Seriously, Is This Kyle Park “The Blue Roof Sessions” A Practical Joke or Something?
Ah Hahahahahahahahahaa!!
Ha ha!
Oh man…
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The only possible explanation for Kyle Park’s new album called The Blue Roof Sessions is that there’s a deep-seeded conspiracy behind it to screw with all of our country music heads. “Bad” doesn’t even begin to scrape the surface of the ridiculous experience listening to this record entails. When I popped this thing on the speakers, I swear to Eric Church’s Country Music Jesus that I was half expecting a camera crew to bust out of the Saving Country Music headquarters’ spare office to capture my reaction that was somewhere between absolutely abhorred and physically incapacitated by an overwhelming amount of incidental comedy.
Imagine Eddie Rabbit being gang raped by four 80’s-era German neo nazi militant vegans with pet monkeys and televisions on their heads dressed in spandex onesies in a European youth hostel while listening to Warrant on handheld boomboxes, resulting in Mr. Rabbit giving birth to an Eddie Money diarrhea baby who immediately begins singing Loverboy on a first-generation consumer-grade Karaoke machine . . . That’s pretty much how I would describe this album. The Blue Roof Sessions is music for Jane Fonda to teach jazzercize to.
Listen to me ladies and gentlemen: on The Blue Roof Sessions, Kyle Park, who is sold to us as one of Texas country’s staunch traditionalists, cover’s Billy Squier’s “Rock Me Tonight.” Let me repeat that: KYLE PARK COVERS BILLY SQUIER’S “ROCK ME TONIGHT!” I guess Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” was on hold by Jerrod Niemann. What in the hell is going on here? Is Kyle Park trying to pull a Sturgill Simpson a la When in Rome’s “The Promise”? Because if he is, Mr. Park just shit the bed. Seriously, somebody should have intervened.
I am absolutely shocked, and this is from someone who had sniffed out Kyle Park as a phony many moons ago. This album doesn’t just make me scared for the future of country music, it makes me just plain scared for the future. I never want to leave my house again.
One of the knocks on Texas country is that many of the artists are just one step behind the awfulness coming off of Music Row and are trying to keep up. In this instance, Kyle Park may be one step ahead. The play here for some sort of recognition from the mainstream for being groundbreaking is so incredibly transparent, it makes me feel flat out embarrassed for Kyle Park.
At least with Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett, and Florida Georgia Line, you can listen to the music and understand the rationale of how it will find a wide audience. With The Blue Roof Sessions, it damn well better find a wide audience, because before this record, Kyle Park made his money by fooling folks in Texas into thinking he was a traditional country, just like his regular running buddy Cody Johnson. I can’t tell you how many trolls have showed up to Saving Country Music over the years saying the site is illegitimate for not touting these two guys. I’d love to hear those folks’ explanation for Kyle Park’s “Like The Rain” from this record.
And the sad thing is, if you take a few of the songs away from the album, it’s not terribly bad. It’s never good at any point, and the writing is completely sub par and slapped-together-feeling throughout. It’s almost like it didn’t even matter what these songs were about when they were being cut; the words were just filler for the stylized production envisioned for many of these songs.
But there’s actually quite a bit of steel guitar here, and the majority of the songs are pretty straightforward Kyle Park stuff, aside from the entirety of the vocals throughout the record being run through this extremely corrosive filter of Auto-tune and some annoying ever-present echo effect that is so effusively bad and broad brushed on everything, it ruins otherwise forgivable pop country songs. And don’t get me started with the hyperventilating, extreme, sparks-flying-out-of-the-headstock, take-your-penis-out-on-stage-and-helicopter-it-around stunt guitar histrionics in some of these songs. I mean at times this stuff veers towards Dragonforce.
But hey, the song “I Lose, You Win” isn’t terrible, though the vocals are so aggressively processed, it’s hard to take anything seriously. Same goes for “What Goes Around Comes Around.” These are decent, solid Texas pop country songs that if you put an entire album together of, would be just fine. But Kyle Park swerves so far off the page starting with the very first track “Come On” and its positively stupid chorus, then the embarrassing “Like The Rain” that should have been left on the cutting house floor, some songs on this record are nothing short of unconscionable. If he wanted people’s attention, he definitely got that. You may only set off stink bombs in one room of a house, but if they smell this bad, folks are going to gangway, and not stop to admire how attractive the dining room set is on their way out.
