Song Review – Kevin Fowler’s “Sellout Song”
Generally speaking I’m a cheerleader for most anyone who picks up the poison pen and points it against the forces of subversive country, no matter how checkered their own pasts might be. But there might not be another more ideal example of “pot, meet kettle” than Kevin Fowler deciding he’s the best messenger to deliver a pointed lesson about selling out in country music.
Kevin Fowler has always been a polarizing figure in not just his native environs of Texas country, but through his conquests in the mainstream a few years back that assigned his name to some pretty terrible country songs right before stuff would really get out of hand in 2013-14. By that time, Fowler was ostensibly retired, whether forced or self-inflicted, but it’s probably not a bad theory that he helped spark the fire that would ultimately lead to Bro-Country, tractor rap, and the state country music is in today.
Kevin Fowler’s breakout song in the Texas scene in 2000 was called “Beer, Bait & Ammo.” Need more be said. By 201o Fowler was signed to Colt Ford’s Average Joes country rap record label and co-writing with Dallas Davidson.
Some may remember Fowler’s collaboration with Colt Ford called “Hip Hop in a Honky Tonk” where Fowler was wearing women’s underwear on his head and attaching jumper cables to the nipples of Barbie dolls. What was Saving Country Music’s response? It was a rant entitled “Kevin Fowler Sells Out for Colt Ford’s ‘Hip Hop in a Honky Tonk.” The song was basically making fun of traditionalists who said Hank was rolling over in his grave from what had become of country music of today. Colt and Kevin weren’t just being offensive towards traditional country, they were rubbing it in the faces of those offended.
But none of this is what makes Kevin Fowler too hypocritical to criticize today’s country. If you never know any better, then how can you ever be accused of selling out in the first place? That’s why Florida Georgia Line gets a pass by some; they’re too naive to know they’re doing anything wrong because they never did anything right.
Kevin Fowler on the other hand actually has some decent songs here and there. His last record How Country Are Ya? was not as terrible as some gave it credit for, primarily from what they know from Fowler in the past. Nonetheless, Kevin Fowler is not in a position to be pointing a finger at anyone.
Fowler has a new album on the way, and “Sellout Song” has been released ahead of it as a single. Not to say that many of the points made in the song don’t ring true, or that it doesn’t make you chuckle no matter how hypocritical it might be coming from Fowler, but “Sellout Song” would have been a lot more cool and cutting coming from someone else. Kevin Fowler signed with Average Joes. He collaborated with Colt Ford. And now were supposed to buy into his indictment of country rap? This is why if you’re an artist and making decisions about who you work with and what you release in your career, you always have to keep more of a long perspective in mind.
And Zane Williams participating in this song is a similar situation. Zane has some songs that will absolutely knock you on your ass. He might be the greatest songwriters in the Texas scene at the moment. But go listen to songs like “Throwback” and “Just Gettin’ Started” from his last record, and it’s not too far off from the rhythm and themes being lampooned in “Sellout Song.” About the only redemption is Randy Rogers showing up in the video with a baseball bat to pound a monitor playing this thing into pieces.
The other problem is just like folks such as Jake Owen and Chase Rice, there’s talk coming out of both sides of Kevin Fowler’s mouth. Though he wants credit for standing up to today’s country and the way labels treat artists, he’s also trying to soft peddle everything in the press.
“This song isn’t really making fun of any artists,” Fowler tells Taste of Country. “It mostly pokes fun at an industry that tries to tell artists how they should look or what songs they should record. It’s a fun song about making fun of ourselves as an industry. It’s not mean spirited. It’s humor. After all, if you can’t make fun of yourself who can you make fun of?”
And that’s about the only way you can get right with “Sellout Song” is to not think about it as Kevin Fowler making fun of today’s country, but Kevin Fowler making fun of himself. From that perspective, this exercise is not entirely awful. All music opinions aside, Fowler seems like a straight up, fun-loving guy who probably doesn’t have a problem laughing at his own behavior. But let’s all agree he doesn’t have the authority to poke fun at others for compromising their integrity. Coming to this conclusion, you can then you can sit back, chuckle at some of the lines, enjoy the chicks in the bikinis, and move on with your life. Because like many Fowler songs, “Sell Out Song” may have a few moments of entertainment value, but ultimately they’re pretty fleeting. And there’s few things more cliche in 2016 then doing a country protest song.
June 3, 2016 @ 9:10 am
My only problem with this is I think it’s great to create a parody song of mainstream music, but to be peddling this song with a highly polished video seems like he went too far because it appears he wants to make money off this and put this music out there as his actual music. It would be different if this was just the band having fun on the bus with a home video youtube thing. I don’t know it just seems pathetic..just my thoughts.
June 3, 2016 @ 10:29 am
If a brand new act can launch a career off it… cough… Maddie and Tae… cough… I have less of a problem with an established, non-mainstream, jaded artist trying to profit off of this type of song. That said… it’d be fun to try and set up playlists of songs that a) defend current mainstream country and b) those that mock it. I imagine more than one artist would crossover.
June 3, 2016 @ 9:32 am
I find this song hilarious… in the same way that allows cops to crack jokes about dead bodies and dark, dark, crimes. This is a song for the jaded… and as one of the jaded, I appreciate it. I kind of like Kevin Fowler in that he doesn’t take him self seriously. Most artists today seem way to invested in perpetuating an image through their music rather than letting their music speak for itself. I don’t know his whole catalogue, but I know he throws a lot of stuff at the wall… even if most of it doesn’t stick, at least he’s pretty good at not just scrambling up what’s on the radio and putting it in a different order.
