Morgan Wallen Bastardizes Keith Whitley Classic with “Miami” (A Rant)
Warning: Language
For the first time since country legend Keith Whitley’s tragic and untimely death in 1989, I’m actually glad he’s no longer with us. If there’s any solace and comfort in the fact that Whitley succumbed to alcohol poisoning at the age of 34, it’s that he is no longer around to personally witness the sacrilege and horror that is Morgan Wallen’s colossal goat fucking of Keith’s classic song “Miami, My Amy.”
When you thought Morgan Wallen couldn’t outdo himself any more in insulting huge swaths of the American population after moronically shouting the ‘N’ word into the cold Nashville night, he comes in heavy with the worst song of his career or anyone else’s, and perhaps the worst to ever grace the “country music” canon. You’re out on this song quicker that Wallen’s Irish goodbye on Saturday Night Live.
I’d rather get brained by a flying deck chair from four stories up than be subjected to another nanosecond of Morgan Wallen’s “Miami.” Categories 5 hurricanes with retired names and dedicated Wikipedia pages have inflicted less catastrophic damage and resulted in fewer post traumatic stress diagnoses than what “Miami” has wrought in 48 hours after its release. This song is such a disaster, it’s visible from Space.
And of course “Miami” comes with NINE songwriters, though this includes the sainted Hall of Famers Hank Cochran and Dean Dillon, along with Royce Porter who wrote the original “Miami, My Amy” song. But something tells me that Hank Cochran, Dean Dillon, and Keith Whitley never envisioned shitty trap beats, and an electronically-generated chorus line of Oompa Loompas screeching out “Miiiaammmeeee…” over and over when they wrote the song originally.
“But Trig! Morgan Wallen’s new album album has 37 songs! There’s some good stuff there too! Did you hear ‘The Dealer’ with Ernest ?!? It’s super traditional!”
Yeah yeah. Maybe I’ll get around to reviewing the whole album, though I’d rather clean a public commode with my tongue. But even Morgan Wallen knew this song was going to be considered a dog by actual country fans.
Wallen called “Miami” a “Keith Whitley flip,” and said “it’s more of a Rap style” himself on the Theo Vonn podcast. Then when being interviewed by Kelleigh Bannen for Apple, Wallen said,
“I already know I’m gonna get crucified for that song, but I don’t know… it is fun, and I enjoyed it, and me and the boys writing it had a good time writing it. In my own way, I’m not gonna do a Keith Whitley cover, probably. I don’t feel right doing that… this is my own way of paying my respect. And if that offends people, I don’t really care, but I’m gonna assume it will.”
So if you know you’re going to get crucified for this song and assume it’s going to offend Keith Whitley fans, why in the hell even release it? How is that “paying respects”? What is the point of this damn track? Even Morgan Wallen’s famously sycophantic fans are being like, “Nah bro, not feeling this one.” Yet he’s also said he might release a hip-hop remix of this hip-hop song. So he’s going to double down on it?
Songs like “Miami” are the reason these 37-song albums are so stupid. 12 hours after the release, and Wallen’s new album I’m The Problem was already the most-streamed album in all of country music in 2025 on Spotify due to all the tracks. It’s also already the worst album of 2025 due to tracks like “Miami.” Trim the fat for God’s sake. Just because you record a song doesn’t mean you have to release it. Read the room, and leave the garbage on the cutting house floor.
Heretofore, Morgan Wallen’s rap sheet was a succession of victimless crimes. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we have yet another murder on Music Row.
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May 17, 2025 @ 8:50 am
I would love to be a fly on the wall in Dean Dillions house right now
May 17, 2025 @ 8:59 am
My guess is Dean Dillon is laughing all the way to the bank.
May 17, 2025 @ 2:37 pm
Michael Caine about the movie Jaws 4:
I have never seen it but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific.
May 17, 2025 @ 1:01 pm
Not to mention Lorrie or Jesse Keith.
May 17, 2025 @ 8:52 am
…makes you kinda wish for a tinnitus.
May 19, 2025 @ 9:15 am
I’ve got tinnitus, it didn’t help.
May 17, 2025 @ 9:37 am
Seriously though, this song make me want to go to Denny’s for a “Moon Over My Hammy,” with extra hash browns.
May 17, 2025 @ 9:50 am
Why was I curious enough to hit play? Off to blast my Keith Whitley records to clean my ears out…
May 17, 2025 @ 10:01 am
I dunno. Got a good beat, easy to puke to…
May 17, 2025 @ 10:46 am
Calling Morgan Wallen country is like calling George Jones rock and roll.
May 17, 2025 @ 11:31 am
George Jones quite literally started off as rock’n’roll in the 50’s. So did Conway Twitty and Charlie Rich.
I half-think the idea of stealing from the Whitley song was to set up Wallen as the traditional country antichrist because negative attention for views is indistinguishable on Youtube for ad revenue.
May 17, 2025 @ 12:11 pm
George Jones swerved into Rockabily for a few miles, but was never considered or thought of by anyone as a rock ‘n roll artist. Ever.
May 17, 2025 @ 11:05 am
The commode comment made me laugh. Think Wallen took from Haggards Gone Crazy with I’m a Little Crazy premise too.
May 17, 2025 @ 11:23 am
Who is this song even for? I listened to it earlier this morning before this article went up because I was waiting to hear this song and the only likeness I could spot to the original was the electronically altered “Miami.” People who like this song won’t know the Keith Whitley song.