And Kyle Park has got to be the biggest walking billboard in Texas country, including big deals with Bud Light, Tony Lama boots, and Wrangler, making him even more unlikable. He clearly has visions of creating his own lifestyle brand and mega entertainment franchise, so no wonder the quality of the music is a second thought.
Again, despite the harsh take on this album, there is some salvageable stuff on The Blue Roof Sessions, but there’s no forgiving the egregious trespasses it perpetrates in certain tracks.
Now, tell me how his music doesn’t suck because he’s such and awesome guy and gives money to charity.
1 1/2 of 2 Guns Down (3/10)
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October 27, 2015 @ 8:41 am
What would you expect? He’s always made crappy music. He’s always used autotune. And all you have to do on a college campus in Texas is call it Texas country and it’ll sell. The finished product has never mattered it’s all about the label on it and how it is marketed to kids with disposable income. If it was about the music, he would have hired a Grammy winning producer instead of a Grammy winning graphic design artist.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:41 am
Okay, so “Like the rain” sounds like something that Dwight or Gary Allan would have recorded around 1999 or so when they were going a little avant-garde and Pete Anderson was dicking around in the studio. The vocal track is atrocious, but I don’t *hate* the song. Sounds dated, but it’s a salvageable track.
The Rock me Tonight cover though. Hoooo-boy. Again, it reminds me of something a twenty-plus year established artist might release as a deep cut while dicking around in the studio. Otherwise…why? He’s not a “name”, he doesn’t have a real established sound, so it’s not like it’s an “off key” novelty track. It’s just a bad cover of a bad song.
As for “what comes around”. Man. This guy really wants to be Dwight Yoakam. Same video style, trying the same vocal style, etc. Problem is, Dwight is still around and breathing, and this guy ain’t Dwight.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:52 am
Somebody had to get to Kyle Park and say, “Dude, don’t put this song on your album.” You just can’t do something like that, even if you’re Kyle Park. And he might not be a “name” nationwide, but I’m telling you, in certain circles in and around Texas, especially in the Houston area, Kyle Park and Cody Johnson reign like kings. They have a huge regional footprint.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:56 am
Man, as someone who used to be huge into Texas country, and still loves Chris Knight (How a good ol’ boy from a little South of Cinci became “texas country”, I’ll never know), Cody Canada, Wade Bowen, REK, etc, I’ve definitely faded out of the scene in the past half decade or so. This stuff you’re tossing up now, it’s just unrecognizable.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:59 am
Hey, there’s still some excellent Texas country, and some of the best stuff in 2015 has come from Texas country artists. But there is a dire need for at least a little bit of scene control. Billy Squier covers are a symptom that something has done terribly wrong.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:56 am
Agreed about the “scene” control. It seems that a lot of the artists that are pretty much crap in the Texas scene are pandering just as much to Texas radio stations as the Nashville guys and gals do. It’s pretty pathetic.
I do agree with you about the scene control thing though, if you look at the Texas charts sometimes it is depressing how many bands and artists lack any originality and are just doing everything they can to copy acts like RRB and Ragweed. Minus the things that made those bands stand out which was strong songwriting and musicianship.
October 27, 2015 @ 5:20 pm
Trigger, this cd is terrible on many levels. Along with song choice, I don’t get the production. The short return reverb sounds like crap and reminds me of Oasis. I actually like Cody Johnson & Jason Cassidy a lot but this is the first time I have listened to Kyle Park and it is not good.
October 27, 2015 @ 12:29 pm
Chris is from Western Kentucky a little town named Slaughters in Webster county. I grew up a few miles south of him. It’s about an hour and a half northwest of Nashville and about an hour south of Evansville Indiana. I agree with you though but the people in Texas loved him and our music from the very start. They made up the largest portion of his fan base especially in the early days.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:42 am
Sounds like a gay-er version of Train’s eventually TBA ‘Country’ album–except it’s after Patrick Monahan only partially recovers from throat cancer (hypothetically).
