“Boom” By Walker Hayes Is The Worst Album In ‘Country’ Music History. Full Stop.
WARNING: Language
Friends and neighbors, I know you would rather spend your time reading about something a bit more positive in nature than the rabid attitudinal protestations of some twisted up music critic spouting off about this grotesque specimen of audio diarrhea, and during what is supposed to be a festive season no less, and with so much else out there in the world today eating at your mind and angering your blood. But it would be such a gross dereliction of Saving Country Music duty to not draw and quarter this audio monstrosity, I would die from neurotic distress due to the feeling of unfullfilled purpose if I let this embarrassment achieve wide recognition without a murmur of protest, let alone the barbaric yawp of sheer unmitigated ferocious dissent it deserves to be met with. The only question is if I can steady my hands enough through the roiling anger twitching behind my eyes, and the abhorrence to the mere notion of this album that’s bubbling my bile to physically type what must be shared.
Fuck this album, I’m sorry. I would rather personally watch my male genitalia cleaved clean off my abdomen with the combination of a rusty maul and a frozen sledge hammer, then strapped up with a Go Pro and my eyes clamped open and forced to watch on a monitor as a carrion bird carries it far away before ultimately descending into some foul-drenched alleyway drowning in refuse to vulturously pull at the bloody and putrefying flesh with its beak and talons, only to regurgitate it hours later after it’s marinated in the most vile hell of scavenger digestive juices, to then be re-consumed eventually by an emaciated mongrel and vomited up again in the middle of the road, and trundled over by heavy vehicles so many times it becomes no more discernible from a spot of grease discarded from the undercarriage of a Toyota than listen to one more electronically-derived and idiotically conceived millisecond of Walker Hayes’ Boom.
I’m embarrassed to be a part of the same animal species that would produce such an audio abortion and proffer it to the public for consumption.
First off, understand that everything about Walker Hayes is complete and utter fabricated bullshit. The songs of Boom are in no way a representation of him, let alone country music. Boom isn’t just not country music. Boom isn’t just the exact polar opposite of country music. No, Boom is literally the most acidic and destructive form of music to the country genre that not just has ever been produced, but that could ever be conceived of by the human brain or artificial intelligence, or a combination thereof. It is diabolic in its scope of cultural degradation. Even a performer like Luke Bryan should see the value in adamantly opposing Boom. It’s that virulent. Even someone like Sam Hunt should see that the danger Boom poses to country music as absolutely existential. Boom isn’t just bad, it is apocalyptic. It is literally the worst thing possible, ever.
Walker Hayes is a complete construct of desperation, and of slavitude to whatever he thinks will sell, along with an assessment from the new Country Music Antichrist, Shane McAnally, who relaunched the old mothballed label Monument Records just to produce and release this piece of shit, and inflict the world with the pussing musical scourge known as Walker Hayes and Boom. Not even Nashville’s unscrupulous major labels would sign off on this it was so terrible. Shane McAnally had to make a label especially for it. Being the principle puppetmaster behind Sam Hunt wasn’t enough for Shane McAnally. Now there should not be a shadow of a doubt left in anyone’s mind what McAnally’s agenda in music is, which is to completely reshape “country” into his own image, which happens to be an extremely urban, stultifying, primarily laptop-composed shitblob served with an almost sadist attitude, and with the sole purpose of making himself lots of fucking money at the direct expense of the intelligence and mental well being of the masses. Selling copies of Boom is like purposely giving people a disease to make a profit. It is cultural poison.
And what is the motivation for all of this?
Go back and listen to Walker Hayes circa 2013, when he still had his fucking Justin Bieber wind-blown haircut. It’s still utter garbage of course, but it’s nothing like Boom. Where is the extremely, extremely urban accent, the talk rapping, and all the other bullshit that makes Boom so bad? Walker Hayes utterly failed in country music because he has so much nothing, MIT could use the space where Walker’s talent should be as an absolute vacuum for scientific experiment.
But what Walker Hayes did have was six kids, and now he has a seventh on the way. And with a complete lack of life skills, and apparently no grip on the principles of family planning, Walker had to figure out some way to put food on the table. Some people cinch up their belt, swallow their pride, and get a real job. Walker on the other hand decided to stick his nose deep into the shittiest trends in country music, make a record that encapsulates all of them and in their entirety, and Shane McAnally was unscrupulous enough to see it could make them both a mint. Yes, because Walker Hayes doesn’t know what a fucking rubber is, we now all have to pay by listening to the inane, intellectually-insulting, culturally-appropriating doltish odes to stupidity that Hayes compiled in his fucking garage on a laptop and is passing off as “music.”
For serious Walker, it may not be my place to tell you how to live your life, but just stop procreating, dude. Wear protection. Gets some tubes tied or gonads snipped. Finish in the butt, whatever you have to do, but quit making us all suffer from the fact that you’re so unskilled, you can’t even pull out in time, let alone put a half decent song together. Go listen to “You Broke Up With Me.” Honest to God, Walker Hayes can’t even fucking whistle.
Walker Hayes is the perfect example of ferreting out the most glittering example of mediocrity among the unwashed masses, and shining a spotlight on them, making everyone else in society aspire to achieve that level of devolved stupidity under the perception of that’s how you succeed. The only skill that Walker Hayes possesses is the ability to completely detach himself from self respect, and do whatever it takes to “make it,” no matter the cost to himself or the public. Anybody could do what Walker Hayes has done with Boom. They just don’t have the thorough lack of scruples it takes to be able to stoop so low.
And don’t act like I’m being a bully here. You’re really going to try and tell me after listening to “Dollar Store” or “You Broke Up with Me” that even Walker Hayes doesn’t know this stuff is utter refuse? Yet he is still willing to present it for human consumption. That means he’s not just incapable, he’s also culpable. There is a song on this record called “Mind Candy” where the 37-year-old Walker Hayes with seven kids is openly obsessing over a 17-year-old from his past. Boom isn’t just embarrassingly awful and age inappropriate in large swaths, it’s utterly immoral in moments.
And while we’re on the topic of sex and immorality, I hope the ghost of Lou Reed materializes in front of Walker Hayes, reefs him in the nuts so hard they pop out of his ears and dangle down like earrings below his lobes, and then skull fucks Walker for so blatantly ripping off “Walk on the Wild Side” with his inbecilic “Dollar Store.” Attention estate of Lou Reed: sue Walker Hayes. Sue him hard, and sue him now. “Dollar Store” is the straight up filching of a melody, open and shut.
Nothing about Boom is original. Even when Walker tries to get meaningful, it’s still a con job. “Halloween” is the exact same song as Kane Brown’s “Learning.” Same exact theme, and same exact structure. If you can suffer through both, give them a listen. When you’re 37-years-old and derivative of Kane fucking Brown, you know how much you blow. Everything on this record is appropriated. There is only one song that isn’t a scathing insult to the listener, and that’s “Beer in the Fridge,” and it’s still extremely underwrought, and couldn’t even be stretched out to 2 1/2 minutes. Even “Craig,” which is about a pastor who buys Walker Hayes and his family a minivan, is full of self-absorption and opportunism. Craig is no hero if Boom is the result. He’s an enabler.
This isn’t just a matter of opinion or taste. It is utterly irresponsible of Walker Hayes and Shane McAnally to release music such as this. And before anyone chooses to moralize about the harshness of this assessment, how about you turn your ire to how this album has to be the most glaring example of cultural appropriation to ever be recorded. Yes, this is yet another historical low for Walker Hayes and Boom. The astounding robbery of black heritage, urban music modes, and ethnic annunciations from one of the most lily white, Mobile-born, Caspar Milquetoast, Southern fucknards breathing on the planet right now should have every politically-incited opinonator out there at Slate and Noisey seeing double red and typing away furiously at think screeds. This guy make Elvis look like a saint. I would call him the Vanilla Ice of country, but that doesn’t cut nearly low enough.
If you’re going to give shit to country for not crowning Beyoncé queen and giving her every single fucking award in the genre because she released one song that wasn’t really even that country, then by golly, I want to see you hypocrites up the ass of Walker Hayes from this affliction he’s causing to not just country music, but hip-hop culture as well by making a white mockery of the art form. Walker Hayes is an equal opportunity offender. If you have any sense of taste and perspective, regardless of your cultural compass, you should be writhing with spite and anger.
