It’s hard to fault Craig Morgan for recording yet another “we’re a bunch of rednecks having a good time” anthem. Such songs have been his bread and butter.
But it’s quite easy to fault him for taking a page from the Jason Aldean playbook and screaming the whole song. Morgan is not a country-rocker, and can’t even pull off being a wannabe country-rocker. His charm has always been his too-country twang, a vocal style that you can usually only hear on the bluegrassiest of bluegrass records. When he sings a song like “A Little Bit of Life” or “Redneck Yacht Club”, you can actually hear his big goofy grin.
That singer never shows up here, so there’s nothing left to give cover to the fact that “Bonfire” is a disposable and lifeless party anthem.
Written by Tom Botkin, Kevin Denney, Craig Morgan and Mike Rogers
Grade: C-
Listen: Bonfire
another hot contestant for that 2009 compilation: we’re from the south, we scream ….and call it country. way to go?
And it’s songs like this that shall keep me away from radio. I personally wish he’d go back to recording the kind of material he had on his Atlantic debut. “Paradise” is still my favorite song from him.
I actually liked the song (a lot) from the first time I heard it. But what in the world were they thinking when they did the video? What a missed opportunity.