Album Review – Ernest’s “Nashville, Tennessee”
You don’t really need a conventional album review to help navigate you through or understand Ernest’s 26-song treatise, Nashville, Tennessee. What you need is a road map, a sherpa, someone to point your nose to the mounds of treasure, while navigating past the land mines and booby traps that you encounter along the way. It’s an adventure to say the least.
Ernest’s Nashville, Tennessee is a staunch and starkly traditional country album. It’s unquestionably the most traditional album that has been released in the mainstream in years, or maybe in the last decade or two, and perhaps the most traditional country album that will hit shelves in all of 2024, from a mainstream or independent artist. And since there are 26 tracks, it’s almost like two traditional country albums instead of one … until it’s not.
Interspersed with rather incredible and inspired specimens of traditional country, other more classic throwback-style country songs, and even examples of bluegrass-inspired country and straight up Western Swing, Nashville, Tennessee serves up some of the seediest examples of post Bro-Country-era Southern pop pablum pandering for radio play, perhaps rendering the entire listening experience problematic for purists, and positively impossible to define as an album overall.
Nashville, Tennessee isn’t really album. It’s more like a dump of songs from Ernest’s hard drive with little or no attention paid to sequencing or flow, and even less effort expended to try and convey a cohesive expression, theme, or story. But what can’t be ignored is the majority of songs are exquisitely written and inspired, and are 10s on a 10 to 1 scale of country-sounding songs—10 being Mark Chesnutt, and 1 being Beyoncé.
A true Nashville native who was born and raised in Music City, Ernest started in the country rap scene, and came up in the industry writing songs for Sam Hunt and Florida Georgia Line. He’s best known now as one of the right-hand writers and collaborators with Morgan Wallen along with the HARDY. It’s is these three guys who basically are defining mainstream country in 2024, for better or worse.
All of this history is the reason that many traditional country fans won’t even give a passing sniff to Nashville, Tennessee, or perhaps they got a snoot full of him live and won’t be back. But you truly have to shove all of those prior experiences to the side. We first heard Ernest’s dramatic shift toward traditional country on the extended version of his debut album, Flower Shops (The Album): Two Dozen Roses. On the new album, Ernest doubles and triples down on committing to that sound.
It isn’t just the sound though, it’s the writing. Whatever bug Ernest caught, he’s zeroed in on the purest of country influences, and can stamp out solid country gold with improbable ease and frequency. Along with a solo write and a couple of covers, Ernest also gets assists from Dean Dillon on a couple of songs, and records a song co-written by Chris Stapleton.
The Stapleton-written “You Don’t Have to Die” is a superlative composition. So is “Bars on My Heart” that Ernest wrote with Mark Holman and Nicolle Galyon. Nashville, Tennessee is some of the best traditional country music you can find. Ernest even knows how to take traditional country cliché’s, and still make quality songs from them—the mark of a truly gifted writer. This is what he pulls off on “Dollar To Cash,” which weaves in the names of old school country stars in the lyrics, but in a way that actually works and remains reverent.
As easy as it is for some traditionalists to hate on Ernest, they love to hate on Jelly Roll even more. But the opening song of the album “I Went To College / I Went To Jail” is hard to hate on with an open mind. “Would If I Could” in collaboration with Lainey Wilson is another gem, co-written by Dean Dillon. With very few performers actually cutting traditional country songs, there is an incredible inventory of them for someone like Ernest to pick off the shelf. He takes full advantage of that on this album.
The first four songs on the album are straight traditional country. But when you get to the 5th track of the album, “Hangin’ On” featuring Morgan Wallen, you feel yourself falling back to reality. Tracks 16 to 24 of the album are the soft spot, where radio singles and contemporary production completely contrast with the rest of the album’s material. Songs like “Small Town Goes” and “Sayin’ You Love Me” are textbook examples of post Bro-Country radio schlock, and makes you wonder where you took the wrong turn.
Lucky for you, there is a list at the bottom of this review with small genre-based descriptions of each song and a score from 1 to 10 on how “country” the songs are. You can’t overlook that a majority of the tracks score 10 out of 10, including the first four of the album, ten of the first twelve, and twelve of the first fifteen. One saving grace is most of the bad tracks are back loaded, while the album also concludes strong with two of its best traditional songs.
