This impressive 19-song collection from country singer Martina McBride feels more like a biography than a greatest-hits album. No mere cataloguing of her chart success,
Greatest Hits tells the story of a female artist finding her calling, finding herself, and touching a responsive chord with the public. Her 1993 Top Ten breakthrough, "My Baby Loves Me," remains a compelling -- and hard-rocking -- message song about accepting people for their substance rather than their style. "Independence Day," from 1994, has given hope to countless battered women over the years, as has 1997's "Broken Wing," about a woman escaping emotional abuse. McBride chooses songs that speak to real people in the real world, but in life-affirming terms, their subtext urging self-reliance and courage in the face of terror as a means to salvation and spiritual healing. It helps that her beautiful, expressive soprano is as riveting as her texts, making everything she sings as memorable as it is tuneful. As a bonus, the set includes four new songs, and all measure up to the hits. Of these, the cautionary "When God-Fearin' Women Get the Blues" finds McBride extending her domain into a hard-driving,
Wynonna-style R&B workout, while the heart-rending "Concrete Angel," another moving tale of a young girl struggling to survive in an abusive household, is destined to take its place among McBride's classics. This is a powerful package, with a lot of bang for the buck in its volume of strong songs with their rich content, and in her heartfelt delivery.
![Title: Chester & Lester [Bonus Tracks]](https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0828767637921_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg)