At least he coulda done Lonely Is the Night. Much more bitchin’.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:51 am
Train and Sheryl Crow should team up on the Desperate to be Relevant Tour. Jewel could open for them.
October 28, 2015 @ 9:06 am
They could do Blackfoot’s “Train Train”. Hey, it’s a train song.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:42 am
Never been a fan of Kyle Park. Much like the Casey Donahew Band, Josh Abbott, Granger Smith and Rich O’Toole he has always seemed like a guy desperate to break into Nashville, but never got the shot and instead insisted on pandering to Texas music fans as much as possible.
He feels like a sanitized version of Pat Green, which is saying something considering how sanitized Pat became during and after his Nashville run.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:43 am
If we are lucky, he will make a shot for shot remake of Billy Squire’s video for “Rock Me Tonight”. That will be fun.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:55 am
Yes, indeed.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:43 am
So Trigger, are you telling us that this isn’t on a par with, say, The Beatles rooftop session? Bwaaaahaaaa.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:44 am
BTW, “Imagine Eddie Rabbit being gang raped by four 80”™s-era German neo nazi militant vegans with pet monkeys and televisions on their heads dressed in spandex onesies in a European youth hostel while listening to Warrant on handheld boomboxes, resulting in Mr. Rabbit giving birth to an Eddie Money diarrhea baby who immediately begins singing Loverboy on a first-generation consumer-grade Karaoke machine” needs to be on the fucking album jacket.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:49 am
Hands down, my new favorite Triggerism. Kudos Trig!
October 27, 2015 @ 8:46 am
I must say that is very strange music. “What goes around comes around” is decent and sounds like something Gary Allen would produce. But the other two is just voice distorted garbage. “Like the rain” sounds like Michael Buble made a country album.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:49 am
First of all, he sounds exactly like Weird Al when he sings. Second, these songs sound like the generic shit they play when kids are at a high school dance or a party on a Lifetime movie.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:51 am
Oh good lord. At first I thought they were trying to make him sound like “Smoke Rings in the Dark”-era Gary Allan, but Jesus, you’re right. It is weird Al.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:55 am
He must not be old enough to know that “Rock me Tonight” destroyed Billy Squier’s career. All I can think of when I hear his cover is Kyle Park dancing around his apartment in a pink flash dance sweat shirt, rolling around on the floor.
I’m a Kyle Park fan, too. But how and why do you cover this song and cover it so badly?
October 27, 2015 @ 9:02 am
Yes, that Billy Squier video is notorious. He never recovered. There was a lesson there for Kyle Park to learn, and instead he did something that was incredibly self-indulgent.
Kyle Park has some good stuff, and so does this record. But you just can’t make such egregious mistakes and expect folks to take your music seriously.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:55 am
Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
I had those same thoughts as I listened to this atrociously abominable audio abortion, Triggerman old boy! Although, that’s not really saying much, since I have those thoughts all the time… Still, country music is not the place for such insanity. Country music should be serious. Somber. Thoughtful. Intellectually stimulating! This filth isn’t even qualified for background noise! Country music… HA! What a joke!
Hahahahahahahahaha hehehehehehehehe!
October 27, 2015 @ 9:00 am
You know, I won’t even go that far. In the right hands, an oddball cover can be well done in a country version. Dwight’s done it multiple times with Queen covers, Cheap trick, the dead, Elvis, etc. He made the songs his own and knocked them out of the park. Hell. Chris Thile’s cover of the Stroke’s “Heart in a cage” absolutely slaughters the original.
Kris Park ain’t Dwight.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:23 am
I thought Sturgill did an excellent cover of a one hit wonder 80’s song. Dwight did some spectacular covers that on paper probably looked ridiculous. “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” is awesome. But Billy Squier? And the problem is Kyle Park didn’t try to make it his own. He just tried to do an impersonation of it.
