Keith Urban Defaces Iconic Merle Haggard Riff In “Coming Home” (A Rant)
WARNING: LANGUAGE
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Screw Keith Urban and that dead, rotting chupacabra of a haircut he has perched on the top of his head. They should rub his naked, Playgirl-posing body down in seal blubber, tie a water bottle to his ankle, and see if he can swim his ass back to his native New Zealand for the high crime of domestic terrorism and country music sacrilege this song perpetrates. The pronouncement of a new Keith Urban single lately has been similar to the pronouncement by your oncologist that you have Stage IV inoperable colorectal Cancer, except you don’t even get medical marijuana or goodie bag of Hospice opiates to dumb the excruciating pain the world is about to rain down upon your poor, withering corpus.
Somehow, inexplicably, Keith Urban has figured out how to take the most iconic guitar riff in the entire 70+ year history of country music, and make it sound like the last dying gasps of a faulty smoke detector smacked repeatedly with a sledge hammer, and slowly drowning it in a bucket of 7-year-old used motor oil in someone’s garage. The generically-titled “Coming Home” downright filches the opening riff from one of the sainted Merle Haggard’s signature songs, “Mama Tried,” and spectacularly fails to flesh out anything around it that’s even close to fit for audio consumption by even the most idiotic of indolent and stupefied audiences rendered opinion-less by a cocktail of over-prescribed American designer drugs.
“Coming Home” is supposed to be about home sickness and a yearning for simplicity. The lyrics and video allude to someone lost in the impersonal feel of a concrete cityscape, and pining for the familiarity of the green and genteel country life. Yet the shitty production of this song is about as busy and disjointed as the scene surrounding a fatality accident within a construction zone smack dab in the middle of an urban cloverleaf traffic-snarled clusterfuck during the utmost peak of rush hour with quarter-sized hail raining down from a supercell that a tornado warning has just been issued for.
Unfortunately Merle Haggard isn’t around to put his boot on Keith Urban’s throat while the original lineup of his backing band The Strangers takes turns extinguishing their unfiltered Camel cigarettes on Urban’s scrotum. Not to endorse or condone any form of violence against anyone mind you, but shit, “Coming Home” comes at your poor little ears like a mugger darting out of the bushes at your friendly, neighborhood park at dusk. A few seconds into this thing, and you start praying a serial bomber will infiltrate your quiet little bedroom community and detonate an incendiary device near you simply so the temporary hearing loss will alleviate the sheer pain of having to endure even a 30-second iTunes sample of this audio monstrosity.
And once again we have another pop collaboration from a male country artist, as Julia Michaels lends her voice to this underwear skid mark of a song. But why can’t we have a country music woman benefit from the added revenue and exposure of a big radio hit as opposed to advertising someone from the other side of the radio dial? Actually strike that, all the women in country have too much self-respect to be involved in this shit, even the pixie-sprinkled Kelsea Ballerini. And what does Julia Michaels do in “Coming Home”? She repeats the same exact line four stupid times in a row. Seriously, you can’t come up with any sort of arc for the bridge of this song?
This underscores the woefully-generic effort with lyrics of “Coming Home,” through frankly this is par for the course for today’s mainstream country. It’s the way that the poor, dying, electronified shell of an authentic, human-played Merle Haggard riff pursues you like a puma chasing you down in a nightmare that makes this song historically unbearable, almost mocking your traditional country leanings as opposed to appealing to them as Urban is of course out there conveying it should.
If there is any positivity to come out of this abomination, it’s that the Merle estate will receive a few royalties because of the riff’s inclusion. But it’s money dripping with the blood of what country music once was before scoundrels like Urban proceeded to slaughter it. We know Merle Haggard hated this kind of shit, specifically calling it out on many occasions, saying “I don’t find no substance. I don’t find anything you can whistle and nobody even attempts to write a melody. It’s more of that kids stuff…” And since he’s not around anymore to defend himself, it’s up to us to stiffen our upper lips, steal our resolve, and let folks know if they’re going to electronically transomgrify the efforts of Merle Haggard into objectionable filth to attempt to make up for the fact that they’re completely bereft of original ideas, they’re walking on the fightin’ side of us.
