Justin Moore – “Backwoods”

Anyone want to give an over/under on how many posts it will take someone to tell Julie she’s wrong because the song is vooming up the charts?

That picture makes him look like a wife beater and white trash. Or maybe that is the image he and the record label are going for.

I just realized that the chorus in “Small Town U.S.A” mentions him having his “baby by my side” while the chorus in “Backwoods” references him holding his baby tight.

Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt and, rather than assume he has already ran out of topical ideas lyrically, he references his child in the former and his wife in the latter? :P

Ugh. This song MIGHT be worse than “She’s Country”. What in God’s good name is with all these ridiculous “Country Cliche” songs lately??? It’s like everyone sat around listening to Ricochet’s debut album before recent writing sessions.

I’m not from the south – I’m from Canada – so I have no clue what it’s like in the Southern States, other than what I’ve gleaned from Country songs over the years. Can all of this REALLY be accurate???

I totally agree with the poster who said that record labels and Country radio like to “make fun of people from the south”. I mean, my goodness, even Rodney Atkins “That’ What I Love About The South” was better than this tripe, and Rodney can’t sing!!

Oi Vey!

And why is all of this stuff exclusive to “backwoods” in the South among “hicks?” I just got off the phone with my mamma and my daddy killed his deer and she doesn’t know what to do because the freezer is full of the 2 pigs they killed last week and my sister still has her bear tag. And we’re from Oregon. And three of the four of us have college educations. So maybe one of these song writers could, I don’t know, actually live in a rural area. Or talk to someone who lives there. Or talk to someone who has driven through one once.

“Sounds like a John Rich production… that’s not a good thing…”

I don’t like him at all, but he did a good job producing Jewel’s album

Sometimes I think songs like this and “Redneck Woman” and “Bonfire” and “High Tech Redneck” are so bad they are good.

But not always. I’ve long had a love/hate relationship with country music. Listening to it brings me some enjoyment, but I always feel guilty, as if I should be spending my time with something more substantial than George Jones weepers or Joe Diffie novelties or cliche-ridden songs about the country. Even at its best country is just mindless entertainment and while I guess that’s okay for background noise in my car, I sometimes feel bad that I listen to it so much.

Hey now, no need to knock Ricochet.

Love the “Knoxville Girl treatment” comment. Maybe Justin should have done a murder ballad list song instead? Hmm…

I think the label is guessing that on the heels of Justin’s #1 hit they can get away with darn near anything. Once the soccer mom audience has accepted a new artist on Top 40 country radio by getting him into the #1 spot, then the quality standards can drop dramatically and still yield good results. Randy Houser proved this by going from “Anything Goes” to “Boots On”. Now Justin’s just hoping to repeat that process. If the Top 40 radio audience craves musical mediocrity, why fight it?

John Rich haters huh? heh…well not surprised…i must disagree. he is one of the best songwriters out there today. the albums he’s produced have been hella good too. i must admit his debut album was a little less than what he could have put out…and his voice definitely doesnt sound as pure without the growl of big kenny…but all in all good album. that’s besides the point thought. the man is a hell of a songwriter and producer.

/end speech

Juli,

Where might you be from? Just wondering.

I thought the production on Shutting Detroit Down was fantastic, just a wimpy vocal and not-great lyric let the song down.
Rich has plenty of faults, but I rate him pretty highly as a producer. Not Frank Rogers highly, but pretty highly.

…questions don’t get any better by repeating them or increasing the number of question marks.

Waynoe: Could it be that the liberals are simply better writers?

Also, Julie is from a magical land in the 6th demension where people keep miniutre sheep for pets and poodles roam wild in the countryside.

Oh boy! Comedic fodder to go with my morning coffee.

Stormy,
SeriouslY? I assume not.

Wayno,
Seriously? I assume not.

Leeann: On the one side you have Kris Kristofferson and Rodney Crowell and on the other Toby Keith and this crap.

Stormy,

I see that the word “crap” is only associated with Toby Keith and not Kris or Rodney. Hmmmm.

You do realize Toby Keith is a self-professed Democrat and voted for Obama, right? And you realize that political affiliation is independent of the ability to write quality songs, right?

Toby claims to have re-registered as an independent due to his shock and horror at liberals’ mean attacks on the honor of poor, defenseless Sarah Palin. To wit: http://tinyurl.com/4en4rh

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him say it before, but I’ll back away from that if it’s unverified, although re-registering doesn’t really negate anything or make him a conservative.

Anyhow, that’s all beside the point, which is how ridiculous it is to compare the output of selected songwriters and make any sort of declarative statements related to quality based on political affiliation.

Artists tend to be liberal. Country music is the exception that proves the rule.

“Small Town USA” went to Number ONE???? God help us all!

I’m in agreement with Brady and Leeann that it is puerile suggesting a political ideology makes naturally born superior songwriters than those that follow another ideology.

I’ll just come out and say Moore’s “Good Ole American Way” is an atrociously awful song, and it would be no less or more awful if Steve Earle had written it.

Stormy,

Now that you have thrown the covers off and revealed your true inner liberal self, you cannot give any kind of review or comment that will be taken seriously. You are another politically correct person that is so skewed.

Case in point. I am a “flaming” conservative but have always liked Emmylou Harris.

Do you actually mean that we should recruit Steve Earle? You are kidding aren’t you?

By the way Toby won the artist/songwriter of the decade.

I personally get tired of the beer/bar songs of his but I also tire of Earl’s rants of which he is very unqualified to give.

By the way Juli, where did you say you were from?

Waynoe:
I revealed my true inner liberal self? My inner liberal self was about as closeted as Adam Lambert.

The reason you like Emmylou Harris is because he is a good songwriter and singer. Toby Keith, on the other hand, wrote “She’s a Hottie” and he needed help doing it. Seek out and support better conservative songwriter and you will be surprised how much less criticism they get. It never fails to surprise me that, especially in the mainstream, conservative fans are willing to tirelessly advocate for the most mudane and even poorly written lyrics. Its not like liberals are praising Rodney Crowell for writing “Obama’s great/head of state/don’t be late/he’s really great.”

I think it’s kind of frightening that you’re demanding to know where Juli’s from, Wayno.

Waynoe: You support good songwriting. You wonder why Toby Keith and John Rich get criticisized. Those two sentances do not seem to go together.

If it doesn’t matter where I’m from, then it doesn’t matter where Juli is from, which was the point. It wasn’t all that snide, but either way, it’s the truth.

I think Juli was born in Kenya. If only she would produce the birth certificate we could settle this!

How does someone’s political beliefs have anything to do with how good of a songwriter they are?

I’m socialist, does that automatically make me a bad songwriter?

Ok Yall need to just back off because all of his songs are AWESOME OK. Just because ya’ll don’t know what country is, ya’ll don’t need to go around saying crap about Justin. I know him personally and if he reads this he will be so mad and upset. O and by the way the Backwoods is awesome. So just back off, leave him alone.
And whoever this Colt person is, is TOTALLY wrong about the Backwoods.

Steve, this ain’t Justin