October 27, 2015 @ 6:30 pm
Billy Squier is fucking awesome I don’t care what anyone says. In my opinion though if you take a rock song and try to make it country, which he didn’t even really do, you should be kicked in the balls just because.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:09 am
Weeeeelll, maybe I wouldn’t go quite that far. Ray Stevens has done some very good novelty numbers (the essential qualifier being “good”), T&G’s “We’re Not The Jet Set” was quite cleverly humorous (down to that jug-band sound in the song), “Put Another Log On The Fire” was a funny song (from a feminist viewpoint, yet, from one of the good ole boys of country, Tompall Glaser), Little Jimmy Dickens’ twisted humor in some of his lyrics could’ve put some punk rockers to shame (without the radicalness, of course), and more. Country has always had its humorous side-look at some old “Hee Haw” episodes.
And how could I forget the immortal Jerry Reed?!
October 27, 2015 @ 10:00 am
Ooooooooh, ever heard that hilarious song about the squirrel in the church? I like that one! I didn’t mean there can’t be fun songs. Hell, I love Brad Paisley’s funny songs! I just meant that they’ve taken ALL the seriousness out of country, never mind that they’ve taken all the country out of country! It’s all truck, and beer, and girls, and synthesizers, and drum loops, and rapping, and AAAAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!
There’s no depth in modern “country!” It’s all about getting to the next party and picking that hot girl! I miss the George Strait days… Oooooooh, I love me some George Strait!
October 27, 2015 @ 10:17 am
Are you kidding, lol, we all got excited that “Pascagoula” was mentioned in it (I live on the MS Gulf Coast, but further west). Ray Stevens was part of the backdrop of my childhood (if I’ve heard “Don’t look Ethel!” once, I’ve heard it a million times, in its heyday)
October 27, 2015 @ 10:21 am
Completely off-topic, but I’m prone to that-when I heard Little Feat’s “Willin'”, I couldn’t understand what he was talking about when he said “Tucumcari”, I had no idea what in the world a “tucumcari” was until I drove with a friend through New Mexico 🙂
October 27, 2015 @ 9:17 am
I couldn’t agree with you more on calling out both KP and CJ as the same. These two guys have gotten on my nerves since from the beginning. Im all for guys wearing a cowboy hat and boots or even skinny jeans, i don’t care what you wear,, but when your trying so hard to sell and image and then try to pass off your songs as being real, please. KP is a hat act who trys to hard to be country.
Back in college I got stuck hearing this guy play live to many times. Not by choice, he would play for free on dollar beers nights at Jacks. And i can tell you, it was hard to enjoy dollar beers with him playing over Monday Night football.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:18 am
I give this cd or songs a good listen later today and I will rate this.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:22 am
I just listen to snippets of 3 songs it’s OK but it’s not the best effort that Kyle had made in the past.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:43 am
I almost never have to listen to these things, but this review was so abstract I just HAD to make my own judgement.
Ehh. I enjoyed “Like the Rain.”
That said, though this is by and of itself tolerable and maybe even decent music, it is coming from “a texas country singer” and therein lies the conundrum.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:44 am
That may very well be the absolute best strung together insult that i have ever had the pleasure of reading.
October 27, 2015 @ 10:16 am
As much as I love the Texas / Red Dirt scene, I have never cared for Kyle Park. For me it was his voice that was the immediate turn off. Just has a weird sound to it.
October 27, 2015 @ 10:43 am
Eeesh, some of the worst vocals and production I’ve heard, hands down. Even the decent songs are ruined by the autotune and whatever else they did to them. He sounds like the result if a human and a robot had sex and I’m so bloody sick of that sound. And I don’t ever wanna hear a man use the word “frisky.” Or anyone really, unless they’re talking about a cat.
Some of it is so cheeseball bad I could see it being a fun guilty pleasure, but I find this sort of production unlistenable.
October 27, 2015 @ 10:58 am
Amen to this point-rock and roll isn’t the devil’s music, autotune is!
October 27, 2015 @ 10:44 am
Trigger, mr. Park always was sub par. We have a great scene here in Texas. With all scenes you have CRAP! This is CRAP!