My previous defenses of Wallen’s “bad behaviour” aside from the chair throwing are seperate from what I think of his music and him as a person. He was dull and unlikeable on Theo’s podcast and I didn’t even finish it. Theo is a great interviewer who brings out the best of his guests. Brooks and Dunn and Lainey Wilson were both on there as well and they were entertaining. I think I dislike like Wallen’s fans more than I dislike him because they are the reason he exists.
May 17, 2025 @ 11:25 am
Here is the ENTIRE problem – he is somehow classified as country, which makes Trigger have to cover it. That led its way to my ears and his “accent” and annunciation is FAR more on the side of gangster rap than country. PLEASE reclassify these people out of country music America!!! Why do I have to explain when someone asks me what kind of tunes I like best? I may have to go back to telling them it is doom metal. This crap simply should not have to be in this part of our world.
May 17, 2025 @ 1:05 pm
Trigger made a Dewey Decimal System classification on the different types of country music. I don’t know what this would be classified as, though.
May 17, 2025 @ 2:35 pm
Twang Hop
May 18, 2025 @ 12:32 am
Hick Hop
May 18, 2025 @ 4:37 pm
He is very country and you F-ing pretentious haters sound like such whiners. My god, he has far more great country songs than he does the shit rap stuff. Get over the fact that you are so biased you just have to hate everything he does. Just keep on hating everything he touches and the rest of us with continue enjoying most of his music (not the shitty rap or drum machines). Get over it.
May 18, 2025 @ 4:45 pm
I love you.
May 23, 2025 @ 12:34 pm
Amen. Morgan is a better musician than Trigger is a writer. The latter is a strutting, vainglorious poppinjay, who probably knows first-hand what public commode taste like. What a wanker.
May 17, 2025 @ 11:39 am
I actually listened to the entire album. I want to know what I’m criticizing. It’s not a country album. MW himself has said that he hardly listens to country. This is clearly audible on the album.
He doesn’t draw on the rich tradition of American roots music, nor is he rooted in that music, but rather uses (a few) country influences as an accessory. For him, country is an ornament, not a foundation. The music is primarily a hybrid of hip-hop elements, stale R&B formulas, and 2010s commercial pop, with occasional country influences. The difference from artists who are truly deeply rooted in country is clearly audible.
The music on the album is characterized by uncreative, very similar-sounding arrangements: a bit of drum loops here, a bit of Auto-Tune there, a few inconsequential indie guitar sounds, a bit of piano. There’s no real audible rooting in country music.
The melodies are average 2010s pop fare. There aren’t really any standout melodies on the album. The paces are almost always the same, almost monotonous. There’s hardly any tension within the songs.
His obviously autotuned voice lacks variety and range. He’s clearly only capable of singing a certain type of song, which makes the album monotonous.
His lyrics, which many consider an expression of true “country feeling,” primarily use certain buzzwords that are intended to function as cultural codes but ultimately remain clichés.
MW fails to truly capture the love, life, and suffering of the countryside. He has declared the album “personal.” This raises the question of how personal an album can be when nearly 50 writers contributed, including people like Ernest and Hardy, who churn out songs as mass-produced goods, practically on an assembly line.
The album is permeated by self-pity, angry whining, and self-referentiality. There are no observations or stories about country people. Ultimately, everything revolves around MW and his narrow, narrow perspective; he seems incapable of empathy for his fellow human beings. His country world draws no strength or dignity from within itself, but defines itself only through a defiant attitude. This becomes especially clear when compared to artists who can truly authentically and compassionately portray the lives of rural people.
The entire album is musical incest: a lack of ideas paired with a lack of ideas give birth to a Morgan Wallen album. A nothingness blown up into a giant pile. Musically, this album points nowhere. Nothing is innovative, nothing groundbreaking. Music as a dead end. None of this would be so bad if the industry and the media hadn’t mislabeled this garbage as “country.”
May 17, 2025 @ 3:05 pm
I completely agree with everything you said. I listened to this album today hoping that maybe jst maybe I would like one song… and after the tenth song I asked myself why I was even listening to this nonsense and why am I even punishing myself… This has absolutely nothing to do with country and we should just stop putting this guy in that category. Morgan Vallen is a modern pop and hip hop artist and that’s it. I will never listen to or read anything related to that guy again. I tried my best , there’s no country music there.,,
May 18, 2025 @ 8:38 am
Aside from “Miami,” which is every bit as awful as everyone else is saying, this album is more boring than horrible. I give Wallen a wider berth than most here at SCM do, but I’m hard pressed to find three songs here that I’d ever play again. On “One Thing at a Time,” I found ten. As Akade said, he’s running out of ideas.
May 17, 2025 @ 4:51 pm
That’s a lot to put yourself through.
On ‘I Ain’t Comin’ Back.’ The instrumentation starts off sounding cool and interesting but Wallen’s annoying ass voice quickly ruins it – along with the multiple tired Country clique lyrics that distract from the better lyrics in the song. This song would have been 10x cooler if it didn’t have the stupid over-the-top proccessed vocals and noisy club dance music mixing over what otherwise could have been an interesting lo-fi sounding song.
May 18, 2025 @ 2:27 pm
You covered every base here and hit the nail on the head all I can add is after being a musician and DJ for 50 + years moving forward we have no genres anymore it’s the dumbing down of America now there are a few select people carrying the torch forward and I thank them for that John Mellencamp said it best once “I never wanted to be a pop singer”
May 23, 2025 @ 12:38 pm
Who wrote this for you? AI?
