Josh Thompson – “Beer on The Table”

Unless you have a job like “ice cream taste-tester” or “country music journalist,” you probably have the occasional day where you’re not too wild about your line of work. But you toil for the man night and day to make money to spend on more enjoyable things. In Josh Thompson’s “Beer on the Table,” those things are booze and lotto tickets.

Thompson, a 30-something Wisconsin native, is best known for co-writing the title track of Jason Michael Carroll’s latest album, Growing Up Is Getting Old; now he’s on the other side of the microphone with his self-penned debut single.

The lyrics lean toward cringe-inducing, with couplets like “Eggs and bacon in my belly and a Folger’s coffee buzz/Good ol’ radar detector, it protects me from the fuzz,” but Thompson does a fine job on his delivery. His voice—reminiscent of Tim McGraw circa “Down on the Farm”—separates him from the five or six interchangeable young male rock-influenced country singers on the radio, though the song’s subject matter, and its production, courtesy of Jason Aldean’s producer, Michael Knox, places him firmly in that camp (this can be a good or bad thing, depending on the listener).

The arrangement, also vaguely reminiscent of early ’90s Tim McGraw, isn’t perfect: the banjo gets overpowered by drums and electric guitar during the chorus, but it’s easy to see the song’s appeal. Who doesn’t love a drinking song? Sure, “Beer on the Table” is the Bud Light of drinking songs, but it gets the job done.

Should Thompson continue down this road with subsequent singles (or worse, release an “I’m So Country” song next), the schtick will soon wear thin, but right now, this is a nice, lighthearted introduction to a new face.

Listen: Josh Thompson – “Beer on the Table”