Tim Mcgraw

After nearly two years in the vault, Tim McGraw’s Emotional Traffic was released by Curb. McGraw finished it in 2010 and turned it in. Curb refused to release it, claiming it was too soon after 2009’s Southern Voice (though they released another hits compilation the same year). The two parties went to court to resolve the issue. Co-produced with longtime compadre Byron Gallimore, Emotional Traffic is McGraw’s most ambitious offering to date – the credits list is enormous and the range of styles on display is wide……

Curb Records does it again: beats the dead horse, that is. After releasing no less than seven previous Tim McGraw hits compilations – several just in order to keep him under contract – and only issuing Emotional Traffic, his last album for them after they lost a protracted legal battle, the label releases this compilation just as McGraw is riding a successful pre-release single in "Looking for That Girl." (They pulled the same stunt just before Two Lanes of Freedom was released, issuing the cash-in comp Tim McGraw & Friends, a collection of duets compiled from over 20 years.) Love Story contains McGraw's most well-known amorous tunes and a pair of previously unreleased tracks – "I Just Love You" and "What About You" – available exclusively through Wal-Mart.

"Indian Outlaw," with its controversy and its resemblance to the Raiders' "Indian Reservation," made Tim McGraw a star and earned him the nickname "Outlaw McGraw." The ballad "Don't Take the Girl" reinforced the image. Not a Moment Too Soon contained better hooks than its predecessor, but it also belabored the obvious with songs like "It Don't Get Any Countrier Than This" and "Give It to Me Strait." that said, McGraw's identity as a singer and as a bandleader was being forged bit by bit…..