Trailer Choir – “Rolling Through The Sunshine”

Three friends named Butter, Big Vinny and Crystal sounds like a team of crime-fighting mice from a mid-‘80s Saturday morning cartoon, but together they are, in fact, Trailer Choir. Up until now, the band is best known for its song, “Rockin’ The Beer Gut,” and the fact that Big Vinny–a 400-plus pound former Sonic manager who wears overalls–can break out The Worm during a concert. That’s a dance move, by the way, and not anything lewd.

With that kind of a track record, it’s hard to take them seriously, and that may account for the group’s failure to have a significant hit. Sure, Brad Paisley and Trace Adkins have had hits with humorous songs, but they’ve got an equal number of somber ballads in their repertoire. Aside from one heavy-handed song about dead coal miners, Trailer Choir has been all about jokes and gimmicks from the start, and it’s tempting to put the trio in the same category as Fast Ryde and Tyler Dean and dismiss them as all schtick, no substance.

Then along comes “Rollin’ in the Sunshine.” No, it’s not a groundbreaking single by any stretch of the imagination. It’s written in the same template that most breezy summer songs use: Life’s really hard right now, but man, the weather’s sure nice! Let’s go for a ride! However, writers Big Vinny and Butter took that old template and turned out a song that’s catchier than most with a few little details–like taking a night class and hand-surfing in the car–that don’t normally pop up in a country song. Butter turns in a pretty smooth vocal performance, and the backing fiddle and accordion give the song just a bit of an always-welcome Cajun feel.

“Rolling Through The Sunshine” isn’t any deeper than Trailer Choir’s other songs. However, “Off The Hillbilly Hook” and “Beer Gut” just seemed like desperate cries for attention, too forced to be truly humorous or stand up to repeated listening. While this song doesn’t seem to have aspirations beyond being a fun summer tune, it strikes a better balance between entertainment and quality. A few more songs like this one, and people might start thinking there’s more to Trailer Choir than The Worm.

Listen: Trailer Choir – “Rolling Through The Sunshine”