I’m sorry folks, but not enough negative can be said here. Walker Hayes and Boom deserve to be roundly and vehemently rejected by everyone in the country music industry, and by all who hold intelligence dear in society. And this is not hyperbole. Boom is the worst album of “country” music in history, and should be universally repelled and impugned by everyone, buried or burned as the example of cultural rot that it is, and never spoken of again except in reference of what we can never allow to befall our precious, fertile ears again.
December 18, 2017 @ 10:05 am
I was waiting for this.
December 18, 2017 @ 10:08 am
that second paragraph is a word picture… well done
December 18, 2017 @ 10:16 am
Trigger. Is. The. Shit.
No one else delivers The Truth like this man.
December 18, 2017 @ 10:17 am
Finish in the butt..
December 18, 2017 @ 10:18 am
I listened to thirty seconds of “Dollar Store” and suffered a cardiac episode it was so distressing. What in the actual fuck is this shit?
December 18, 2017 @ 10:24 am
I don’t consider myself a hateful person but your scathing takedowns make me so happy for some reason.
December 18, 2017 @ 10:27 am
This got Two Guns just like Turnpike did? Lame.
(Yes I’m kidding)
December 18, 2017 @ 10:41 am
Shane McAnally really is the antichrist of country music. He deserves a separate scorched-earth screed like this one. We know he is capable of doing it right, as he did with Kacey Musgraves and Midland. So what’s his motivation for this? What’s he really trying to do? It’s like he’s hellbent on manipulating and destroying the genre from within. I almost get the sense that he has some deep-seated animus toward country history, culture, and norms.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:06 am
I think you’re exactly right. Fully agree he seems to be laser focused on eradicating country’s traditional links to the past, and drag it fully into the monogenre.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:14 am
Shane McAnally is the perfect example of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde figure. He is capable of producing solid, good music, as you pointed out, with Midland and Kacey Musgraves. He also had a hand in Chris Young’s Neon, which is a very good song. He has also produced one excellent song that I am linking at the bottom of my comment, Ashley Monroe’s Two Weeks Late. (It will also serve as a good ear cleansing after Walker Hayes’s shit). So why he actively participates in the utter tripe of Sam Hunt and Walker Hayes, I have no fucking clue.
When Shane McAnally tries, he can really produce some country gold:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yRy7nZFTO24
December 18, 2017 @ 12:31 pm
“So why he actively participates in the utter tripe of Sam Hunt and Walker Hayes, I have no fucking clue.”
I’m going with money.
December 18, 2017 @ 1:42 pm
Heck, it’s hard to believe it’s the same guy who released the great “Are Your Eyes Still Blue” in 1999 when he was still going for a singing career.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:07 pm
Wow. I’m not the biggest fan of his voice, but Are Your Eyes Still Blue is a very good song. I looked it up on Spotify, since I was quite unfamiliar. It’s hard to believe this is same person.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:11 pm
It Comes and Goes is a great song too. Even if I don’t care for his voice, I can most definitely appreciate a great song when I hear one.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:59 pm
I actually remember hearing “Are Your Eyes Still Blue” a few times on the radio when it came out. I really liked it back then, and still love it today. Glad you found it! It’s such a shame he’s now responsible for some of the worst “country” music out there right now. I’ll now have to check out “It Comes And Goes.”
December 18, 2017 @ 4:57 pm
Wow, just listened to “It Comes And It Goes” and yes, it’s another great song! Man, I sure miss late 90’s/early 00’s style country. I can understand why some might not care for his voice, though. Personally, I don’t mind it.
December 18, 2017 @ 5:40 pm
Late 90s/early 2000s country is the best, hands down. ????
December 18, 2017 @ 5:09 pm
And THIS ,Jamie, is the saddest part of marketing to 10 year olds . Most of these ‘artists’ ( ahem ) , I believe , DO know the difference between good music and nursery rhymes but nursery rhymes sell .
So yes , they are completely culpable .
December 18, 2017 @ 9:35 pm
We know exactly creates his intentions. Nobody will say it out loud, though.
December 22, 2017 @ 4:19 pm
He’s like the Senator Palpatine of mainstream country/”country” music.
December 22, 2017 @ 9:02 pm
Honestly, there’s a much simpler explanation than his being some sort of Machiavellian monster:
He’s a guy who helps people write the songs they want to sing.
That’s why Sam Hunt songs without McAnally sound just as shitty as ones with him.
It’s why Midland songs without McAnally have the same gorgeous 70s country sound as their collaborations.
It’s why Kacey sounds like Kacey, even when Shane has a co-write.
He’s ubiquitous because he’s great at helping people achieve the *exact* sound and tone they’re searching for…and he’s just as willing to help out with dreck like this as he is prestige projects like Midland.
December 18, 2017 @ 10:48 am
So great. Thanks for suffering so we don’t have to. You’re doing the Lord’s work, Trigger.
December 18, 2017 @ 10:50 am
“I would call him the Vanilla Ice of country, but that doesn’t cut nearly low enough.”
Damn.
December 18, 2017 @ 10:51 am
Usually I just say, ‘yeah that’s bad, I bet, because I don’t listen to it, blah blah blah’. But I happened to hear a little of this the other day. Whoah.
With all the changes for the worse in the charts I guess it’s only natural for there to be some big changes for the worse in programming.
Promoters and programmers and deejays–I feel for the ones that have any scruples left whatsoever. It must be tough to find a radio gig outside the seven circles of hell.
I’m not listening to this shit just as much now as I didn’t used to listen to it, but the stuff that gets through now–this what-the-fuck-ever-you-call-it. What kinds of people is it made by? What kinds of people is it made for?? Is it martian music? Is it a direct feed from the SETI institute? What the fuck is it? Is everybody high but me??? If so–don’t give me none of what they’re smoking.
And if this is the shit that gets released, can you imagine how bad the shit is that gets cut?
Fuck me.
December 18, 2017 @ 10:57 am
This is hilarious, Trigger. You are an excellent writer.
To think I actually liked this guy when he was singing decent pop-country like Pants and Why Wait for Summer. He could have been something pretty decent. Now he’s just absolute garbage. How shameful.
December 18, 2017 @ 10:59 am
Great article and review! Should have ended with the word BOOM though haha
December 18, 2017 @ 11:12 am
BOOM!
December 18, 2017 @ 11:01 am
I actually really like this song.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:14 am
Go find and watch the viral hit Star Wars lip sync song, “Seagulls (Stop It Now)”. You’ll enjoy it much more, and actually feel good about yourself at the end. You’ll thank me later.
December 18, 2017 @ 1:38 pm
I like that, too, but this song is really something special. I like the direction country is moving in right now.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:34 pm
OMG my kids sing Seagulls non stop! Sooo funny!
December 18, 2017 @ 5:00 pm
RD, are you bored man? I’ve never seen you do this before.
December 18, 2017 @ 6:37 pm
I gave up the fight. I learned to love big brother.
“He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark mustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother”
December 18, 2017 @ 11:03 am
This is the best review Trig’s posted since he lambasted Jerrod Nieman’s Donkey. The pure disgust oozes from every paragraph, and Trigger’s anger keeps coming close to the boiling point with each sentence.
I understand that this was not a pleasant experience for our host here, but it sure makes for some entertaining reading, no doubt about that.
Shame Shane McAnally can’t just go off to LA and produce pop music for the pop charts and leave country alone for once and for all.
December 18, 2017 @ 12:34 pm
“and leave country alone for once and for all”
Senator, Shane McAnally hates you. He hates the countryside. He thinks you’re all redneck fascists who deserve to die, soon he hopes, of some opioid overdose. You are The Past, and he wants you gone.
Is that clear enough?
December 18, 2017 @ 2:40 pm
Senator, Shane McAnally hates you. He hates the countryside. He thinks you’re all redneck fascists who deserve to die, soon he hopes, of some opioid overdose. You are The Past, and he wants you gone.
Well, that would explain just about everything.
December 22, 2017 @ 9:06 pm
McAnally doesn’t give a shit about Senator, or country music.
