Song Review- Dan + Shay’s “From The Ground Up”
I do not like Dan + Shay. I do not like Dan + Shay’s music, I do not like their Dan + Shay hair, I do not like the fact that they use a mathematical character in their name since that should forever be reserved for Joey + Rory (may the talented and beautiful Joey Martin rest in peace!)
Dan + Shay seems to be about the most superfluous band in country music at the moment. What function are they fulfilling in the country music space? Do we really need another male singing duo? Aren’t there already too many mouths to feed at the top of country music, while incredible talent remains crowded out? What does Dan + Shay materially offer to country music that country music couldn’t function without? Are they even filling a niche? What is their sound and contribution to the music? They feel like fluff, bunting, window dressing, the equivalent of country music doilies and trifles that if left in the linen closet, would not be missed.
But I promised myself that if this song went to #1, I would write a review for it. Not because I think it’s particularly great, and certainly not because it’s country. It’s because above all the other singles we’ve seen go number #1 recently that seem to be foretelling a serious shift in the direction of country radio—Lori McKenna’s “Humble and Kind” performed by Tim McGraw, John Pardi’s “Head Over Boots” to name a couple—this one might symbolize how country music has turned a page the most, and for the very reason that Dan + Shay feel like such a generic no-name country band.
In the previous few years, a band like Dan + Shay would use the opportunity of releasing a single to take advantage of some adverse trend roiling in country. That’s certainly what occurred when they released the acrid and misogynistic “Show You Off.” Dan + Shay are not leaders, they are followers. They have nothing to contribute to country music themselves. So if they are recording and releasing songs that at least try to exude a little more substance as “From The Ground Up” does, that means this trend toward better songs, and away from the music hyphenated with “Bro” is not just an anomaly, but has some breadth behind it.
Dan + Shay took a page out of the Florida Georgia Line playbook, and with the first single from their second album released a song that speaks to family and foundation, and does so in surprisingly adult language. “Dirt” was much better than “From The Ground Up” in both the production and writing, but it’s the effort, and how it’s found verifiable traction that make the song an interesting test specimen.
“From The Ground Up” is still sappy and saccharine as hell, but here’s a song that at least mentions grandma and grandpa, and asserts ideas of committed love. In the last few years previous, these things would have been non starters on country radio. So would a waltz beat, which continues to make a comeback in mainstream country, and why not? It is an age old, easy way to imbibe a song with a swaying, compelling beat.
The problem with “From The Ground Up” is that Dan + Shay’s voices are too light. This song needs some sandpaper or dirt rubbed on it. It needs some masculinity. Country sounds are virtually non existent in the composition, though at times they try to poke their head through. This is a song for pop adult contemporary radio, not country, yet few tweaks in the production could have taken “From The Ground Up” from mild to decent.
It’s what “From The Ground Up” and the success it has found symbolizes that make it yet another sign of hope. Just like Tim McGraw’s “Humble and Kind,” or Jon Pardi’s “Head Over Boots,” this is not a great song. Yet it sets the table for other songs making their way up the charts, like William Michel Morgan’s long-burning “I Met A Girl,” to have their own day in the #1 spotlight in the coming weeks and months.
Make no mistake, all of this is partially preordained by labels shoveling money around to radio. You think it’s coincidence that the day “From The Ground Up” hit #1 they also announced a Day + Shay tour? We shouldn’t be surprised when William Michael Morgan’s “I Met A Girl” pulls off a similar feat right as his debut album is being released in late September. But whether it’s by hook and crook, or an authentic appetite by country listeners for something more real, “From The Ground Up” hitting #1 symbolizes depth to the move to substance in mainstream country.
Hopefully.
August 23, 2016 @ 9:02 am
I really like this song a lot great harmonies by Dan + Shay. this is a deserving #1 hit!
August 23, 2016 @ 9:07 am
I like this song a lot. They aren’t exactly my favorite, but I’d much rather hear Dan + Shay (aka the Two-Man Rascal Flatts) on the radio instead of bro-country, Chris Lane, or the gosh-awful living pile of shit named Thomas Rhett.
August 23, 2016 @ 8:04 pm
Two-man Rascal Flatts? Good comparison, but aren’t you about a man and a half short?
