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James House – “I Love You Man”
Songwriters: Don Cook, James House, Curly Putnam and Rafe Van Hoy.
“Written by committee” is a standard put-down for jumbled songs so chock-full of cliches without any sort of concentrated focus that it’s easy to imagine a room full of songwriters throwing proverbial darts at a lyrical dartboard in search of easily digestible, commercially viable [...] -
Gwen Sebastian – “Hard Rain”
Songwriters: Jason Jones & Brett Jones.
One of country music’s greatest strengths is its realism. All the joys, sorrows and experiences of life are presented right there, on country radio, in a manner to which everyone can relate. For example, everyone I know who’s from a small, backwoods hick town constantly waxes poetic about general [...] -
Lee Ann Womack – “There Is A God”
Songwriters: Christopher DuBois & Ashley Gorley.
Exactly one year ago, Lee Ann Womack released a collection of whiskey-and-heartbreak laced neo-traditional country music that included songs about bars, dying relationships and domestic abuse. That collection, titled Call Me Crazy, was masterfully sung, beautifully recorded, splendidly arranged, wonderfully written, and, of course, a complete commercial failure.
Maybe a major [...] -
Toby Keith – “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)”
Songwriter: Toby Keith
Before his life was cut short by cancer at age 44, Wayman Tisdale had made a name for himself in two pretty diverse fields: professional basketball and jazz. He’d also been a long-time friend of Toby Keith, who sang a song on Tisdale’s last album and wrote this song days after Tisdale’s death [...]Continue reading "Toby Keith – “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)”"
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Bucky Covington – “Gotta Be Somebody”
Songwriters: Chad Kroeger and Nickelback.
Nobody was more excited than Bucky Covington when Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger showed up as a co-writer on the lead single to what will likely be Tim McGraw’s last album for Curb Records. “Nickelback is country, Nickelback is country!” Covington shouted as he dashed out into the streets, embracing strangers and [...] -
Buddy Jewell – “Somebody Who Would Die For You”
Songwriters: Mark Narmore & Adam Wheeler.
As Roni Stoneman says, “When you’re hot, you’re hot. When you’re not, you can’t give it away.” Sad but true, and, unfortunately, that’s likely to be the fate of Buddy Jewell’s new single “Somebody Who Would Die For You.” Jewell is now 48 years old and hardly and example of [...]Continue reading "Buddy Jewell – “Somebody Who Would Die For You”"
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Aaron Watson – “The Road”
Songwriter: Elliot Park
There are umpteen “road” songs out there, but few are told from the road’s point of view. After all, what’s a slab of asphalt got to say? Turns out the road is full of tough love, telling its travelers “I offer many choices and places you can go/But you must choose/I’m just the [...] -
Trent Tomlinson – “Angels Like Her”
Songwriters: Aaron Barker, Arlos Smith and Trent Tomlinson.
The popular thematic contrast of “heaven and hell” has long been a way for songwriters to tie together the dichotomy of human life into one nicely alliterative phrase: While “heaven” covers small country churches, family time and blissful courtships, “hell” represents the bars, whiskey, heartbreak and regret that [...] -
Rodney Atkins – “Chasin’ Girls”
Songwriters: Rodney Atkins, Steven Dean and Owen Hewitt.
Somewhere, someplace, ex-Lonestar frontman Richie McDonald is banging his head against a wall in perfect rhythm with Rodney Atkins’ latest single “Chasin’ Girls.”
As one of the early pioneers of a the modern family-focused sub-genre of country music sometimes affectionately referred to as “sippy cup country,” McDonald is probably [...] -
Gretchen Wilson – “Work Hard, Play Harder”
Though she’s had pretty good album sales the past few years, it seems as though Gretchen Wilson’s may have worn out her welcome with country radio; her last two singles, “If I Could Do It All Again” and “The Earrings Song” failed to chart at all. But Wilson’s nothing if not a scrapper, so she’s [...]
Continue reading "Gretchen Wilson – “Work Hard, Play Harder”"
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