Read My Lips (Lou Ann Barton album)

A covers album, Read My Lips was recorded with several guest musicians, including saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman and members of the Fabulous Thunderbirds.[7][8] The main players included guitarist Derek O' Brien, bassist Jon Blondell, and drummer George Rains.[9] The album was produced by Paul Ray.[10]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[12]
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings	[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[5]

Spin thought that the album "captures the sound and spirit of a 50s Excello or Duke recording without sacrificing 80s technology."[14] The Austin American-Statesman wrote that "'Shake Your Hips', in particular, is a masterful use of rock 'n' roll, gutter guitar licks bolstering a mean, low-down and dirty blues song about a dance undoubtably outlawed except in the darkest of clubs."[9] The Daily Breeze opined that Read My Lips "sounds like just the kind of thing you'd want to hear blasting away in a Texas roadhouse—lowdown, sweat-drenched rhythm-and-blues."[15]

The Toronto Star declared: "The good thing about Barton, unlike so many blues-by-number advocates, is that it is hard to know which way she'll turn next. She takes a playful novelty piece like Slim Harpo's 'Te Ni Nee Ni Nu' and invests it with almost inappropriate urgency, while her cover of 'You'll Lose A Good Thing' is casually ironic instead of emotionally heated."[16] The Chicago Tribune deemed the album "down and dirty Texas blues and boogie."[17] The Tulsa World determined that Barton's "version of Wanda Jackson's 'Mean, Mean Man' is hard-driving, pouty rock 'n' roll, sounding like what might have happened if Betty Boop had sung lead with the Flamin' Groovies."[18]

AllMusic wrote: "Wisely free of attempts to update or modernize her timeless Texas-style blues-rock, Read My Lips is a rockin' good time."[11] The Rolling Stone Album Guide called the album "a set of scorching performances that remind us not of what she might have been, but what she is—a natural-born singer who's learned hard lessons by living them."[5] The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings argued that Barton's "métier is rock rather than blues."[13]