If you listen to Morgan Wallen’s last album, you’ll hear some straight up traditional country songs too, but the ratio is completely inverted. That’s not only what makes Ernest and Nashville, Tennessee so unique, it’s also what makes it so important in the grand scheme of things. If you need any further proof that mainstream popular country is making a dramatic, perhaps historic shift towards traditional sounds, there is no better example than this album. And because it still includes moments of pop country, it verifies that it’s still from and for the mainstream country beast.
And interestingly, there are absolutely no 808 beats (electronic drums) on this album whatsoever. That in itself makes the impact of this album seismic in many respects. Meanwhile, steel guitar is all over these songs, including many of the bad ones.
Nonetheless, many traditional country fans would rather hear N.W.A. than pop country. Though some might think pop country and traditional country are cousins, in truth they’re polar opposites. This means Ernest has populated this album with poison pills that will put him at odds with large portions of the primary audience the majority of these songs will appeal to. Also, Ernest doesn’t have a voice that’s especially tooled for traditional county.
But make no mistake about it, Nashville, Tennessee isn’t just full of excellent traditional country songs, it a symbol of the genre’s shifting sound and significant movements back toward the heart of country, and from one of the individuals who was partly responsible for the shift away from it in the previous era, and primarily responsible for writing some of the most popular songs currently in the country genre.
1 3/4 Guns Up (7.5/10)
Score is based off of combining all the individual song scores (195), and the top possible score (260), and coming to the percentage of 75%. See individual song scores below.
1. “I Went To College / I Went To Jail (feat. Jelly Roll)” – Two-tone Outlaw traditional country (10)
2. “Ain’t As Easy” – Traditional country (10)
3. “Why Dallas (feat. Lukas Nelson)” – Western swing (10)
4. “One More Heartache” – Classic country (10)
5. “Hangin’ On (feat. Morgan Wallen)” – Post Bro-Country buzzword-centric modern pop country (3)
6. “Did It For The Story” – Metro radio contemporary pop country with some steel guitar (3)
7. “How’d We Get Here” – Classic Nashville country (10)
8. “Never Said I Love You” – Modern Daryle Singletary/Jake Worthington-style traditional country (10)
9. “Would If I Could (feat. Lainey Wilson)” – Modern traditional country (10)
10. “Honkytonk Fairytale” – Modern traditional country (10)
11. “Smokin’ Gun” – Bluegrass-inspired classic country (10)
12. “Twinkle, Twinkle [Live at Fenway Park] (feat. Ryman Saint)” – A capella lullaby sung with Ernest’s son (10)
13. “Life Goes On” – Decently-written modern radio country with prominent steel guitar (7)
14. “If You Don’t Know By Now” – Modern traditional country (10)
15. “You Don’t Have To Die” – Modern traditional country (10)
16. “Redneck Sh*ttt” – Terrible ’90s-sounding rap rock with an attempt at country lyricism, though maybe useful as a guilty pleasure (1)
17. “Small Town Goes” – Straight Bro-Country with list lyrics and some steel guitar (3)
18. “Kiss of Death” – A true fusion of traditional country with rootsy instrumentation, mixed with modern radio country writing and lyrical phrasing. (6)
19. “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room” – Chris Stapleton-style baby making country with heavy steel guitar (7)
20. “Ain’t Too Late” – ’90s pop rock with glimmers of twang in the guitar tracks (5)
21. “Sayin’ You Love Me” – Horrible Morgan Wallen-style post Bro-Country (2)
22. “Summertime Flies” – Bad radio pandering Southern pop not redeemed by a cheesy steel guitar part (2)
23. “Ain’t Right, Ain’t Wrong” – Understated traditional country with modern radio sensibilities (8)
24. “Creep (feat. HARDY)” – Radiohead cover rendered as a traditional country song (8)
25. “Bars On My Heart” – Modern traditional country (10)
26. “Dollar To Cash” – Modern traditional country (10)
April 18, 2024 @ 7:51 am
Just curious: Are you planning to do individual song scoring for all reviews? Is this how you’ve always gotten to your out of ten scores? Also does the guns up score indicate anything different than the out of ten score? Thanks for all your work.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:03 am
I rarely do individual song scores. But when you have an album like this that is so hard to navigate through, I figured it would be a good way to point people to what is good and what they possibly might avoid. For the record, the song scores here are based more on how “country” the tracks are, not necessarily the quality of them, though these two things often overlap on this album.
