Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
It was surprising last year when actress turned country singer Jana Kramer broke through the three-woman world of country radio and managed to score the top 5 hit “Why Ya Wanna.” But it was almost shocking that the song was a fiddle, steel guitar, and twang soaked waltz. This almost revelatory move, she’s the first woman since Taylor Swift to see their debut single chart so high, has come with its share of perks – Kramer is one of 10 artists in CMT’s Next Women of Country Campaign and the ACM just nominated her for Top New Female Vocalist.
In similar fashion to “Why Ya Wanna,” a lament about an always-present ex, follow-up single “Whiskey” casts Kramer as a woman being played, this time by a man as addicting and tantalizing as the titular alcoholic drink. Writers Catt Gravitt and Sam Mizell get every detail right, allowing the listener to feel the protagonist’s catch 22; he’s pulling her in even as she sees all the signs to run in the opposite direction.
While it’s nowhere near the league of “Well the cold hard truth revealed what it had known/that boy was just a walkaway Joe” or “I know you don’t think I should go/there’s some things a mama don’t know,” “Whiskey” is a strong defiant woman song and Kramer sings the fire out of it. Her phrasing may be a tad girlish in places (not unlike Jewel at times), but she has a powerful voice and the twang to covey her character’s heartache.
The production is the track’s real achievement, though. Besides Zac Brown Band, there hasn’t been this much audible fiddle and acoustic guitar on a mainstream single in a long time, and she and producer Scott Hendricks deserve credit for not marring the track with any electric guitars or loud crashing drums. I do wish he’d gone further into neo-traditional territory, leaving out the poppish ‘ooohs’ in the intro and adding in steel guitar, but you can’t fault him for slicking it up just enough to get it airplay. In any event, “Whiskey” is allowed to properly breathe, and it’s a refreshing change of pace from the normal mainstream fare (especially that of her fiancé Brantley Gilbert)
I also can’t help feeling that the lyric is a tad lightweight, centering on the sparks felt during a kiss and leaving out any substantial Gretchen Peters-like details of the damage to her psyche as the disintegration of the relationship brings the song to an end. The writers may’ve gotten the push and pull down, but it would’ve been nice to have a few details (more significant than what we get in the bridge) of her condition in the wake of her intuition being proven right.
But the charming production more than makes up for any lyrical deficiencies, easily elevating “Whiskey” into one of the year’s more interesting singles (and my personal favorite from her debut album). It’s a nice slice of addictive ear candy and another winner from a very promising talent.
Grade: B+
The most prolific of today’s mainstream acts, and the only person around who seems able to release full length albums, with generally all self-written material, on an annual schedule, Toby Keith is back with his latest. The excellent title track is about the secret sorrows of a bar room crowd as imagined by the bartender who concludes, “I’m all they’ve got – hope on the rocks”. The melody is a bit limited, but the lyric is thoughtful and sympathetic. Although Toby wrote every song on the record, it is interesting that this, the only one he composed solo, is by far the best.
The catchy top 20 hit ‘I Like Girls That Drink Beer’ is surprisingly likeable, with its preference for ordinary girls over the wealthy country club lady he is leaving. Like the bulk of the album’s selections, it is a co-write by Toby with Bobby Pinson.
The best of these is ‘Haven’t Seen The Last Of You’, a reflective depiction of the aftermath of a failed relationship which also benefits from pretty harmonies from Mica Roberts. Set a bit further down the line, ‘Missed You Just Right’ is also pretty good, with the protagonist having finally moved on from an unsatisfactory ex, and found the real love of his life as a result.
‘Get Got’ offers some highly cliche’d life advice (although the warning not to “mix whiskey with decision” is certainly a good tip for anyone who hasn’t already figured that out), and the arrangement and production are too loud. The hard living trucker’s confession, ‘Haven’t Had A Drink All Day’ is also too loud although it isn’t a bad song with plenty of energy.
‘Cold Beer Country’, written by Keith, Pinson and Marc Fortney of Trailer Choir, is a cheerful paean to hot summer days drinking beer, with a Dixieland jazz opening reminiscent of some of Haggard’s work in that style. This might work as a summer single.
Scotty Emerick co-wrote the downbeat ‘You Ain’t Alone’, depicting a lonely man brooding over the departure of his loved one, which is not bad. ‘The Size I Wear’ (written with Rivers Rutherford) is one of Keith’s rather clumsy, sexist, barely post-adolescent attempts at humor, which probably works better for a male audience than it does for me. He and Rutherford also wrote the rather better ‘Scat Cat’. This is a fairly interesting tale of a family moonshine operation and escaping the law, with a bluesy groove which I enjoyed.
Grade: B
My Kind of Country 