He focuses on helping whoever pays him create the sound they want, regardless of the quality of said sound, or the damage it might do to the genre.
McAnally is rapacious, work-for-hire capitalism at its finest.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:07 am
All he needs is to put on the black face and this Amos and Andy show is complete. Beyond brutal.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:09 am
Upon the first couple of seconds of listening to the embedded music video, I was reminded of the viral Star Wars lip sync classic, “Seagulls (Stop It Now)”. Unfortunately, this song “Dollar Store” is not even in the same ball park in terms of quality, musicianship, creativity, and overall likableness the “Seagulls” lip sync song, which I actually like and find myself humming often.
I am a local music producer here in Georgia, and there are a lot of folks who are getting tired of this…, this… this ear filler. The day of reckoning is coming, just like the NFL is currently finding out. In all honesty, I could care less what you’re producing or recording or trying to sell, as the free market will ultimately dictate your demise. You have a rich mommy & daddy who will foot the bill? Record to your heart’s content. Of course, it will probably end up sounding like everything else that’s out there if you want to be “in” with the current country mafia circle. What gets my goat is the guys who actually think this is the “new, hot stuff”, and the labels who actually push this trash on the buying public. Someone get me a Goody’s.
Before long (as we pray and cross our fingers), the current pop / bro / bull-crap country trend will go the way of the hair metal bands in the 80’s. “Blow in, blow up, and (hopefully soon) blow out.” It’s bubble-gum for the younger masses who buy music. That’s it. It’s mindless noise replicating any “hip” modern sound from some album somewhere from the depths of boy-band hell. No self-respecting person would tolerate this in their vehicles or playlists.
And then I have my more critical opinion…
December 18, 2017 @ 11:38 am
Don’t be hatin’ on hair metal. I mean, everything deserves an expiration date and you always have to wade thru the crap to find the gold, but a lot of technical musicianship back then even if the content was shallow. And it was a dang good time. Bro-country can’t claim musicianship. From their perspective, they probably will claim a good time, but sheep can be herded so easily when they ain’t really listening.
December 18, 2017 @ 12:21 pm
In all honesty, I’ll actually admit there is some good hair metal, and even some good hip-hop. Like all genres, there are the gems, the gold, the tracks and bands that stand out. Unfortunately, you are right on when considering the current “bro-country” offerings. At least with hair metal, it was fun, exciting, aggressive, flamboyant, excessive, and all sorts of things that we cannot say about bro-country, except excessive in the sense of “everything sounds the same”. Didn’t mean to sound like I was hating on the hair metal, as I was only drawing a comparison of its demise.
December 18, 2017 @ 2:40 pm
This dude is to country what Kip Winger was to butt rock hair metal.
December 18, 2017 @ 4:28 pm
Cock rock and butt rock, always cracked me up.
December 19, 2017 @ 1:35 am
Kip Winger was honestly an excellent songwriter, and Winger was a super talented band. Their lead guitarist, Reb Beach, is easily the most underrated lead guitarist of the hair metal era. I went back and gave their albums a chance and was pleasantly surprised. Lots of good stuff there.
December 19, 2017 @ 4:26 am
Kip was a little cheesy but Reb was a monster.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:11 am
The kindest thing I can think of to say is that the two songs I tried to listen to (I couldn’t last long, it was painful) sounded like R Kelly rejects, and yes, one of them ripped off a chunk of Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side. Even my 8-year-old daughter just turned round and said “This is not very good, at all. What is it?” by then I couldn’t even remember the title, my brain had tried to defend itself by removing all memory of what it had just heard.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:11 am
Don’t hold back man, tell us how you really feel.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:15 am
My thought exactly….LOL
December 18, 2017 @ 11:17 am
This twat waffle is putting out boy band, horseshit like this at 37 years old?!! These really are the end times.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:21 am
I listened to 10 seconds.
I wouldn’t listen to him talking to me. Musically absolutely not. Apparently his good looks(?) has an adverse effect on thought processing.
It’s a shame so many sponges (minds of the immature) will buy this kind of crap. Sponges soak in everything and will someday probably recall this as good ole days.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:28 am
Classic.
I have two kids, 6 and 3. Which means that 3 years ago, I got cut. With that (and many other good decisions), it’s allowed me enough freedom to work from home running a growing small business, continue to write and record, and try my hardest to be a good dad.
What I’m not doing right now is the following…
– Reminiscing about opening for The Raging Idiots
– Using the phrase ‘buh-leed dat’
– Saying “Boom” after anything remotely positive happens
– Waving my arms in directions meant for EPMD or The Pharcyde
– Buying a jumbo tub of grape jelly and jiffy mix from Costco
– Writing lyrics meant for 5 Seconds Of Summer
– Releasing songs under my own name rejected by 5 Seconds Of Summer
And I have pastor, sweetest guy on Earth. But if I had seven kids and was putting music out like this, he wouldn’t buy me a minivan. He would buy a copy of the latest Hillsong United album, beat me over the head with it, and tell me to stop stealing from the offering plate.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:33 am
Boom goes the Walker.
Epic dreck & Nashville shows it can produce a new all-time low album year after year.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:34 am
Sweet Baby Jesus, that was at least as awful as Trigger said. And yeah, Lou Reed’s estate should sue his ass.
And I say again: why do the portraits shot for the album covers of all these male “country artists” look like wanted posters for child molesters? Perhaps to be in sync with the content?
December 18, 2017 @ 11:38 am
In all seriousness, the best way of getting rid of people like Hayes is to let them releaase their stuff, because nobody will want to buy it and their careers will then be over. They will have failed, and cannot act like aspiring artists who just haven’t caught their break yet.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:43 am
I wish you would have re-mentioned why he named it “Boom” – too good. Hahaha. Great review
December 18, 2017 @ 12:59 pm
https://savingcountrymusic.com/seriously-how-dudebro-is-this-walker-hayes-guy/
December 18, 2017 @ 11:45 am
OMG Trigger- I’ve never heard anyone in my life articulate the level of disgust you can in the funniest, wittiest way, stirring these images into a grotesque picture, that makes us almost vomit, all the whole laughing so hard it hurts! I’m in awe of you! Why couldn’t I have had teachers like you?? The learning experience could be so much more fun! I could barely get through Dollar Store and You Broke up with me…the bad thing is You Broke With Me had a fun dance beat which may be popular with unsuspecting youth.
Don’t ever stop writing, please!
December 18, 2017 @ 11:47 am
Yeah, it’s pretty bad, from what I’ve heard. Which isn’t much, but you don’t have to eat a whole turd to know it tastes bad.
Can’t lie, though; I did like the lyrics of “Beer in the Fridge.” In the hands of a competent country music artist that could be a great song.
December 18, 2017 @ 12:08 pm
I have to agree with you that the lyrics to Beer in the Fridge are decent. If someone like Brad Paisley, Jon Pardi, or William Michael Morgan (or possibly Chris Young if he wanted to go back to his Neon sound) would have cut it and have added some honest to God Country instrumentation to it, we’d probably all enjoy it.
December 18, 2017 @ 7:28 pm
Yeah. Were I to review this on Amazon, I might say, “download this song and leave the rest,” but even that would be giving this dude legitimacy that he doesn’t deserve.
About the only consolation to all this is that fans of this shit are more likely to stream it than download it.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:48 am
“I would call him the Vanilla Ice of country, but that doesn’t cut nearly low enough.”
That we’re still talking about Vanilla Ice in 2017 says something for the guy, idk what, but something. He was memorably bad, I guess. Walker Hayes won’t be remembered in two years, let alone 25.
February 18, 2022 @ 7:18 am
oh wait 2021 wasnt here yet lol
December 18, 2017 @ 11:53 am
Just look at this fucking clown.
December 18, 2017 @ 12:24 pm
He looks like one of those dudes that got banged a few times too many…in prison…
December 18, 2017 @ 12:29 pm
I just sampled this on Amazon. Oh my god. These songs are so bad theyre almost parodies of themselves. Its as if somebody was intentionally trying to make them horrible. To what demographic does this appeal?!
December 18, 2017 @ 12:31 pm
“Finish in the butt, whatever you have to do, but quit making us all suffer from the fact that you’re so unskilled, you can’t even pull out in time, let alone put a half decent song together.”