“Guns Up” was the original way I scored albums. Sometimes I still use it, sometimes I don’t. I try to keep my scores a bit ambiguous because I’d rather people focus on the body of the review where the best summation of the album is located, though I understand that scores also give folks a quick way to decide if they want to give an album a shot, or not.
April 18, 2024 @ 9:59 am
Really appreciate you taking the time with individual reviews on this one, Trig. Super helpful.
April 19, 2024 @ 6:14 am
Slow Dancing is a John Mayer cover…
April 18, 2024 @ 8:01 am
Gosh, I love this! (I am so ashamed.) haha Thanks for the review.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:08 am
This feels like another attempt at camouflaging a turd. Whole thing is overproduced to the point of being unlistenable and there’s been much better country songs already released this year than anything found on this bloated nightmare of an album.
April 19, 2024 @ 9:09 am
Lol….no serious, reasonable person will listen to “Ain’t As Easy” and so many others on this record and call it “overproduced” or a “bloated nightmare of an album”…good grief lol.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:14 am
Toured studio B a few weeks ago and the tour guide was talking about the Nashville Sound and its impact at the time.
He said
“If you’re someone who thinks Nashville is ruining country music, at least be consistent and say we’ve been ruining it for 70 years”
I’ve thought about that a lot since he said it.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:42 am
With a little more effort and attention to sequencing the tracks, Ernest could have made this an album that illustrates Nashville’s influence on country music through the years. As the rare Nashville native in country, he also has the cred to be able to pull something like that off. But that doesn’t really feel like what’s happening here. Little or no respect was paid to the album concept or a cohesive listening experience.
April 18, 2024 @ 9:25 am
I’ve always thought something like that would be a cool concept album, although I was thinking about an album that shifts in style slowly over time, but I really like that Nashville focus. Allows for pop country radio singles that studios want while creating something really interesting.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:18 am
I appreciate this article. It will make me give some of these songs a chance. Though I hate that I can’t just let the album flow. I like albums! I like when albums are coherent and flow and you can feel like you’re taking in an experience that someone put thought into. But I will see if I like some of the songs you call out as worth your time.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:19 am
FYI Slow Dancing In a Burning Room is a John Mayer cover. I like this version pretty good.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:40 am
…the tiresome lamenting about country not being country anymore stops here – at least in 2024. if “would if i could” was not sounding so much like joe diffie’s “so help me girl”, i’d like it even more. and i like it a lot. gosh, ms. wilson is such an asset when it comes to collaborations – what a most enjoyable serial “offender”. if there really was a serious – and most importantly somewhat lasting – shift in sound as well as “significant movements back toward the heart of country” going on, she would have to be credited for that more than all current male counterparts apart from luke combs, jon pardi and possibly cody johnson.
again, there is seriously a lot of music to listen to coming from ernest here. yet, there’s plenty to discover taking on the task/pleasure. there was some talent and inspiration at work and it shows. simply beautiful at times, most satisfying most of the time. this one together with “hixtape: vol. 3: difftape” and ol’ early 90s country fans must feel like pigs in the mud for a couple of hours.
April 18, 2024 @ 9:32 am
If you think it sounds “So Help Me Girl”, wait till you play “The Chair”, and “Would If I Could” back to back. Super obvious the Dean Dillon was the main writer on both of them. Not a bad thing in my opinion.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:41 am
So much auto tune on the vocals. It ruins the whole thing for me.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:45 am
Yeah, it’s really noticeable. It adds an ugly layer of fake “grit” to the singing. I think they’re doing some kind of overdrive effect with the autotune. Everything sounds super compressed too, where the quiet parts are about as loud as the loud parts.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:42 am
The “hard drive dump” is how I feel about records by Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, and Beyoncé. It seems like possibly a cynical way to game the charts?
April 18, 2024 @ 8:49 am
I don’t mind the hard drive dump approach. Yeah, it makes albums unwieldy and runs the risk of making the project and incoherent slog, but I think artists leave a ton of good material on the cutting room floor. I’d rather hear a steady unfiltered flow or everything than wait 3 years for 12 songs. Back in the 60s and 70s you had Merle Haggard and others releasing 2-3 albums a year. Same deal really, but labels don’t want to do 2-3 album releases a year.
