Lonestar (album)

Lonestar is the debut studio album by American country music band Lonestar. Released in 1995 on BNA Records (see 1995 in country music), it features five singles: "Tequila Talkin'", "No News", "Runnin' Away With My Heart", "Heartbroke Every Day", and "When Cowboys Didn't Dance", of which "No News" was a Number One hit on the Billboard country charts. The album has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping 500,000 copies in the United States.

Content
The album's lead-off single was "Tequila Talkin'", which reached a peak of number eight on the Billboard country charts. Following this song was the band's first number-one hit, "No News" (the B-side to "Tequila Talkin'"), which spent three weeks at the top of the country charts. "Runnin' Away With My Heart" also peaked at number eight, followed by the number 45 "When Cowboys Didn't Dance" (which was much more successful in Canada, peaking at number 18 there), and finally, the number eighteen "Heartbroke Every Day". The latter overlapped on the charts with "Maybe He'll Notice Her Now," a duet between Lonestar's then-lead singer Richie McDonald and Mindy McCready, who also recorded on BNA at the time.

Also included on the album is a cover of Roy Clark's 1982 single "Paradise Knife and Gun Club".

Critical reception
The album received mixed critical reception. Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it four stars out of five in his Allmusic review, where he called the album's sound "an accomplished and impassioned hardcore honky tonk." Brian Wahlert of Country Standard Time magazine gave a mostly-favorable review, saying that the album was "solid [and] traditional," but also saying "Lonestar seems very similar to Shenandoah — energetic and fun, but not spectacular." Rick Mitchell of New Country magazine gave a one-and-a-half star rating, with his review criticizing the album for relying on a large number of studio musicians and background singers, and calling the sound "lite rock with a twang."

Personnel
As listed in liner notes. Lonestar
 * Richie McDonald – keyboards, acoustic guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals (2, 4, 5, 8, 10)
 * Dean Sams – acoustic piano, keyboards, acoustic guitar, harmonica, backing vocals
 * Michael Britt – electric guitar, B-Bender guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
 * John Rich – lead vocals (1, 3, 6, 7, 9), backing vocals, bass guitar
 * Keech Rainwater – drums

Additional musicians
 * Dennis Burnside – acoustic piano, keyboards, Hammond B3 organ, string arrangements
 * Mark Casstevens – acoustic guitar
 * Brent Mason – electric guitar
 * John Willis – electric guitar, electric sitar
 * Bruce Bouton – slide guitar, pedal steel guitar
 * Michael Rhodes – bass guitar
 * Glenn Worf – bass guitar
 * Lonnie Wilson – drums, percussion, hand claps
 * Rob Hajacos – fiddle, "assorted hoe-down tools"
 * Nashville String Machine – strings
 * John Wesley Ryles – backing vocals
 * Dennis Wilson – backing vocals
 * Curtis Young – backing vocals

Production
 * Don Cook – producer
 * Wally Wilson – producer
 * Mike Bradley – recording, mixing
 * Mark Capps – recording assistant, mix assistant
 * John Kunz – recording assistant, mix assistant
 * Hank Williams – mastering at MasterMix (Nashville, Tennessee)
 * Scott Johnson – production assistant
 * Susan Eaddy – art direction
 * Deb Mahalanobis – design
 * Peter Nash – photography