“Lonely Tonight”
Blake Shelton & Ashley Monroe
Written by Brent Anderson and Ryan Hurd
It’s billed as a duet, but it’s about as much as an equal pairing as Eddie Rabbitt and Crystal Gayle back in the day. Monroe essentially plays a harmony role, singing an answer line from time to time.
Not the best use of her talent, though it seems the only way to get her on the radio is in a feature spot, which is better than nothing. “Lonely Tonight” is a decent spin on the classic “just one more night” theme.
Depending on your taste, this has already been done definitely in recent years by either “Need You Now” or “I May Hate Myself in the Morning”, though every country song like this is chasing the ghost of “Help Me Make it Through the Night.”
But it’s always nice to hear a straight-up country song that isn’t chasing down youth. These are definitely adults who are well past their quarter-life crisis. I wish the melody was stronger and that there was a bit more Monroe, but among Shelton’s recent work, “Lonely Tonight” is a bright spot.
Grade: B
Agree this is not a true duet. the singers must contribute equally. Singing harmony on the choruses or occasionally chiming in a phrase or two is a backup singer not a duet partner. That said, the song is decent so I’d agree with your B rating.
I liked Ashley and Blake’s true duet “You Ain’t Dolly (and you ain’t Porter)”, a fun song written by Ashley and Vince Gill.
Eh. This one is just so forgettable. Pleasant, but forgettable.
Could her dress be any shorter?
Ooph. What a waste of Ashley’s talent. It’s so boring, particularly in melody and production.
Well, I like this song. It is pleasant and their voices are nice. I must admit I really like Blake’s voice. I think you gave it a good grade.
I agree about her dress. She wears her dresses too short and sometimes too low cut. The one she wore to the CMT Artist show….she was honoring Miranda, was cut in a vee down to her navel!
I’d give it a B+. Basically ditto to everything Kevin said. Plus one crucial thing I think this song will get Ashley Monroe help and get her to be more mainstream bonus pints. Man I don’t want this new slur of reviews to end.
Gloria,
I absolutely agree. If wearing that is showing independence, well, I guess the Puritans were right. I am not saying women aren’t allowed to dress in attractive manner, but that (lack of) length is ridiculous. Then again, the Pistol Annies didn’t mind showing the girls during the “Boys Round Here” video.
But at least her dress isn’t politically/socially regressive!
Why couldn’t Ashley Monroe have been allowed to release “You Ain’t Dolly, You Ain’t Porter” to radio off of “Like a Rose”? Now THAT was a true duet and was all kinds of awesome. Imagine for a moment the elevation that Monroe’s career would have gotten if her song, her duet were released to radio. Sure, FM would try to ignore it because of its true country twang, but I imagine given that Blake Shelton was tied to it, the song would have performed well for Monroe on the internet circuit: iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Pandora, etc.