Album Review – Daryle Singletary’s “There’s Still a Little Country Left”
Beset on all sides, lampooned regularly by popular media, bastardized by its own sons and daughters in the mainstream, sold out by corporations and their governmental cronies, America’s rural culture is under siege by the heartless and misguided march of time like never before. But traditional country artist Daryle Singletary is here to remind you there’s still a little country left, and we’re not talking the artificial fairly-tale tailgate caricaturist version they sell to you on 98.1.
Not necessarily a concept album, but an album that has something to say and is willing to say it forcefully, Daryle Singletary’s There’s Still A Little Country Left rolls up its sleeves and shakes it fists at the onset of cultural erosion happening in and around small towns across the country. And when I say “country,” it can mean the music genre, or the United States. Concerns for both are shared, and sometimes in overlapping fashion, whether it’s directly or indirectly in this new record.
Daryle’s first record in over six years starts out with a protest song called “Get Out Of My Country.” Though you may be concerned this will descend into some anti-immigrant anthem, it’s instead pointed towards the interlopers of the country genre mooching off the hard work of past greats and ruining what country music used to be. Though country protest songs are a dime a dozen these days and this one isn’t particularly exceptional, it does make a difference when an artist with the name recognition of Daryle is singing it.
“There’s Still A Little Country Left” takes a more positive tone, talking about how even though they may be few and far between, there’s still pockets of small town America where the living is easy and you can set your watch to the movements of country folks living how they always have. Other songs reinforce this sentiment like “Sunday Mornin’ Kind of Town,” and there’s songs that speak to the joys (and sorrows) of family life like “Say Hello to Heaven,” “Like Family,” and “So Much Different Than Before.” Daryle also takes the time to delve into other subjects, like the single life songs “Spilled Whiskey” and “Wanna Be That Feeling.”
Perhaps the best song on the album is the one that draws the deepest parallels between the state of music, and the state of the state called “Too Late to Save the World.” But maybe the payoff line, “It may be too late for the world, but can’t we still save country music?” makes this reviewer just a little bit bias. Again, Singletary isn’t just complaining, but tries to add a little bit of positive thinking to an otherwise gloomy assessment.
READ: Daryle Singletary Is Out to Save Country Music with “Too Late to Save the World”
Though Singletary is savvy enough to avoid direct political commentary for the most part, there is a sort of Fox News mood to moments of this album. For some, this will be exactly what they’re looking for, but to other listeners it may make it feel like they’re being preached to. The idea the “state” is coming into small towns and telling them not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance seemed a little too much (though there may be anecdotal stories of this happening somewhere). And though it’s a beautiful version, I’m not sure we needed another rendition of “America, The Beautiful.” It would be great to see Singletary sing this live during the 7th inning, but it makes for a strange album cut.
So does a version of Johnny Paycheck’s “I’m The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised,” sung with Paycheck’s original vocal track as a duet. It doesn’t fit the approach of this album at all, but it was a very fun listen at the end of the record.
Obviously this album is very traditional with lots of fiddle, steel guitar, and twang, and with something to say beyond the songs themselves. Singletary’s voice is strong as ever as well. For those introduced to country music through Luke Bryan, you’ll probably find this a snooze fest. But others will be pumping their fists, and giving thanks someone with a voice is saying the things Daryle Singletary says on There’s Still a Little Country Left.
1 1/2 of 2 Guns Up.
August 3, 2015 @ 6:42 pm
Just got this off of emusic. Will be adding something soon
August 3, 2015 @ 8:31 pm
“For those introduced to country music through Luke Bryan…”
I don’t think any of those people will catch wind of this album, since it’s not being released through Tinder.
August 3, 2015 @ 10:54 pm
Ha!
August 3, 2015 @ 9:43 pm
I feel like his voice has some George Strait and Keith Whitley in it. That’s where you’re wrong from a previous album sounds very similar to Strait.
This album is very nice , ‘Say Hello To Heaven’ is my personal favourite yet there are many great songs.
August 4, 2015 @ 1:01 am
Another underrated 90’s artist with quality. Especially , after the end of his commercial success , all his records in the last 15 years were solid.
August 4, 2015 @ 1:12 am
Eh, this album is mostly little more than “there” to my ears.
Firstly, the high note of the album to me is Singletary’s vocals. He may lack range, but he more than makes up for it in his mesquite, everyman baritone that is a little rugged around the edges which speaks to the wisdom he has gained over the years as he becomes an elder statesman of the format.
I think Singletary sounds best on the tracks that provide him more breathing space and have sparser arrangements: most notably “Say Hello To Heaven” with some well-timed pedal steel and acoustic plucking, “Spilled Whiskey” with a bit more tempo and some hints of blues guitar, and “Enough To Lie To Me”. However, he does handle the shuffles naturally as well, including “Get Out Of My Country” and “I’m The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised”.
*
Instrumentally, this is an album that definitely lives true to the mission statement promised in the album’s title. You have your flourishes of fiddle on the title track and “Like Family”, licks of pedal steel on most tracks and some rolling organ pipe on “Wanna Be That Feeling”. You also get a couple of boot scootin’ honky tonk burners that bookend the album, as well as a greater share of tear-in-your-beer ballads.