For the first time since Merle Haggard passed away in 2016, I’m glad he’s gone, so he doesn’t have to hear this. Yeah, fuck this song.
March 22, 2018 @ 2:54 pm
Keith Urban,
Your music is beautiful. You sing from the heart????. And that’s why I love you. Your look is original and special that’s why you are who you are! Music is all in the heart. Keep doing what you’re doing. The world is changing Along with country music Keep singing away in your country style
Love it , love you ????
March 22, 2018 @ 3:26 pm
But he’s not singing in a country style. So, I’m not sure how he could possibly “keep” doing that.
March 22, 2018 @ 3:29 pm
Go feel that way in a different format.
But don’t force people to listen to this just because you feel it should be called Country.
don’t go to Burger King and force people there to eat tide pods.
don’t go to Dairy Queen and force-feed people a whopper.
stop calling pop music Country Music.
March 22, 2018 @ 4:40 pm
I get what you are saying here with all these comments, Fuzzy, and completely agree. But, the “don’t call this country’ beef / request isn’t with the people who listen to this horrible pop music marketed as country….it’s with the Nashville / radio industry who is pushing this crap on what used to be country stations, and at what used to be (mostly) country awards shows, etc. I feel bad for the Keith Urban, Walker Hayes, Luke Bryan, etc. etc. fans out there….they were born with some sort of messed up gene that doesn’t give them the ability to properly judge good, honest music. BUT, it’s not their fault that this crap is now sold as country. If it were properly categorized and sold as pop music, they would simply just listen to the pop station. It’s not like we can expect them to say “I’m boycotting that station because it’s marketing itself as country but is playing the pop music I love”. And sadly, the industry has been so ass backwards for so long, that the term “country”, when used by the vast majority of people to refer to current popular artists, is referring to Keith Urban, etc. I agree it’s a real problem and is sad, but I am not sure we can blame the simple minded fans.
March 22, 2018 @ 7:09 pm
I’m sorry if you hate Walker Hayes,Luke Bryan and Keith Urban but don’t you dare go around and call them messed up because they don’t like the music that YOU like!!Simple minded?Really?You sound like a moron!!All of those artists have sold more records than you ever will and you just can’t handle it that they’re more successful than you will ever hope to be in your entire life!!The fans aren’t simple minded, you are!!Take your opinion and shove it up your ass!!You’re probably not their target listener anyways,jerk!!They have more talent than you will ever hope to have in your entire, miserable,pathetic life!!
March 22, 2018 @ 9:32 pm
Well we know he’s not the target listener because the target listeners for that trash are clearly teenage girls.
March 23, 2018 @ 8:01 am
look.
stop calling it Country.
stop saying Country has to evolve.
take your music and don’t try to parasite somebody else’s music.
March 23, 2018 @ 10:48 pm
No, the fans are simple minded. This rant of yours proves it.
November 29, 2018 @ 7:21 pm
I like George Strait, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Brooks & Dunn and Brad Paisley. Good music is good music and should never be limited. If you don’t think KU is country then change the channel, but don’t send out a stupid rant because you have a narrow view.
March 23, 2018 @ 6:58 am
Alright… And I’m posting this comment seeing it from both perspectives.
FIRST of all, you have these people coming here and defending Mr. Urban, saying “I love you Keith!!!! Keep doing what you’re doing!♥♥♥☻” The website is devoted to people trash talking new “country” music. So by coming here and defending him, you’re just setting yourself up for getting a LOT of furious comments from enraged people who miss the good old days of country music. Keith doesn’t need your defending. If he really gets that pissed over this post, he can afford a good lawyer. In short, Shut up.
Second of all. Keith Urban has a lot of talent, more than most of us. Is this new song country? No. But it’s not a half-bad song. I personally wish he had left Haggard’s riff out of it, but he had the family’s blessing, so he included it. I’m pretty sure they have more say in the matter than these people at this particular website. But honestly. Don’t these people here have anything better to do than make butthurt comments about music? Country music has evolved. Get over it. If you want to listen to Hank, Merle, and Johnny cash, set up a Spotify account. I have one. In the whole grand scheme of things, nobody gives a rat’s ass about this website. Keith Urban won’t change his music because of your opinion. He’s probably at home laughing his ass off because of all the money he’s making from this song that you don’t like.
