This month is certainly a treat since this is the 2nd glorious album to come across this reviewer's desk this go-round. (See Mark Chestnutt). "Blackhawk" has always been such a MUSICIAN's Band to my snooty classically trained self. Don't get me wrong, the gentlemen of Alabama are certainly virtuosic on their instruments and have serviceable voices with which to sing their gazillion #1 songs, and Diamond Rio have their own brand of staggeringly chill-inducing and glorious harmonies. But for my money, NO BAND in country music today has "Blackhawk's" absolutely solid-as-a-rock musical perfection in their sound, their combination of vocal colors, and their downright innovative turns of a musical phrase.

The album starts right out demonstrating these virtues - just listen to the end of the first line of the chorus on "Your Own Little Corner Of My Heart." The "My heart" almost extends the phrase past the cadence which would sound just flat-out ignorant and WRONG when some other mainstream singer did it. (As in when many of the poor souls who aren't real artists prove when they try to sing live on shows with no overproduction behind them, proving they can't keep time or phrase to save their life without being escorted along the musical way.) Here its one of those jewel-like touches that the expert members of "Blackhawk" contribute to a song that NO ONE else anywhere in country music (except perhaps Garth and Reba) can begin to replicate.

The same goes for the beginning of the chorus of "Who Am I Now." The chorus opening notes are suddenly longer note values than everything in the verse that has come before, MUCH longer. This, again, in lesser hands, would suddenly sound like the singer's lost the tempo or the song is poorly constructed. But, of course, with these fellows, it just sounds so perfect and amazingly fresh.

The utmost glory of these aspects of musical construction here, even if you're a normal music listener and don't have a friggin' clue what I am describing here, will STILL sound magical, whether you can describe it technically or not. Nearly every song matches these opening cuts' glories. The current monster hit, "There You Have It," is more of this group's irresistible wordplay among their thrilling harmony. "Think Again's" juxtapostions just absolutely blow me away. A thrilling, screw-you-bitch song, refreshingly showing a guy FINALLY not being a whining wuss, and instead telling his about to be ex-lover that he WON't be sitting around pining for her, is glossed with almost GOSPEL-like tinges in its awesome harmonies. "Walkin' On Water" dares you not to dance or sing along even on first hearing, "Nobody Knows What To Say" hits more just-broke-up-with-someone nerves than any song I've heard in months. The whole album is just pure joy, EXCEPT for a misstep that takes 1/2 a star away, the somewhat whiny, and not- nearly as well-done as the rest of this amazing CD cut "Always Have, Always Will." However that song certainly sums up a parallel with the title. The sky is INDEED the limit for this expertise-to-burn-band, and will they keep making wonderful music like this? I bet. They always have, and let's all hope they always will.