April 22, 2024 @ 9:03 am
From today’s Pitchfork review of the new Taylor Swift album: “This data-dump release strategy is not at all unique to Swift; it’s a concession to the modern music economy, which incentivizes artists to batch as many songs as possible, in as many packages as possible, to juice streams and sales.” https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department-the-anthology/
April 18, 2024 @ 8:59 am
There’s a term in hip-hop circles the past decade called ‘stream-trolling’, where albums are rendered so bloated with tracks that would ordinarily get cut for a physical release but wind up on albums because they’re built to be dumped onto a playlist all at once (because the right cheque to the playlist curator cleared), to run up first week album sales as a count of individual streams contributes to that sales volume (not a percentage of what is streamed on said album), or with the slight hope that a deep cut takes off and it enables the label an easy pick for the next single / music video.
I blame Drake for this – among many other things – but since 2021 I’ve seen it more and more in Nashville and I don’t care for it, because it throws any chance of a well-structure album out the window and leaves you fishing for quality. I won’t argue there’s quality in the production here – although you really have to fish for it, and ERNEST has yet to prove he has a distinct personality as a vocalist or songwriter – but surrounding it with so much forgettable chaff does him a disservice, at least in terms of identifying a distinctive artist beneath it.
April 18, 2024 @ 10:22 am
Obviously subjective, but I definitely disagree about Ernest not having a distinct personality as a vocalist or songwriter. Maybe because I’ve been listening to him pretty heavily for almost 3 years and I’ve watched his other online content, but I think Ernest definitely has a distinct writing style and sense of humor that comes through in his songs. And, while not the strongest technical vocalist, I think he has enough charm, charisma, and personality to compensate.
Even on the songs he writes for other artists, I feel like Ernest has a pretty identifiable signature. I listen to Heartbreak On The Map on Dan + Shay’s last record, and I recognize that as his work immediately.
April 18, 2024 @ 9:04 am
Kind of funny you described the John Mayer cover as “Chris Stapleton-style.”
April 18, 2024 @ 10:45 am
Look, I’m not boned up on the John Mayer catalog. I tried to describe these songs from a country music perspective. I’m much more knowledgeable of Radiohead than Mayer.
April 18, 2024 @ 11:46 am
I’ll add that John Mayer sang this song at a concert with Chris Stapleton one time, so for country fans looking for a point of reference, mentioning Chris Stapleton makes sense.
April 18, 2024 @ 1:34 pm
It intrigues me that you’re a fan of Radiohead. But that’s probably because they’re almost like an urban legend of music for me; I always hear about how popular and influential and well-regarded they are, but I’ve yet to meet anyone in real life who is a fan. Hell, I hardly know anyone that’s even heard of them.
April 19, 2024 @ 6:34 am
you’ve never been to Europe
April 21, 2024 @ 9:45 am
Guilty, but should one need to travel to another country just to understand a band’s appeal? Glad I didn’t have to go to Australia to understand why people like AC/DC.
April 22, 2024 @ 10:50 am
agreed, i just meant that over here they have ton of fans. I’m not one.
April 23, 2024 @ 8:49 pm
Radiohead fan here. And also a country music fan, obvs. We exist.
April 18, 2024 @ 9:10 am
Wow, as someone with an old truck that only has access to the radio when driving, I’d absolutely love to hear songs like One More Heartache being played. That blows away pretty much anything on mainstream country radio. I’ll have to check out some of the other highlighted country songs. I won’t be buying the album as there’s still tons of better stuff available, but when compared to country radio and this guy’s peers, that song is surprisingly good.
April 18, 2024 @ 9:26 am
I appreciate the country scoring, it will make the album easier to digest.
April 18, 2024 @ 10:15 am
I’m a huge Ernest fan, I’ve been on his bandwagon for almost 3 years now, and I pretty much fully agree with your take on this album, although I’m not quite so bothered by the occasional pop country style songs popping up.
I absolutely love this album, and I think it has some of Ernest’s best ever songs, but there was definitely more trimmable fat to this album compared to Flower Shops/Two Dozen Roses that could’ve made this a more cohesive experience
April 18, 2024 @ 10:26 am
I was hoping you would review this. It’s quite a trek, but a lot of it was surprisingly enjoyable. i’ll probably keep some songs and delete others, as much as I hate keeping only “parts” of albums.
