Album Review – Megan Moroney’s “Lucky”
It’s official, ladies and gentlemen. Country music has entered a new neotraditional age. Not dissimilar to when George Strait and Randy Travis showed up on the scene in the 80s and swayed everything in the direction of more country-sounding tunes, we’re seeing large swaths of mainstream country re-adopt country sounds and country sentiments in popular music.
There may be no better evidence for this than the debut album Lucky from Savannah, Georgia-native Megan Moroney. No, it’s not because Moroney is making straight-down-the-middle traditional country. The reason it’s significant is because she’s a major label-signed 25-year-old pop country starlet fresh into Nashville whose music happens to be slathered with steel guitar, steeping in classic country lore, and dare we say superbly written when it comes to a good handful of songs.
Moroney started singing professionally while attending the University of Georgia, including opening a show for Kristian Bush of Sugarland. Moroney and Bush kept in touch, and when she graduated and moved to Nashville in 2020, Kristian hooked Moroney up with co-writers and started producing some songs for her. This included a song called “Tennessee Orange” about being a Bulldogs fan dating a Volunteers guy. The song started going viral, especially after Moroney was seen in a Volunteers shirt owned by Morgan Wallen. Soon she was signed to Arista Nashville.
“Tennessee Orange” has since gone Top 10 in country, will soon be a #1, and is already Certified Platinum. Though the song may be a little too SEC cringe for those in ACC and Pac 12 country, it’s the steel guitar in the signal, and the waltz beat in the time signature that makes it not just another silly pop country song straining to use sentimentality for substance and appeal.
“Tennessee Orange” may still leave some serious country fans asking, “That’s it?” The opening song of the album called “I’m Not Pretty” is pretty much a rehash of tired radio country themes too. But when Moroney hits you upside the head with the pretty spectacularly-written and stripped down “Girl In The Mirror,” you start to understand what the fuss is all about.
Willie Nelson once sang “Sad Songs and Waltzes Aren’t Selling This Year.” Megan Moroney proves that’s not the case in 2023. The title track “Lucky” might not waltz, but it definitely swings, and reminds you of 90s-era Brooks & Dunn with a little early Shania Twain mixed in. Moroney looks like a Barbie doll, but she sounds like someone 30 years older than she is.
Lucky also delivers with a song co-written by Lori McKenna called “Kansas Anymore,” and basically the final 1/3rd of the album is all gold with the June Carter-inspired “Why Johnny,” another waltz in “Georgia Girl,” a sentimental ode to struggle in “Mustang or Me,” and the R&B-tinged “Sad Songs for Sad People” that is ironically one of the few love songs on the album. About the only misstep is the eye roll-worthy “Traitor Joe” that tries too hard to be clever.
Everything is enhanced by it all feeling very personal to Megan Moroney. She evokes Georgia in multiple songs, and though we’re used to pretty faces and platinum blondes leaning on pop sensibilities in country, Moroney shows a commitment to country instrumentation, and even name drops John Prine in a moment. Let’s not forget that Georgia was very much the hotbed for Bro-Country a few years ago. Megan bucks that stereotype too.
Similar to the albums of Lainey Wilson and Carly Pearce, you have to pick and choose your way through Lucky. But it can’t be emphasized enough what a sea change we are experiencing currently in the mainstream, with Megan Moroney symbolizing a broadening and entrenching of a neotraditional wave that is not only being embraced by Music Row’s major labels, but by country audiences that are thirsty for things that sound country, and that are more authentic than in previous eras. Megan Moroney definitely fits that bill.
1 1/2 Guns Up
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Purchase Megan Moroney’s Lucky
May 9, 2023 @ 8:19 am
Not trying to be a troll, but I genuinely think she picks better songs than Zach Bryan. I’m here for it. Hooks you can hang your hat on.
May 9, 2023 @ 8:57 am
Likewise not wanting to stir controversy, but I can’t help myself….. thats not hard…….
Sorry, I accept Zach Bryan fans as important members of the human race with an equal right to be on earth.
🙂
May 9, 2023 @ 11:23 am
I guess the question is, why even go there?
May 10, 2023 @ 8:29 am
I agree with Conrad.
May 9, 2023 @ 8:41 am
Her stuff sounds very familiar. Like something from my past. Maybe in the 90s? Wasn’t there someone like Sara Evans Twain that already did this routine? Ya I’m sure I’ve heard this before?
May 9, 2023 @ 10:31 am
Maybe a little Deana Carter? Maybe I’m looking more than listening.
May 15, 2023 @ 4:48 pm
No, that’s a good call—vocals even more than looks. Megan Moroney has a similar tone: girlishly pretty with a occasional touch of gentle raspiness, and an easy, almost nonchalant delivery…
May 9, 2023 @ 8:43 am
Nice album and it would be even better if she’d included Hair Salon innit.
May 9, 2023 @ 8:54 am
Pretty sure those first few licks on the song Lucky were influenced by Alan Jackson’s song Chattahoochee.
May 9, 2023 @ 9:14 am
Haha. Lucky and maybe 1,000,000 others.