May 23, 2025 @ 10:27 pm
Definitely not. Why do you ask?
May 26, 2025 @ 8:19 am
Because Phil is trying to undercut your spot on response by insulting it. Phil is a MW superfan with absolutely no knowledge of actual music and is trying to defend their hero by discrediting all who speak out against MW. At no time does Phil even consider seeing the other person’s point of view as they would rather expend copious amounts of energy defending a millionaire that couldn’t care less. So keep after it Phil. Keep yelling into the void in the vain hope that you’ll change hearts and minds by being a jackass.
May 17, 2025 @ 11:41 am
Hope he throws himself off the 4th story of Chiefs next time
May 17, 2025 @ 10:27 pm
WOW. It’s one thing to not like the guy, but this was uncalled for
May 17, 2025 @ 11:49 am
Alvin and the Chipmunks should sue his ass.
May 17, 2025 @ 12:18 pm
And Lorrie Morgan should get Whitley’s estate on suing for defamation.
May 17, 2025 @ 12:45 pm
LMAO. Cause they didn’t know? Moron
May 18, 2025 @ 12:21 am
Your’e just jellis, Tim Bo
May 17, 2025 @ 12:15 pm
In that same interview he said himself he doesn’t listen to country music so why should we be surprised or even care? I wish we’d all move on from him at this point.
May 17, 2025 @ 12:35 pm
I believe it was the Theo Vonn interview where he said he doesn’t listen to country music, and it was in response to a question about what he thought about Zach Top.
May 17, 2025 @ 7:38 pm
I heard the interview and felt his answer was based in insecurity…Zach Top will be replacing him soon as the young future of country music, hopefully!
May 19, 2025 @ 12:37 pm
I doubt that happens.
Wallen’s music and persona has wider appeal.
May 23, 2025 @ 8:56 pm
I guess we’ll find out…one us will be right. Morgan may continue to have commercial success, but I’ll put my money that ZT shapes the future going forward.
May 17, 2025 @ 12:37 pm
Trig won’t though to spite how he feels about him is still gonna listen to the 30 song album and write a similar review of it as his last album
May 17, 2025 @ 1:47 pm
I might or might not review the album. Since it’s going to be stuck at the top of the country charts for the next 2 1/2 years and “Morgan Wallen” is what most people associate to “country” music, it’s probably important I familiarize myself with the material, and offer whatever criticism and context i feel is necessary. It’s part of the job.
May 17, 2025 @ 12:30 pm
Dammit Trigger, why did you have to post this after I just ate? I listened for 15 seconds and almost lost my lunch.
May 17, 2025 @ 12:44 pm
Damn. Don’t hate much do you?
May 17, 2025 @ 6:43 pm
Justifies hate
May 17, 2025 @ 12:58 pm
Pretty clear that Morgan Wallen is being compelled by his owners to redeem himself for using the N word by sounding more hip hop R&B, and in disparaging Country music in general by saying he doesn’t listen to it. You can expect next will be hip hop clothes and hair cut.
Wallen is a tool, a garden tool, specifically, a hoe.
May 17, 2025 @ 1:49 pm
You’re putting the cart before the horse. Morgan Wallen was listening to hip-hop and working in hip-hop influences well before the N-word incident. In fact, what he really was doing in that moment was parroting out a commonly used hip-hop crutch phrase, which not only tells us how hip-hop influenced he is, but how he’s probably not as racist as some portray if he’s listening to hip-hop all the time.
May 17, 2025 @ 2:22 pm
Right, but in the post P. Diddy – post Cowboy Carter era hip hop is no longer cool, it is cringe.
Wallen’s owners are betting on Wallen delivering his fan base exclusively back into the tainted urban brand with a clear rejection of Country Music altogether.
The subtle groundwork was laid out in Cowboy Carter; Beyonce in hat and spurs putting out an weak hip hop record with some banjo samples and winning Best Country Album while denying it was a country record.
In so doing,Beyonce disparaged Country Music. And then Morgan diminishes it as atonement for being caught using the forbidden catch phrase, albiet privately and not as a directed racial epithet.
This is all to buy time so degenerate hip hop can live down the vile criminal exploits of its biggest stars and their owners, and get the next generation to the industry “freak offs” following a new pied piper like Wallen.
Why?
Clue. It is all about the hypnotic beat and what it is used for, besides dancing.
May 17, 2025 @ 9:06 pm
Anybody that grew up listening to hip hop or late 80s gangsta rap, said the n-word thousands of times while singing along. The style in which he said it came from this very cultural influence. I’ve never seen anyone censor themselves while singing along to Tupac, snoop, dre, nwa, etc. The gotcha moment against Morgan Wallen is almost as silly and disingenuous as his music is.
May 18, 2025 @ 8:41 am
You’re aware of what N.W.A. was supposed to stand for, right? (And no, I don’t mean National Wrestling Alliance.)
May 18, 2025 @ 12:51 pm
United Negro College Fund
May 17, 2025 @ 1:07 pm
I thought this whole article was a bit much. Granted I don’t listen to Morgan Wallen cos Top 40 just ain’t it. Then I hit play on the sing and now I don’t think you went hard enough.
