Current Country :: What's Awesome And What Blows

It's no secret that I'm a country radio deejay, so I'm very much in tune with what's current in that market. Here are a few hits and several misses from the last couple of months:

AWESOME:

• "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift



This is a really great little tune! Swift has grown on me a lot as an artist in the last year. "Tim McGraw" and "Teardrops On My Guitar" were high school heartbreaker ballads, so I didn't pay too much attention. "Our Song" made me raise an eyebrow as an above-average attempt at high school cuteness, but was still too lyrically naive for me to take seriously."

"Should've Said No" impressed me. Quite truthfully, I haven't heard such poignant (and relevant) youthful angst since Alanis. "You Belong With Me" intrigues me in the same way, tapping into parts of the adolescent brain that aren't usually so well articulated. ("You're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset / She's going off about something that you said / Cause she doesn't get your humor like I do")

I honestly haven't a clue whether Taylor will have staying power in the music biz, but right now, I'm enjoying her contributions.

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• "Big Green Tractor" by Jason Aldean



His best song since "Amarillo Sky." It's a redneck slow jam, but for Aldean, it just works. The lyric toward the beginning where he actually recounts telling his dogs, "y'all get down," is hilarious.
I'm not sure exactly what's so thrilling or romantic about riding around on a big green tractor, but Aldean manages to make it seem that way. I think that's pretty cool.

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• "Sissy's Song" by Alan Jackson



Ordinarily, the mention of religion in songs immediately makes me lose interest, so I really didn't give this song a fair chance on the first listen. After a second spin, though, I realized that moments of raw, unguarded emotion in music are, when genuine, very rare. This is one of those moments.

Jackson wrote the song about a housekeeper that passed away, and his love for and attachment to her sit softly in your ears during this song. I really like that the song is a bit shorter than most radio singles; it serves as a reminder that pain from death is often very quick and very direct, as are the song's lyrics.

Songs like this do not come along often, but they always become massively successful when they do, because they reach very personal areas of the heart.

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SUCKS:

• "Love Remembers" by Craig Morgan



Country radio is still playing the crap out of this song, and I honestly can't figure out why. Much like Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts, Morgan oversings almost every one of his songs. Toward the end, he crescendos so dramatically singing the song's title that he sounds like an old wolf in the throes of an orgasm. It's disgusting.

I will note what I see as this song's one redeeming quality: It reminds you not to take any moment with your lover for granted.

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• "One In Every Crowd" by Montgomery Gentry



My finger cannot move fast enough to turn this song off every time it comes on. It's a salute to being that loud, drunk guy at a party who thinks everyone loves him, when in reality, they want to light him on fire with their minds. I wouldn't hate the song so much if I thought that MG got the joke, but I know they didn't. They have no clue that everyone hates this guy. The result is just plain annoying.

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"amarillo sky" || jason aldean || 2006

I honestly still can't figure out why I'm so moved by this song. It doesn't have anything to do with Aldean's voice, or really even much to do with the music, although the guitar buildup at the end of each chorus is nice. No, this is definitely a lyrical love.

This song is so striking to me because it offers the perspective of a struggling farmer, which is never offered in the kind of music that I normally listen to. The farmer is doing everything he can to raise his crops and achieve a profit, but he can't seem to do it. He's in desperation because he fears for his financial future.

And really, in a situation like that, who can you blame? Mother nature? Should you abandon the farm and find more lucrative work? Shutting down the farm seems like it would be more work than actually watering each acre of your farm by hand.

Clearly, I know nothing about this lifestyle. However, I most certainly appreciate a well-written song about pain, and that's what this is. Aldean does a fitting vocal delivery, and even though I'm not a fan of his voice, it does work well for this song. The guitar buildup that I mentioned earlier also adds to the desperate feelings that one gets when listening. It really makes you feel the poor farmer's struggle.

Plus, it's nice to hear a modern country song that isn't about religion, America, or lists of things that give the artist country cred.

Listen to this track in our new playlist, located in the right sidebar!

traxxlisting #3: A Review Of 7 Current Country Hits

One genre of music that I've certainly neglected thus far in my blog is country. However, a couple of months ago I started working at a country radio station, so now I'm pretty much an expert in the current music of a genre about which I had previously known next to nothing.

In an effort to expand horizons in all ways possible, I now offer you:

A Review Of 7 Current Country Hits

1. "Johnny & June" by Heidi Newfield

I'll start with one of my favorites from our rotation. This is Heidi's lead-off single; she's been the vocalist for country group Trick Pony since 1996 and has just launched her solo career. As you may have deduced from the title, it's (sort of) about Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. The singer expresses a desire to have a "love like [theirs]," complete with "rings of fire, burning with you." She even adds that "when you're gone, I wanna go too."