May 9, 2023 @ 8:57 am
This album was on my Spotify “splash screen” yesterday morning and, judging the book by it’s cover, i didn’t even give it a second thought… How surprised was i to see it on SCM today.
May 9, 2023 @ 11:59 am
Mine too. I listened to 20 seconds and turned if off.
May 9, 2023 @ 12:28 pm
Wow someone just wants to be cool and fit in with the site 20 seconds is hardly enough time to hear 3 words
May 9, 2023 @ 1:25 pm
I ended up enjoying the record. Obviously Trigger posted the best songs in the article
May 9, 2023 @ 9:03 am
That’s a breath of fresh air. Hopefully you’re right about country radio trending this way Trigger
May 9, 2023 @ 9:03 am
Spot on Trigger. Given the mainstream hype around her, I was hesitant to listen. But I’m always in search of a unique female voice and I ran through the album. Skipped a few after the first verse but there was enough meat on the bone to keep me chewing through the entire record. She has a great rasp when she goes low which gives her voice character. I’m ok with this record, but I’m also not a country purist. I’m watching out for Grace Tyler to put an album out as well. Very much in the same lane as Megan. So far I’ve really liked several of the singles Grace has dropped.
May 9, 2023 @ 9:29 am
And this, folks, is the value of SCM. I’ll admit I wouldn’t have given this album a chance without seeing it featured on SCM. The song selections are a bit hit or miss, but overall an optimistic effort that – hopefully – is indicative of good things to come.
As an SEC fan, I appreciate the humor of Tennessee Orange, even if I’m not a huge fan of that team or color (Wildcat Blue all the way!).
May 11, 2023 @ 1:32 pm
Go Cats!!!! Nothing is as horrible that gawdawful orange. Except maybe that floor cleaner that comes out of Lynchberg.
As for the music, it’s alright. But I can definitely see her trending more pop than country in the future.
May 9, 2023 @ 9:39 am
Huge Kentucky fan here but I have loved that damn Tennessee Orange song since the first time I heard it. She’s talented.
May 9, 2023 @ 9:54 am
Trigger, you really don’t know ball if you’re including the Pac-12 over the Big XII in a conversation about college sports and country music.
May 9, 2023 @ 11:43 am
Was born and raised in Texas. I’ve been following the Big 12 since back when it was called the Southwest Conference and SMU got the death penalty. The reason I didn’t evoke the Big 12 is because now that Texas and Oklahoma are leaving for the SEC, it’s hard to consider it a Power Five conference. I still root for it though.
May 9, 2023 @ 12:26 pm
It is still more of a Power Five conference than the Lack 12.
May 10, 2023 @ 9:32 am
The Pac 12 doesn’t have much time left ???? Big 12 will thrive and so will
Moroney
May 9, 2023 @ 10:04 am
I’m usually not up on anything viral but “Tennessee Orange” keeps popping up. I have a Nashville friend that also recommended so I’m going to check it out.
May 9, 2023 @ 10:12 am
I really liked the Pistol Made Of Roses EP ….Hair Salon, Fix You Too, and Til it all goes South proved to me she can write the kind melody/hook/chorus songs I tend to like. When Tennessee Orange came out I’ll admit it was a guilty pleasure although now I’m kind of sick of it but it’ll do it’s job and break her. I like the album. I’ll have to give it some more spins to see just how much or if it’s rotation worthy. Everyone knows all of the ladies get a fair shake here at the mansion and Megan is no exception after all …………… it’s her world and we’re just in it.
May 9, 2023 @ 12:26 pm
She is a smoke show.
May 10, 2023 @ 8:58 pm
Fo sho.
May 9, 2023 @ 1:49 pm
I’m sorry, but a rating of any other than 2 guns up is doing a disservice to what might be the album of the year. I haven’t been this excited about a new artist in a long, long time. Simply put, Megan is the real deal, and I actually think ‘Traitor Joe’ is a stand-out track on an album full of hits.
May 9, 2023 @ 3:23 pm
Album of the year you say?
December 18, 2023 @ 7:52 pm
Check out Rolling Stone’s list…
May 9, 2023 @ 3:23 pm
I like her. Lucky is a good album full of potential hits.
May 9, 2023 @ 3:35 pm
Well what do you know, twang, steel, and shuffle. It’s like the world is back on its axis.
May 9, 2023 @ 4:08 pm
She sounds great, I like her songs, she sounds a little like shania, so yeah I am all on board for her music.
May 9, 2023 @ 6:13 pm
Sounds like Shania.
That is not an endorsement.
May 9, 2023 @ 6:04 pm
….”It’s official, ladies and gentlemen. Country music has entered a new neotraditional age.”….
Who was it that said something along the lines of, “If you repeat a lie long enough, people will believe it.”?
It feels like that’s what Trig is trying to do.
Upper middle-class, suburban girls, with exaggerated southern accents are a strange place to hang one’s hat, when desperately trying to convince the faithful that C(c)ountry Music is back in style.
May 9, 2023 @ 6:26 pm
I don’t think Trigger believes what he said is a lie. Instead, I think he so badly wants country music to move in the right direction that any movement – no matter how small – is interpreted as a definitive “this is it” moment. If Trigger is “guilty” of anything, it’s nothing more than confirmation bias.
