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4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent Album from Amazing Artist Aug 16, 2005
Andy Griggs stays at the top of his game with THIS I GOTTA SEE, which continues his winning streak of great albums. The CD is well-produced and is very deep in superb songs and potential hit singles. His magnificent voice, as always, is up front and center, and he sings the heck out of these tunes.
Prime Cuts:
"This I Gotta See" - Romantic uptempo ballad with nice imagery
"She Thinks She Needs Me" - One of the great love songs of the new millennium, giant sound, big vocals, lots of passion
"Be Still" - Another perfect romantic ballad, this one is a quiet-but-passionate powerhouse with some very pretty and intricate vocal arrangements
"Hillbilly Band" - Very fun rocking road song, especially when Andy says, "Naw, that's the Opry son."
"I Never Had a Chance" - Intense and blues-influenced, another amazing vocal performance
"If Heaven" - Maybe the best song on the album, a poignant ballad with moving and comforting lyrics for anybody who has ever experienced the loss of a loved one. It's touching without being mushy or overly sentimental.
"Long Enough" - Pure outlaw country, stomp your boots in the sawdust, gutsy declaration of love
"Why Do I Still Want You" - Sort of a blues/bluegrass fusion, great harmonies on this slow burner
Weaker Songs:
"My Kind of Beautiful" - a little bit too "leery" for me
"Careful Where You Kiss Me" - Too much information
"No Mississippi" - Too over the top with background vocals
Still, even the "weaker songs" are all done with a lot of energy, and would be pretty darn good for a lot of artists. For me, they just weren't "Andy" I guess.
I really love this CD overall and the incredibly good songs more than make up for a couple of mis-steps. If you like great country music, or even pop, blues, or traditional rock, you will probably like this album.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
You gotta hear this ... loaded with great tracks Aug 13, 2005
Andy Griggs has a deserved reputation as a great singles artist: he's given us some of the best tunes on the country charts over the past six years or so. But behind all of these great individual songs are three very strong albums, "You Won't Ever Be Lonely," "Freedom," and now "This I Gotta See"
Let it be said right up front that Andy Griggs has several things going for him:
1) Personal and artistic integrity. Andy is the real deal when it comes to being a genuine good guy who loves his fans and gives them 100%.
2) An amazingly strong voice. In fact, it's not a stretch to say he has one of the strongest voices in country music, with a lot of range and depth, and just enough rough edges to keep it real.
3) Great songwriting skills. Andy is an excellent writer, although for some reason, he only recorded two of his own songs for this CD. That's one of the only complaints I have about this project.
4) Good instincts for choosing songs. Since he didn't use much of his own material here, it's a good thing that his ear for a good song doesn't fail him, for the most part. There are some really superb tracks on this CD.
5) Men know he's a hunter, a fisherman, and a heckuva funny storyteller; and the women think he's cute. My wife made me type that last part.
One thing that strikes me after many repeated listens to his latest work is how rich it is in great songs. Let's start with the obvious ones: "She Thinks She Needs Me" is a fantastic, classic "big" country song...the kind of showstopper that a lot of singers can only dream about recording even once in their careers. This song hit the Billboard Country Singles Top 5 and was on the charts forever...I suppose that makes it a standard, in many ways, because it really had some serious airplay endurance. The fact is, I still enjoy hearing it every time I do.
"If Heaven" is one of those incredibly poignant and "close to home" songs that could make a grown man cry. A tough grown man at that. Ask me how I know. Hey, the fact is, if you can listen to this song and not really feel it down in your gut, then you are not human. The sad-yet-hopeful lyrics floor me every time, and when Andy sings it, you can tell he's feeling it. This was yet another Top 5 Country music single in Billboard.
It looks like the well-produced, mid-tempo title track is going to be a hit, too. I'm hearing it on the radio more often now. It's a keeper, with instantly relatable lyrics and an impassioned vocal from Andy. He makes you believe that he really is in a hurry to get home. And, another track that has excellent airplay potential is "Be Still," which is a beautiful, superbly arranged ballad.
The only uptempo "loose" song on the album is "Hillbilly Band," which is a lot of fun and helps vary the pace. I would like to hear Andy do more of these kind of songs, even though I recognize that he is a master of the ballads. "Long Enough" suits Andy to a "T" as well. It reminds me of something Waylon Jennings would have done, as does "Why Do I Still Want You," a nice country-blues gem. Another radio-friendly cut, "I Never Had a Chance," seems tailor-made for Andy's gritty and altogether believable plea. "No Mississippi" is a wailing, rocking blues number.