May 17, 2025 @ 1:15 pm
I don’t find anything objectionable in the Morgan recording. It’s not the sort of music I seek out, but it’s in the current style and is probably well-done.
Of course, I’d probably have to listen to it a couple more times–and re-listen to Keith Whitley’s “Miami, My Amy” before I’ll detect the connection between the Morgan and the Whitley songs.
May 17, 2025 @ 1:51 pm
“It’s not the sort of music I seek out, but it’s in the current style and is probably well-done.”
There is nothing about this that is the “current style.” It’s a mess, and even most Wallen fans who are being honest with themselves know it. Even Wallen seems to know it’s a dog, but apparently has a policy that anything that gets workshopped in the studio makes it onto the album, no filter. That policy bit him in this instance.
May 17, 2025 @ 1:18 pm
I listened to this song as well as most of the album. To me if you didnt know that he was doing this as a tribute, you wouldnt know it. It sounds nothing like it and i highly doubt the words are the same. Wasnt one of my favorites of keiths so im not too sure but i doubt it. So i feel this article is just a little over tbe top. As far as the album, its def my least favorite of his so far. Hes veering too much with the couples songs or whatever you want to call them. I havent totally absorbed it, just a soft lusten but for me there are three songs that are ok, not saying great, just ok. The dealer, 3 and 7, and probably my favorite, im a little crazy i believe the name is. For a album with 37 songs, To me its a big flop but based on some of his other stuff thats done well, lots of his crowd will drink it up.
May 17, 2025 @ 1:53 pm
Someone literally has to tell you this is supposed to be a Keith Whitley tribute to pick up on it. Or you have to peep the credits and see Dean Dillon and Hank Cochran in there. That’s probably a bad sign if you’re trying to pay tribute to someone.
May 17, 2025 @ 2:18 pm
Well i agree to that. Wallen isnt the sharpest tack. Im not defending him on that. Im just saying, only someone who heard him say it was a tribute, would know. Most of his fans i doubt know any of keiths music and i doubt they care.
May 17, 2025 @ 3:04 pm
Unless I was flat broke and needed the money, I’d tell them to take my name off this shit if I was one of the writers of the original (or managed the estate of said writer). Embarrassing garbage like this gets so much attention.
May 17, 2025 @ 3:45 pm
Billboard ranked the song last of the 37 “Wallen blends trap beats and processed backing vocals for a club-ready groove, as he interpolates a line from Keith Whitley’s 1986 hit “Miami, My Amy” into a familiar scene…”
May 17, 2025 @ 1:37 pm
I don’t know if we’d be talking about this song if he hadn’t jammed “Miami” in there. Just extraordinarily bland.
May 17, 2025 @ 2:18 pm
“For the first time since country legend Keith Whitley’s tragic and untimely death in 1989, I’m actually glad he’s no longer with us. If there’s any solace and comfort in the fact that Whitley succumbed to alcohol poisoning at the age of 34, it’s that he is no longer around to personally witness the sacrilege and horror that is Morgan Wallen’s colossal goat fucking of Keith’s classic song “Miami, My Amy.” ”
What you forgot here is if Keith Whitley hadn’t died and was still around none of these boys would be paying any attention to his back catalog. But since he died and they read that Jason Aldean digs him, they went out and got themself 2 or 3 Keith Whitley songs for their playlist stuffed between Folsom Prison Blues and Tear in My Beer.
May 17, 2025 @ 2:48 pm
A coworker played some of Wallen’s new album during our business trip. I would have sworn on a Bible if the song title didn’t change on the screen, it was just one endless song.
I envied the roadkill.
May 17, 2025 @ 3:27 pm
Wow, I just heard a bit of the song, and god, it’s terrible! Ole Keith is rolling in his grave right about now. Quick, someone pass the Drano so I can wash the taste of puke that just rolled it’s way up into my mouth and hopefully poison myself so I never have to hear this dude again! The hell was he thinking?
May 17, 2025 @ 3:34 pm
Truth to be said; Whitley’s albums are filled with MOR-songs like “Miami”. The songs and the arrangements are seldom country, even by mid-80’s standards.
What makes them stand out, is Whitley’s delivery, his voice. Poor Whitley never got to make the proper country album he wanted while he lived, even tho they tried to fix some recordings after his death.
Whitley had a ball with his reckless living. I suppose he died a happy man. He left us some good, sometimes great, songs, and we should honour him (and Gary Stewart) by remembering them as the hell-raising party lions they were, not project some artificial sadness ino their lives.
Whatever sadness they encountered, was because of their own poor judgement. That goes for them all, from Hank and forward. Very few among us get to live a life of constant partying, easy money and mayhem like that.
May 17, 2025 @ 3:42 pm
I am a musician from years back..Keith was country, and his music was some of the finest you will ever find. Miami, My Amy is one of my favorite songs he ever did. I wish that some of these entertainers would leave the music from generations past alone, unless they can respect the song and the individual that recorded it. I know of a entertainer that did a very fine job with a Keith Whitley song, Don’t Close Your Eyes Chris Young. A entertainer that does the song justice, is to be commended for his version. Morgan does not appreciate the finer qualities in a song such as this, and in my opinion, he does not have the country flair to do such a song. Usually I like to give people a chance, but this is degrading to Keith and his memory. You may not like people that die the way he did, but they are only human, and everyone has their crosses to bare. Thanks Keith.