April 18, 2024 @ 12:39 pm
I find myself agreeing with Rich on how surprisingly I’m liking this. I hate the one name trend going around. Ernest? Hardy? What’s with the hip- hop slang? Why do we need that? But….the two songs posted here made me stop in my tracks…still cannot believe this. Look, I read the negative comments above…ok I agree that putting auto- tune to vocals annoys me to no end, and any vocal effect save for some echo when your doing old- timey is not cool in my book, yet I’m overlooking it here because the end result sounds good to my ear. Okay, I’m not saying this dude is a Keith Whitley or anything, he ain’t. But, it’s not bad, and it feels sincere, and coming from an artist I wouldn’t expect, this is a full- blown shock. Literally, what in the Sam-Hill is going on? This is like 90s country resurgence. Pedal steel, fiddle, prominent in the mix, and not bad songs to boot. Love the duet with Lainey. I could see me listening to this. Very unexpected.
April 18, 2024 @ 10:36 am
Would your rating for this album be different if you were ranking based on song quality, rather than just how country the songs sound?
April 18, 2024 @ 10:47 am
Probably not. 7.5 seems right when you consider the entire work, and the fact that little effort was put out to present this as an “album,” which can make the songs become something greater than the sum of their parts.
But as I always emphasize, it’s the review itself that is most important. There are some excellent songs here, and I tried to present this review to navigate people towards them so they don’t go overlooked.
April 18, 2024 @ 11:01 am
Of the non-10s, I probably felt that songs like Kiss Of Death and Did It For The Story were the best at blending traditional country with slick modern/pop country production
The latter felt very reminiscent of Did It With You on his Flower Shops album
Most of the others felt like songs that normally would’ve been cut by Morgan Wallen or Hardy
April 18, 2024 @ 10:53 am
“One saving grace is most of the bad tracks are back loaded”
This stood out to me too. I’ve been used to see the opposite be true back when Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean were the biggest names in the genre. Their albums typically had 3-4 great songs, but they’d all be tucked away in the back of the album. It’s significant that Earnest put the traditional stuff front & center.
April 18, 2024 @ 11:34 am
I agree with the composite score, because the fact one of the most prominent who’s-whos in the Nashville songwriting coterie (alongside Fallen, HARDY, McAnally, etc.) is leaning hard into traditional country persuasions is going to have potentially HUGE implications and influence moving forward: which can only be construed as a net positive overall.
Chase Rice’s “I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell” is another perfect example of this encouraging shift. Rice used to be one of the single worst offenders of the worst of bro-country epidemic, but his most recent album was replete with genuinely heartfelt songs and earthy production and was nothing short of impressive.
The pandering to stream-trolling is unfortunate in that it diminishes the “album” as a thorough listening experience front to back, but the fact it has enough quality songs to fill a standard 10-14 song album front to back is why I feel comfortable considering this a 7.5-8 out of 10 project overall.
April 18, 2024 @ 5:35 pm
I agree with the Chase Rice observation. It’s a great album.
I feel the same way about Riley Green although I think his transition is much less abrupt than the Chase Rice example. I’m not that familiar with Greens full catalog but seems like his music used to be more mainstream country rock. The shift may be gradual, but I think he’s on the good side…
April 18, 2024 @ 12:19 pm
There’s only one person on this planet that could convince me to give this album a shot and that’s Trigger. I’ve listened to the two songs linked in the article and was beyond surprised at how much I enjoyed them. I will admit that stuff like this coming out of Nashville of late is making it really hard to maintain my “music snob – mainstream country sucks” creds. It’s like I don’t even know who I am anymore.
To further erode my inherent disdain for all things corporate Nashville I ventured into “Chiefs” on Broadway last weekend. When I swore I would never again set foot in any place on Broadway except Robert’s. To my surprise, the band on the main floor was playing country music – lots of Childers, Zack Bryan, old Kasey Musgraves. Then the gal and guy in the piano bar playing acoustic guitars were fantastic. The guy even said – Chief’s is now my favorite place to play because Eric has told every artist that plays here they can play as many originals as they want.
April 18, 2024 @ 12:55 pm
After playing the two embedded YouTube songs on this page I thought there must be some sort of audio quality issue, so I tracked down and played the same songs in Apple Music and listened with headphones. Same exact problem: they sound WAY over processed and overproduced.
Call me a boomer if you want but they sound like shit to me quality wise, which means I ain’t gonna spend any more time on the other songs.
April 18, 2024 @ 2:36 pm
In my opinion there are somewonderful songs here but they are missing a voice like Waylon, Willie, George, Johnny Cash, Ronnie Dunn or Toby Keith. I am sure there are other voices that could be added to my list.