August 24, 2016 @ 7:14 am
Haha maybe. I just brought up the fact that pretty much all they are is Rascal Flatts wannabes.
August 25, 2016 @ 3:03 pm
Chris Lane ain’t too bad. His album sounds like FGL’s first album. Same producer thats why lol.
August 23, 2016 @ 9:27 am
Lol terrible song.
August 23, 2016 @ 9:31 am
Quote ‘The problem with “From The Ground Up” is that Dan + Shay’s voices are too light. This song needs some sandpaper or dirt rubbed on it. It needs some masculinity. Country sounds are virtually non existent in the composition, though at times they try to poke their head through.’ – this is exactly my thoughts. but it is a good song nonetheless. i just wished a more manly and grounded guy would sing this song!
August 23, 2016 @ 10:12 am
I might get fried for this, but somebody needs to explain to me what’s so wrong with looking traditionally masculine. Yeah, I get it, masculinity and femininity are social constructs that don’t actually exist, but what looks good about overly polished bros who look like they’ve never turned a wrench in their lives?
The song is cliche and the helium vocals annoy the shit out of me. The only song of theirs I genuinely like is Nothin’ Like You.
August 23, 2016 @ 3:51 pm
I get where you’re coming from. I like my men to look like men.
August 23, 2016 @ 5:31 pm
Well, everybody has a style that suits them. While these dudes may look like tools, I’m afraid they would look much dumber dressed in realtree with dirt makeup and their knuckles reddened.
August 23, 2016 @ 6:43 pm
I’m talking traditional masculine; you’re talking traditional mouthbreather.
August 23, 2016 @ 8:54 pm
I know what you mean, but Redneck Crazy is unfortunately what Nashville thinks that means.
August 25, 2016 @ 3:15 pm
No country look at all. City slickers may be the best description of them. I think this song blows big black dick, I have never been able to stand it since the 1st time I heard it. However, I do like their songs “Show You Off” and “Nothin Like You”. This song is just…..I don’t know….something just doesn’t feel right about it.
August 23, 2016 @ 10:25 am
I must be a soulless, heartless bastard, because I cannot deal with this song. The “Rascal Flatts-iness” of it all is too much for me. This song reminds me of when I first started hating country music in the late 90’s-early 2000’s. Maybe we are going back in time though. Bro-country is over, now we are reverting to the crap of the early 2000’s. Hopefully in 5 more years we can re enter the neo-traditionalist movement.
August 23, 2016 @ 10:48 am
“I must be a soulless, heartless bastard, because I cannot deal with this song.”
Or maybe you just have good taste.
August 23, 2016 @ 11:29 am
Your paragraph about their voices being too light, needing some grit is dead on. Once they make a name they could sell well among the soccer moms, like Rascal Flatts did. I really hope that never happens, dunno if I could handle a R.F. 2.0 singing about birds and rainbows and shit. I’ll stick to Barham, Jinks, and Justin Wells for the time being.
August 23, 2016 @ 12:56 pm
Air Supply country
August 23, 2016 @ 2:08 pm
“Sky rockets in flight (synthetic spaceship sound) afternoon delight…”
August 23, 2016 @ 1:52 pm
Speaking to Jeremy’s reference to BJ Batham, are there any plans to review Rockingham?
August 23, 2016 @ 3:00 pm
Very soon.
August 23, 2016 @ 1:34 pm
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Trig hit the nail on the head with the whole lack of masculinity gripe. There are countless great male voices in the history of the country genre that I don’t have the upper range to sing along with, but being a tenor obviously doesn’t disqualify you as a “good male country singer”. It’s cheesy boyband crap like this, and the little breathy falsetto curlicues they use, that really don’t have a place on country radio
August 23, 2016 @ 6:43 pm
This song is a crappy throwaway track off a mid career N-Sync album … that phase when they’re pretending to be evolving from boyband to grown ups … terrible … crazy this would get 6 guns … deserves 3 dandelions to me
August 25, 2016 @ 11:01 pm
Exactly. Boy band. That is the very first thing that came to mind and I wasn’t even watching the goofy video, just listening. Then I scrolled up and whoa!; it is a two boy N-Sync or Backstreet Boys, or whatever. I can accept Trigger’s point about the substance of the lyrics being a positive sign for having some depth in music. But man, I cannot listen to this…
August 23, 2016 @ 10:28 am
Ugh…tough to get past the sissified vocals. I could only get through 28 seconds.
