Paul Collins from Maverick Magazine wrote...
Classic country beautifully sung!

Receives 4 out of 5 stars!

As they are reminders of special songs, albums of covers have to be really good to demand and retain attention and this set is just dazzling. Selectively dipping into the country catalog of the past fifty years. Amy has picked out some real plums here and it's a moot point whether or not time has dulled my memory, but many of them sound better here than the originals: Picture Of Me Without You, I'll Share My World With You, and Apartment No. 9. And although it may be sacrilege for a country music reviewer to admit it. I was never a big fan of the possum, but boy did he get offered some cracking songs. In the early 1990's twenty years after George's original, Picture of me was again a monster hit, this time for Lorrie Morgan and Amy's version knocks that into a cocked hat too.
There are two songs which were first time hits for artists who subsequently became very well established country stars. Don't Touch Me Hank Cockran's for the then unknown Jeannie Sealy which subsequently won a Grammy and When I Call Your Name which was Vince Gill's biggest hit and I don't think that he has ever written a better song. Again Amy we and truly nails both with Detamore's pedal steel being attractively prominent on the Gill cover. Willie Nelson's I'm still Not Over You which was a monster hit for Ray Price, Fool Number One a smash pop hit for Brenda Lee and above all Don Gibson's Sweet Dreams which is forever associated with the great Patsy Cline, a singer to whom it is not extravagant to compare Amy to.
Amy's Texas born and bred and with a young family to raise is unlikely to get involved in touring too far from her roots. A pity because, being selfish about it, with a voice and feeling for a song that frankly knocks the socks off many of today's top country stars and still only in her mid thirties, Amy Francis deserves a much wider audience. This album will certainly help.

Baron Lane from Twang Nation.com wrote...
Bodacious is a Southern/Southwestern portmanteau of bold and audacious. It’s meaning is remarkable, courageous, audacious, spirited and unmistakable.
Corpus Christi TX native Amy Francis uses this linguistic fusion and forms the title of her new release , Balladacious. Just as she reinterprets words Francis also uses this skill to give her own take on some of  country music’s best-known classics.
The album opens with Francis beautiful voice powerfully breaking the silence with a vulnerable delivery of the Hank Cochran barroom lament Don’t Touch Me. Francis brings the longing and apprehension contained in the song to a palatable level and disarms you of all cynicism. A staple of country music is it’s unabashed sentiment and Francis’ heart is emblazoned boldly on this first song.

The spirits of Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette and Brenda Lee are conjured with all their romantic weariness giving testament. Not just because Francis covers Sweet Dreams, Apartment No. 9 and Fool Number One respectively, but because she is a believer. She brings authenticity to these songs because she embodies them wholly not simply mimicking them like many Music City talen dipping a toe in traditionalism.
Her take on Bobbie Gentry’s Ode to Billy Joe reworks this dark song of small-town gossip and makes it swing with an acoustic guitar and strings accompaniment. Her covers of George Jone’s Picture of Me Without You and I’ll Share My World With You elevates them to the honky-tonk majesty they deserve and Vince Gill’s hit When I Call Your Name is covered with barrel-house piano and pedal steel accompaniment and achieves a forlornness that LeAnn Rimes’s cover never came close to.  Ronnie Milsap’s Stranger Things Have Happened is given an equal turn with Francis’ voice soaring at heights while singing about the depths. The hope against hope and lessons contained in these testimonials of  despair makes country music some of the greatest forms of contemporary tragedy. Francis approaches each with dignity and grace they deserve and strikingly nimble vocals that breath life into every barroom confession.

I have an ambivalent relationship with Nashville Sound era country music. When Owen Bradley, with Chet Atkins and Bob Ferguson moved hillbilly music from the hollers and honky tonks to the supper clubs, by adding strings, backing vocals and other adornment better suited for crooners of the day, they laid the path toward the enormously lucrative but culturally superficial pop-country industry we’ve inherited. Like the great performers of the Nashville Sound era Francis charms me into putting aside bias by keeping the soul enact while stripping back just enough veneer to let you hear the heart break.

