So, uh, apparently Bon Jovi are now a country band? Their latest album was recorded in Nashville and features songs co-written by a number of country-music pros, as well as appearances by LeAnn Rimes and Big & Rich. After the success of “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” a duet with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles on 2005’s Have a Nice Day, the band have followed the likes of Sheryl Crow and John Mellencamp in tailoring their rootsy rock sound for the mainstream country audience.
Nakedly commercial as the move may be, it’s actually resulted in Bon Jovi’s best album in years. Their last two albums of original material, Nice Day and 2002’s Bounce, were grim, dour affairs, with heavy guitars and self-serious lyrics, and Lost Highway returns to the breezy, anthemic tunes of the band’s heyday. This is not a traditional country album by any means—mostly it just adds some fiddle and dobro to the heartland rock that Bon Jovi have been playing for years, and ends up in a country/rock middle ground somewhere around Keith Urban.
But songs like the title track, “Whole Lot of Leaving” and “I Love This Town” could easily have been big hits for someone like Urban, and the Rimes duet “Stranger” will have country-radio programmers in heaven. There are a few forgettable ballads as always, and “We Got It Going On” is basically a remake of “It’s My Life,” but overall the move to the country has done Bon Jovi plenty of good.