I’m dead.
December 18, 2017 @ 12:37 pm
Vanilla Ice wouldn’t acknowledge Queen’s bassline…coincidence?
December 18, 2017 @ 12:38 pm
What does “how many kids” have to do with this?
How many kids did Shane McAnally’s loins produce? None. And yet we have an unending stream of his “musicalism” that is basically him pissing all over country music’s bed.
Commercial country’s bed, that is.
December 18, 2017 @ 12:41 pm
So you want Lou Reed to come down and kick him in his nuts for this… eh Trig? I don’t think that’s possible since Walker sings like he ain’t got none. If anyone needs a knock in the family jewels it’s Shane McAnally for opening a label just to produce this piece of shit. It makes you wonder what else Shane plans on doing with Monument Records or should I say who else he’s going to sign and what other pieces of crap he is going to produce. We had Taylor and Borchetta do their unrepairable damage… now Walker and McAnally are going to do what… kill whatever we got left?! We need a savior… country music needs a savior… to bring back the music and the tradition. Maybe he or she is out there somewhere… all we can do is hope.
December 18, 2017 @ 12:59 pm
-1/10!!!
Lol
December 18, 2017 @ 1:21 pm
Ok………this is a good true story……So last week we had our 95.5 Big Country Christmas @ Joe’s Live featuring in this order Morgan Evans, William Michael Morgan, Walker Hayes, Chase Rise, and Dustin Lynch headlining. All acoustic sets mind you. Being that I’m familiar with everyone on that lists current album EXCEPT for our boy Walker I downloaded it the day before I think just to see if anything could be as bad as that shit song. I was too busy to give it a listen before I went to the show. Once at the show while William Micheal Morgan was on 2 (I’m guessing radio) promo girls started walking around telling people “Walker Hayes is over there taking pics and signing autographs” she looked right at me and said it and I swear to god I was this close to saying “Can I go over there and tell him his song sucks?” but it was Christmas and I held my tongue and watched 3 other girls standing near me look at each other and then go over. There was no crowd by him I can assure you. They were begging people to go talk to him. I didn’t really pay attention to his set but wondered why HE wasn’t opening this bill? The next day I gave the album a listen and nearly threw up thinking we must be being “punked’ or something….. I had to throw on Tyler Childers album (even though I don’t like it as much as all of you but it’s growing on me) just to get the taste out of my ears. This review by Trigger is actually too kind.
You know how I feel about Midland but if Shane is responsible for this guy I’d crack him upside the head and say “C’mon Man!!!”
December 18, 2017 @ 1:21 pm
Finally the review I’ve been waiting for.
Boom.
December 18, 2017 @ 1:27 pm
Well said, Trigger. This is absolutely horrific.
Will you be covering any of Old Dominion’s recent output in the future? You’ve taken it easy on them lately.
December 18, 2017 @ 1:27 pm
What a statement. And I agree, I’ve been saying this, this is THE worst album in country music history. Period.
December 18, 2017 @ 1:29 pm
Okay, THIS has got to be my favorite Trig rant since “Boys ‘Round Here” (especially the whole second paragraph and this bit: “I’m embarrassed to be a part of the same animal species that would produce such an audio abortion and proffer it to the public for consumption” — ouch!). 😀
December 18, 2017 @ 1:37 pm
I feel like there was a way to do this review without going after Walker Hayes as a person, but that’s just me.
I hate this album but going after the artist as a person or how they live their life is where I draw the line..
December 18, 2017 @ 1:51 pm
Somebody’s got to hit him with some truth.
He’s obviously been walking around for 37 years without hearing it.
December 18, 2017 @ 2:21 pm
There’s a way to do that though without going after him as a person. Going after an artist for their lifestyle is unprofessional in my opinion.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:49 pm
I didn’t bring up Walker’s family. Walker brought up Walker’s family. You can’t read an interview or a feature on this guy without his six kids (and one on the way) being brought up, along with this ridiculous narrative of him being such a product of hardship. I’m sorry, but if you have five kids and can’t feed them because you’re elective occupation as a pop country music star failed to take off, you’re not in a position to complain about your lot in life, or to have a sixth. Hayes has specifically said that his desperation due to his swelling family is what led to this record, and that is why it was broached here, no different than the inspiration or motivation behind any record. Believe it or not, I have a line, even when satire is being employed to make a point. And I don’t feel like I crossed it here. Frankly, if someone has seven kids and is complaining about not being able to provide for them (there’s a specific song about this on the album), then they probably need someone to give them some unfiltered advice.
December 18, 2017 @ 6:04 pm
But there’s a way to talk about this guy’s music without bringing up someone’s personal life, as a music reviewer it should be kept to the music imo.
December 18, 2017 @ 6:46 pm
To me the line is you don’t go after his family, but Trigger said nothing bad about his wife or bus full of kids. What Trigger went after was his decision making that led to the kids which apparently led him to completely disgrace himself as an individual and a human.
December 18, 2017 @ 1:43 pm
This review was so well-written, I was so curious and had to listen to this for myself. It is that bad. Some country records are bad country records are decent pop records- this is not the case. It is just bad all around. The content made me feel like I was a college freshman again- and not in a good way. My eighteen year old self would have channel surfed past this while scrounging around for change in the Taco Bell drive-thru. This album is the perfect example of grown men (almost forty) singing about things that would be appropriate for a 19 year old. I’m not saying you have to make a song about pouring your six kids cereal in the morning or passing by the “family planning” aisle at Costco, but at least record something that doesn’t make me feel that I need to pressure wash the sleaze off of me. This guy is a complete “dudebro.” Resist the temptation to listen- just take Trigger’s word on this.
BTW, the second paragraph in this review is startling imagery. I went there in my mind.
December 18, 2017 @ 1:46 pm
As soon as you produce an album that’s better, you can talk shit about Walker Hayes, but until you do that, shut the fuck up. You say that Walker’s only skill is writing bad music, well your only skill is nothing but talking shit about people that are thousands of times more successful than you. If you want to talk shit about the man’s music, do it to his face you fucking pussy.
December 18, 2017 @ 2:33 pm
If you want to talk shit about the man’s music, do it to his face
Can’t speak for Trigger, but if I had the opportunity to do just this, I would take it. I would take it so fast it would rip the space-time continuum so badly the universe and everything in it would disappear into oblivion.
Also, I am reasonably certain I could make better music than Walker Hayes in my sleep — not that that’s a high bar to clear — but I don’t see what that has to do with anything. I have never understood that defense. Could I cook a better beef Wellington than a master chef? Probably not, but if that dude fucks up my beef Wellington, if I think it sucks, I have every right to say so.
And the same goes for music. But Walker Hayes isn’t a master chef making shitty beef Wellington. He’s a fry cook burning gruel and selling it as beef Wellington.
December 18, 2017 @ 2:50 pm
Yeah you say that Pistelero but I WAS given that opportunity and because I’m not an inherently mean person I personally wouldn’t and didn’t walk up a tell someone(Walker in this case) their song sucks etc…. because it’s kind of like “well who the fuck asked you anyway?” is the attitude I would have if I was him. I didn’t “boo” him either because I don’t make it a habit to “boo” opening acts. That doesn’t mean I can’t share my opinion on a blog just like you and Patrick Bondy can.
December 18, 2017 @ 7:22 pm
Well, when you put it like that…
In all seriousness, upon further reflection, you’re right. Would such a thing be mean and uncalled for? Perhaps. But that’s the only reason that I wouldn’t do it, not because I’m a “fucking pussy,” as Mr. Swinging Dick Bondy so artfully put it.
Perhaps a “sorry dude, but this is just not really my thing and I don’t understand why you call this country”?
December 18, 2017 @ 3:13 pm
Patrick,
You act like the album production was done by Billy Sherrill (look him up).
Any swinging dick can shit out a pre-recorded drum loop on a MacBook and slow down or speed up the beats per minute.
Wait a sec, you’re the producer of this shit sandwich, aren’t you?
December 18, 2017 @ 3:41 pm
How do you know I haven’t?