In conclusion, my opinion doesn’t really matter, either. Neither do any of yours. Get a life.
March 23, 2018 @ 12:08 pm
Alrighty then. I’ma say what needs to be said.
So when I first heard this song, I couldn’t wait to hear how this website responded. And I’ll tell you what, old Trig didn’t let me down. I laughed my ass off reading it, because of how idiotic trigger sounded. Reading through he reviews, there were a Lot of Keith Urban fans. Some sounded like idiots, and then there were some like Charles Finley and John Doe that made some good points. To me, music is music. If I like it, I like it, and that’s that. And it seemed like the commenters mentioned earlier shared the same thoughts. But here’s where they went wrong. This is a sight devoted to the “old farts and jackasses” that Blake Shelton mentioned that miss the good old days when Johnny Cash sang on the radio and all the cars had V8 engines, but no one gave a damn because gas was 75 cents per gallon. No matter how good of a point you make, you will be shot down, because you are outnumbered. I’m making g this comment and then leaving. And I reccomend that everyone else that likes music, regardless of the genre, should do the same. Leave the old farts and jackasses to their website. If you want to make a positive comment, go to YouTube and keithurban.net. Buh bye.
May 16, 2018 @ 12:24 pm
@ Deanna, yeah….we get the meaning of your post, you think Keith Urban is “hot” and that’s all that matters. He could sing the phone book and your heart would flutter…Guess what? Song sucks, deal with it.
March 22, 2018 @ 4:45 pm
I did not even finish reading the article. Whoever wrote it is obviously very jealous of Keith Urban. Keith Urban is today’s country whether some people like it or not and thatt is to bad, his music is from the heart and that is what country music is about. Most are jealous of him because of his beautiful wife then and he has a fanbase beyond belief. Music changes including country and I believe the changes in country music is a good thing. Music evolves just like I’m sure every rocker is glad to see headbanger rock die out. The new country music of today is refreshing there’s still a little twang but that’s okay but from all of us Keith Urban fans you leave him alone we like him just the way he is hair and music and all.
March 22, 2018 @ 5:12 pm
lol
March 22, 2018 @ 6:44 pm
that’s great.
but
stop. calling. it. Country. Music.
March 22, 2018 @ 9:32 pm
another lol
November 10, 2021 @ 10:52 pm
First of all he had mearle Haggards family blessings to use the music. As old as this post is.
March 22, 2018 @ 5:04 pm
I don’t think you Urban nut swingers understand what ‘evolution’ means. This isn’t an evolutionary movement, its a repackaging of stale white R and B tunes for illiterate housewives, beta males, and teenage girls. Not sure why you people insist on calling it Country Music.
March 22, 2018 @ 5:09 pm
Wow. Up to 293 responses as of 7:08pm CST. I wonder what SCM article holds the record.
March 22, 2018 @ 8:49 pm
A Dixie Chicks article holds the record somewhere in the 500’s. You know which article won’t die though and may eventually hold the record? The cancelation of Sun Records.
March 22, 2018 @ 8:52 pm
Dixie Chicks Ten Yrs Later (2013) 446
Sun Records Cancellation 196 BUT, it gets a comment every 5 days.
March 22, 2018 @ 9:09 pm
Blake Shelton Calls Classic Country Fans Old Farts and Jackasses
628 comments
https://savingcountrymusic.com/blake-shelton-calls-classic-country-fans-old-farts-jackasses/
March 22, 2018 @ 9:22 pm
I’m always amazed when every now and then I’ll see a comment in the recent comments box for some old article you wrote sometimes years ago. Google search I guess but still strange.
March 22, 2018 @ 11:16 pm
How did that one slip by me?
Every week I see a comment on the Sun Records CMT Cancelation article and I have to laugh.