May 17, 2025 @ 8:31 pm
The original Miami, much like much of Keith Whitley’s well know music, doesn’t sound very country to me. It sounds like pop country from that era. But very good pop country. I like it, which isn’t some I can say for pop country from any other era going back to the 70s.
Am I wrong? I’m not a musician and don’t have a great ear, but I listen to a lot of country and county adjacent music.
May 18, 2025 @ 8:50 am
Actually “Somebody’s Doin’ Me Right” was even more pop-country than “Miami, My Amy.” You can even imagine an r&b crooner singing it, with the light country touches in the backing instrumentals replaced by smooth keyboards and synths. Like you, I like both songs and a lot of the other pop-country ballads of the ’70s and ’80s.
May 19, 2025 @ 6:49 am
Keith was country gold( bluegrass origins and all..) but i agree with you his recorded output was very pop-leaning.
May 17, 2025 @ 4:22 pm
Bleh. Music for 20-year-old, somewhat ditzy girls who drink too much on weekends. It will be instantly forgotten as soon as someone else does (sigh) another escapist beach fantasy tune.
May 17, 2025 @ 5:00 pm
Laughing at all the times you actually told me to **** off.
Have been waiting for you to mature.
For you to grow up.
Is it your hemophilia that makes you hate so severely?
May 17, 2025 @ 6:38 pm
Yet you’re still here, incessantly posting comments you know will get deleted so you can remain pissed off. And ironically, this is the only place left on the internet where you can dwell, yet you’re still reviled and have no idea what the fuck is even going on.
May 18, 2025 @ 5:11 pm
Hemophilia, the blood clotting disorder? I’m quite confused how that would make anyone hateful.
May 17, 2025 @ 5:07 pm
37 songs.
I remember seeing that and wondering if he had 10 good songs in the bunch to make even a decent regular-length album. I rather think the answer is no.
May 18, 2025 @ 5:08 pm
His last album was better but you can still find 20-24 good tunes on both of his last albums. There’s really only a handful of awful songs out of 36 (one is an interlude) Not too bad a percentage.
I love coming to this blog when Morgan does anything to see all of you heads explode out of your hatred. I bet a lot of you waste a lot of energy and time hating someone so much.
I also bet all you haters fancy yourselves religious too. Yet you spew hate and can’t forgive a guy who was reciting rap lyrics with his buddies at 2am, but black people can forgive.
Shut up and quit wasting all your energy. He has some great country songs.
May 17, 2025 @ 5:10 pm
I remember several years back, Keith Urban pilfered the iconic guitar riff of “Mama Tried” for an incredibly forgettable pop song that I’ve already forgotten the title of. Morgan was probably like, “Oh, that’s cute, Keith. Hold my beer.” Then this unholy abomination came about. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it—but this thing makes ”Donkey” from several years back sound like a great song. It even makes Walker Hayes sound almost tolerable.
I’ve never liked Morgan Wallen. I can’t stand his voice (he sounds like a cat being strangled), and his personality REEKS of entitlement and straight-up bratty immaturity. The only thing that I’ve ever somewhat liked that Morgan has done is “Flower Shops”, and even that one took a while to grow on me, and while a decent song, it’s nowhere close to being a favorite song of mine.
May 17, 2025 @ 5:17 pm
All the guy did was sample one word from a very early Whitley release and I would argue not one of his best though I love everything Whitley did aside from the alcohol addiction. So this is making much ado about nothing.
May 17, 2025 @ 5:44 pm
Well, everyone says Whitley is one of their influences. So, the ya go!
May 17, 2025 @ 5:51 pm
For some reason, Morgan Wallen’s The Voice audition constantly shows up in my social media feeds. There’s a story (nothing very country about it) – he performs a rock song, Howie Day’s “Collide” (NOTHING country about it). Blake Shelton doesn’t even pretend to turn his chair around. Shakira and Usher do turn their chairs around and Wallen is eliminated from the contest early in the competition.
Then some Nashville executive thinks he can create an image he can sell to the country masses – big fish, little pond – because Wallen would have been exposed in the pop world.
Why was there never an authenticity validation needed for this guy?
I think the root of Wallen’s problems is he never wanted to be country artist, but that was his only path to success.
May 17, 2025 @ 6:10 pm
Please don´t review this album , it´s a wast of time.
May 17, 2025 @ 6:35 pm
Daryle Singletary did justice with his cover of Miami, My Amy.
Josh Turner did a song with a similar theme on his debut album called “Jacksonville.” Worth a listen.
May 17, 2025 @ 7:44 pm
Daryle Singletary had the unique abilty to cover legendary songs and do versions I like as much as the original. Makeup and Faded Blues Jeans is another.
May 18, 2025 @ 10:48 am
“Jacksonville” is a great song.
May 17, 2025 @ 7:28 pm
I’m admittedly a Wallen fan but…this album is not very good. The mono nature of the sound and tone makes it boring and very uninteresting. Just sorta drones on and on and on. I just can’t believe it’ll have the staying power of past albums, and in fact could knock him off his pedestal in some ways.
May 17, 2025 @ 7:29 pm
A “murder on Music Row”? Get outta here. Keith Whitley’s ghost is probably laughing harder than anyone else—because if this hot take was the best tribute to him, I’d say he dodged a bullet. Newsflash: country music isn’t your grandma’s attic stuffed with relics to dust off and worship. It’s a living, breathing genre that evolves — whether you like trap beats and “Oompa Loompa” choruses or not.