December 18, 2017 @ 5:06 pm
That’s such a tired and stupid “argument”. ….. Let me guess, you also don’t like it when professional sports fans criticize the performance of players because the players are obviously better at the sport than the fan / critic.? Second, I am wholly confident that just about any person off the street….especially given a budget and access to professional equipment, a producer, etc., could put out a product that is better than this crap. It literally is so bad that you would have to deliberately try to make a horribly annoying and embarrassing album to make a record that is worse than this.
December 18, 2017 @ 7:23 pm
Aaaaand OWNED.
Well put. This is exactly what I was trying to say but failing.
December 18, 2017 @ 7:04 pm
Is it just me or does this guy sound like he wears a flat bill, shaves his arms, and sports a hitler youth haircut?
December 19, 2017 @ 8:43 am
Patrick’s comment made me physically laugh hard enough to draw questions from bystanders. Seems this review hit too close to home to someone.
December 18, 2017 @ 1:47 pm
60 comments and not a single defender – THAT’s the real review!
December 18, 2017 @ 1:52 pm
I personally never even really cared for his earlier material on Capitol, and now that he’s become a Sam Hunt knockoff, I dislike him even more. I get that he has kids to feed, but it’s still sad that he’s resorted to recording this kind of music at 37 years old. Forget that it’s not even country, it’s just not good music, period. Excellent rant, Trigger!
December 20, 2017 @ 7:54 am
I really enjoyed Pants and Kitchen Table. Why Wait for Summer was okay too. I get why some wouldn’t now enjoy it at all, but I thought it was cute, clever, and catchy. But I absolutely hate his music now. The first time I hears You Broke Up With Me, I just felt really sad for what mainstream country has become.
December 18, 2017 @ 2:42 pm
Made it about 15 seconds into it. Sounded like music from an annoying pop up add or something.
December 18, 2017 @ 5:08 pm
That was my first thought as well! I thought it was some annoying advertisement.
December 18, 2017 @ 2:52 pm
Love it !! Tell it like it is Trigger, things often need to be said ……….
December 18, 2017 @ 3:06 pm
This Walker Hays guy thinks he going to bring a Macklemore style to Country and It’s not welcome at all.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:09 pm
I love this cd.
If yall dont like it…dont listen to it.
December 18, 2017 @ 5:14 pm
Uhhh, we won’t lol, that’s the point
December 18, 2017 @ 3:14 pm
Sorry, I’m kinda put off by all the comments about his kids and his sex life, does that have anything to do with his music?
I’m quite certain it’s a terrible record, but cmon man. Attack the tunes; I’m not aware of WH doing anything horrid to anyone, and even if he is a jerk (which I have no way of knowing), I think the amount of children he has is his choice.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:25 pm
I don’t know this guy or his music, so I listened to Dollar Store. Well he managed to do it. He has proven Townes Van Zander wrong. There are actually three kinds of music. The Blues, Zippity-Do-Da and Putrid Shit.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:27 pm
Sorry, didn’t proof read when it overrode Zandt.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:28 pm
Elvis is a saint. No need to drag him into this.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:28 pm
This review is low and very poorly written. Have some class. If you don’t like it, don’t listen. No need to insult the man’s family.
December 18, 2017 @ 4:04 pm
Tell that to the artist(?) who’s being talked about. He has no class and poorly written music(?) being forced on families as country.
December 18, 2017 @ 3:33 pm
I actually liked Shut Up Kenny … not as a country song though. Just as a song.
It was the first song I listened to from the album. It didn’t uh … go so well from there =/
December 18, 2017 @ 4:07 pm
I wonder if he or McAnally know about this site and if they read it.
I’d love to hear their rebuttal/defense of the crap produced.
December 18, 2017 @ 5:12 pm
My guess is that they would have no defense, because they are fully aware that there is no musical integrity here and they are just looking to make a quick buck. In their minds, the $ overrides the embarrassment and hit to their credibility that putting out garbage like this entails.
December 22, 2017 @ 9:13 pm
Yup. I’m almost entirely certain WH hit up SA and said “I need to completely sell out. I’ll give you X% if you help me”…and McAnally said “Sure thing!”
December 19, 2017 @ 9:03 am
Shane McAnally posted screenshots of this article on his Instagram story.
December 19, 2017 @ 11:33 am
Link? I wanna see that!
December 18, 2017 @ 4:20 pm
This… wow… what the… that’s not music.
I’m sorry, but there is a fine line between Differing Musical Tastes and Pure Crappy Noise.
Shane Hayes- sorry Walker McAnally- never mind- this album isn’t fit to be called ART in the least! It’s TV ad jingles that are firmly on the side of Pure Crap.
Boom! there you have it!
I’m gonna go listen to some Thomas Rhett to clear my head ????????????
December 18, 2017 @ 4:23 pm
This was my first thought upon hearing “Dollar Store”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VbYcN8dLXsc
December 19, 2017 @ 11:14 am
I tried to listen to Dollar Store—about 45 seconds in, I said “fuck it” and instead put on Jon Pardi’s She Ain’t In It. Life’s too short for excessively shitty music.
December 18, 2017 @ 4:31 pm
Anyone else thinks Walker Hayes looks like a Lego character?
December 18, 2017 @ 5:37 pm
Yeah he does.He also kinda looks like a terminator sent by sky net to destroy country music.
December 18, 2017 @ 4:39 pm
“finish in the butt” forced me to listen to a few of these tunes, first time listening willingly to commercial country for me in over a decade. Just bad pop music, not too dissimilar from the rest of it these days. maybe a little worse, all the same garbage. Made for kids, disaffected housewives yearning for youth, and dudes who don’t care about music. listened to it for a few minutes. went in, went out. Played some Prine. Drank a beer. I’m over it.
December 19, 2017 @ 5:57 am
As a teen in the 60’s, at least half the pop tunes were done using the instrumental backing from the Wrecking Crew in L.A. Motown was putting out hits by Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, The Temtations, Martha Reeves, The Supremes etc. Muscle Shoals was putting out top 40 hits, as was Star/Volt. Sure there was bubble gum crap, but it seems like Pop Music then had a lot more talent in the mix in those years. A lot of that music stands up pretty well today.
December 19, 2017 @ 12:30 pm
yeah, i’m not even against all pop today. Some of it is not that offensive. It’s just a big business. And I assume the business still makes money. Seems to me the business guys would want to mix in some real music, just in case their business model is misguided. But that’s their business. Not my business. There, that’s 6 references to business in 7 sentences. That could be my new business. But I would probably focus on B2B as opposed to a retail business.
December 19, 2017 @ 1:22 pm
I agree. In the past great music was made even though the primary goal was to make money, and not necessarily art. Today, if the goal is to make money, it will invariably suck. Standards keep going down.
December 19, 2017 @ 6:52 am
By the way, Prine is always a good time. With beer or your whatever it takes to put on your illegal smile.
December 18, 2017 @ 4:45 pm
I went to target two days ago and I picked up Walker Hayes cd for 5 seconds and I put it back. No thank you. I won’t bother listen to this garbage on Youtube.
December 18, 2017 @ 4:48 pm
I strongly dislike this album and everything Walker Hayes represents about modern mainstream country music, but your scathing judgement of him as a person was called for. Not to mention your assessment of Shane McAnally is borderline homophobic. Besides, who cares if he is appropriating black culture or whatever? That’s such a stupid reason for hating the album. Reminds of something some idiotic journalism graduate would write for Buzzfeed.
December 18, 2017 @ 6:20 pm
LOL….. yes it is called for just as you typed. (Proof reading helps)
As for borderline homophobic…. so? If a person has the right to be homosexual (as long as it doesn’t harm another) then those who are phobic have a right to express it…. as long as it doesn’t hurt another. If it hurts take them to court and get “forced” to bake a cake. Is that not “phobic” as well?
Maybe the homosexual preference is behind the shit for brains production(s) being passed off as country music. It needs to be pointed out if that’s the case, although, I didn’t read it as anything other than really pissed at shit for brains selling to shit for brains that don’t know any better.
And no, I’m not homophobic, or homosexual. But I do possess an abundance (gained in 70 years of life) to not get all butt hurt when somebody calls me a redneck. Or ignorant or any other name de cause of the day.
I do however take offense at being told it’s raining when somebody pisses down my neck. Does that make me rain or piss phobic? Maybe I don’t like being lied to. Is that a phobia?