March 22, 2018 @ 5:52 pm
Don’t think all the name calling etc.is right and I like a few Urban tunes but he isn’t country….ya want country then Listen to Merle and Conway and hell even Sammy Kershaw and old Randy Travis. ..Bellamys and Web Pierce…Johnny Paycheck barstool mountain..Mickey Gilly…that is country Mel Street that is Country enuff said ….and yes he stole a riff and he should have let his Legacy rest in peace….also don’t Forget Don Williams and Ronnie Milsap etc.Alabama that is Country not Urban he is most definitely Pop
March 22, 2018 @ 5:54 pm
what an enjoyable thread, almost as good as college basketball — the butthurt blogger whines were the best
keith, do an album of Carl Smith covers
March 22, 2018 @ 6:22 pm
Couldnt even finish reading the article. Loved the song. Its Rocking like all Keith music.
March 22, 2018 @ 9:34 pm
Don’t call it country and there won’t be a problem.
March 23, 2018 @ 7:09 am
Google “What genre is Keith Urban?” You Get:
Country music, Country pop, Country rock, Pop rock
Take away the first one, and it’s pretty darn accurate. It’s not Classic country, it’s modern country. And why do you feel the need to defend country music? When I google “Ulysses McCaskill”, I don’t see any pictures of George Strait. Live and let live, man.
March 23, 2018 @ 8:36 am
Your same argument can be applied to you: “Why do you feel the need to defend Keith Urban? When I google the name Charles Finley I don’t see any pictures of you and Keith hugging it out, all I see is the a guy who died in ’96 who owned the Oakland A’s”.
As for “taking out the first one” that’s the one that people on this site care about. You just conceded that Keith doesn’t make Country music which, I’ll say it again, is the sole purpose of what this site is about and what a vast majority of readers and commenters care about.
I’d say the biggest qualm with this song is that in the scope of the old saying ” the more things change, the more they stay the same” this song, and the other songs, artists, and albums that Trigger goes off on, are, in his opinion, picking the wrong things to change (the synth pop style and the drum machines) and the wrong things to stay the same (formulaic pandering and shallow stories that bubble down to “look how much ass I am getting, look how much I am drinking, or, in this case, look how much I miss home without saying anything too substantial).
Not saying that Trigger doesn’t go overboard sometimes, but that’s what makes these types of articles hilarious and what I look forward to reading when I see the text: “WARNING: LANGUAGE” in an article preview.
March 23, 2018 @ 8:47 am
I agree with the last part. The article is pretty funny. But hey Trigger: What have you accomplished, other than making articles in a somewhat popular blog? And as for you, Matt, Charles Finley isn’t my name, I am using Sam Axe’s pseudonym from Burn Notice. I prefer to keep my anonymity 🙂
March 23, 2018 @ 9:00 am
I for one don’t care what Trigger has accomplished. All I know is that he writes a blog that is highly entertaining and that he and I share a lot of the same opinions on country music, and I find him to be a trustworthy source for reviews of and news on country music. And frankly, if you’re looking for more than that, then the joke’s on you. I really get tired of criticism being called out with the whole “what have you done” bit, as if nobody but a musician has the right to have a negative opinion. If you’re going to be making music for a living — as in, getting people other than professional musicians to buy it — it makes no sense that they should just shut up and buy it or don’t buy it. Why, exactly, don’t they have the right to say that it sucks?
March 23, 2018 @ 9:08 am
Also, I figured I should say that no, I’ve never met Keith Urban. I’m just saying that Keith did get the Hags’ family’s approval before making the song. Trigger here makes some good points, and he made me laugh while reading it. But he doesn’t have the right to say that Keith doesn’t have the right to “deface” an iconic riff, when his family gave him the go ahead. I like Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker, and Kelsea Ballerini, but I also like George Strait, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill and Merle Haggard. And I like contemporary artists that keep an old country feel, such as Jon Pardi and David Lee Murphy. Maybe to Trig it isn’t country, but maybe that is dependent on his definition of what is and isn’t country. We’re on a website that has the primary goal of trash-talking new country music. The Hag’s family liked the song. What the hell does it matter to you? Technically, it shouldn’t matter to me. I’m making my point. In a way, I am defending Keith Urban. But I am also defending Theresa Haggard, Ben Haggard, and Merle Haggard’s legacy, as he gets a posthumous songwriting credit. ‘Nuff Said here.
March 22, 2018 @ 11:38 pm
Made it maybe ten seconds in? Whatever I heard wasn’t real instruments and the voice wasn’t really singing. Not sure how this song would qualify as music, much less a specific genre like country.