October 27, 2015 @ 10:44 am
KP has been one of my least favorite acts/people since he came on the scene. He, along with Casey Donawhoo are 2 of the worst ones out there and I still have now idea how they’re still able to be successful. Aside from that, both of them are notoriously well known for being the biggest prima donnas in the scene, and don’t deserve to keep playing. Kyles tour riders are a joke. Can’t we just show them the door after stuff like this? I know Texas acts that can sing circles around this kind of so called country music. Enough is enough.
October 27, 2015 @ 12:09 pm
With this album, Park could be the next indie sensation to make it big. He’ll be following FGL, Old Dominion and Granger Smith. Great guys to keep company with.
October 27, 2015 @ 12:30 pm
First it was Eli Young Band and after that Granger Smith and this dude.Next month will be Josh Abbott. Good luck to all these guys trying to be Nashville residents.Next thing smiling on Taste of Country? That’s enough. I’ll go back to listen all my Reckless Kelly records.
October 27, 2015 @ 1:12 pm
Yeah I’m real nervous about the Josh Abbott Record coming out. I’m pretty sure its going to be REAL pop oriented. I am excited about the prospect of the new RRB album though. I think they’re probably on the other side of the Nashville nonsense now. I guess We’ll just have to wait and see.
October 27, 2015 @ 1:20 pm
Taste of Country is who premiered the video for “What Goes Around Comes Around.” They’ve been all over this release.
October 27, 2015 @ 1:01 pm
I’ve never been able to get past his vocals. He sounds like he should be fronting an early 2000’s pop-punk act like Reliant K or Newfound Glory instead of singing Texas country.
I’m not mad at the songs you posted, Trigger. I’m just perplexed. I don’t even know what is going on there, and why.
October 27, 2015 @ 1:19 pm
Yeah, I’m not mad about it either. Perplexed is a good word for it. It’s almost so weird, you can’t even get mad about it because nobody is going to mistake it for country.
October 28, 2015 @ 11:17 am
Yes x10000 I’ve always thought that and some of his songs have style elements from the pop punk genre.
October 27, 2015 @ 1:55 pm
Holy shit. Original Billy Squier was bad enough. We didn’t need any covers.
I heard some of KP’s older stuff on a Houston radio station a while back. It wasn’t Jason Boland, but it was pretty good.
October 27, 2015 @ 2:38 pm
Kyle: I’m starting to rethink the idea of making a fictional Country Album mixed with Smooth Jazz sounds (Paul Hardcastle, Sade). All these people doing weird experiments with the Country Sound and doing nothing to enhance it, it’s making me worried my idea wouldn’t work.
October 27, 2015 @ 2:49 pm
Smooth Jazz is arguably the most dominant influence in today’s country.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:13 pm
At least mine would’ve had deeper songwriting, steel guitar and fiddle. Hell I would’ve gotten songs written but never recorded by Haggard, Don Williams and Billy Joe Shaver just so I could bring their music to a more mainstream audience.
October 27, 2015 @ 2:52 pm
He actually sounds like a robot , lol..
October 27, 2015 @ 4:42 pm
I’m a big Texas country fan, but Kyle never did it for me, nor Casey Donahew, Josh Abbott, Cody Johnson or Aaron Watson…all meh. Humblebrag alert…I’m going to let my ears bask in the sounds of the past four nights of Jason Isbell at The Ryman and skip listening to even one note of Kyle’s latest “effort.”
October 27, 2015 @ 5:52 pm
That “Like the Rain” song is so terrible…it tonally reminded me of the Fountains of Wayne song “hung up on you” that they did as a country music prank. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xf-_CXMqMk
October 27, 2015 @ 6:36 pm
As always Trigger I quite the wordsmith, that being said yes it sucks.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:21 pm
Not sure why the hate on Cody Johnson. He’s a he’ll of a lot better than anything coming out of nashville. The Texas country scene has some of te more “country” music out there right now. Not all of it by any means and some including kyle park and granger Smith have branched out recently but quite a few of those guys are making some pretty good country music. Much better than anything from Nashville.
