Every so often, along comes a truly extraordinary voice in the music world, one not created in a recording studio, but one created by nature. Mandy Barnett possesses one of those magnificent natural wonders. This Crossville, TN native started singing in church at age 5. Before long, her parents realized their daughter's vocal talents surpassed many adult singers, even at this very young age. They encouraged her by exposing her to as much music as they could. By age 10, she had a job singing in summer theatre at Dollywood. At age 12 she was given a spot singing on the "Midnight Jamboree." After hearing Mandy's incredible voice, Justin Tubb invited Mandy to take part in a tribute to his father on the Opry. At the age of 13, Jimmy Bowen, then head of MCA, signed Mandy to a recording contract. When Bowen left MCA for Capitol, and then finally Liberty, he took Mandy with him. He put Mandy in the hands of Gail Davies to mentor, and she spent hours recording songs, as they tried to figure out just what kind of music she wanted to sing, as well as the kind she definitely didn't want to sing. However, after all that hard work, Mandy was dropped from the label in 1993. The following year, at the last minute, she auditioned for a play that was being cast, "Always...Patsy Cline." She blew away all the competition, and won the leading role at the ripe old age of 18, "because she nailed it." Mandy won critical accolades for her performance, and created a lot of buzz about this girl with the big, magnificent voice. Her first formal release was the original cast recording of the play. This also landed her the award for "Nashville Female Vocalist of the Year," which in turn helped her secure a recording contract with Asylum records after her run with the play was over. 

In 1996, at age 20, Mandy Barnett finally released her own debut album, the self-titled Mandy Barnett, which wowed both the critics and fans of more traditional country music. This debut album shows off Mandy's ability to handle many different styles of country music, mixing "torch & twang," with bouncy, country-pop and more traditional leaning contemporary fare, tossing in country standards, and even traditionals. More importantly, it shows Mandy's great depth as a performer. Not only is her glorious voice mature far beyond her years, and can "technically" hit the notes with great ease, she goes far beyond that, and establishes herself in the elite group that are not only great singers, but are true song stylists, a feat few singers can claim. These days, there seems to be no shortage of singers that can go for the big notes, and vocal acrobatics are commonplace, and while one can't find fault with the technical excellence of their voices, they either wind up coming off sappily over-wrought, or completely devoid of any emotional connection to the songs they sing. Mandy however, goes back to a time when phrasing, vocal nuances, and emotional connection were as important to a song, as the singer or the song itself.

Though this Asylum release is a bit over polished production-wise in a few spots, she picks strong songs from the cream of songwriters, Mandy's vocals more than compensate, and she comes out rising above it. She opens the disc with two Jim Lauderdale songs, a sultry take on "Planet Of Love," and the bouncy country-pop "Maybe" (co-written with Rodney Crowell), delivered with sass. Four songs are by Kostas, "Rainy Days," a torch & twang ballad that Mandy pulls every drop of heartbreaking ache out of. Mandy takes "Let's Just Pretend" and makes it sound like one of the classic, 60s era "Nashville-sound" weepers, that once filled the radio airwaves. "What's Good For You" is a mid-tempo shuffle, where she puts in some defiantly spunky vocal licks. The infectious "Now That's All Right With Me" has a very Buddy Holly-esqe feel to it, including a few of his trademark guitar licks. Mandy delivers a dead on and perfect cover of the Willie Nelson chestnut, "Three Days." She nails Jamie O'Hara's insanely catchy "Baby Don't You Know." She soars on Randy Sharp's "A Simple I Love You," in classic torch style. Mandy closes out the disc with a percussion heavy version of the traditional, "Wayfaring Stranger," that gives it a dark and haunting feel. Though three of the songs off Mandy Barnett charted, none broke out despite heavy video play, as by the time Mandy's album came out, radio turned it's attention to the flyweight pop fluff by the likes of Shania Twain and Leann Rimes. 

Knowing that sort of music wasn't what the ever independent and feisty Mandy had any intention of singing, she decided to ignore radio, wound up on Sire, and took a completely different path for her next album, I've Got A Right To Cry, which was released in 1999. She enlisted the legendary Owen Bradley to produce, and four of those tracks turned out to be the last works he produced before his death. Harold and Bobby Bradley and Mandy produced the balance of this album. On I've Got A Right To Cry, Mandy reaches way back into far more traditional territory, resulting in a stunner of an album that sounds like it stepped out of the late 50s/early 60s, this time choosing songs penned by such names as Don Gibson, Porter Wagoner and Mickey Newbury. Here again, Mandy shows her diversity. There's heartbreaking torch numbers like the title cut, "I've Got A Right To Cry," "Don't Forget To Cry," "Mistakes," and "Funny, Familiar Forgotten Feelings." She tosses in a bit of Countrypolitan with the dreamy "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming" and the shuffling "Ever True Evermore." She adds some spunky vocals to the shuffling mid-tempo "Give Myself A Party," and swings it on "Who (Who Will It Be)." She cuts loose and has some fun on the honky tonker "Trademark," the stone country, fiddle and banjo driven "Falling, Falling, Falling," and "I'm Gonna Change Everything," with it's funky syncopated beat. I've Got A Right To Cry is another stellar and critically acclaimed feather in Mandy's hat, though not surprisingly given what passes as country music these days, ignored commercially.  

Both of these albums by the extraordinarily talented Mandy Barnett are well worth owning, with Mandy Barnett showing her masterful way with, what should have been, the path of true contemporary country music, and I've Got A Right To Cry will take you back to days gone by. Mandy has kept herself busy cutting tracks on various other projects. She's recorded cuts for the soundtracks of motion pictures such as Traveler, Election, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Space Cowboys and her breathtaking version of "Town Without Pity" for A Walk On The Moon. She's also appeared on a few tribute albums, Good Rockin' Tonight: A Tribute To Sun Records with her outstanding, album stealing "untitled" cut, "You Win Again" with The Jordanaires, Caught In The Webb with the track "Slowly," and Dressed In Black performing a duet of "Jackson" with Chuck Mead. She's also contributed backing vocals on the projects of other artists including Kim Richey, Gail Davies, Ray Price, Rosie Flores and Jesse Dayton. In the meantime, her legions of loyal fans are eagerly awaiting her next release. Just one listen, and you'll soon know why.