The Now series of pop hit compilations, which began to be successful in the U.S. in 1998 after years of popularity overseas, led to other such collections, notably the rival Totally Hits series, which has in turn spawned genre-specific "Totally..." collections, including
Totally Country, and this is the second volume. Like its many predecessors, it is distinguished by the unusual cooperation of record labels, with all five major labels and two independents contributing. But one significant difference between the pop collections and this one has to do with the currency of the material. The compilers of the Now albums are careful to use songs still in the charts when the disc is released. But
Totally Country, Vol. 2 includes only four tracks that were active in the Billboard country singles chart on release day, only two of those,
Montgomery Gentry's "This Town" and
Tammy Cochran's "Life Happened," still on their way up the list. Although most of the rest of the selections are Top Ten country hits, they are past hits, in some cases dating back quite a ways.
George Strait's number-one country hit "The Best Day," released in late 1999 and peaking in April 2000, may be the oldest, but many of these songs date back to 2000 or 2001. Of course, the country market moves much slower than the pop one, and it can take a track many months to reach its full chart potential; then that track may remain a "recurrent" on country radio for an equal number of months. Still, the cover of this album claims it contains "17 New Chart-Topping Hits," and that's just not true. Nevertheless, there are plenty of recent country hits here, and at a time when few of them were actually released as commercial singles, consumers may welcome the collection. ~ William Ruhlmann