October 27, 2015 @ 8:55 pm
Cody Johnson is fine for what he is. I just don’t get the bravado behind him as if he’s a country savior. And I’ve seen a lot of that same energy for Kyle Park because those two seem to be tied at the hip.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:47 pm
Cody Johnson has a great voice in my opinion, but the songwriting and production isn’t very good on his songs.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:06 pm
Like the Rain sounds like an awful Mad Season era Matchbox 20.
October 28, 2015 @ 6:33 am
Seriously. My first impression was that this was a demo tape someone threw in a drawer sometime around 1999-2002, it’s a very dated sound.
October 27, 2015 @ 9:51 pm
I am by no means a Kyle Park fan, he has a few songs I enjoy and alot I do not enjoy BUT
This new album is like wanting a triple Whataburger with double cheese, jalapeños, bacon, creamy pepper sauce and add some chicken strips just to make it even better.
BUT…
What you end up with is a ultimate cheeseburger from Jack in the Box.
It sure as hell at Whataburger but you can eat it if you have to.
October 28, 2015 @ 5:54 am
The best “Texas Country” is still, no surprise, coming from Okies. Boland, Felker, Canada, Fullbright, etc.
October 28, 2015 @ 9:13 am
Interesting. A review so filled with over-the-top hatred had me curious, so yes, I listened. And I thought – ok, “‘Like The Rain’ isn’t THAT bad – not sure about the weird production on the vocal track, but certainly if you removed that the song was ok (if not sophomoricly written. Is that even a word? Would Kyle know?)” But then I listened to “Rock Me Tonite” – a song I admit to liking when it came out as I was a Billy Squier fan to some degree. And still, that weird production flourish on the vocals. Ok, so it’s not just for one song. I went on YouTube and listened to a few others. All with that same, god-awful vocal that sounds like the Ty-D-Bowl Man decided to sing country instead of pimping toilet cleaner. So this was done on PURPOSE? I can see why you thought this was a joke. This guy did a whole recording project, and then whoever produced it for him auto-tuned him into another sub-genus. So maybe the joke is on Kyle Parks. But it’s most certainly a joke….right? Right?
October 28, 2015 @ 9:33 pm
You can trash Kyle Park all the livelong day, but no need to throw Cody Johnson under the bus. Even I’ll admit that his last album wasn’t as amazing as it should have been, but he is far from being as bad as Kyle Park.
October 28, 2015 @ 9:45 pm
I agree. The only point I was making is that there are a curious amount of people who name both these artists in the same breath while calling them “real” country, and I just don’t hear it. Cody Johnson’s last album was way better than this, and would have been even better if he had just tamed down the Auto-tune a bit. Where both these guys are failing is in the production work on their vocals.
June 22, 2016 @ 1:52 am
THE ONLY JOKE IS THIS WEBSITE. Cody Johnson, Kyle park, Aaron Watson, Josh Abbott, etc and The King George represent the only true country left. This new era so called “country” is not country at all. As The Honky Tonk Kid says himself in his song (Fence Post), “God knows I’ll never sell my soul to rock and roll or rap or wear those tight skinny jeans” as every city slickers favorite country star Luke Bryan does as well as FGL. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy their music but the genre I’d put them under is NOT COUNTRY. I’ll refer to one of my favorite Texas country artists Josh Abbott and his song (I’ll Sing About Mine) “When the radios on I just don’t understand..because tractors ain’t sexy and working is hard for small town people like me and the radio is full of rich folks singing about the places they’ve never seen”. These lyrics and music is relatable to people’s actual lives. Or my favorite lyrics to describe my feelings towards this utterly ridiculous debate with another Josh Abbott song (My Texas) “haven’t had a kolache when you go through West, Never heard of the Larry Jo Taylor fest, THINK POLISHED POP COUNTRY CRAP SOUNDS THE BEST… THEN YOU AINT MET MY TEXAS YET. ” Texas country’ Artist Are Saving Country and breeding the only real country this nation has left. God bless Texas Country!
April 24, 2017 @ 4:27 pm
Why the hell did you made fun of the best Texas Country album from the best Texas Country artist?
I saw him a few years ago and he was amazing