Of course labeling someone with an accepted pejorative always helps a cause.
Shit forced is shit forced regardless of where that shit came from. And the two who are at the heart of this music(?) are shit… for brains, and rich because of it. Maybe that’s because nobody has the guts to call a spade a spade. It also raises a question of where we are as a society when shit and shit for brains is profitable. And due, in no small part, to political correctness run amok.
December 18, 2017 @ 6:29 pm
You could have written one succinct sentence instead of this rambling mess lmao.
December 19, 2017 @ 7:30 am
You could have not said anything. But you didn’t, and you didn’t answer the questions I posted or re-butt my comments.
December 19, 2017 @ 7:43 pm
Brandy Clark is lesbian and makes some pretty damn fine actual COUNTRY music. Thus, trying to suggest a homosexual orientation (not “preference,” as that word suggests it’s a choice and can be turned on and off like a faucet) is tantamount to making bad country music doesn’t hold water.
Believe it or not, there ARE LGBT people who appreciate true country music. I happen to be one of them. We don’t all worship Britney Spears or applaud EDM/hip-hop’s encroachments on the country art form, nor do we all support Shane MacAnally’s style of “country” just because he’s “one of us.”
December 20, 2017 @ 7:04 am
Point out where I even implied what preference does for making music. AND, address the rest of my post. Being selective (cherry picking) is “political correctness run amok”. I don’t care if you’re a one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater, but, if you’re gonna force an issue be prepared to be called on the issue and stop acting as though you’re something special.You ain’t. Believe it or not, there are a lot of straight people too, and we/they have just as much right to speaking our mind as anyone does. When confronted with a pejorative, meant to be shaming or derogatory, I WILL respond accordingly, count on it.
December 22, 2017 @ 9:15 pm
Hahahahaha, what?
December 18, 2017 @ 8:36 pm
There’s nothing even remotely homophobic about anything said about Shane McAnally. And you’re going to assert this, and then complain about Buzzfeed being too touchy on cultural appropriation?
It is insulting to black people to mimic their annunciations and dialect when it is not native to your tongue, and it is especially bad when you do it for commercial gain.
December 18, 2017 @ 8:54 pm
Yawn. Everything can be construed as cultural appropriation. Don’t talk like this. Don’t dress like that. Don’t eat that. What a stupid society we have become. I guess Taylor Swift is racist for rapping on her new album then. The horror!!!!!
December 19, 2017 @ 7:32 am
Yeah being dismissive of others (Yawn) is very appropriate.
When you have no argument.
December 19, 2017 @ 10:16 am
I don’t like the album or the music but the cultural appropriation argument is flawed at best. Wasn’t it hank Williams who learned from and mimicked a black blues singer?
December 19, 2017 @ 11:50 am
I went back up to re-read the review. I still could not find anything remotely homophobic. I tend to notice and look for things like that when I feel it’s possible for the conversation to turn that direction. But it did not turn that direction until you, Waylon Tattoo, mentioned it.
December 18, 2017 @ 4:49 pm
What the fuck is this bad pop song? Is this the country I left somewhere circa 2013? This Dollar Store song… I cannot even begin to describe how awful that song is.
December 18, 2017 @ 5:17 pm
Please , everyone . At this beautiful time of year let’s show some compassion for the dumb-assed half-wit trend-chasers who actually mistake this shit for music and PAY for it . Perhaps they know not what they purchase .
And Trigger ….maybe have a lie -down and avoid this kind of upsetting activity ’til after the holidays . You’ll have us worried about you .
December 18, 2017 @ 5:22 pm
But other than that how did ya like it!!! ????
December 18, 2017 @ 5:58 pm
Uncalled for and offensive review. I would pay money to see Walker kick you in the balls, whoever in the he’ll you are. Judge not lest ye be judged…
December 18, 2017 @ 6:24 pm
Uncalled for? LOL. I think he explains himself quite well. Offensive? Hopefully. Read your last sentence and practice what you preach.
December 18, 2017 @ 6:39 pm
Attacking his family is uncalled for. Attack him if you so please. He’s a big boy and can take it. Offensive it is, to me. That’s my right. It’s a free country. So this clown thinks his music is shit. Fine. His right. But to pass judgement on his loving family whom he I’m sure doesn’t know…lower than low. Offensive and uncalled for.
December 19, 2017 @ 11:54 am
“He’s a big boy…”
Judging by his music I have to agree with you. Walker Hayes is pretty big for a boy. Probably the tallest in his class.
December 18, 2017 @ 7:08 pm
That would mean the person kicked you in the jaw, Brian?
December 19, 2017 @ 7:42 am
Whisky tango foxtrot does that even mean. Where can I look it up? “Just like penguin in bondage” …look that up.
December 19, 2017 @ 11:52 am
I get it.
December 18, 2017 @ 7:18 pm
“Judge not lest ye be judged…”
This is America. Speak English man…
December 19, 2017 @ 7:50 am
It’s from the Bible. That’s been translated to English.
December 18, 2017 @ 6:18 pm
That really is the worst thing i’ve ever heard.
December 18, 2017 @ 6:25 pm
Best I’ve read in a long, long time. Well thought out and quite eloquent.
December 18, 2017 @ 6:35 pm
Though not a huge fan, I find myself sometimes listening to the urban staions and iheart stations here in NYC because sometimes there’s a groove to my liking and growing up with R & B/soul/Latin music means I can appreciate the stuff.
But this? Please! It sounds like it was recorded on toy “instruments”. It’s just so fake sounding. It’s crap.
It’s not even remotely country. How is this even marketed to country stations? Is it even called country?
Shame on Shane!
December 18, 2017 @ 6:59 pm
It’s just fucking retarded
December 18, 2017 @ 7:03 pm
I need to record my dog snoring ,throw in some loud farts, and the neighbors cats fighting, take it to crapville tn. And watch the money roll in
December 18, 2017 @ 7:06 pm
Fuck anything taking from country music that wants to live and breathe as pop, hip-hop, or any other flavor of the month. I could care less about cultural appropriation mocking hip-hop culture. Fuck that bullshit anyway.What bothers me is cultural appropriation of southern people and country music. Nashville is so fucking ashamed of it’s roots that it is always trying to “get down” with whatever the little children are into at any time. Country music is not for children and teenagers. In fact, if children and teenagers like it, it probably sucks. So this Carl Haywalker, or what ever the chump’s name is, is not a country artist. Like State Line group, or Damn Cunt, or Terri Dumberwood, this is KIDS BOP and nothing else. Fuck the mainstream and fuck any stupid dipshit who pays any attention to that type of garbage.
December 19, 2017 @ 8:48 am
Give some children and teenagers credit, if brought up right, they’ll appreciate the good stuff.
December 18, 2017 @ 7:07 pm
Didn’t Maclemore already record this song?
December 18, 2017 @ 7:12 pm
God Dammit… this site is a small fraction of the ‘country community’.. same folks bitchin constantly about the state if the industry. If this shit didn’t sell, Nashville wouldn’t sell it. It’s about the ‘dolla bill y’all’. Luke Bryan made more $ this year than Sturgill Simpson and Cody Jinks COMBINED.. look it up. Trophys and ‘critical acclaim’ mean dick in the real world. I come to this site to find the ‘alternative’ to country radio. We already know what sucks.
I saw Justin Wells this past weekend. I would have never heard of him had it not been for SCM calling his song The Dogs song of the year 2016.. thank you for that, but fuck. This site bitches and moans about ‘worst this’ and ‘worst that’ but you’re preaching to the choir and yelling into a canyon.
My 14 yo has her own itunes account so I see what she listens to. She hates Waylon and Merle, but loves Body Like A Backroad.. she calls that ‘country’. I’ve had prouder moments, but I digress..Nashville could sign and release Metallica’s next album and call it ‘country’ and so it shall be. Fuck It…Thanks for all you’ve done to bring ‘true country’ to the masses, but stop doin this shit. You call bullshit on Nashville, but provide a link to the song.,. WTF?
December 18, 2017 @ 8:32 pm
“Luke Bryan made more $ this year than Sturgill Simpson and Cody Jinks COMBINED.. look it up.”