When my children are in the car, we tend to skip "My Kind of Beautiful" and "Careful Where You Kiss Me" which are uncharacteristically steamy, compared to most of Griggs' other work. Both are credible country songs, well performed, although not exceptionally memorable (beyond their PG-ish steamy themes). Still, that's a minor complaint given all of the great attributes the album has.
This CD has been on the charts for more than a year, and with all of these great songs, it's easy to see why. If you haven't heard it yet, give it a spin. You won't be sorry.
1 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Great CD Mar 28, 2005
"This I Gotta See" is a must have cd. Its the best cd. every song on it is a great song. Andy did a Awesome job.
0 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Griggs "Gotta See" Doesn't Quite Live Up to Its Title Feb 02, 2005
Prime Cuts: If Heaven, I Never Had a Chance, She Thinks She Needs Me
Andy Griggs, like many of his male contemporaries in the country genre, faces a conundrum. It's does not take a genius to figure out that amongst Griggs burgeoning canon of charted hits, it's the sensitive love ballads that cause radio lines to light up, drive album sales and bring home the bacon. In fact, all of Griggs' top 5 hits thus far are without exception odes to romance ("You Don't Have to Be Lonely," "Tonight I Want to Be Your Man," "She's More" and his latest entry "She Thinks She Needs Me"). Yet, this Louisiana native is inebriated with a contumacious southern Charlie-Daniels-like spirit waiting to be emancipated. With each passing album, more and more of this rockish purport rears its head. On this new CD, this is most evident in Griggs' new found vocal timbre: an in-your-face faux blues style that echoes that of Travis Tritt. Also, producer Randy Scruggs, who has produced some of the most country albums with minimalist backings, must had his arms twisted to helm one of the most sluggishly overproduced CD.
But to be fair, not all is that putrid. In fact, the Gretchen Peters penned "If Heaven" (which also appears on the lady's latest CD) is fetching. If music has the ability to capture the transcendence within a space of four minutes, this is it. Painted with heartfelt colors of opulence, this piano based ballad finds the protagonist at his deathbed wishing heaven was like his home town: "If heaven was an hour, it would be twilight/When the fireflies start dancin' on the lawn/And suppers on the stove and mammas laughin'/And everybody's workin day is done." This is powerful stuff-almost divine! Other than "If Heaven," leadoff single "She Thinks She Needs Me" has all that new age sensibilities of a sensitive man appreciative of his woman more than she is of him.
Other than these two tracks, the rest are just pretty average Nashville flair. But at the root of the problem, despite the presence of some of Music Row's finest tunesmith such as Neil Thrasher, Tony Martin, Bill Luther amongst others, is that these tracks suffer from the "I-heard-it-all-before" syndrome. Unlike Travis Tritt, who seems to be able to find more interesting stuff, there's nothing revolutionary about these tunes. You have obligatory upbeat positive love rock number "My Kind of Beautiful," the tribute to one's roots type of song "Hillbilly Band," and the rowdy crowd pleaser "Careful Where You Kiss Me." Further, the overproduction with everything switched to its maximum volume certainly clouds the enjoyment of these tunes. The nadir being the closing track, the bluesy rockish "No Mississippi"; where Delbert McClinton and Bekka Bramlett were brought in to squawk away pointlessly.
Truth be told, despite what Griggs may think, he's definitely better on the ballads. There's a sense of earnest he brings to "If Heaven" and some of his other ballads such as "She's More" that has attracted legions of fans. He should stick to what he does best. As much as I try to love this CD, other than the knockout "If Heaven," this is regrettably not Griggs at his finest.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Knockout performance Nov 10, 2004
Recently I saw Andy Griggs in concert in NW Florida not long after Hurricane Ivan. He was a great encouraging and healing presence for all of us who had suffered through the storm and its aftermath. He is as real and genuine a person in country music as there is today. And, man, can he sing! He sang a number of songs from THIS I GOTTA SEE, which really connected with the crowd. If you haven't heard this CD yet, all I can say is that it is filled with great music. BILLBOARD calls Andy one of the finest singers of ballads alive today, and there are some songs on this CD that back that up, such as "She Thinks She Needs Me" and "Be Still," plus the soul-stirring and beautifully moving new single "If Heaven." Yeah, Andy knows how to pick up the pace a bit, too, like on the awesome song "Hillbilly Band," which, in concert, had the crowd in Florida shouting for more. He's got that bluesy sound down good, too, with "I Never Had a Chance" and "Long Enough" and especially the rocking "No Mississippi." A lot of people know about Andy, as evidenced by his growing collection of Top 5 radio hits, but a whole lot more folks are going to know about him as the years go on...he is definitely for real and this is one of the best country CD's you can hear this year.
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