Morgan Wallen knew damn well he’d get crucified for “Miami” and still dropped it with zero apologies. That’s called balls. Something clearly missing from this sour nostalgia-fueled rant. But no, let’s all whine about “sacrilege” while you cling to your outdated playlist like it’s the last life raft on the Titanic.
If you think a 37-song album with variety is “stupid,” maybe your musical taste is as stale as week-old biscuits. The only disaster here is your refusal to get with the times. The future of country isn’t gonna wait for you to catch up while you clutch your pearls and cry about “real country.”
Here’s a reality check: your meltdown sounds less like a thoughtful review and more like someone who just got their feelings hurt because music dared to change. Pro tip—grow up, get a grip, and maybe listen with an open mind for once. Or don’t. Keep crying about the “good old days” while Wallen and the new generation keep moving the genre forward without you.
May 17, 2025 @ 8:35 pm
I listened with an open mind, which was easy for me to do, as I didn’t know a single Morgan Wallen song before this one. Now I know one, and it’s hot garbage. It’s hard to be hyperbolic when describing something this bad.
May 17, 2025 @ 10:40 pm
So let me get this straight—you admit you’d never heard a single Morgan Wallen song, listened to one, and now you’re an expert with a final verdict? That’s not “open-minded.” That’s walking into a steakhouse, licking the napkin, and declaring the entire menu trash.
Your attempt at sounding objective is laughable. “Hard to be hyperbolic”? Buddy, your entire rant reads like it was written by someone who thinks Keith Whitley is the last artist allowed to touch a mic in Nashville. You didn’t listen with an open mind — you walked in with a loaded shotgun and called it a review.
Here’s the truth: you’re not mad because the song is bad. You’re mad because it didn’t bow down to your narrow, outdated definition of “real country.” It challenged your nostalgia, made you uncomfortable, and instead of wrestling with that, you threw a tantrum disguised as a think piece.
One song doesn’t define a career. But one overblown, self-righteous review sure says a lot about you.
May 18, 2025 @ 7:55 am
You wrote a four paragraph run-on strawman fallacy.
May 19, 2025 @ 2:23 am
Appreciate the critique, Indianola. While you’re quick to call it a strawman, I’d argue it’s a direct response to an openly biased dismissal of an artist based on a single track. Disagree if you like, but substance over snark is always more convincing.
May 19, 2025 @ 7:36 am
There was no rant. There was no gatekeeping of what “real country” is, as I like a lot of country adjacent music, as long as it’s good. There was no tantrum.
I made a three-sentence comment that stated my opinion about one single song. Nothing more. You seem to have mixed up my comment with the article or perhaps another comment.
May 19, 2025 @ 7:50 am
I’m pretty sure Kacey originally thought either you were the author of the article, or that she was responding to the article, not you.
For the record, of course this article was over-the-top and sarcastic for dramatic effect. That’s why it was sold as a “rant.”
It’s a bad song, even in the estimation of many Morgan Wallen fans. Laugh at it and move on.
May 18, 2025 @ 6:20 am
He isn’t going to date you, Kacey.
“Sand in My Boots” is legitimately a good song. Wallen should emulate what works.
This is country music, and the genre’s bedrock is showing respect for legends. Wallen insulted Whitley with this musical abomination.
May 17, 2025 @ 8:11 pm
Good grief, who gives a shit about him using the n-word?
May 17, 2025 @ 8:20 pm
I KNEW the very instant I heard the lyrics of the chorus in this wretched interpolation of Whitley’s classic………..that HARDY was one of the co-writers given how tirelessly he mentions “redneck” this, “redneck” that in most every single song he has his fingerprints on.
And yep: surely enough I was absolutely correct. =/
May 18, 2025 @ 8:58 am
Hardy is so frustrating. He wants to exist in three worlds — country, rock and hip-hop — and it just doesn’t work. His new five-song EP (called “Country!”, in case you needed an exclamation point to identify the genre he’s singing) has some really good moments, but also has a grating redneck list song on it.
May 18, 2025 @ 12:22 pm
I actually somewhat liked “A Rock” because while some of the choice themes he touches on throughout that record aren’t groundbreaking or anything, he did lend a bit more descriptive imagery to the majority of its songs compared to the majority of his Nashville songwriting machine peers and the first time around it was also a bit interesting seeing his kind of writing style and early attempts at world-building between his songs take shape.
But everything since then just leaves me to fear he already is overexposed as a one-trick pony and is just cashing in on the country lifestyle at this point to further his broader career ambitions. The fact he waited almost an entire year between country radio singles to focus squarely on his rock career endorses that theory in my mind, and obviously “TRUCK BED” wasn’t country to begin with.
May 18, 2025 @ 12:32 pm
As for his newest EP, the only song on it I truly like and I feel sizes up with his best on “A Rock”……….is “Car That Drove You Away”.
Objectively “Buck On The Wall” has some good descriptive writing too, but especially after hearing him bray about showing off dead bucks on Instagram on MULTIPLE songs off “the mockingbird & THE CROW”………..the schtick already feels tired.
I can do without the other three altogether. “Favorite Country Song” is basically just a hybrid laundry list song with a little “Frankenstein Country” (a term coined four years ago describing a bevy of country radio songs where large parts of the lyrics are just name-dropping songs both in country and other genres, with Eric Church’s “Hands Of Time” being another current example and others fairly recently being Old Dominion’s “Song For Another Time” and Zac Brown Band’s “Old Love Song” among others)………..”Girl With A Gun” continues his recent obsession with guns as a focal point in his subject matter that also feels tired and exhausting at this point……….and “Luckiest Man Alive” has really sloppy, particularly plastic production and trite lyrics.