Yes, but Chris Stapleton lapped them all combined three times over, at least when it came to song and album sales. And he did it because there is a rising tide in country of people looking for alternatives, and it’s being stoked by vociferous dissent.
“This site bitches and moans about ‘worst this’ and ‘worst that’ but you’re preaching to the choir and yelling into a canyon.”
Incorrect, and a common misconception. The majority of the people who come here come via Google. Many have never been to this site before. Daily readers and social media traffic make up minority of the readers. And the biggest concentration of daily readers in the entire world for Saving Country Music is on Music Row. The whole point of these articles is to stir the pot, and to rattle cages. And it does that quite well. Saving Country Music has never, and was never about being a music recommendation site. It was about giving a voice to the disenfranchised country music fan, as well as championing the causes that keep quality country music down. It happens to be that it also works as a music recommendation site, and I appreciate that people use it as such. But the point of the site is to try and help save country music.
Also, the reason it seems like all I do is post negative stuff is because that’s the stuff that gets the majority of attention, gets reposed on social media, gets all the comments, and draws the most attention. It’s 20 to 1 the amount of people who will read this article compared to my review of the Old 97’s. It was 20 to 1 the people who read the “Worst Songs of 2017” compared to “Song of the Year Nominees.” Oh, and the two worst records of the year got released the same week I featured the worst songs of the year. But somehow I am to blame for that. I’m doing my job, which is focusing on the positive the majority of the time. It’s the public who is not “supporting the music” by actually reading, commenting, and sharing those articles.
December 18, 2017 @ 7:12 pm
I spent some time with Walker towards the end of his Capitol day. He came across as an entitled egomaniac. I really walked away from our meetings thinking that guy is a dick who has a false sense of being a star. To be honest, I thought that “pants” song was goofy gimmick tune… that didn’t work. He is the epitome of music row whore.
December 18, 2017 @ 7:13 pm
Okay. Firstly, I agree about every single thing said here about the ‘music’, if it can be called that. Maybe it would be best to just, ignore it, by posting this review it will lead to people checking out how bad it is, leading to him getting more royalties, ouch. BUt, there is no need at all to attack him for how many kids he has, or will have. I come from a tiny village deep in North Wales. (which is not part of england). and my dad is one of 6 children, my mother one of 8. What of it!
December 18, 2017 @ 7:19 pm
I’m glad country music is getting away from all that forced twang steel guitar stuff. I love this album and if you old angry straight white men have a problem with that boo hoo. Welcome to 2017, soon to be 2018.
December 18, 2017 @ 9:08 pm
Walker Hayes isn’t country, so the first part of your comment makes no sense. Second, I would be willing to bet that your presumptive “old white men” comment about the average commenter on here is flat out wrong.
December 18, 2017 @ 9:10 pm
AUTISTIC SCREECHING
December 19, 2017 @ 3:14 am
Graduated high school yet?
December 19, 2017 @ 5:56 am
Sounds like you don’t like country music.
December 19, 2017 @ 8:49 am
Jackson J. I happen to love pop music as well as country music. The problem isn’t really that there’s no steel guitar or that this isn’t country music. It’s just bad music. The instruments sound like toys. He’s a white middle aged guy trying to enunciate words like a young urban black male. The topics are and lyrics are a joke. If this is the future of any musical genre, we are in big trouble. AND, your a dumbass with no musical taste or intellect.
December 19, 2017 @ 9:48 am
Can we get a shout for the old straight angry Mexican in the house…
December 19, 2017 @ 12:36 pm
Orale, Marc!
December 18, 2017 @ 7:21 pm
Unbelievably horrific album. It would need to be at least 10 times better to even qualify as “awful”. I dont think there’s presently a word in the English language that accurately described just how terrible it is.
That being said, I thought the review was more than a tad over the top but hell, this this the internet and the current trend is to portray everything as out of proportion as possible. Project outrage when the majority of the rest of us couldn’t careless.
December 18, 2017 @ 7:42 pm
Thank you Trigger. I really believe that if we’re going to put an end to this blandness (I could be less polite than that, but I will stop there) we need folks like you calling it for what it is. If things move the way you’ve described in other posts, this will somehow “contrive” to go to No.1 on the Country Charts and the cycle will begin again. Please God, I hope it doesn’t happen this time.
December 18, 2017 @ 8:23 pm
Well, it’s official.
Antonio Cromartie no longer has the worst pull-out game in history. This Walker Hayes guy couldn’t pull out of a driveway!!
December 18, 2017 @ 9:24 pm
Wow I just stumbled onto this site and your article. So much anger my GOODNESS. Yes country music has changed and not always for the better. I personally enjoy Merle, Hank Sr., George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Loretta, Ray Price…and I dig Alabama & the early 90’s, BUT there are a few of the new ones that I actually LIKE including “You Broke Up With Me”, “Back Roads” & “Dirt On My Boots”. I also like Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Boots Randolf, Chet Atkins, the Stones, Beatles, ZZ Top, Heart, Beyonce…. I guess I just wanted to say I’m sure your article is meant to stir things up; increase readership, for fortune & fame, all the things artists to reach their dream. I’m not up on the Nashville machine. I worked at a top rated Country Radio station from 2000-2011 in the Seattle Market but I haven’t kept up much since then. The last couple of years there was almost painful for me Am I correct that Shane MacAnally is Mac’s son? Love the stuff the latter wrote and recorded.
December 19, 2017 @ 1:20 am
Beverly . I think you need to understand the mandate of the site to understand the comments . Trigger and friends are trying their damnedest to protect what I/we consider to be an artform- REAL country music !
The Sam Hunts and Walker Hayes and Florida Georgia’s who market their wares under the GUISE of same are the furthest thing imaginable from REAL country music . Whatever they are recording DOES NOT BELONG ON COUNTRY RADIO …..it is POP music …and not even very good POP music . Every time one of these pop artists gets airtime on what SHOULD BE country radio they take an opportunity for exposure from an ACTUAL COUNTRY ARTIST……an artist who dedicates his or her life to writing /playing /recording /promoting/performing REAL country music only to be ignored for someone who CALLS what they do ‘country’ music in order to get airplay and exposure . Does this seem even remotely fair and just to you ?
Thus , the raison d’etre for SCM .
December 18, 2017 @ 10:03 pm
*me reading the 2nd paragraph* god damn dude
*me after listening to “Dollar Store”* ok paragraph 2 actually doesn’t seem that bad
December 18, 2017 @ 10:17 pm
You actually listened to the entire album??!! I dived for the Stop button after 20 seconds.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:00 pm
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Especially the use of the word “underwrought.” Also, fucknards. Bravo, sir!
December 18, 2017 @ 11:46 pm
I could not finish listening to this. Not even for science.
December 18, 2017 @ 11:58 pm
He’s going out on tour with Kelsea Ballerini next year – someone protect her young female audience from this creep.
December 19, 2017 @ 12:26 am
Yeah so this sucks something fierce.
December 19, 2017 @ 2:47 am
Enough airheads bought or streamed the album for a #6 debut on Billboards “country” album charts. Ka-boom.
December 19, 2017 @ 7:24 am
That’s the perpetual problem, isn’t it? How do you reach the “airheads” with alternative options? Do they want to be reached? Do they even care enough about music in general to be worth trying to reach? My gut says that music isn’t as an important enough component in their lives, as it is for most of the folks that comment here. They treat their music the same way most people in this society treat most things. Buy it, use it for a short time, then dispose of it. The thought of listening to music, and still enjoying music by people like Charlie Poole, Hank Sr., The Louvin Bros. Ralph Stanley, etc. is a concept totally foreign to them. You are either raised with it, or their is something in one that causes them to search it out. For me the search never ends, and it has been a great ride with more discoveries to come.
December 19, 2017 @ 9:32 am
Bill…..IMO THIS is exactly the issue , if we want to call it an issue . In these short -attention -span , disposable , amuse-me-to-death times I believe quality and substance has taken a back seat on most fronts. Consider that most younger ( and many older ) folks can’t seem to stay off their phones or computers long enough to acknowledge a conversation, much less process the lyric of a song ,and I think we begin to understand why the apathy where music ins concerned . More than ever , I think music has become a means to ‘relate’ or connect with pier groups but not in the way an older generation may have . For the young , its a way of being accepted,being part of a ‘club ‘ and not a way of informing , inspiring , nurturing , educating or even motivating someone artistically . Music is just ….there like the air and oxygen . Its taken for granted . And the more that its created through the use of machines and formulas , the more that is is used to market everything BUT the music itself , the less it will be respected by the masses .