March 23, 2018 @ 7:16 am
Don’t think Urban has talent? Try playing his “Stupid Boy” solo. Or singing Blue Ain’t Your Color. Or getting 23 #1 Hits (and counting). Or winning 40+ music awards. Just saying.
March 23, 2018 @ 8:33 am
Everybody left George out.!!! Now that’s realcountry music. We sure miss him and Merle.R.I.P.
March 23, 2018 @ 9:53 am
I like what trigger said in his review of Parallel line. “But I have to tell you, as a pop song, this isn’t that bad. Isn’t that the thing about listening to modern pop country as a true country fan. You’d almost rather hear a straight up pop song than something that is being sold as country, but is pop with a banjo line buried in the background. Even if you’re not a pop fan, pop tends to be much less offensive because at least it’s being honest with itself.” That’s where I stand on this. Most of the hate surrounding this song is about the Haggard riff. I personally wish Urban would have left it out. It’s not a bad song, though. I’m not going to rant and rave about what is and isn’t country, as there is no true definition. It’s all based on your perspective. Take away the riff, and listen to the music. Heck, even think of it as a pop song. Because in all reality, the genre doesn’t really matter.
March 23, 2018 @ 10:46 am
The Keith Urban fan club’s comments were especially entertaining. The review was spot on Trigger. The “this is what country is now” crowd needs to turn off mainstream radio garbage and explore the multitudes of current alt/underground/independent/americana and folk musicians. The non country are more country than what plays on the radio
March 23, 2018 @ 11:43 am
Indeed this is the rare case of a song bridging half a century, with the 50th anniversary of ‘Mama Tried’ coming up later this year. And only seldom does an artist succeed so well in relating his standing in todays music world. ‘Coming Home’ clearly stands both feet firmly planted in the digital age of the year 2018, where anything from home-speakers to self-driving cars are animated by electronics and computers. Can be any genre, can be none.
Yet some of us do remember how it all started, such as KU, who claims, that ‘Mama Tried’ was one of his first and one of his favorite country songs he listened to growing up. Fittingly the song also starts with that famous riff. However it only reverberates through the ages as a faint echo from the past. After all it is half a century later, so it is not that original guitar sound anymore. It filters through the technology of today and arrives electronically altered.
Yet it accompanies one through the song and conveys that yearning for when sounds and times were so different, just like the theme of the song about the longing for home. A place most of us remember with a certain image. One however that mostly isn’t there anymore when we actually do return home, potentially many years later. That’s why the song can never return (to the original of ‘Mama Tried’), unless becoming nothing but a poor copy.
So it remains in todays mostly generic world, somehow genre-less, but filled with hooks and melodies that stick. Especially with repeated listening. This is the world, where KU is living. Yet at the same time he pays homage to one of the greatest country artists of all times, because he simply feels it is important!
Of course he takes his artistic freedom to do it his way. But that may be enough to even introduce listeners otherwise typically unaware of The Hag to his classic catalog and become curious of old Merle.
And in the end it leaves us all with the reassurance, that the original Merle Haggard song is still here and in spite of todays cold digital world can still be pulled up and listened to, even on places such as Spotify …
… without having to personally attack an artist – using all but family-friendly language.
March 23, 2018 @ 12:11 pm
Excellent comment, Dooley. You worded it well. Thank you
September 13, 2020 @ 9:30 am
Such a fence straddler. Urban sucks. EOS.
March 24, 2018 @ 5:01 am
Sorry, Mr. Bateman, but you are still not going to get reservation at Dorsia’s. Paul Allen beat you out again!!
March 23, 2018 @ 12:54 pm
“With hooks and melodies that stick.”
Man, I agree. They stick to your shoe just like dogshit
March 23, 2018 @ 4:20 pm
I just watched a documentary of Bagwahn Sree Rajneesh. His followers have nothing on these Keith Urban fanatics. They too said that anybody that disagreed with them was jealous.
March 23, 2018 @ 4:41 pm
Keith sold his soul to the devil with the Ripcord album. Him and sellout buddy Chris Young will both pay a dear price for their sellout garbage music when the neotraditional style country comes back.
