One Road Man

In working with a team of professional Nashville producers on 1998’s One Road Man, Chris LeDoux may have sacrificed some of his homegrown charm—but what he got in return was the most confident, well-crafted album of his career. Though it may be the first album to feature none of his original songs, One Road Man captures the essence of the cowboy’s personality with works like “Old Paint,” a song with such patience and gentleness that it could only been performed by a real-life horse whisperer like LeDoux. Earlier in his career it would have been impossible to think of him covering pop songs, but his versions of Bon Jovi’s “Bang a Drum” and Tom Cochrane’s “Life Is a Highway” feel so natural that you can imagine LeDoux listening to them in his bus for years prior. Amid some genuinely fiery moments of rock ‘n’ roll, “One Tonight,” “The Borderline,” and “Sometimes You’ve Just Gotta Ride” are the standouts. Catchy and unpretentious, they put LeDoux in a class with George Strait and Alan Jackson, where he was always meant to be.