Unfortunately, this is where one of my critiques of this album surfaces. As much as the instrumentation is pure country, the production can’t help but feel a bit too pedestrian and cloying the deeper you get into the track listing. Especially after hearing a number of previous Singletary releases like “Ain’t It The Truth” and “All Because of You”……………..where those album’s mid-sections don’t sacrifice tempo variation altogether. “Wanna Be That Feeling” is a notable exception, but can’t help but seem bland in comparison to, say, “My Baby’s Lovin'” or “Liar Liar My Heart’s On Fire” with a decidedly more slicker pop-rock arrangement. Most of the terrain between the album’s bookends consistently follows mid-tempo terrain with a few ballads interspersed in the mix……………and so it does come across sounding a bit too much on the playing-it-safe side.
*
Lyrically, I completely get why Singletary dedicates a lot of the runtime to his concerns and grievances surrounding the usurpation of a cherished American musical community, rural life and the simple things we’ve held dearly and, thus, why this album is heavy on a mix of politics and social consciousness.
However, I’d have to admit my favorite lyrical moments actually come on tracks that don’t deliver as commentaries or polemics. “Say Hello To Heaven” is my personal favorite: a song about the heartbreaking aftermath of a fatal highway accident that I have to say left me in tears in how gut-punching the chorus is in that it not only do they ask the victim while in heaven to tell them his family isn’t mad, but also to forgive the man in the other car responsible for the accident. Whether or not the listener actually thinks the one responsible for the accident in any fatal crash deserves any forgiveness or not, that nuance struck a chord with me and makes the resolve and strong faith the family holds all the more remarkable.
“Enough To Lie To Me” also stands out in its examination of a breakup. Lines like “Now at last I face the truth, and it”™s the truth that finally sets you free, nights like this I wish, someone still cared enough to lie to me…” truly cut deep and chill right to the bone. Singletary absolutely nails that feeling of devastating heartache where being lied to would seem to provide more solace than getting those “plain and simple cold hard facts”. Easily an album standout.
Finally, the story song “Spilled Whiskey” makes for an intriguing listen: not just for its generous amount of steel but keeping your curiosity piqued as to how this barroom rendezvous will stand up (which it doesn’t, of course).
We also get some pleasant, though inessential, songs about growing up in a small town, childhood nostalgia and parenthood as well: though none of them cut particularly deep and just make for passably agreeable listens. With a title like “So Much Different Than Before”, it was disappointing to see the track, both in its lyricism and production, not sell the dramatic superlative weight of it. And “Sunday Mornin’ Kind of Town” is……………….well…………….another dime-a-dozen song, albeit serviceable, that is pretty much an instant giveaway.
Among the tracks laced with social commentary, “Too Late to Save the World” is easily the most successful in that it favors rallying up and speaking empathetically to all disaffected, displaced and disenchanted lovers of America’s heartland over casting stones. The other two tracks are dripping with sincerity and I completely understand where the blend of righteous anger, sadness and cautious hope come from, but come across as lyrically unremarkable and forgettable all the same. If anything, they vaguely remind me of the shortcomings that have plagued Montgomery Gentry’s latter career: which has relied compulsively on interchangeable blue-collar fist-pumping anthems that give their fans the red meat they crave, but relentlessly rely on stock imagery and bumper sticker interjections. Both these songs may be a rung above anything off of the duo’s two most recent albums “Rebels on the Run” and “Folks Like Us”, but then again they can’t help but seem disappointing when sized up to Melody Williamson’s “There’s No Country Here” or most anything Will Hoge has written, that’s all.
*
In the end, “There’s Still A Little Country Left” is a satisfying comeback that will definitely give his fans what they want, and does have its moments. However, it doesn’t strike me as one that will be memorable and inspire listeners to go back to even six months from now, especially in the midst of an impressively competitive and crowded field of “Album of the Year” candidates outside country/”country” music’s mainstream.
I’m thinking 1/4 Guns Up for this or, if going by The Needle Drop’s grading rubric, I’d say a Light to Decent 6 on this.
August 4, 2015 @ 4:31 am
I made this very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.
– Blaise Pascal
August 4, 2015 @ 10:01 am
Very interesting how the investigation surrounding who first uttered that expression is! ^__^
August 4, 2015 @ 7:25 am
However, it doesn”™t strike me as one that will be memorable and inspire listeners to go back to even six months from now
I’m sorry but i will be.
August 4, 2015 @ 10:13 am
That’s great! ^__^
Even noting Singletary’s limited mainstream success, I don’t expect “There’s Still A Little Country Left” will stand up to “All Because of You” and “Ain’t It The Truth” when it comes to essential Singletary releases and/or favorites, or obviously his self-titled debut since it has most of his hits…………..much like I highly doubt “Angels & Alcohol” will for Alan Jackson. I think they’re both good albums, just short of great and memorable. That’s all.
But personal connections to any given album truly matter just as much, and I can understand its appeal! =)
August 4, 2015 @ 8:22 am
Excited to listen to this.
August 29, 2015 @ 5:19 am
Got the album. It’s terrific with a few campy moments. But damn, are there a few 10 out of 10 songs on here! Thanks Trig for putting me on to this. Daryle’s voice is getting greater with time.
December 15, 2016 @ 4:07 pm
I really like the song ‘There’s Still A Little Country Left’. And, I’m actually from Greentown, IN! It might be a small town.(there’s one stoplight). But it’s great! The people really care for one another. And it has that down home feel. I don’t know what made Blake choose to sing about Greentown. But, I’d sure like to here the story!