I Can’t Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson / I Can't Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson

Always indebted to classic Nashville, Mandy Barnett became friends with Don Gibson in 2001, just a few years before the singer/songwriter passed. She pays tribute to that friendship and his astonishing body of work on 2013's I Can't Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson, a kind-hearted collection of 12 of his best-known songs. Naturally, the title track is here, along with "Sweet Dreams," "Oh Lonesome Me," and "Blue Blue Day," the Gibson tunes that remain frequently covered decades after their composition, and the rest of the record is smartly chosen, alternating between smaller hits of Don's and some deep tracks. Over the course of the record, the tempo never really races — "Oh Lonesome Me" is taken at a brisk swing, "(Yes) I'm Hurting" replicates the countrypolitan wall of sound — but that's part of the charm of the album; it's sweet, gentle, and true, a work where Barnett's love is palpable.