August 23, 2016 @ 1:50 pm
Yeah they both sing like their 15 year olds in a fucking post hardcore band.
August 23, 2016 @ 10:29 am
Gross. This would be too sappy, even if someone else sang it. At least it would sound better. To me, this is no different than “bro-country”. It sounds extremely forced and fake, and should be a hallmark channel movie.
August 23, 2016 @ 10:35 am
Well that was a nicer review than I expected. I still can’t tell if I’m listening to Dan + Shay or Rascal Flatts most days. I don’t get how so many guys get number 1 songs while guys like Drake White, Chris Stapleton, and David Nail struggle on the charts.
August 23, 2016 @ 10:53 am
Without a #1 song, nobody knows that Dan + Shay exist. They need radio. They have no fan base or grassroots. They could disappear over the Bermuda triangle, and only their families would notice. Chris Stapleton doesn’t need radio because he has fans that he built up from years of touring and performing by himself and with various outfits. That’s why he didn’t make a record with radio singles, he made an album with the music he wanted to sing. That’s also why radio is ignoring it.
August 24, 2016 @ 5:58 am
You are absolutely right that Stapleton doesn’t need radio, Trigger. But what doesn’t make sense from a listener’s perspective is how any 20-something year old guy with tight jeans and a backwards hat gets a number 1 radio single regardless of how shitty it is while the guy that swept the CMAs can’t even come close to the top despite selling a ton of albums. Obviously people want to listen to Stapleton, but radio can’t seem to align that with whatever market research they do.
August 24, 2016 @ 9:13 am
Radio can’t extract itself from the same mindset and model they’ve been in for the last 30 years, and it is slowly becoming their undoing. Chris Stapleton doesn’t need radio. Radio needs Chris Stapleton. They just don’t know it.
August 23, 2016 @ 2:51 pm
Here’s to hoping David Nail releases “Home” or “Fighter” as his next single.
August 23, 2016 @ 10:21 pm
just read that got me gone is the next single
August 24, 2016 @ 5:55 am
Well, that’s certainly better than it could have been. “Got Me Gone” is another favorite of mine.
August 23, 2016 @ 10:49 am
Man, it’s crazy how feminized a lot of male country singers have become. Is this new to country music or has every decade had male singers that sound like their biggest influences are women?
I guess there’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but I get sick of all the feminists out there. Men should be proud of their masculinity too. These two look and sing like they want to be little girls.
August 23, 2016 @ 11:27 am
It isn’t just country music. Even in hip-hop, you have the burly dudes come out all tattooed up, and they start singing and it’s all in falsetto. That’s pretty much all male pop music is these days.
But I’m not sure there is any parallel to feminism. I understand that’s an easy parallel to draw because singing in falsetto sounds like how a female would sing. But I think this has much more to do with style than politics. Dan + Shay put out a song called “Show You Off” that is pretty much the exact opposite of feminism encapsulated in a song. If anything, folks listening to falsetto singers like Chris Lane are more apt to rape a co-ed and say they had it coming to them than folks who listen to deep-throated traditional country.
August 23, 2016 @ 1:43 pm
Very true, but sometimes a mans pitch isn’t what bothers me, because there are some very traditional leaning country artists with voices in a higher register. It’s more how they are singing that is so feminine. The vocal runs and how they pronounce things is what I don’t like about these 2 guys. Very pop influenced and feminine.
August 23, 2016 @ 3:55 pm
In my opinion, if you ain’t Vince Gill, don’t sing like that.
August 23, 2016 @ 4:07 pm
Vince Gill is another. Nobody accused him of being light in the loafers when he sang “Go Rest High On That Mountain.” They were probably too busy bawling their eyes out.
Gary LeVox gave high country singing a bad name.
August 23, 2016 @ 10:56 am
I’ve always said since first hearing this song, not a bad song but horribly pulled off by a couple of rascal flats wanna bes. I’d have liked to hear the song covered by Jon pardi or someone that’s radio friendly but still has some country grit.
