Comments on: Gary Allan – “She’s So California”

By: Richard Burgess

Richard Burgess — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:56:04 +0000

This song goes beyond just country music. It is a great song. Try playing it right after Tom Petty’s free fallin and see how the two fit snuggly together. Cool and hip.

By: Bobby

Bobby — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:29:06 +0000

Ugh. I like the sound but the lyrics are boring. EVERY FREAKING LINE is “She’s a __________, she’s a ________, she’s a _______” over and over again. That, and I want to strangle the next writer who decides to rhyme “warn ya” with “Calif—” wait, I already said that.

By: Mirandas2cool

Mirandas2cool — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:13:41 +0000

Really like this song. Like Todd said he really knows how to deliver and sell his songs. And about the wildfire thing, i really dont think hes trivializing it. Hes probably lived through one.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:48:13 +0000

Great song, was hoping he’d release the title track or Like It’s A Bad Thing but every song on the album has hit potential.

By: Sunday Morning Comment Corral & Forum Roundup, Issue #4 | The 9513

Sunday Morning Comment Corral & Forum Roundup, Issue #4 | The 9513 — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:20:29 +0000

[...] Gary Allan — “She’s So California” [...]

By: Todd

Todd — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:57:01 +0000

Ben you may have a point in regards to Gary’s song, but as Cynthia said wildfires are a part of living in California and I don’t think this song trivializes the danger too much. In regards to Kenny’s song, I didn’t even notice the lyric you noted until you quoted it(probably because I have turned off the radio by that point). I don’t think that lyric was specific enough to New Orleans to really say it was insensitive. Also remember that when this song was climbing the charts levees were failing all over the Midwest during the floods and that didn’t seem to have a detrimental effect on the songs chart position.

By: Cynthia Allgood

Cynthia Allgood — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:35:20 +0000

Ben, what an interesting point you make about Gary singing about wildfires, when it’s obvious to you that he shouldn’t be. How about all of the anti-war, anti-terrorist songs that came out after 9/11? Don’t you think that some people were put off by those songs, rather than embraced them?

I don’t think Gary is trying to be controversial, or trying to stir up emotions in people. Just as peaches are a part of Georgia, wildfires are a part of California.

By: Hollerin' Ben

Hollerin' Ben — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:50:48 +0000

on a side note, noone else thinks the wildfire thing is one of those “dude, too soon” moments? Is it a Southern California thing or what?

some stats
California Wildfires destroyed 1500 homes last year, caused approx 1,000,000 people to evacuate (the largest in US history), and were visible from space.

I mean, maybe I’m a softy, I also thought Chesney’s “like a levy breaks” was WAY WAY WAY too soon.

but yeah, wildfires man, they aren’t just for the wilderness anymore.

see for yourselves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_wildfires_of_October_2007

plus, he’s releasing this right at the start of fire season!!!!!

it’s crazy man.

By: Todd

Todd — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:34:57 +0000

I can see the comparison some of you are making between this song and the new Dierks Bentley single and Kellie Pickler’s songs, and to me the reasons this song is head and shoulders above those songs are….
1. this song is much better written than the other used as examples, the imagery is very vivid in Allan’s song, much more viid than in the other songs.
2. Allan’s delivery of the lyrics is very powerful. In my opinion the delivery sounds as if Gary can relate to the subject of the song and that really reaches out and grabs the listener through his vocal delivery. As for the other songs mentioned, I haven’t heard Kellie’s songs enough to comment on those but I have noticed in “Feel That Fire”, Dierks’ vocal seems flat,like he’s just there recording a song and nothing else. Thats not saying I think Dierks is a bad artist,in fact I really like him, it’s just that I believe he failed to make a connection with that particular song.

I don’t believe this is anywhere near Gary’s best song but I do think it is second best on “Living Hard” behind “Watching Airplanes”, and compared to other singles out on Mainstream Radio I believe it really stands out.

By: Blake Boldt

Blake Boldt — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:15:28 +0000

The only comparison I wished to make about Allan and Pickler (again, Pickler can be interchangeable with a number of her fellow contemporary country artists) was that you devoted a paragraph to experience and past knowledge. Yes, Allan has more talent than Pickler and can use these events to his benefit in his music, but it never explains why the listener should feel that way. Is it the vocal? Is it the way he interprets certain lines? Etc. The argument’s based on this persona and experience alone. I called out the review for not making that connection, but overall I think we’d make the same conclusion that the song is not world-class, but that Allan is a terrific artist who infuses it with just the right amount of feeling and conncetion to the material.

I’ll admit, the opinion I’ve put forth here is a nuanced one–it moves that a song can be both strong and weak at the same time and based on the same issues. As you spend more time writing, I think you’ll see that things are not simply “good” or “bad”, “black” or “white.”

Striking up a conversation on this subject is my affirmation that this is both a worthy and interesting topic to debate and that you have the intelligent perspective to commentate on this song and the genre as a whole. I would’ve never entered into a detailed discussion of a three-minute country song without a respect for your excellent writing and your knowledge and passion for country music. The suggestions made in this paragraph imply that these feelings aren’t reciprocal.