Randy Rogers Band – “Buy Myself A Chance”

Some who don’t ‘get’ Red Dirt see it as a little more than rock (or, at best, country-rock) with occasional rural preoccupations masquerading as hardcore country. Those people could be forgiven for thinking that this new single from Red Dirt mainstay Randy Rogers Band is just more of the same.

Of course, they would be dead wrong. In fact, “Buy Myself a Chance” is considerably more country than many of the songs currently being played on country radio. For a mainstream release (RRB has been on Mercury Nashville since 2005), it sports a rather surprisingly stripped-down sound featuring just enough instrumentation to keep a nice groove going behind the lovably raspy voice of frontman Randy Rogers without distracting from the lyric. And there’s fiddle–not just once or twice, but throughout the track–that feels like an integral part of the mix.

Rogers plays the part of a barroom good ol’ boy trying to figure out how to woo a woman away from the boring guy who brought her to the dance. His approach is simple enough: “If things don’t work out by the next song/And you’re looking for someone who can dance/I’ll be right over there by the jukebox/Quarter in my hand, trying to buy myself a chance.”

Let’s take a look at that hook, which is likable for a couple reasons. Although the singer is trying to steal someone else’s partner, he doesn’t seem to have an inflated sense of his own worth: He’s buying himself a chance, not a girl. He knows that once he has the chance, it will still be his to lose. Further, we get the sense that he has to buy a chance from the jukebox because he can’t (or doesn’t think he can) muster up the courage to take one for himself by cutting in directly. That element of humility ultimately saves the song from falling into the obtuse machismo of a song like “She’s a Hottie.” In short, this character seems like a decent human being, one with real doubts and fears. He’s not just a one-dimensional caricature of assertive horndoggyness.

Does the world need another barroom come-on? Maybe not. But hopefully country radio can still make room for one as likable and well-executed as this.

Listen: Randy Rogers Band – “Buy Myself A Chance”