April 18, 2024 @ 3:34 pm
Sounds like something I would buy.
Is there a CD? I looked up Ernest Nashville Tennessed CD on Amazon and all that comes up is Ernest Tubb.
April 18, 2024 @ 4:09 pm
It looks like Big Loud doesn’t have physical product available yet. They did the same thing with Charles Wesley Godwin. Not sure the strategy of not having physical product available at the start.
April 18, 2024 @ 5:09 pm
I don’t understand bringing up the fact that he’s from Nashville, as if that somehow automatically gives him country cred or authenticity. Nashville is a major metropolis. People from Nashville are metropolitan. I promise you this kid grew up listening to Rap. He discovered George Jones like 5 years ago.
Then, there’s the one name nonsense, which is what pop stars and cRappers do.
This isn’t C(c)ountry Music. It’s a replica. It’s a charade.
As I’ve said so many times, despite Trigglito’s desperate and sad attempts to prop up the rotten, stinking, maggot-infested corpse of C(c)ountry Music, the only time something that sounds country can be successful is with a gimmick… something that says, “I may perform C(c)ountry, but I’m actually cooler than those hicks are.”
Be a hipster (Charley Crockett)
Have a Rock image (Billy Strings)
Be a Communist (Tyler Childers)
Have one name (Ernest)
Name me a real C(c)ountry act, without a gimmick, who’s successful at a near mainstream level, and I’ll kiss your….
Also, this kid can barely sing.
April 18, 2024 @ 5:32 pm
Zach Top.
And the reason I brought up that he’s from Nashville, Tennessee is because the name of the album is Nashville, Tennessee. And yes, it’s a metropolitan area. And yes, it’s rare that entertainers in country music are actually from Nashville. I didn’t say it conferred him any more country bonafides than anybody else, only that it conferred him Nashville bonafides.
April 18, 2024 @ 6:14 pm
I’ll split the L with you on that one trig. He’s a rural kid and seems down to earth, but we have to be objective here:
Be from the Pacific Northwest and sing with Southern accent (Jon Pardi and Zach Top)
April 18, 2024 @ 6:23 pm
PARMALEE!
April 19, 2024 @ 7:24 am
lol going by one name isn’t a gimmick, it’s just a stage name, you’re reading WAY too much into it dude
April 19, 2024 @ 10:27 am
The one name is maybe a bit presumptuous–if you’re not up there with Beyonce, or Elvis–or at least Reba and Wynonna–and most of those actually used two names, anyway, a lot of the time.
And there’s already a Tennessee Ernest–who carries a lot of weight–though I’m not sure if this one has heard of him.
April 18, 2024 @ 11:09 pm
Firstly, thanks Trigger for the time put into reviewing this mammoth album.
It’s a shame that due to their friendship, collaborations, and shared issue with the caps lock key that Ernest can sometimes be put in the same box as his village idiot buddy.
This album proves that he has more talent in his little finger than Hardy will ever have. As an example just compare how both utilise the privilege of having Lainey feature.
Of course not all tracks are a success, but who could release a 26 album and not suffer this fate?
It would be interesting to learn the history of the tracks as at least half a dozen sound as if they were originally intended for Wallen’s latest album.
All that being said, there are some fantastic songs here, and that’s good enough for me.
April 19, 2024 @ 3:50 am
Great review. I love the table at the end — it’s very helpful in avoiding the schlock. One thing that I’m hearing on the tracks that was not addressed in the review is that there is a lot of buzzing on the vocals. It sounds like PitchCorrect/AutoTune has been applied? I’m wondering if others are hearing this too?
“I Went to College/I Went to Jail” is a good example of what I’m talking about. On that track, both ERNEST’s and Jelly Roll’s vocals sound processed.
Overall, it’s great to see ERNEST moving towards more authentic country music. But the processed vocals are still a dealbreaker for me.
April 19, 2024 @ 6:36 am
I think this album loses a lot of points because of its production. Everything is too extreme sounding and the whole album is super muddled to me. I’ve heard a lot of demos of songs through the years, and when I know one is going to Moi to finish, I know it will be produced down a level or two. It sounds like it was produced by someone who used to produce Nickelback… oh wait.
