Review: Tracy Lawrence Does It For The Love

For The Love is a classic Tracy Lawrence album, so classic that it almost feels like you’ve heard the songs on previous albums. He’s found the recipe for creating solid records and he hasn’t wavered from it. There’s nothing that stands out as much as past hits like “Paint Me a Birmingham” and “Time Marches On”, but I still wouldn’t be surprised to hear a few of these tracks get some airplay on radio.

The album begins and ends with “Find Out Who Your Friends Are”, however Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney join Trace Lawrence on the ending version (I guess that has something to do with them being real friends?). You can pretty much tell from the title what the song is about; finding out who your real friends are when times aren’t at their best.

“You Can’t Hide Redneck” is one of the catchier tunes on the album. It’s about embracing your redneck tendencies instead of trying to cover them up, because no matter what you try you can’t fool people. The song is pretty simple when taken at face value, but the basic principle “if you can’t beat it, embrace it” can be applied to circumstances other than being a redneck.

The song I can see having the most success is the title track, “For The Love”. Tim McGraw Brad Arnold (thanks DeAnn) joins Lawrence on this song about every guy doing his job because it’s what he loves.

For the love they live for the love they die
No higher calling in this life
There’s nothing they can’t rise above
Cause it’s not about rich it’s not about poor
Counting the cost and keeping score
They do it for the love

Overall it’s a solid album that deserves some attention. He gets props from me for his use of traditional country instruments and sticking to his roots. It’s a shame he won’t get more recognition since his music is more country than the majority of music being played on country radio today.