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List Price: $21.98 | | Label: Sony
Salesrank: 63269
Released: November 9, 2004 |
| Our Price: $9.04 |
| Used Price: $0.74 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Editorial Review:
Release contains bonus packaging and DVD with 5 live performances, and music videos.
Description of Here For The Party (Special Edition):
Her mother was 16 when she had her, and her father moved on when she was two. By the age of 15, with a double-barrel shotgun always at the ready, she was managing a kicker bar in rural Illinois where the corn fields meet the pig farms. That gave Gretchen Wilson something to sing about, with attitude in spades. "You might think I'm trashy, a little too hardcore," she admits on the smash single "Redneck Woman," "but in my neck of the woods I'm just the girl next door." Wilson, already the toast of Nashville before this full-length debut hit the shelves, isn't just putting the trailer park back into country music--she's the antidote to Shania and Faith. Nothing here sounds manufactured or studied, and the best songs are those she wrote. If most of those spotlight the fightin' side that has made "Redneck Woman" an anthem with blue-collar babes, she lets her vulnerability show on her choice of covers, particularly Leslie Satcher's gospel-rap of "Chariot" and the marital weeper "The Bed." Whatever you think of Wilson, who packs a hint of Sammi Smith and Allison Moorer--and even Janis Joplin--into her double-fisted delivery, you won't forget her. Move over, Loretta. Make way, Tanya. Here's another good ol' honky-tonk girl. --Alanna Nash
[This special edition includes a DVD with pair of music videos, five live performances, and an interview with the artist.]
Here For The Party (Special Edition) Reviews:
Gretchen has fun twist to her music. 
2009-05-15 - Gretchen is a talented singer song writer with a fun twist to her music.
She can cheer you up when there's tough or rough times. Gretchen knows
how to have fun in her music. I enjoy and get a kick out of "here for
the party". I get reminded everyday at work when I throw something away,
and some of the lyrics like" bring all them cowboys in those pickup
lines". It doesn't matter if your in the country where the wind blows or
in a town or in some city turning a car around on Tulsa time. You will
always be reminded by Gretchen and "here For The Party".
Limited Edition That's Worth the Extra Dollars
2005-02-14 - If you've heard people on the street corner asking "Who on Earth is this country chick?" the answer to their question more than likely is Gretchen Wilson. As evidenced by her runaway hit LP "Here For the Party," she is essentially the savior of modern country music. In an era when country artists keep crossing over into Adult Contemporary territory and trade in Nashville for glossy pop hits, she has emerged and reminded audiences how country music is supposed to be done.
After hearing her sing about her affinity for cowboys, whisky, leaving the Christmas lights on her porch all year long and wearing her jeans tight "just to watch the little boys come undone" it's plain to see she has that special something that gets beneath listeners' skin. The fact that "Party" has not left the Top 10 since its release is no small wonder.
Although upon hearing her six self-penned tracks there is a tendency to question her sincerity, it is in fact genuine. Hailing from a minute rustic community in Illinois, her mother gave birth to her when she was only sixteen and her father fled when Wilson was two. By age fifteen she was living by herself and running a bar called Big O's that was used to very rowdy crowds, where she had a 12-gauge loaded shotgun under the desk just in case she ever needed to protect herself. Some might downplay such humble beginnings, but Wilson owns them proudly, as evidenced in her smash hit single "Redneck Woman".
"Victoria's Secret, well their stuff's real nice/ but I can buy the same damn thing on a Wal-Mart shelf half price/ And still look sexy, just as sexy as those models on TV/ I don't need no designer tag to make my man want me/ Well, you might think I'm trashy, a little too hardcore/ But in my neck of the woods I'm just the girl next door."
If any listeners who've heard her hit single harbor any doubt she could sing sweet ballads as well as tunes raucous and upbeat, "When I Think About Cheatin" and "What Happened" prove she sounds just as at home in that department. In fact, the only notable downsides that exist on the LP are the fact the rap on her cover of Leslie Satcher's "Chariot" does not bode well in the context of the song or album, as well as the short length of the disc.
The album's sharp closer, "Pocahontas Proud," finds her singing just how important it is to her to make her hometown proud. With her album edging double-platinum status, it is safe to say they are.
"I'm the biggest thing that ever came from my home town/And I'll be damned if I'm gonna let 'em down/If it's the last thing I do before they lay me in the ground/You know I'm gonna make Pocahontas proud."
In addition, the bonus DVD that contains the awesome videos for "Redneck Woman" and "Here For the Party," awesome interview footage (including her family, friends and acquaintances and a visit to her hometown) and quality live performances justifies a purchase of this limited edition package. It should be noted, however, that "Rebel Child" and "It Ain't Easy" which have been released as overseas B-sides really should have been included on the CD.
Hell Yeah
2004-12-31 - Gretchen has put the kick ass back in Country Music. I have this CD and I can not get enough of it.
