Country singer/songwriter
Jessica Andrews managed 11 country singles chart entries between 1999, when she was 15 years old, and 2005, when she was 21, and ten of them are on this discount-priced compilation, the only exception being "All I Ever Needed," which was actually credited to
Bret Michael with
Jessica Andrews. Earning co-writing credits on several of the songs,
Andrews comes off as a savvy music fan, name-dropping
Toby Keith on her Top 20 hit "There's More to Me than You" and claiming not to be bothered "if I never win a Grammy" on her sole chart-topper (and sole Top Ten hit) "Who I Am." The music is formulaic country-pop, except perhaps for the effective ballad "Unbreakable Heart," which was written by
Benmont Tench of
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, but
Andrews sings it all earnestly, if without much originality. She was probably over the hill already by the time her place as the teen queen of Nashville was usurped by
Taylor Swift (six years her junior), but this album chronicles her brief reign on the throne. ~ William Ruhlmann