April 19, 2024 @ 7:12 am
Yeah, I’ve seen a few of these comments talking about Autotune and production issues on this album. I’m hearing none of this. At all. Not even a little bit. This makes no sense to me. I’ve listened to it on different mediums. I don’t hear anything. And at times I do hear production issues or Autotune, and call it out when I do. Is it a great sounding album where the audio quality is one of its assets? Probably not. Have I heard much worse? Absolutely. Maybe my bar is different, or reviews are just naturally going to attract more Audiophiles with more distinguishing ears. But I have no clue what this is about.
This came up with the recent Turnpike Troubadours album as well. No clue. Don’t hear any “bad production” at all. Ernest and Joey Moi clearly have access to all the best studio and production technology they want. Maybe I’m just used to hearing actual bad sounding albums from the underground, so my bar is lower.
April 19, 2024 @ 9:15 am
As an addendum, I think one issue here is that Ernest just isn’t a great singer. His tone is very dry, which may make it sound processed or flat, when in reality it just doesn’t have a lot of body or character behind it. He’s a songwriter.
April 19, 2024 @ 5:18 pm
There’s a weird fake grit that sounds like production artifact in all the vocals. It sounds almost like the vox have been eq boxed a little bit, had a small amount of overdrive applied, and then pitch corrected, and then the signal is doubled. Every modern radio country male artist seems to do this. It’s like a robot buzz mixed with the singer’s voice, exactly like post malone. It ruins the vocals.
April 19, 2024 @ 6:54 am
i like ERNEST writing when it’s country. Enjoyed a dozen roses more than i imagined and will surely check this one out. Special thanks to Trig for the in depth dissection of the album.
April 19, 2024 @ 7:41 am
“All of this history is the reason that many traditional country fans won’t even give a passing sniff to Nashville, Tennessee, or perhaps they got a snoot full of him live and won’t be back. But you truly have to shove all of those prior experiences to the side.”
I saw him at a festival and thought he absolutely sucked. I went though the album and deleted the songs that Trig scored lower than 5. I’m about halfway through listening and this is really good. I’ve found a song with Jelly Roll that I actually like and “Smokin’ Gun” just went directly to my Best of 24 playlist.
April 19, 2024 @ 7:55 am
I saw Ernest last year at Opry NextStage and I can’t recall seeing such a disconnect between an artist’s stage presence (backwards cap and a bunch of moving around and gesturing that one might expect from a hip hop show) and music (which included quality country content).
April 19, 2024 @ 8:17 am
Interesting comment Rob. The reality of this is, the direction of his music potentially could appeal to an older legit country crowd, but the trappings of hip- hop culture remain so entrenched with him that it will set off a disconnect switch in these music fans, and ultimately they are turned off. IdealIy i think this guy is after a younger audience, but will that younger audience like the sounds of traditional country. Not sure they will. It’s like he’s trying to keep a foot in both musical worlds, but how will it benefit him? Head scratcher.
April 19, 2024 @ 8:54 am
He told the audience that he had influences ranging from classic country to hip hop, which seems to be the case. It seems pretty common for people his age. I’m an old guy born in the 70s, so I’m a bit out of touch with current trends.
I had a conversation with a relative who is in his twenties. He plays fiddle and grew up around old time, bluegrass, and church music. I asked which artists he is into lately and he mentioned Post Malone right along with Billy Strings.
April 19, 2024 @ 10:54 am
Old? Watch it Rob! I’m one of those 70s ” kids” as well!
Here’s the thing, you and I both grew up with rap being hugely popular. Yet, it never grabbed me. My ” parent rebellion” music was metal. So weird to me that today’s youth couldn’t be bothered to care about metal…at all. But hip- hop? Oh yeah, their all about it. I admit it, I’m becoming a get off my lawn dude all the way. Kids these days….????
April 19, 2024 @ 5:24 pm
Rap has been mainstream since I was in elementary school. It’s easily my least listened to major genre. I find it extremely uninteresting musically and lyrically. I mostly see it as a reflection and result of Reagan’s war on the poor, and a serious dumbing down of black music culture that should have been stillborn.
April 19, 2024 @ 10:29 am
I did the same before Trigger’s review (deleted the handful of throwaways) and it still leaves 15+ nonstop bangers and one of my favorite “albums” in years.
April 19, 2024 @ 9:05 am
I was hoping you would review this record and I believe this is a fair and accurate analysis. It’s 2 guns up without the bro crap.