Amazon.com reviewer, Timothy Yap wrote...
5.0 out of 5 stars Francis Satisfying Balladacious,  

Timothy Yap (Sydney, NSW, Australia) -
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

Balladacious opens with the unaccompanied piercing voice of Amy Francis. As soon as Francis croons the first line of the Hank Cochran's standard Don't Touch Me, you know you are in the presence of greatness. Conjuring up the weather-worn brokenness of Tammy Wynette, the seasoned maturity of Lorrie Morgan and the transparent vulnerability of Pam Tillis, Francis has a voice finds ways to make in-roads into our hearts. As the title suggests, this is a collection of ballads that spans over a wide swath of country music's history from Patsy Cline's Sweet Dreams to Tammy Wynette's Apartment No. 9 to Brenda Lee's Fool Number One to Ray Price's I'm Still Not Over You to more recent works like Ronnie Milsap's Stranger Things Have Happened and Vince Gill's When I Call Your Name. Despite being released on a small independent imprint, most satisfying is that this is an impeccably produced disc. "Class" is spelt all across this record: the lushful set of strings, the sensitive and unobtrusive steel, and the old fashioned feel calling to mind Owen Bradley's finest records.

Ever since Lorrie Morgan cut an excellent version of George Jones' A Picture of Me Without You  in the early 90s, no one could rival Morgan's rendition. Not until Amy Francis--Francis has a way of making heartbreak palatable through her phrasings and pauses. Producer Tommy Detamore has given Hank Cochran's Don't Touch Me a Patsy Cline-ish veneer that sonically transports Francis back in time when singing was more about bearing one's soul than selling records. Similarly stunning is Francis' take of Ray Price's I'm Still Not Over You. Other than Francis' gorgeous set of pipes, the wonderful fiddle flourishes and mournful steel guitar really takes this classic to a new level. While Francis' take of Patsy Cline's Sweet Dreams stays religious close to the original with the bevy male chorus providing the backing "ah-has."

Francis has taken some liberties with a few covers: taken at a pace slower than original is her take of Ode to Billy Joe. Backed gently with just a guitar, Francis tells this small town tragic saga with refreshing care taking time to develop her characters three dimensionally. Recently LeAnn Rimes has resurrected Vince Gill's signature hit When I Call Your Name. While Rimes could not escape Gill's nagging vocal grasp, Francis could. Francis has re-created this forlorn ode of loneliness without trying to carbon copy Vince Gill's own dreggy original. On the other hand, Francis' doesn't have the rasp of Tammy Wynette to bring out the weary toil of the lyrics of Apartment No 9.

With some striking resemblance to Lee Ann Womack, Francis with Steve Maynard on backing vocals takes a break from the heartbreak theme with I'll Share My World With You. And Ronnie Milsap's Stranger Things Have Happened retains that soulfulness of the original that is a pure delight. Overall, Balladacious is sonically a "delicious" serving of classic country served by a voice to die for over backings that oozes class and excellence. Note the name--Amy Francis is someone to watch out for.

Honkytonkinmusic.com wrote...
From time to time an artist comes along that's got "it" and Amy Francis is certainly in the "it"category. All of the songs are covers and also ballads; hence the title Balladacious probably borrowed from Mr. Bojangles' Bodacious. Amy more than holds a light to those that made these evergreens famous and in some cases shines a little brighter. If you're a fan of classic country's most popular ballads, don't pass this one up it's a great CD even the originals weren't any better and some were not as good. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

But real country music still exists, hard-core, hard-edged honky-tonk by the likes of Arty Hill and the Long Gone Daddys, Eilen Jewell and a slew of Bloodshot-label artists as well as real-deal country music by keepers of the flame such as Johnny Bush, Dale Watson and Connie Smith.

South Texas native Amy Francis is in the real country number. With the aptly titled Balladacious, Francis puts her beautiful voice to work on classic country ballads such as I'm Still Not Over You, Ode to Billy Joe, Apartment No. 9 and Sweet Dreams.

Francis revisits and reclaims trails that have been covered by the dust of disuse and the brambles of misuse. Francis has powerful pipes, which she doesn't overuse, exceptional control and the sure and certain knowledge that emotion and belief drive real country music. Backed by a first-call band including guitarist/steel guitarist/producer Tommy Detamore and guitarist Kenny Penny (and her 16-year-old son Zachary on cello on a couple tracks), Francis helps put real country back in music.