May 19, 2025 @ 3:49 pm
I love “Luckiest Man Alive”! To me, that’s what a pop-country summer song should sound like, great hook, fun lyrics. Sorry if I don’t seek deep meaning and extreme reverence for country music’s past in all the country music I listen to. Sometimes I just want to roll down the windows and do a little dashboard drumming. I’ll save my negativity for songs like the one that Trig’s rant was about.
You’re right, though, about “Car That Drove You Away.” A real standout, and either it or “Luckiest Man Alive” should have been the radio single instead of the dumb listicle ditty.
May 17, 2025 @ 8:48 pm
When I originally saw the post title I thought it can’t be that bad. I listened to the song and then read the post to make sure my opinion wasn’t clouded. I have to agree Trig. It’s a horrible song.
May 17, 2025 @ 10:36 pm
MW is a country fraud, who is milking this for all it’s worth…He sucks
May 18, 2025 @ 12:29 am
I don’t understand why he’s at all popular, and I think he’s overtaken Kane Brown as my least favorite not-country male country artist.
May 18, 2025 @ 10:49 am
He pulls off the hard-to-do vulnerable badboy aura that women love.
May 18, 2025 @ 11:11 am
And Brown is doing the opposite, yet just as effectively. He’s doing his best to soften what some would consider a threatening appearance and a not-spotless earlier life. His new single, “Backseat Driver,” is a sappy ode to fatherhood in the mold of “I’ve Been Watching You” and “Mr. Mom” — or even (gagging sound) “Watching Scotty Grow”! I might hate daddy country even more than I hate boyfriend country.
All this stuff, of course, is designed to appeal to the prized 18-34 female demographic, who make corporate America fabulously wealthy with their pursuit of trendiness and impulse spending. That’s why it dominates radio.
May 18, 2025 @ 12:53 pm
“Backseat Driver” is pure torture.
The lines, “7:30 in the morning in a Mickey D’s drive-thru/Two muffins, one coffee, and a little bitty orange juice” rank among the worst in history.
May 18, 2025 @ 7:41 pm
You just reminded me of that awful “sippy cup of milk” like from Lonestar’s “Front Porch Looking In.” Thanks for nothing. 😉
May 19, 2025 @ 12:41 pm
That song, like most of Lonestar’s discography, is a guilty pleasure of mine.
But it symbolizes the utter banality of early 2000s country music.
The local Country Legends station includes songs up to 2006 as legendary. I never saw Gretchen Wilson or Montgomery & Gentry as legends of the genre. I like the latter but shuffling their music with Strait and Waylon makes zero sense.
May 19, 2025 @ 3:53 pm
My Lonestar guilty pleasure — well, not really a guilty one because I don’t care who knows I like it — is “What About Now.” That sippy cup song is just too saccharine for me.
May 19, 2025 @ 12:28 pm
Kane Brown could have replaced John Rich in Lonestar?
May 18, 2025 @ 7:07 am
Chuckling at the rant. Agree re the song. It’s not good to my ears. Like him or not, Morgan Wallen is very popular and many of the younger generation see him as country, as they do Zach Bryan. I prefer Zach Top. Maybe it is my age!
May 18, 2025 @ 7:31 am
And To think artists like Hank Jr and Waylon were called outlaws.
Wallen makes them angels. He’s absolutely no good country, or human being, needs to be boycotted and not played for country stations , award shows ever.
May 18, 2025 @ 12:08 pm
I’m a major Keith Whitley fan (as is anyone else who loves country music) and I know his version of “Miami, My Amy,” but I swear if I’d somehow managed to hear it playing in an airport or at the grocery store or wherever I wouldn’t have noticed it had anything at all to do with Keith’s. It’s so far away from the beloved original, and so boring, I can’t get annoyed by it, much less pissed off.
May 18, 2025 @ 12:10 pm
I meant to say if I somehow managed to hear WALLEN’S version of the song, etc.
May 18, 2025 @ 12:55 pm
Where’s my boy SixtyThreeGuild? Remember when he said P!nk, Chappell Roan and Madonna were bigger than Morgan? I ‘member. He also said monthly streaming numbers were indicative who was the biggest artists. When I pointed out a small little band from Liverpool who literally no one has ever heard of has like 20 million listeners, way less than even small artists nowadays. He retreated and called me mentally ill because his argument was stupid. I ‘member that too! All I know is that p!nk is bigger than Morgan. So I agree with our dear SixtyThree! I know when she releases projects they stay on the charts for 3 years. I know she sets streaming records too. I wonder where SixtyThree is now and what he’s doing? Probably coming up with some cockamamie rant about how Tate McRae is bigger than Hank and The Carter Family, “cause of streaming numbers”. I will be “convinced” by his evidence for sure. It was staggering last time!
May 18, 2025 @ 1:00 pm
I Love these rants. But in all seriousness. I was very happy that you reviewed the Bryce Leatherwood album on the day it came out instead of Morgan Wallen’s album. The moment I saw it had so many tracks, I was like, Trig will definitely have something to say about this.
May 18, 2025 @ 1:56 pm
But Wallen has four of Billboard’s Top Ten tracks,so….
