Comments on: Gretchen Wilson - “You Don’t Have To Go Home”

By: Funk

Funk — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:27:24 +0000

I didn’t say anything when this was first posted but I have gone back and listened to Wilson’s “You Don’t Have To To Home” several times. My opinion hasn’t changed or even mellowed. It’s not good music. It’s the kind of filler we get on albums all the time. It’s a waste of time and money.

By: Country Singer/Songwriters Are Hot Investments -- The 9513

Country Singer/Songwriters Are Hot Investments -- The 9513 — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:46:11 +0000

[...] Wilson’s latest single, “You Don’t Have To Go Home,” released way back in September, is showing some surprising legs at radio. In the past seven [...]

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:55:51 +0000

I’m always amused when I’m told the same on my blog, given that it’s my blog. Am I supposed to fire myself, or cut my salary down from zero?

By: Chris N.

Chris N. — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:29:45 +0000

Having been on the receiving end of many such demands, I’m always struck by the cavalier way in which some readers will insist that a critic be fired for a review with which he or she disagrees. Do I go to their workplace and complain to the manager about the way they prepare the fries?

By: Jim Malec

Jim Malec — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:04:00 +0000

Debbie–I have seen Gretchen perform live, but this review is not a review of Gretchen’s live show.

As far as her label not promoting her…give me a break. Wilson was, at a point within the last couple of years, on a short-list of top-tier artists. If the label bailed on her, there’s a reason.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:36:51 +0000

obviously you havent been to a Gretchen wilson concert.People dance in their seats and sing along to her songs. Its her record label that doesnt promote her music.If she got a new record label she would zoom to the top and then you would have to eat your words.She is one awesome singer and performer and no one is gonna change that.I agree you need to get a new job and leave this job to the people that know what they are talking about.

By: Chris N.

Chris N. — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:43:28 +0000

“Was the country music of the 1980s really any less pop than today’s country music? Of course not.”

I have long regarded Dan Seals’ “Bop” (1985) as the least “country” song ever to top the country chart (and win the CMA Single of the Year award).

By: Jim Malec

Jim Malec — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:03:36 +0000

I’d like to make a couple of points in response.

1) If we were to go back and look at the charts from the last three or four years, I think we’d find that there has been a considerable up-tick in the amount of “traditional” sounding songs that are being recorded and released (when compared to the five, six, or seven years prior).

2) That said, I think the entire argument that Gretchen isn’t getting played on country radio because she’s “too country” is a major league cop-out. Again, if we look back at the charts, I think we’ll find that country radio is starving for “traditional” sounding songs.

But an artist like Sunny Sweeney sits far outside the mold of the “traditional” sound. Those artists are trying to sound “traditional,” and the result is a record that is jarring.

I wonder if the argument that contemporary pop-country has destroyed the “traditional” artists is based more on passion than it is on fact. Country music has been changing for the last 60 years (more, really), and it will continue to change. Was the country music of the 1980s really any less pop than today’s country music? Of course not.

But it’s easy to blame Shania, Faith, and Rascal Flatts.

3) Bottom line: Gretchen Wilson is not getting played on country radio because her recent releases have been very weak.

“You Don’t Have To Go Home” has zero redeeming qualities. It doesn’t have a story, it doesn’t have a hook, you can’t dance to it, and Gretchen doesn’t sing it well. That makes it a bad song, as far as I’m concerned. and it doesn’t matter if you’re Merle Haggard or Mickey Gilley or Randy Travis, or Rascal Flatts–if you send bad songs to radio, most of the time radio will not play them.

And when I review music, I don’t care if people call you pop-country, traditional, bluegrass, etc. I am a big-tent guy…I believe there’s room for all kinds of country music. But I have no patience–no patience–for any kind of bad country music.

Any person is, of course, free to disagree with my application of the term “bad”.

By: Paul W Dennis

Paul W Dennis — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 02:55:54 +0000

There are plenty of female singers puttting out real Country music such as Sunny Sweeney, Karla Crawford, Erin Hay & Amber Digby, although I agree that the Nashville labels are putting out relatively little of it. I like Wilson, but she is at a crucial point in her career

By: Katherine

Katherine — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 02:42:57 +0000

I think if these so called music reviewers would really listen to Gretchen’s latest CD …One of the boys, they would see an incredible sign of growth, both vocally and as a song writer. She has taken us on a journey through the last couple years, which at times hasn’t been pretty and hasn’t been an emotional high, but once again in my opinion has delivered an awesome mix of songs, some to make us smile, some to make us cry and some just to toss back a few and forget about our troubles. Personally my favorite is “Pain Killer”, you can’t get anymore country then that song! So Mr Jim, I suggest you take another listen, and listen without bias or what you think should be classified as real country, because as far as singers today, Gretchen Wilson is the only one right now putting out real country music!