''Cut to Impress'' is the debut studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Maggie Rose Maggie Rose Durante (born May 19, 1988) is an American soul music, soul and country music singer. In 2009, Durante signed to Universal Republic as Margaret Durante and released a cover of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody". A year later, she left Uni ...

. The album was released on March 26, 2013, via RPM Entertainment. It includes the singles "I Ain't Your Mama", "Better" and "Looking Back Now".

Content

Maggie Rose co-wrote four of the album's 10 tracks, including "Mostly Bad", which contains the lyric that the album was titled after. On naming the record ''Cut to Impress'', Rose said that it was "a confident statement about all the cuts on the album, and it's also is a statement saying I have cut out a place for myself as an artist that is different and unique." "I Ain't Your Mama" was released as the album's lead-off single on June 25, 2012. The song reached a peak of number 38 on the U.S. ''Billboard''

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart, becoming her first Top 40 hit, and also peaked at number 29 on the ''Billboard''

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since January 20, 1990. This chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored ...

chart. "Better" was released as the second single on February 25, 2013, and was another Top 30 hit on the Country Airplay chart. The album's third and final single, "Looking Back Now", was released on January 20, 2014, and reached a peak of number 46 on the Country Airplay chart.

Critical reception

Daryl Addison of

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gave ''Cut to Impress'' a positive review and said that the album "more than lives up to its name with a unique blend of bluesy, R&B flavored country that is as sexy as it is fierce." He named "I Ain't Your Mama", "I Know Better Now", "Looking Back Now", and "Better" the album's key tracks. Roughstock's Matt Bjorke found that the songs are "mostly tempo-driven with a couple of ballads mixed in", and vowed that "She has the talent, the looks, the drive and - most importantly - the songs that make her the complete package", which this allows ''Cut to Impress'' to be a "mighty impressive collection of songs." Steve Leggett of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

proclaimed that ''Cut to Impress'' "does indeed impress, full of well-recorded, well-sung tracks that are poised to shine on contemporary country radio and yet cohere together in a solid sonic statement", which the albums sound is steady, and contains "forward mixed drums giving things a big sound and swampy electric guitars giving it some bite and snarl." Yet, Leggett said, "but it's Rose's singing that makes it all work, and at times she sounds like the second coming of

Shania Twain Eilleen Regina "Shania" Twain ( , ; née Edwards; born August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She has sold over 100 million records, making her the best-selling female artist in country music history and one of the best-s ...

", and he called "this one...fully formed and ready to go, and if Maggie Rose doesn't end up being a major contemporary country star, well, then the whole thing is rigged." Lastly, Leggett evoked that Rose "has a powerful and slightly blues-infused voice, blonde good looks, and the kind of sassy, playful, take-no-bullshit attitude that makes her performances stand out in a crowd, a kind of good girl next door who isn't a stranger to turning up the bad girl alter ego when the song demands it."

Track listing

Personnel

Eddie Bayers Eddie Bayers (born January 28, 1949) is an American session drummer who has played on 300 gold and platinum albums. He received the Academy of Country Music 'Drummer of the Year Award' for fourteen years, has three times won the Nashville Music ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* Mike Brignardello -

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Cade Doyle -

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

Dan Dugmore Dan Dugmore is an American session musician known primarily for playing the pedal steel guitar Born in 1949, Dugmore was raised in Pasadena, California. Influenced by the Flying Burrito Brothers, he learned to play steel guitar after Flying B ...

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

* Glen Duncan -

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

Shannon Forrest Shannon Forrest (born August 22, 1973 in Easley, South Carolina) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. As a session drummer, he has contributed to the work of many well-known artists, and he is also a pr ...

- drums * Kenny Greenberg - electric guitar * David Grissom - electric guitar * Tania Hancheroff - background vocals *

Aubrey Haynie Aubrey Haynie (born March 27, 1974) is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle and mandolin. In his career, he has recorded three studio albums for the Sugar Hill Records label, all three of which contained mostly songs that he wr ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

* Wes Hightower - background vocals *

Brent Mason Brent Mason (born July 13, 1959) is an American, Nashville, Tennessee-based recording studio guitarist and songwriter, performing primarily country music. Guitar World Magazine listed him as one of the "Top Ten Session Guitarists of All Time". ...

- electric guitar * Greg Morrow - drums * Natalie Murphy - fiddle, background vocals * Steve Nathan -

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* Billy Panda - acoustic guitar *

- lead vocals, background vocals * Raquel Shouse - bass guitar * Sarah Tomek - drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Jason Waters - percussion, background vocals *

Biff Watson Fletcher Bangs "Biff" Watson is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. His musicianship has been a part of recording sessions for many artists. Biography Early years Raised in Chatham, Virginia, Watson learned how to play guitar at a ...

- acoustic guitar * Raquel Wynn - background vocals

Chart performance

Album

Singles

References

{{Authority control 2013 debut albums Maggie Rose albums Albums produced by James Stroud Albums produced by Blake Chancey