May 18, 2025 @ 1:58 pm
Wallen may be a hoe,but with four entries in “Billboard’s” Top Ten tracks,he’s on the way to being a RICH hoe !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 18, 2025 @ 4:45 pm
99.9% of the time I don’t agree with trigger.but I have to say for Wallen to even have a thought of a tribute to anything keith has done especially a dean dillion song is appalling and a disgrace to humanity.and I am dead serious.
May 18, 2025 @ 4:47 pm
He is very country and you F-ing pretentious haters sound like such whiners. My god, he has far more great country songs than he does the shit rap stuff. Get over the fact that you are so biased you just have to hate everything he does. Just keep on hating everything he touches and the rest of us with continue enjoying most of his music (not the shitty rap or drum machines). Get over it.
May 19, 2025 @ 3:54 pm
Bubba, Bubba, Bubba…
May 19, 2025 @ 5:26 pm
Can I help you? Your comment means nothing.
May 18, 2025 @ 6:03 pm
I will never understand stand how people thought there was a difference between MW and FGL. MW was always an extension of FGL.
May 19, 2025 @ 12:43 pm
Morgan Wallen wishes he could write a hook like FGL.
FGL was pure party music. Wallen mixes vulnerable bad-boy stuff with genuine country themes.
Their only similarity involves bringing in hip-hop jargon and beats but the actual content varies.
May 18, 2025 @ 6:27 pm
Yes, he does have some absolutely horrible songs and this one Trig is crushing is easily the worst song on not only this album but his probably his career. Yes, the drum machine and “rap-speaking” lyrics are some really bad features of his music, BUT you guys can’t look past some of the shit to listen to a lot of great country songs. Even Trig reviewed his last album and notes at least 15 of the 36 tunes as good to great. If there is anyone on this blog that doesn’t think “Thought You Should Know” is not only die hard country but also one of the best songs out there in the last 5-10 years. I know it’s pointless to try to change your minds, but at least admit that more than half of the songs on these albums are country. He just needs to trim the fat. I’m not going to hate a guys catalog because 20%-25% of the songs I don’t care for. That’s 75%-80% that I really like.
May 18, 2025 @ 8:32 pm
Hey Bubba,
I think it’s pretty obvious that I was being over-the-top in this article just to be a little funny. I don’t know if I will review Morgan Wallen’s new album. But if I do, I will do so impartially, and just like you point out, will give him credit where credit is due. I’ve been hard on Wallen over the years, but I’ve also bee very fair to him, and even defended him on multiple occasions when the attacks over the N-word incident and other moments got out of control.
May 19, 2025 @ 8:33 am
Seems to be a whole lot of ‘first timers’ to a Trigger rant lol. Lot of crying about this very funny write-up.
May 18, 2025 @ 11:48 pm
Maybe he’s just pushing the boundaries of what country music is
May 19, 2025 @ 6:21 am
And if he’s successful enough at it, country music will be indistinguishable from any other genre of pop music.
May 19, 2025 @ 7:25 am
Oh, that’s what this is?
I always love to hear what passes for country music “evolution.”
May 19, 2025 @ 3:53 pm
OMG this is for real? Yikes.
May 20, 2025 @ 6:05 am
I can’t trust Trigger’s reviews anymore, he was much to kind to Wallen, this is sooooooo much worse than described.
May 20, 2025 @ 6:56 am
As a country fan since the 1970s, raised by a country fan from decades prior to that, this has got to be one of the most toddler throwing tantrum “rant” I’ve read about a country artist’s music.
May 20, 2025 @ 9:41 am
It sounds just like every other Morgan Wallen song. I swear, he’s reycling the same track and just adding new lyrics. No wonder he can do it 30+ times per album. He wins Entertainer of the Year but not Cody? Shenanigans!
May 20, 2025 @ 3:16 pm
Whose responsible for this gahstly Article? Imma Whoop yo Ahhhsh.
May 20, 2025 @ 10:15 pm
Tell me how you really feel 🤣🤣🤣
May 21, 2025 @ 6:02 am
You simply don’t know what you’re talking about. You must be one of those people who can’t stand it when someone else succeeds. Morgan Wallen deserves your respect as much as Keith Whitley or George Jones for that matter. He’s “Country” and he is the leading edge of Country’s immutable evolution. Country is three chords and the truth, and the truth is, this article is trash and should be deleted. I’m reminded of Whitley’s song “Lonely at the Top.” Guess what? you’re the b**** at the bottom.
May 21, 2025 @ 11:08 am
What is wrong with you people Morgan is very talented sure this song isn’t quite up to all his other songs I love but so what he put his own spin on it he’s an artist I’m positive he is not meaning to disrespect anyone Gosh people lighten up!
May 26, 2025 @ 9:31 am
Wallen has EIGHT of Billboard’s Top Ten tracks.Maybe EVERY aspiring Country star should call their buddy the “N” word and hurl a chair through a hotel window to achieve success.
June 2, 2025 @ 4:19 pm
Song reviewers make me mad because they think they just have to be different from the general public. They totally diss on decent song and somehow take offense to it. Why are you offended by a Song? It’s just a song.
June 2, 2025 @ 7:58 pm
I didn’t think it was so bad. I mean..,. He didn’t cover the song even, just used a little sample. It’s not really comparable
June 4, 2025 @ 5:52 am
Great song.