Single Reviews
Single Review: Sunny Sweeney, “Staying’s Worse Than Leaving”
This is going to be an unfair criticism, but here it goes.
“Staying’s Worse Than Leaving” is an awesome song. As good as anything I’ve heard lately in terms of lyrics. Mature, realistic, insightful. It’s good stuff.
The production is effective in that “stay out of the way of the song” kind of way, as it is on so many great country records.
Single Review: Jason Aldean, “Dirt Road Anthem”
Few songs have come along that serve such a valid sociological purpose as “Dirt Road Anthem.”
With this single, Jason Aldean pulls back the curtain on the mysterious ways of rural southern society. How fearless of Aldean to allow outsiders this rare glimpse into the social mores and recreational activities of southern youth.
Single Review: Emmylou Harris, “The Road”
The story of Emmylou Harris is well established, the stuff of legend at this point.
She could’ve been Gram Parsons’ harmony singer for the rest of her career and been happy, but she ended up carrying on his legacy instead, becoming a Hall of Famer with the most consistently excellent catalog in country music history.
Single Review: Chris Young, “Tomorrow”
How to put it? I would listen to this man sing about IBS. I would listen to him sing a long-form denunciation of my inherent value as a human being – possibly my mother’s and little sister’s, too. Chris Young’s baritone is like the aural incarnation of warm fuzzies, and most everything it touches/fuzzes goes down easy – even those lame, creaky-hinged Music Row assembly songs scattered across Young’s first two albums.
So, granted: This single was probably going to sound all sexy-cool no matter what. Happily, though, we can all enjoy with a little less cognitive dissonance this time, because “Tomorrow” makes a serious play at substance. Young is finally a radio star now, and he’s using his powers to inject some actual psychological complication back into the format.
Single Review: Martina McBride, “Teenage Daughters”
This is the Martina McBride that I was really into when I was a teenager.
Well partially, at least. I love the huskiness of her voice, which I haven’t heard on record since her Wild Angels artistic peak. There’s none of the earnestness that has characterized her work ever since, and you’d actually have to remix “Teenage Daughters” quite a bit to get it to fit on AC radio.