March 23, 2018 @ 7:13 pm
It won’t come back.
March 23, 2018 @ 8:08 pm
This dude has never been a country music singer and never will be. He has never been part of the chain that originated in Celtic music and stretches from the Highland Clearances to cannon fodder, to unnamed boxcar yodelers, through Jimmie Rodgers, AM radio show stars, bluegrass legends, Hiram Hank Williams, Lefty, Bob Wills, the big war, big bands, and up through Waylon, etc. He’s a POS. ALL of his music sucks really, really, really hard. Fuck him.
March 24, 2018 @ 5:14 am
When I hear dreck like this, I sometimes wonder why we even keep on with this crusade we have undertaken. A part of me has seen the forest for the trees and has accepted the fact that the war is over and we, the traditionalists, have lost. As much as we long for one, there will never be a Nirvana moment in country music. Why? It is because the corporate music cabal is prepared to make sure it never happens again. The fat cats in New York and LA, supported by their corporate minions in Trashville have rigged the game to ensure there is never real creativity in country music again…only the kind of “creativity” they approve of, which isn’t much.
Another reason that it will never get better is that the audience that could cause real change is too busy paying the bills and working to support a family to really have the chance to force one. The music buying community is now dominated by fortysomething suburban moms who pine for the days of hair metal, but don’t want anything too outlandish as it might scare their kids, the thirtysomething ones that long for the return of their boy bands and pop girls, and the dudebro/fratbro population, along with the wannabes and wish-they-had-beens, which permeates every Power Five Conference school in America. These groups are the ones that buy the music and they have spoken. They want crap like this. And when that need is satiated, they want even WORSE crap.
I could see some loser like Walker Hayes or Chris Lane doing crap like this, but Keith Urban has no excuse. He doesn’t need the money. He actually has some type of musical ability. I am not saying he is George Jones, but at least he had a modicum of talent and integrity. But that is the problem with money. You can ALWAYS have more of it. And Keith has realized the aforementioned cash machines will get him exactly that.
But in closing, I am glad there are sites like this that give people like me a voice. And the hope that one day, like Sam Cooke said, a change gonna come!!!
March 24, 2018 @ 8:05 am
Preach, brother Henry…
I get so tired of all the drama. I get so tired of all the drama. I get so tired of all the fakes jumping up and making it. Hard to see all the people who really believe in the soul power of music, standing on the side and getting run over by those with perk breasts, dyed hair, and wonderful cheek-bones. So tired. At this point all I’d like is the truth. At this point all I’d like is the truth. I get so tired of hearing the stories of people who worked years and years, and their lives are nothing but pain and burning tears, falling into their shoes as they wait on the boulevard for the bus as the man with no talent drives by in a brand new BMW 540i. Yeah. Disgusting. Disgusting on an epic scale. Disgusting like huge Godzilla-size disgusting. Obscene the way they go to the bank with. Obscene the way they stretch it out. Obscene the way they’re so self-satisfied. As the real soul goes down the drain. As the one triple nine rolls over to the two triple zero. You’ll see that the only heroes left, are the ones who are wailing in the dust, punching their fist to the sky, still burning with soul intensity. As the smirking fakes just say: “Whatever, man. It’s cool.” Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
For years I’ve waited. For years I’ve waited for the real thing to come along. For years I’ve waited, for nights I sweated. And in all the small rooms I occupied, I thought to myself: “It can’t last for long. This facade can’t stay up forever. Someone’s gonna come along and knock it down.” Well, many tried and many fell away. Many tried and many left with nothing to say. And they were seen as losers, and they crashed and burned into the sea. Or went up north and vanished or slid back to the midwest. Or were burned and scattered in the south or smashed to bits by the brutality of the east. Yeah. Yeah.
Now I don’t mean to sound like they beat us or anything, but sometimes I think it’s all over. Sometimes I think it’s all over. No more Coltrane. No more Duke. No more Monk, Jimi, Otis, Aretha, Daisy, or Sly. And no one seems to stop and wonder why. And I turn on the radio and it makes me wanna cry. Because I know it’s never gonna come around again. And it makes me cry because I know that there’s so many people who’ll never get to hear Mahalia Jackson, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Lightening, Lemmon, Curtis, Marvin, and the Reverend Al Green.
