Articles by Kevin John Coyne
Single Review: Kenny Chesney, “The Boys of Fall”
Chesney’s made a career out of nostalgia trips like this one. Here, he’s reminiscing for the glory of being on the high school football team. He’s been down this road before, more times than I can count at this point.
But I dare say this one’s just a little different. Chesney sounds older, much older. Not wiser, mind you. Just older.
Single Review: Danny Gokey, “I Will Not Say Goodbye”
There’s the core of a good song idea here. Really. And he’s singing from the heart, clearly addressing this song to his late wife. It’s hard not to feel guilty criticizing this record.
But I’m gonna have to do it anyway. If I didn’t already know Gokey’s back story, I’d think he was just trying to imitate Rascal Flatts. Listen to the chorus, which he sings like it’s a carbon copy of the verse from “What Matters Most.” In that hit, it was “I’m not a-fraid to cry, every now, and again, even though, with going on, with you gone, still upsets me.” In this song, it’s “I will laugh, I will cry, shake my fist, at the sky, I will not say goodbye.”
Single Review: Reba McEntire, “Turn On the Radio”
How to review this new Reba McEntire single?
I could…
A. Write something short and not particularly clever:
Turn off the radio!
B. Moan that this is a record beneath the talents of a future/should already be present Country Music Hall of Famer:
Why is the great voice that brought us “You Lie” and “Somebody Should Leave” singing this?