, 2006.
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Taste Of Country
The 28-year-old has since made quite a name for herself. Her debut, the 2006 'Small Town Girl,' produced three Top 20 hits.
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That Nashville Sound
In 2006, she signed to BNA Records as a recording artist, releasing her debut album Small Town Girl late that year. The album, which was certified gold by the RIAA, produced three singles on the Billboard charts: "Red High Heels" at #15, "I Wonder" at #14, and "Things That Never Cross A Man's Mind" at #16.
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Nuts About Country
When Kellie Pickler recorded her first album, Small Town Girl, she said it was a blur. She recorded it while traveling with the American Idol Tour, often having to learn the songs just hours before the recording sessions. Pickler wrote a few of the songs on that album, including the heartfelt song “I Wonder,” which digs deep into Pickler’s difficult past, and “Red High Heels,” an upbeat song that deservingly frequented the country charts.
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Houston Chronicle
“Small Town Girl,” Pickler’s aptly titled debut album, was released in 2006 and sold almost 1 million copies. It spawned the hits “Red High Heels” and “I Wonder,” an emotional ballad about her motherless childhood. Her self-titled second album included “Best Days of Your Life,” a top 10 duet with Taylor Swift.
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People
Kellie Pickler surprisingly turned a sixth-place finish on American Idol into Nashville gold with her hit debut, 2006’s Small Town Girl. With higher expectations for this follow-up, though, she comes up short. This passable but underwhelming effort doesn’t feel like the work of a major country artist. Most of the songs (five of which she cowrote, including one with Taylor Swift) aren’t strong enough for her to really dig her red high heels into. Despite her folksy charm, Pickler doesn’t possess the voice to elevate mediocre material like the girl-empowerment single “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful.” But the bitter “Rocks Instead of Rice,” cowritten with the same tunesmiths who gave Carrie Underwood “Before He Cheats,” delivers some feisty fun.
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