August 23, 2016 @ 11:06 am
They look and sound like a gay couple. Their music is pure pop, and even if it wasn’t, their singing is far too effeminate for country music.
August 23, 2016 @ 11:33 am
Not to defend their singing, because like I said in the review, it’s pretty terrible and needs some meat behind it. But just because you sing high doesn’t immediately make it effeminate or gay. Got to show deference to all those high harmony Appalachian bluegrass singers of old, and the yodelers who could go to falsetto with ease and squeeze an emotion out of a lyric. Bill Monroe and Ricky Skaggs just to name a couple.
It’s not just the highness of the pitch here, it’s the style mixed with the production that makes it sound so light.
August 23, 2016 @ 1:46 pm
Just saw this comment and you nailed it. It’s not the pitch, it’s the style and production.
August 23, 2016 @ 5:22 pm
.. or Del McCoury
August 23, 2016 @ 9:01 pm
why would them being a Gay couple be a problem? And Gay people can have deep voices.
August 24, 2016 @ 1:12 am
Even if they are effeminate and/or were a gay couple, so what?
What does that have to do with who’s qualified or not to sing country music? Not everyone is going to have a smokey accent or burly timbre, but there’s many who don’t who have been washed in the blood of the rural, agrarian heartland and who have plenty to offer. And, yes, sometimes that will come with a more androgynous to effeminate voice.
I made the mistake last week of articulating why I’ve generally disliked Justin Moore as a vocalist. I initially chided him for exaggerating his accent but, after getting some heat for that, I thought in retrospect the accent wasn’t even the issue but rather the lack of control and nuance. I feel the same issue presents itself with Dan + Shay, but they’re hardly the worst vocals I’ve heard.
Granted it may just be living as a transgender woman that may explain why softer, more effeminate voices don’t bother me in the slightest. To me, what separates more compelling singers from less compelling ones is the willingness, or lack thereof, to study a song and honor the subtleties as much as the histrionics. A fitting example I’d make here is Jennifer Nettles. What made some of Sugarland’s most memorable songs insufferable is, besides the overproduction, how there was no room for subtlety in Nettle’s vocal performances. It was all powerhouse vocals. Contrast that with much of her recently released solo album “Playing With Fire”, and I was amazed at how she has grown leaps and bounds as a vocalist. Like how she effectively wades between the desperation for connection and frustrated realization a flame has extinguished in “Unlove You”, and “Three Days In Bed”. And that’s because she has come to realize how its the subtleties that especially make rewarding performances.
Dan + Shay’s vocal does leave something to be desired here, but it has nothing to do with them sounding effeminate to my ears. It’s more a reflection of them not being trained enough in truly reading every lyric and also being held back by bland production.
*
Still, this song is decent on its own merit. It has admittedly minimal country influence, but the lyrics are fairly solid, it gets points for sincerity and as bland as the production is, it at least doesn’t squelch its contents or sound painful.
I’m thinking a Strong 5 to a Light 6 for this on its own merit, perhaps downgraded two points when specifically concerning releases marketed to country.
August 23, 2016 @ 11:19 am
Don’t like it.
August 23, 2016 @ 11:24 am
With men like this, who needs women?
August 23, 2016 @ 12:06 pm
I am tormented by this stuff whenever wife gets control of music and we listen to country radio (she does have good taste, but still likes the radio once in a while)..
I heard this song, always thought it was Rascal Flats.
Not my cup of tea, but oh well, 99.9% of what I hear on radio isn’t.
August 23, 2016 @ 1:13 pm
For a site that commonly slags the Neanderthal state of bro-country and lack of concert behavior in the age of Aldean, it’s a bit ironic to see the homophobes out in full force above!. Pot, meet backwoods kettle.
August 23, 2016 @ 1:59 pm
Someone not being ashamed of and/or preferring their singers be more traditionally masculine does not make one a homophobe. That’s just as much a socially constructed idea as gender identity is supposed to be.
August 29, 2016 @ 8:25 pm
Get out of here with your logic son
August 23, 2016 @ 1:24 pm
I really don’t think they can help how their voices sound. That said, I love this song, and they do sound too much like Rascal Flatts. It sure as hell beats anything from FGL! Dirt is good, but its the only decent one I have ever heard from them. These two have a couple I happen to like.
