Album Review: Blake Shelton - “Texoma Shore”

18 Months after “If I’m Honest,” Blake Shelton returns with this, a tight 11 track project.

Fans of Blake Shelton have come to expect a lot from the chart-topping country superstar. They expect catchy songs to cross their radios and that’s exactly what’s at the forefront of Texoma Shore, Shelton’s tenth studio album. A majority of the album feels ready for radio with “At The House” feeling like the obvious future hit from the record. A man who knows his way around a ballad, Shelton soars on “Why Me,” a song which can’t help but feel like it’s inspired by his new paramour, Gwen Stefani. Another tune, the mid-temp, 80s-like “Turnin’ Me On,” finds Shelton channeling Ronnie Milsap on a silky, sexy number which also feels like another Gwen-inspired tune.

There are a few songs here where Shelton reminds fans that he’s one of the best country singers out there when he sings something more rooted in the early part of his career than the superstar era and “Hangover Due” and “Beside You Babe” are two of those songs while “When The Wine Wears Off” feels like a cousin to “Sure Be Cool If You Did” and the album closer “I Lived It,” a classic country story song full of memories of life with family and small hometowns like Blake’s own Oklahoma hometown.

There may not be anything overtly “amazing” on Texoma Shore but it’s one of the better releases of Shelton’s “superstar period” and one that should keep fans and radio both happily fed with songs ready for playlists of multiple stripes.

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2 Comments

  • Elizabeth Escamilla

    I thought it was Amazing.

  • Mary

    Have to say. I’m not big on Country Music but I’m really loving this album. I’ve listened to Why Me, The Wave, and Turning Me On repeatedly. With so much ugliness and meanness that we are constantly bombarded with it’s uplifting to listen to music that’s joyful, happy and about love. I’d call that “amazing”. I’m a fan now.