December 19, 2017 @ 3:57 am
Just brilliant mate, just brilliant. What a review and just before Christmas too. An absolute cracker. Will keep me chuckling into 2018. Thanks.
December 19, 2017 @ 5:36 am
“Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes”
No, there will never be another
Red-headed stranger
A Man in Black and Folsom Prison Blues
The Okie from Muskogee
-BOOM!!
Lord I wonder, who’s gonna fill their shoes
December 19, 2017 @ 10:18 am
Answer: Nobody. 🙁
December 19, 2017 @ 8:24 am
to continue the “finish in the butt” analogy (hy-sterical, by the way) … and to use an old joke:
90 percent of women have anal sex twice. To try and it, and then again to remember how bad it was.
i cannot think of a better reason to listen to this guy’s “music” again. because it’s. just. that. shitty.
December 19, 2017 @ 9:41 am
Trigger has become a soyboy ????????
December 19, 2017 @ 9:54 am
Ok, I’ll take the quintessential obvious “lay up” in this thread since no one else is taking it or maybe I missed it in the many comments above? If so then forgive me. On top of the fact that I’m the only one on here that had sit through an acoustic set of this masterpiece………here goes…………wait for it……
I’m pretty sure they made a spelling mistake with the title of this album and the correct spelling was BOMB? Oh…. ba dum bum. (rimshot/cymbal) I’ll be here all week, don’t forget and tip your bartenders and waitresses. Thank you, goodnight! Mic drop.
December 19, 2017 @ 10:13 am
I would pay for s coffee table book of trigs greatest rants. I agree with everything he says but some of these rants are lyrical pieces of work. I can’t almost see drunken Jim Lahey from trailer park boys ranting some of these on screen thanks trig
December 19, 2017 @ 11:02 am
Was this meant to be a parody album like Wheeler Walker Jr’s efforts? If “You Broke Up With Me” is appropriate for radio, then “Fuck you Bitch” is too
December 19, 2017 @ 1:55 pm
if only
December 19, 2017 @ 12:43 pm
If anyone needs something to cleanse their audio palate after listening to this turd of a song, I found this works pretty well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcI6FIpd0CA
December 19, 2017 @ 3:40 pm
I try to listen to everything that falls in the digital country bin at least once. This might be the first one I didn’t make it through. The .00000001 cents he made for me streaming four and a half of his songs was money I could have saved and used toward a cinderblock that I could have dropped on my toes repeatedly. I consider it a missed opportunity for a better experience.
December 19, 2017 @ 6:36 pm
No-holds-barred and fucking hilarious. Why aren’t you using your god-given command of the language to write songs?
December 19, 2017 @ 6:37 pm
I’m still a bit confused. Is it about comments to an article or the content of your articles? I would bet the same amount read and not comment, than read and comment. I come here regularly to see what’s new. Ripping into the current state of ‘country’ is as easy as picking on a retarded kid. fuck political correctness…I’ve read the ‘your writing is soooo awesome’ comments concerning this article, but really? How hard was it ripping the obvious?…Are you upset at what they lable ‘country’ today or the fact that more people like it than the latest Sturgill offering?
You bring up Chris Stapleton. Awesome voice and songwrighting, but Nashville insiders knew this for years and kept it under wraps. Why? Paid him for his songs perhaps? Acting like he is some sort of ‘game changer’ is waaay premature. A true game changer would be a Guns and Roses, where every lable scoured the country to sign any band with tattoos or a Nirvana where the same lables stormed Seattle to sign any band wearing flannel…doesn’t seem to be the case with Stapleton. He also won’t carry the traditional country torch or condemn current state of country, due to the bills he has paid writing songs for. My prediction is he is two clicks away from releasing a full on southern rock album ala Skynard.. hardly a game changer.
Out in the real world, the majority just want to tap their foot and shake their ass.. they gives no fuck how or why it comes out of their speakers. The folks that come to this site want the anti-Dollar Store, not how shitty Dollar Store is..
I’m on the side of SCM, but fuck me runnin if you don’t make it hard..If you want ‘hits’ or comments on all articles just say so, but if 150 comments on ‘atta boy Luther’ is what drives this ship let us in on that too..
December 20, 2017 @ 11:07 am
Dickie Tipps,
First off, I appreciate your feedback, and the feedback of others. And even when I respond with my opinions or explanations, it doesn’t mean I don’t take that feedback to heart.
Your concerns are a little bit hard to follow, but please let me clarify a few things:
First, the reason the majority of people come to Saving Country Music is not any one thing, including, if not especially, to get music recommendations. This is the fashionable thing to say, but it’s just untrue. I have access to detailed analytics. I know exactly how many people come to the site, what they read, where they came from, what keywords they used to search, etc. etc. So people can say whatever they want. The numbers don’t lie. I truly appreciate that so many people use Saving Country Music as a music recommendation website, and I go out of my way to help accommodate that whenever I can. But from the very, very beginning, Saving Country Music has been about hard criticism of the mainstream. In fact when it started, that’s virtually all it did. I didn’t post album reviews. This all came about later. So even though there are a lot of folks who see the name of the website and make assumptions about what it is, or what it should be, my main approach hasn’t changed in 10 years, and nearly 4,400 articles.
As for the amount of comments, I’m not sure why this should be a criticism of myself, or this site. For some reason, there is this prevailing thought, primarily on Facebook, that Saving Country Music should go out of its way to post boring stories that nobody wants to read, nobody comments on, nobody shares, and that draw no traffic. Apparently, there is some “soul” in that. And despite posting articles like that all the time because I believe in whatever artist I’m featuring, or whatever cause I’m championing, I never get credit for posting them, primarily because nobody ever sees them because people aren’t clicking or sharing on social media, burying them in the algorithm. I post a rant like this about every six weeks and everyone sees it, and then all of a sudden they think that’s all Saving Country Music does, because that’s all they ever see.
As for “You mentioned Chris Stapleton,” no I didn’t. He wasn’t mentioned once in this article. And that’s how I know this is a Facebook-derived comment. Because the two big criticisms of Saving Country Music on Facebook right now are, “All they do is criticize music,” and “All he ever talks about is Chris Stapleton.” It’s because these are the only two things Facebook people click on, boosting it in everyone’s feeds. I have no control over this.
And besides, go read my latest review of Stapleton. It is far from glowing. I bring up a lot of the same criticisms you do, and others do on Facebook in the review.
I can asses my own priorities and motivations, and make sure Saving Country Music is serving a balanced approach to music coverage. But what I can’t do is change the perception of people on Facebook duo to their algorithmic structure. This the exact issue dogging politics, driven by people’s perceptions that don’t always match with reality.
All I can tell people is to instead of seeing Saving Country Music through the filter of Facebook, actually come to the site, click on the “Home” page, and see the incredible variety I try to create here. I can’t please everyone, and not every article is going to appeal to everyone. But the idea that I don’t spend enough time championing quality music and artists is completely ludicrous. The fact that folks aren’t interacting with those articles on Facebook is the problem.
Here’s the latest Stapleton review:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/album-review-chris-stapletons-from-a-room-vol-2/
December 19, 2017 @ 7:07 pm
So just finished the Rolling Stone article on Walker and the first thing I thought was, this guy’s story has the making of a great country song. He’s from Alabama, a boat load of kids, lost his record deal and wound up at Costco to help pay the bills (btw Costco is a good gig if you can get it.) He had or has all the ingredients to write something for the ages. And yet this is what we get, a 37 year old perv. Walker and his ilk should look at someone like Mo Pitney, a fairly young cat but you would think that by the songs he has written he must be in his 40’s.
December 20, 2017 @ 7:57 am
William Michael Morgan, as well. His music is also quite mature for someone who is in his early 20’s. Lonesomeville, Missing, I Know Who He Is, and Cheap Cologne are all killer songs, and definitely more mature than most of the mainstream.