August 23, 2016 @ 2:00 pm
Give me Jamestown Revival for real songs and real harmonizing. This could be Shawn Mendes and Nick Jonas and no one would know the difference.
August 23, 2016 @ 2:09 pm
I too dislike the way this song is sung, but not for the covert homophobic reasons that some have pointed out. Trig correct me if I am wrong but when you wrote ” needs some masculinity” I took that to mean experience, maturity, and an authentic sound that made the song their own. As we have all seen many times, what takes a song from C to B+ can be the voice itself. The reason Dan+Shay can’t make the song work is due, I believe, to a lack of connection with it. They are a boy band under the guise of country singers. They aren’t appealing to the truth in the song, but the female listener who would like them for singing such a song.
August 23, 2016 @ 3:26 pm
Well, I certainly didn’t mean to spark off a whole discussion about masculinity in country and all the other tentacles it is grown in the comments section. I just knew that many people would not find favor with their voices. These high, soft vocals from a male is always going to be polarizing. That is what has kept Rascal Flatts as a 2nd-tier act for their careers. I certainly wasn’t trying to call into question their sexuality or anything, but when you’re a singer and producer, it’s your job to try and find a sweet spot where your voice finds wide appeal. I think they missed that with this song, which is kind of unfortunate because the writing is not bad.
As I said in the review, I do think this song hitting #1 is significant. Folks can complain about the vocals all they want, but I see this as worlds better than Bro-Country. A couple of years ago, as song like this would never have a chance. You have William Michael Morgan or Mo Pitney sing this song, everyone would be singing its praises.
August 23, 2016 @ 4:03 pm
Just a quick reply to your comment about if WMM or Pitney sang this song…Yesterday I saw a video on Facebook of Aaron Lewis (not a fan) singing Rascal Flatts hit “What Hurts The Most”. It was just Lewis and a guitar, and I wasn’t horrible at all. The soft, high pitched, male voice paired with the sappy arrangement killed that tune.
August 23, 2016 @ 5:45 pm
“They aren’t appealing to the truth in the song, but the female listener who would like them for singing such a song.”
Yes wonderful point here. This applies to not just this song or style of song, but almost everything on the radio right now. It is all about appealing to a particular group or occasion. There is no story for the sake of story, and the best we can hope for is fun for the sake of fun. It is all about selling you “hot girl”, “party” or “pick up bar”, or in some cases “nice guy” or “good relationship”. You are buying into a lifestyle. It’s like following an instagram page. And it’s actually starting to create an inconsistent image for some of these artists.
August 23, 2016 @ 4:20 pm
This song is obviously marketed towards women, everything from the lyrics to the sound of their voices. This duet is marketed towards women, I’ll bet if you go to one their shows the only men you’ll see in the crowd will be there only because their wife/gf wanted to go. This isn’t country this is pop, listen to the instrumentation and production. I agree it doesn’t have the laundry list items that would make it fall under the bro-country moniker but it’s just as bad in my opinion.
August 23, 2016 @ 4:50 pm
Sorry to get off topic, but what exactly does one call that hairstyle? Ice cream cone, perhaps?
August 23, 2016 @ 7:51 pm
This is probably more on topic than it needs to be actually
August 24, 2016 @ 4:34 pm
I’ve never seen anything like it. What is this hair? Why?!
August 23, 2016 @ 5:07 pm
I got 1 mintue and 29 seconds into this song before I stopped it. A weak and ineffectual song. From somone in New Zealand, where not a lot of country music is heard.
August 23, 2016 @ 6:08 pm
At this point, I can almost get behind the whole club boy look because at least its honest. I got tired of pretending these Nashvegas guys were working on a farm and not with a personal trainer five days a week.
August 23, 2016 @ 6:44 pm
Everything is cyclical. I’m afraid instead of getting all raw and trad/Outlaw/whatever, we’re just gonna go back to the late 90s/early 2000s “soccer mom” country with songs like this. Back to Lonestar-like bands singing about being “Mr. Mom” or Rodney Atkins-types singing about frickin’ Chicken McNuggets being spilled in their SUVs. God bless America and all her damn ships at sea.
And these guys are just half of the Backstreet Boys to me.