Truth is, the actual country songs on this record are better written and produced than most in the comments will like to admit. Ernest’s voice isn’t bad, but to your point, he’s also not blessed with a traditional voice.
However, the real deal country songs from a production and lyrical standpoint blow away almost anything that most of the haters in the comments listen to. Overproduced? Autotune? Folks showing their complete lack of recording knowledge here and simply hating because he’s a bro. But hey, it’s the hater’s loss.
April 19, 2024 @ 10:24 am
Agree with you 100%. Some of these clowns who can’t see past the artist’s name and just hate everything someone does is just dumb. I also love that you point out that these clowns wouldn’t know autotune if they heard it. The true country tunes on here are not autotuned or overproduced.
April 19, 2024 @ 5:28 pm
I’m unfamiliar with Ernest prior to this. The country songs are good except for the vocals and vocal production. Same processing as post Malone. Totally ruins the vox.
April 19, 2024 @ 10:28 am
Good review Triggerman! If it sounds country, it’s because it’s country!
April 19, 2024 @ 11:55 pm
Reading the review, I gave this a listen. I think the reviews right on. 2/3 of this album I really liked. The rest was kinda of crap shoot. Songs I didn’t care for, but guess I understand who they would be pandering too. Seemed like those songs were from a different album. But what I liked, I was surprised I really liked. Hopefully, the younger generation will appreciate what I consider the good in this album. Really surprised with this one. The production was not an issue for what I really liked.
April 20, 2024 @ 3:53 am
I am glad to see one of these radio artist working with the great Dean Dillion. Follow Trigg’s guide on the songs. Many really good songs here. I wish the album was paired down to about 15.
April 20, 2024 @ 6:19 am
When Ernest’s last album was reviewed here and given some credit for having some Country sounding songs, I wasn’t buying it. When this one came out I decided to sample a few songs, and surprisingly ended up listening to many whole ones.
Before I say how I liked the songs I listened to, I want to say congratulations to Ernest for actually making an album that is for the most part real country. He doesn’t need to do this. He is not on the success level of his buddies Wallen and Hardy, but he is successful enough to continue on making pop/hip hop country albums and more than pay the bills.
As for whether or not I liked this album? I won’t exaggerate and say this is on par with the top artists in Traditional/Outlaw/Americana out there today, and there are still mainstream elements and some outright pop country songs here. I wouldn’t say Ernest is much more than an average vocalist either. That said, there is some genuine good stuff on this album. On the songs he intends to be traditional country, he actually uses traditional instrumentation instead of his previous efforts of adding traditional elements to drum beats and loops.
Overall, if you take Triggers approach and hit that skip button through some of the songs intended for radio play, this is a decent album. I hope it’s successful for him and opens up the eyes of others to follow suit.
April 21, 2024 @ 12:54 pm
Pure unadulterated mediocrity. Very very meh.
April 21, 2024 @ 2:54 pm
First of all, I’d like to thank Trigger for weeding through the 26 songs (something I’ve had to do a few times myself in the past with the current crop of too prolific artists. It’s a pain in the ass), and letting us know at least where to start. This takes me back to 2 Wallen albums ago, “Dangerous” was discussed on here, and somebody brought up Ernest’s name. At the time, I’d made a playlist from of my tolerable’s from it and I mentioned 8 songs were written by one Ernest Keith Smith. I never even bothered with the latest 36 song Wallen opus.
After bumping through the 15-16 songs Trig picked out, I would say there are some great songs, and some good ones. There’s no denying that the man is a beyond proficient songwriter. Do I need an Ernest in my rotation or my life with all the other quality we have in the independent world today?? Not sure I do. He’s already probably playing bigger venues than I venture into these days anyway, so seeing him is out. I dunno, maybe I’ll pick some tunes out of these 16 and see how it goes. I do applaud the guy for showing us he can do it if he wants to. The question is, is he just showing off? Who’s the real Ernest, and do I care? Will I really be missing anything when I can be giving my time and energy to other prospects?
April 22, 2024 @ 5:33 am
I had heard of Ernest, but I couldn’t have named a single song of his before this. I listened to the album over the weekend. It’s really good. Mainstream country has definitely been trending more traditional (still predominantly pop) ever since Stapleton, but this album feels like a huge leap forward.
April 22, 2024 @ 1:12 pm
Honkytonk Fairytale stands out to me.
April 25, 2024 @ 5:43 am
To me its seems about half trad country and half not, but the trad part i like