Quick Spin: Review of Reba McEntire's Album "Keep On Loving You"
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In the six years since she last released a solo album, Reba McEntire has completed her transformation from a durable, underrated country star to the CEO of Reba Inc., a thriving concern that has engineered a starring role on her own TV show, a fashion line and a No. 1 album, "Duets," that featured collaborations with Justin Timberlake and her sometime touring partner Kelly Clarkson.

For McEntire (who often uses only her first name, like Oprah), releasing a new album might seem almost incidental, but "Keep On Loving You" is one of her niftiest brand extensions yet.

McEntire made her musical fortune as a plain-spoken Oklahoman everywoman, a gentle but no-nonsense teller of facts. Like Dolly Parton, she's a living example of the benefits of pluck and a good hair colorist. And like Parton, McEntire, 54, has an affinity for songs about women no one else sings about -- real women, in midlife. Women who tote pistols, dream of cowboys, ride the bus. Women whose husbands desert them for a younger mistress ("She's Turning 50 Today"), who break down while making the bed ("Eight Crazy Hours [In the Story of Love]"). Unlike most contemporary country songs, these tracks aren't written for women like Faith Hill; they're written for women whose husbands leave them for women like Faith Hill.

McEntire is smart enough to wrap these almost-extraordinary conceits in familiar trappings: There are songs that smolder ("Maggie Creek Road"), songs that swing ("I'll Have What She's Having"), and the usual number of satisfying, almost-torchy ballads ("But Why"). It's worth noting that, like most mainstream country albums, most of "Keep On Loving You" was written and produced by men. But unlike most mainstream country albums, it doesn't feel like it.
-- Allison Stewart