The airways are clogged, and it’s not looking good. In fact it’s looking pretty mediocre out there, but I digress…
Henry Rollins
LA Money Train
2000
March 24, 2018 @ 3:45 pm
Jack, sometimes I wonder if it isn’t our fault? I wonder sometimes, “How could we let this happen?” How could we let country music be stolen from us right under our nose? Then again, maybe it was inevitable. They destroyed the NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) with Hair Metal. They destroyed hip hop with “bling rap.” Maybe we were too secure. Maybe we thought “It’s country music. They won’t come for us.” But they did. They always do.
If we lose country music, there is no hope. We are the musical Stalingrad, and right now, we are Chuikov’s army pushed to the very edge of the Volga. The time has come to decide whether we give up and lose it all, or do we say “Not one step backwards! The river now has only one bank!!”
March 27, 2018 @ 11:16 am
Well we are beggars and choosers.
If Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell and Sturgill who have gotten success doing it their way can’t be championed around here because they arn’t country enough, who will be?
March 24, 2018 @ 7:28 pm
Really , Yes the other singers put the same beats at the other legends , or some have some beat to it and since the once don’t like beats HOKY TONK LOL guess they need to learn …
March 25, 2018 @ 7:06 am
Glad you think that way, Michelle. Now can you rephrase your post in English so the rest of us can somewhat understand???
March 25, 2018 @ 7:43 am
lol … You couldn’t understand when i said if he didn’t like the way he sang the song , when all the other country Singers do thr same thing , Oh but wait he put some beat to it when Merle Hagard has a twain now I get it ..
March 25, 2018 @ 10:03 am
I too, have a Twain. it’s one of my most prized possessions. I also have a Jacques, and a Domingo.
I looked at an Einstein but it was way out of my budget.
March 29, 2018 @ 6:10 pm
Seriously, Michelle. Are you on drugs right now??? If you are, please wait until you come off your high so you can type in proper English that regular people can understand.
March 25, 2018 @ 9:12 pm
I am sick and damn tired of todays so called “country” artists disrespecting the legends of country music as well as disrespecting the genre as a whole. I entered my teenage years in the 1970s and got my start as a country music fan with some of the greatest country music ever made, 70s/80s country music. Way too many of todays so called “country” artists are so disrespectful of those true country artists that came before them that it’s sickening. They have so little regard for those artists generally and even less for the genre as a whole. Most of todays so called “country” music is nothing more than bad pop music. If these so called “country” artists would take their pop music and move to the pop music genre, as Taylor Swift did, the genre would greatly improve. I’ve had it with most of this shit that they call “country” music today. It’s a damn disgrace and when people like Keith Urban disrespect country legends like the late Merle Haggard, well, they they can go fuck themselves. Period. Sorry Kyle but I’m afraid it’s too late for the country music genre as a whole. Too much damage has been done by these sorry bastards. We’ll just have to blow the dust off the old vinyl and cds I guess. It’s too damn bad but it’s true.
March 26, 2018 @ 3:18 pm
Tjlhink what you want. . . he IS country and VERY good looking and talented. His songs would not be played on country stations if they felt he wasn’t. Your remark of childish looks is funny. . . only a jealous and inscure person would say that.
March 27, 2018 @ 10:56 am
“it’s on Country radio so it must be Country”
If I gave you a steak and told you it was a pizza would you believe it?
if you believe this is Country you probably wouldn’t notice the difference.
the term “Country Music” has been stolen and made to encompass any kind of music (Except Country Music) that makes money.
He’s not talented.
Marty Stuart who plays 4 instruments and writes his own songs is talented.
Roy Clark who plays 6 instruments, writes his own songs, does his own comedy, and acts, is talented.
Sammy Davis Jr who sings, dances, plays 6 instruments, acts, and does comedy, is talented.
Keith Urban is a clown who uses auto-tune and electronic drums and uses his hair to fool simple-minded people who don’t realize that ugly people make good music too.
Just because the label says Corn, doesn’t mean it’s not mustard.
it’s not Country Music just because it’s on Country Radio.
