Album Review – Wyatt McCubbin’s “650”

Classic Country (#510.1) and Honky Tonk (#510.2) on the Country DDS.

If you’re a liner notes nerd (and that’s a good nerd to be), you might already recognize the name Wyatt McCubbin. He’s been a co-writer on some of Zach Top’s biggest songs like “Sounds Like The Radio,” “There’s The Sun,” and “Between The Ditches.” He’s written songs for folks like Cody Johnson and Luke Combs as well. He’s also spent time out on the road opening for Zach Top, Riley Green and others. For a behind-the-scenes guy, he’s had quite a bit of success.

But Wyatt’s new album called 650 is all about making McCubbin the center of attention. Produced by Dave Cobb, Wyatt proves early and often that it’s attention that he deserves. If you like your country music thoughtful, reflective, nostalgic, and emotionally touching in that Don Williams kind of way, Wyatt McCubbin will fit right into your Goldilocks zone, while his voice makes you wonder why it’s been others singing the songs for him heretofore.

650 is a lot about looking to the past to find a better rhythm in life. It’s about appreciating the simple things, and slowing down. The title of the album is taking from the spot on the AM dial for WSM—the home of the Grand Ole Opry. The opening song “Andy Griffith” is about yearning for that era when Barney Fife didn’t need any bullets for his gun. “Gunsmoke” references the Golden Era of television too, and watching it with your grandpa while sipping a Coke in silence.

There are other textures to this record as well. In fact, it’s the different moods and influences all blended together so well that allows this record to immediately find a favorable opinion within the listener. “Mr. Neon” could have become on of those ’90s country cliché songs, but instead finds a punchy, somewhat Outlaw aspect in the music to make it much more interesting. “I Love You” feels like a very personal song to Wyatt, even if it might be an otherwise stereotypical love song. But how McCubbin and Cobb envision it as this throwback California country rock Flying Burritos-style track makes it memorable.

If nothing else, 650 is a really great listening record. He could have made a typical ’90s throwback album like everybody else is at the moment. He could have tried the Americana approach. He could have hung on the whole Outlaw or country rock aspect, especially after one of the album’s early single “All Outta You” turned out so well. But this album doesn’t settle for any one influence, and instead pulls from a wide variety of them, while the recordings themselves feel alive and present as they burst out of the speakers with that live feel.

Wyatt McCubbin is already doing well with the royalty money coming in from his writing credits. This gives him the latitude to explore themes that are perhaps more personal to him, and make this album express something deeper about himself. He really leans into this with the final two songs. “Whiskey Colored Crayon” and “12/9/23” speak about the impacts of both alcoholism and sobriety, forwarding lessons that only story songs can.

Though Wyatt McCubbin is definitely a strong songwriter, one issue is that he sticks pretty close to common country music tropes on the record. At times you can tell he comes from those co-writing committees in the Nashville system. It influences certain turns of phrases, how some of the songs fall back on list-like lyrics instead of exploring more narrative-based writing, and how songs like “Whiskey Colored Crayon” go directly for your heart strings instead of relaying more on nuance or unspoken things to get the story across.

Titling two of the first four songs after old TV shows is an example of how McCubbin could have brought a more broad perspective to this work. You want to love a song like “Breaker Breaker,” but it’s just too basic and repetitive, and needed to be a 2 1/2-minute song, not a 4-minute one.

650 still gets so much right though. Wyatt is smart to not try to be the next Townes Van Zandt, and instead tries to find ways to make meaningful themes appealing and accessible to a general audience, while sometimes letting the music carry the burden of being crafty. This is one of these albums that’s easy to love, and no matter all the analysis, sets you in a favorable mood with music and sentiments that disarm attitudes and soothe frayed nerves, slowing down and re-prioritizing perspectives in a busy and muddled world.

8.1/10

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Stream/purchase Wyatt McCubbin’s 650