With Buster Poindexter hair.
Shitty song.
August 23, 2016 @ 8:10 pm
Winner winner, chicken dinner. I believe you are correct.. If this was 2008, it would be universally panned as utter dogshit and everyone would turn on their favorite new Hank3 album to wash their ears out….
August 23, 2016 @ 9:19 pm
But it’s not 2008. It’s eight years later, and Hank3 has disappeared off the face of the Earth.
If we’re going back in time in country music, then that’s a good thing, because eventually will end up back in an era when the music on the radio was actually good. Maybe we’ll end up back at the beginning, which is where country music is supposed to be. We hit the apex of terrible music in 2013/2014. 2015 saw the rise of Chris Stapleton, and the rolling back of Bro-Country. If we can dial it back to 2008, that’s progress. Then we’ll dial it back to 2004, 1998, 1989, 1982, and eventually we’ll dig ourselves out of this hole.
I know a lot of folks are flummoxed why I would highlight this song, but I chose my words delicately in the review. I think this song symbolizes breadth to the movement to revert all the damage done to country music in the last few years. I totally understand why most people can’t hear that in this song, and can’t get past the vocals. I’m certainly not saying this is a good song. But it symbolizes progress in my opinion, believe it or not.
August 23, 2016 @ 9:06 pm
I don’t want songs about grandparents anymore than I want songs about beer, which is to say I’m fine with both. I want the songs to tell a good story, or be a fun listen (sometimes you want to listen to music that doesn’t make you think), or both. For me this song is none of those things. Much like H.O.L.Y. it tries to be serious in a totally cliche way. Yawn.
WMM getting to #1 will make me happy.
August 24, 2016 @ 12:59 am
I simply don´t get why anyone would consider that song to be Country Music. It´s pop music, and as bland and indistinguishable as that kind of music tends to be nowadays. Mentioning grandparents doesn´t help (ad why should it?).
August 24, 2016 @ 4:21 am
I don’t mind the plus sign as long as it is pronounced that way when stating the group name–thusly:
‘Ace PLUS Gary.’
We already have a symbol for ‘and’–an ampersand will work just fine.
August 29, 2016 @ 2:29 am
LOL yup, I always call them “Dan PLUS Shay” to myself. Shame they were the first to turn the tables on that when they titled their debut single “19 You + (and) Me”.
August 24, 2016 @ 8:22 am
You wrote that Dirt was a much better song “in both the production and writing”…but to their credit, and unlike FGL in this case, Dan Plus Shay (plus Chris DeStefano) actually wrote theirs.
August 25, 2016 @ 5:28 am
I totally agree with the review except I’m way more down on the vocal part. The music is fine, the lyrics are actually good, but I cannot handle these vocals. I actually thought one of these guys was a woman until I saw a picture of them. It’s just way too lispy and feminine.
August 25, 2016 @ 9:09 pm
Hard to listen to, painful to watch.
August 27, 2016 @ 9:46 am
Totally agree with your review, while the song is not something I love, it’s not bad. My only problem is Dan + Shay sound like they were born 20 years too late to be in the Backstreet Boys.
August 29, 2016 @ 2:26 am
I quickly got a liking to “From The Ground Up” after it started getting traction on country radio, like I did with Dan + Shay’s “19 You + Me” (and remarkably, not with the horrendous “Show You Off”). I do agree that the main deterrent from these two getting some kind of real success and relevancy is their singing style – other than the pitch, which is fairly the highest you can find in any male country singer these days (theirs have to be the only few male-driven country songs of this decade where I can’t reach the highest note) their vocals are a bit too sissified and mellow to be believable while singing a song whose lyrics have to denote some kind of maturity (while they were perfectly fine when depicting 19 You + Me’s young and innocent Myrtle Beach experience).
August 29, 2016 @ 3:56 am
Way too syrupy-sweet. Ugh. Streaming I can’t avoid it; in my truck – can’t hit the button to change the station fast enough. Cannot stand the song. The lyrics may be ok, but the delivery and style of Dan & Shay is sickening & ruins the message. (I agree with “+” being reserved for Joey + Rory and refuse to use it for these guys.) Please please please as summer moves off the calendar, can this song please move off the nonstop play on the airwaves. Please.