March 29, 2018 @ 6:08 pm
You can keep trying, Mich. Keith is STILL not going to leave Nicole Kidman for you. Now go to sleep, you have an early shift at McDonald’s tomorrow!!
March 26, 2018 @ 6:32 pm
Good on Keith. Never was a Merle fan. The new country is where it’s at. Thomas Rhett, Keith Urban, FGL, Sam Hunt, etc. That’s the good stuff. Coming Home is way better than Mama Tried. Sam is the new George, baby. Enjoy it, don’t fight it because you can’t stop a train and we be rollin’ right thru Nashville!
March 27, 2018 @ 11:00 am
I’m glad you think that Thomas Rhett makes good music,
I think Thomas Rhett is as talented and interesting as a can of expired beans and has the charisma and stage presence of a half gallon of waffle batter.
and I wouldn’t care whether or not anyone liked him except that his POP MUSIC is being played on COUNTRY RADIO and taking away opportunities from COUNTRY ARTISTS who make COUNTRY MUSIC.
and if you aren’t a Merle Haggard fan you are entitled to that ridiculous opinion BUT you should probably not have any opinions concerning Country Music.
don’t go into a Taco Bell and force everyone else to eat your spinach because you don’t like tacos.
go open a spinach restaurant and leave our damn tacos alone.
But since you came into my taco bell and tried to screw up my tacos I will shit upon your spinach until I can shit no more
April 1, 2018 @ 3:41 pm
You sound mature Fuzzy. /s
April 5, 2018 @ 9:11 am
because Pop Country is known for its maturity?
“Set you up on the kitchen sink, stick the (censored) in your drink”
yeah that sounds mature.
“talking bout girls, talking bout trucks”
“red red red red redneck? hillbilly bone bone bone bone? ”
I’ve heard better lyrics in “Silly Songs with Larry”
Is it really so hard to call a spade a spade, and tell yourself “this music isn’t Country Music because it very obviously doesn’t sound like Country Music?”
Don’t go into Walmart and pretend you’re at Target.
and stop calling something Country Music when it isn’t. it takes away radio time from the actual Country Artists
April 4, 2018 @ 4:44 pm
You know, I like a little cash every now and again, and King George Strait and aj are great, but you are right. KEITH IS THE NEW MERLE HAGGARD. If you don’t like it, go get your record player and complain to your friends at the nursing home. Actually, maybe that’s it. This is the nursing home of the internet. Full of old farts and jackasses.
April 5, 2018 @ 9:07 am
Here we have a prime example of someone coming into a taco bell and forcing the patrons to eat spinach.
I never asked for spinach.
Please stop forcing me to listen to the spinach that is Pop Country when I’ve already explained that I prefer the tacos that I specifically went out of my way to try and enjoy.
Stop. calling. Pop Music. Country Music.
Go enjoy it with the other people who share your interests but stop polluting other people’s interests with it because we’re tired of it.
June 22, 2018 @ 12:26 pm
I flushed a nice size Keith Urban down the toilet this morning
November 3, 2018 @ 10:39 pm
Now this is Country !
And that country is Australia ????????!
LENNY LEMON featuring KEITH URBAN – “When Life Gives You Lemons”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y-i5Yt_A1w
November 5, 2018 @ 11:43 pm
This is good (funny) sh*t !!!
Hope Keith has a sense of humour?
July 3, 2019 @ 7:39 am
Ha, tell us how you really feel, lol. I wasn’t a fan about it either and after hearing it the first time and listening again to make sure I heard what I thought I heard the first time, I refused to listen to it again. Yep, turned that dial every single time I heard it afterward.
July 22, 2021 @ 9:23 pm
Keith Urban. Compared to Waylon, Willie, Johnny Cash, Buck Owen’s, Hank junior, Patsy, Loretta, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and so on- Urban SUCKS at his country music attempt. Hey, if pop doesn’t work out? Jump to country. Goodluck to you. But please stop lying to yourself that THIS is Country music. It is not. Ripping off Haggard’s riff from Mama Tried to make a song SO lacking of substance- please don’t. Make your own riff and make a song TRUE to REAL country music!!! I can name tons of memorable country songs from the greats, but after hearing Urban’s songs- I can’t name a single song! That speaks for itself. Bring country music back! Great songs are memorable…