All of that said, I agree that – despite how it may sound – this does not look at all like a neotraditional renaissance. The music is certainly alright, but it remains to be seen if the artist in this case is committed to making decent music over an extended period of time (that is, multiple albums). The reality is that we’ve been burned numerous other times by seemingly promising artists who use country music as a stepping stone.
May 9, 2023 @ 6:42 pm
Good comment Chris. To be clear, I don’t think Trig is lying in a malicious or immoral way; he’s lying in the same way you lie to your kids when you tell them they did a great job, even if they didn’t. It’s a lie of encouragement.
I also think to some degree, and I’m not sure what degree, Trig convinces himself these lies are true, sort of like how a middle-age woman tries to convince herself she’s still as hot as she used to be.
I think Trig does all this innocently and naively, mostly due to him not having grown up around rural people, and living mostly an urban lifestyle. And I don’t mean that as a shot; it’s just the impression I get. Trigger can’t relate culturally to the kind of people who are turned off by this stuff.
May 9, 2023 @ 7:02 pm
But that shuffle felt good, didn’t it.
May 9, 2023 @ 7:09 pm
“I think Trig does all this innocently and naively, mostly due to him not having grown up around rural people, and living mostly an urban lifestyle.”
???
May 9, 2023 @ 7:14 pm
Which part do you not understand?
May 9, 2023 @ 7:08 pm
Just to clarify, I am not saying that Megan Moroney is a neotraditional country artist. What I said what that she is a pop country artist, but the amount of traditional country elements in her music like waltz beats and steel guitar speak to the broadening of the neotraditionalist movement that mainstream is currently experiencing.
When you listen to country albums from the height of Bro-Country in 2015 until now, it is empirically true that country music sounds way more country than it did then. This means we’re in the midst of a neotraditionalist movement. It may not be pronounced enough for you. You may not like Megan Moroney, Jake Worthington, Lainey Wilson, Jon Pardi, and the other artists involved in this new neotraditionalist movement. But that doesn’t mean it’s not real.
May 9, 2023 @ 7:20 pm
Out of the names you rattled off, Jake is the only C(c)ountry act, and he’ll never make it big, further proving my point.
May 9, 2023 @ 7:38 pm
We’ll see. But he’s already “made it” to some extent by being signed to a major label and being booked on a big tour, which is something we wouldn’t have seen in 2022, let alone 2015.
May 10, 2023 @ 4:02 am
To clarify my earlier comment, I don’t disagree with you on this. If we think of country music as a continuum, we could place crappy music on one side (bro/boyfriend country) and good music on the other. In the course of reverting from bad country to good country, the metaphorical pendulum will have to pass through music that isn’t quite neotraditional, but close enough to beat some similarities.
We should be fine with that. I know I am; there just isn’t any other way for the genre to change. A wholesale “revolution” of sorts isn’t going to happen.
May 10, 2023 @ 6:27 am
The real truth, whether we deem it unfortunate or not, is that real/traditional country music is never going to return to radio airwaves. It’s just not what the average radio music listener is interested in. They want simple sing along and love songs that are catchy. The best you can hope for is that mainstream country music provides a gateway for listeners with a desire to dig a little deeper. A move away from Bro/Rap/Hip Hop country to a type of radio friendly style of music with traditional elements should be considered a good thing.
May 9, 2023 @ 6:52 pm
For me, she is a female version of Jon Pardi. I do appreciate the more country sound/production. I hope she stays country in her future albums. It was an okay album, but didn’t blow me away. These aren’t songs I would play more than once.
May 9, 2023 @ 8:30 pm
I was first exposed to Megan in 2021 when she performed with Sweet Tea Trio and Larry Fleet. I was impressed by her stage presence as well as her song slection, which didn’t lean too heavily on the pop country tunes. Impressive to see how much traction she has already gained on the charts.
May 10, 2023 @ 6:11 am
Listened to a little of this the other day and meant to get back to it. She has a kinda 90s country thing going on. Nice voice too. Probably won’t make my regular listening rotation, but I’ll likely throw a song or two into a playlist. Good stuff that is the kind of music that should be on Country radio. Thanks
May 10, 2023 @ 10:46 am
It’s not the Second Coming or Reinvention of anything, but the album is an enjoyable listen, with no “hit the skip” moments and enough good moments I just may put it in my buy list.
Along similar lines, the new album from Meghan Patrick is also pretty good. I’d buy a ticket (and the t-shirt) for a Megan & Meghan (no Markle!) tour.
May 10, 2023 @ 1:54 pm
Saw her open for Brooks and Dunn last Friday. Her sound mix did her no favors (which isn’t really her fault, but it made it tough to hear at times), but she was really very good. I hadn’t heard of her before but walked away very impressed.
I certainly thought she was more country than Scotty McCreery (the second opener)
May 11, 2023 @ 10:07 am
A solid album and another step in the right direction for country radio.
May 13, 2023 @ 9:20 am
She disappears within 5 years
May 14, 2023 @ 4:54 am
Now this is how you make a good pop country album!