What makes the song extra cool is to know that it isn't written from a distant perspective. Newfield was actually a friend of both Johnny and June in the last few years of their lives, so she witnessed their relationship firsthand. She then wrote the song with two other songwriters.

The lyrics and guitars are both a little strong for a country song, making them an interesting contrast to Newfield's very soft vocals. The song almost sounds as if it were written as the most-definitely-necessary power ballad on an '80s hard rock album. Don't be mistaken though: It's definitely a country song.

This is a hell of a lead-off single for Heidi, and I sure hope to hear more from her in the years to come.

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2. "Good Time" by Alan Jackson

He's the king of honky-tonk and has been for years, thanks to songs like "Chatahoochee" and "Don't Rock The Jukebox." Alan's latest single certainly isn't about anything serious; he's just looking for a party when he's off work. The song does wonders to capture the spirit of being off work on a Friday night and wanting to nothing more than kick back and hang out with friends. We've all been there, right?

I do have a problem with one of this song's lyrics: "...beer on ice / Just like 'ol Hank taught us about." I mean...did Hank Williams really have to clue you in to the fact that beer is better cold? How did that conversation happen?

Extra cool points to Alan for shooting the video on the Kentucky / Tennessee border, right near where I live!

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3. "All I Want To Do" by Sugarland

This song would be cuter if the vocals weren't so annoying. It appears to be the summer song of choice for fans of country radio, so I guess I can't argue with that. It's not about anything, in the sense that it's about a desire to do nothing. No depth here, so this one gets a short review.

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4. "Every Other Weekend" by Reba McEntire & Skip Ewing/Kenny Chesney

Reba's latest album is a collection of duets. On the album she sings this one with Kenny Chesney, but the single version (with which I am familiar) is done with Skip Ewing, who co-wrote the song. It's about a divorced couple who see each other only every other weekend, when their children transition from one house to the other.

I have a really hard time relating to country music of this nature. I guess I can't comprehend not expressing my feelings for someone if they were as strong as these folks' seem to be. It's still a well-written song, and it does seem to make many callers happy, so obviously there are plenty of people out there relating to it. For that reason, I'm glad it was written, and I hope that it's giving hope to someone who may have lost hope.

Listen<--This is the Kenny Chesney version.



5. "In Color" by Jamey Johnson

It's no secret that country singers (males especially) love to write about old shit. They love to sing of the way things used to be, the way things were when they were kids, or when their kids were kids. Country music has an overwhelming longing for the past, which makes sense considering the primary listening audience.

This Jamey Johnson tune seems like a nice diamond in the rough among those other songs of that nature. The tune begins when the singer comes across an old picture of his grandpa as a young teenager. The grandpa proceeds to explain to him what life was like back then, down to small details like what the weather was on his wedding day. Each set of details concludes with, "You should have seen it in color."

I'm just glad to know that I'm not the only person who has deeply pondered on what the world used to look like, complete with vivid colors. I think it's a really interesting thought, and I'm glad someone else agreed enough to write a song about it.

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6. "International Harvester" by Craig Morgan

I'm trying really, really hard to like this song. It seems like it should be likeable, and I should sure as heck like Craig Morgan for all the charity work that he does. I'll be honest though; I'm struggling.

Craig is a veteran of the US Army; he served in the 101st Airborne Division (same as my grandpa!), and he still helps raise money for veterans' affairs organizations. So what's the problem? I think his songs are annoying as fuck.

This one, to me, is a total takeoff of Dolly Parton's "9 To 5." Maybe it's intentional, but I haven't seen documentation anywhere to prove it. And, I mean, come on: Does Morgan really look like he's a combine driver who drives a p-p-p-p-plower? I'm just not buying it, dude. If I watched the video and saw a guy who looked like a farmer, maybe I'd be more in on the joke, but Craig just looks like a manager at Hollister to me.

The song is cute for what it is, I guess.

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7. "Last Name" by Carrie Underwood

After "Before He Cheats," I never thought that Carrie would release another single that would make me smile. I was wrong.

This song is sort of a spiritual predecessor to "Before He Cheats," telling the story of how she met the dude whose 4-wheel drive she'd later beat to pieces. What makes the song so cute is the subtlety with which the story is told. Pop songs are usually spelled out as if they were written for a child (because, I mean, they usually are), but this one isn't quite as insulting to the listener, and I certainly appreciate that about it.

Having said that, it's still a Nashville pop song, which distances it from "true country music" to most fans of the genre. I totally understand this sentiment, but I can't really wag a finger for it. Carrie, like other Nashville poppers (Taylor Swift, Ashton Shepard, even Sugarland, etc.) is just trying to appeal to a wider audience. Who knows? Country music may gain a new listener from hearing a song like this and doing some deeper digging into the genre.

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That's the list! Hope you enjoyed!