That said… “there’s few things more cliche in 2016 then doing a country protest song” is absolutely true. My latest Golden Ponies album has one that was written back in 2013 that’s a bit less overt than most… hopefully. But the point is the same… I think one day these bro country guys will look back on what they’re doing and laugh at how dated it is. From the complete lack of story and originality to the tired rap and overt name dropping… this will pass.
June 3, 2016 @ 9:46 am
The Randy Rogers thing just confused me. “Standards” shows he clearly knows how to do this kind of thing in a very good, but subtle, way. Why he’d want to be a part of this horseshit song is beyond me.
June 3, 2016 @ 10:51 am
Mic drop ^
June 3, 2016 @ 11:08 am
The Texas Country scene is a really close knit community. Kevin Fowler, Randy Rogers, and Casey Donahew (the other guy smashing the monitor) have been playing shows, festivals, rodeos, etc. in Texas for years so there’s bound to a solid friendship develop. If your good buddy is making a video and asks you to be in in, why wouldn’t you? I wouldn’t have been surprised at all if you saw more guys like Wade Bowen or Aaron Watson in the video.
June 3, 2016 @ 12:38 pm
Because the video and song are horrible? If my friend asked me to do that I wouldn’t go “Sure thing, man!” I’d tell him it’s a horrible freaking song, advise him to never record it, and that we’d never speak of that moment ever again.
June 3, 2016 @ 12:48 pm
Why wouldn’t you? On principle. The best way to protest terrible music or a busted industry is to make great music. Put your head down and do it the right way.
CD is a call the kettle black situation too. You don’t look at Donahew songs and say, “damn, what a good songwriter.” His music works for some and that’s great – but hypocritical of him.
June 3, 2016 @ 12:50 pm
Randy is more outspoken about this issue than he seems to be. He’s got the gift of eloquence, so his well spoken nature softens his stances a bit.
June 3, 2016 @ 10:45 am
While I wont disagree with your take on some of Kevin’s songs, I think his overall output has been good. Maybe some of the titles of songs like Beer, Bait, and Ammo sound like bro country titles, however Kevin’s music has always had a kind of tounge in cheek humor to it, and I don’t think it Is fair to label it the same as the cliche beer and truck songs on the radio. Kevin Fowler may not be the standard bearer for what “Traditional Country” should sound like, but he makes mostly solid fun music.
June 3, 2016 @ 1:26 pm
Great point… I think what differentiates songs like Fowler’s from what I consider Bro Country is that he doesn’t take himself seriously. I enjoy artists that inject sincerity where it belongs, but that can also acknowledge hyperbole and ridiculousness when the subject matter is obviously obnoxious. For me it isn’t as much the horrible backing tracks in bro country as it is the way they can spout such nonsense and drivel seemingly with zero awareness of the idiocy that’s falling out of their mouths.
June 3, 2016 @ 11:02 am
can’t speak for Fowller, but ZW is the real deal in my book. If he dosen’t mind being attached to this song, it makes it that much better.
June 3, 2016 @ 11:04 am
These protest songs are just as bad as the bro country they are about. They both go down a laundry list of attributes during the verses and then get to some cheese dick chorus. If they want to write a country protest song all they have to do is write a legit country song.
June 3, 2016 @ 11:07 am
If I’m not mistaken, Zane Williams actual wrote the song.
June 3, 2016 @ 2:32 pm
I’m a huge fan of Zane’s so when I saw this, I went to his Facebook page to see what he said. Replying to someone who wasn’t impressed, he wrote, “I agree with y’all that making better music is the best answer. That’s certainly what I try to do with every other song I write and sing. However I find it dull to be serious ALL the time, and I enjoy the humor in this song. Different strokes for different folks!” And when he initially posted a link to it, he wrote, “I’m excited (and a little embarrassed) for my rapping debut in Kevin Fowler’s new video. Get ready y’all! ZDub is takin’ over…”
I do appreciate Zane’s humor, so I’ll take this for a “novelty song” and cut it some slack.
That being said, I used to go country dancing four nights a week. It was *because* there was “Hip Hop in a Honkytonk” during band breaks that I stopped going. It wasn’t long before the manager started telling the bands what songs to play – line dance music 90% of the time – so I just went when my favorite band was there. They decided just to play their existing dates and not sign up for anymore because they couldn’t stomach what was happening. From four nights a week, I go out maybe twice a year now to hear a good band in the hopes that I’ll get one or two country songs over the course of a night. So I cut Kevin and Colt no slack at all for that song. Putting up with it just because you’ll see girls dancing, well, there are other bars for that. Leave my country music in my honkytonk alone!
June 3, 2016 @ 5:18 pm
I agree with Zane, who I am also a fan of. I think this is more of a comedy song than a protest song. I think it was done in good fun. But like he said, to each his own.
As for making a song with Colt Ford, you guys might want to stop listening to Jamey Johnson, Eric Church, and a lot of other artists as well.
June 3, 2016 @ 2:54 pm
I will take a pass on listening to this or anything else by Kevin Fowler.
His song titles are catchy, but his music is nonmelodic and his lyrics are incredibly banal.
June 3, 2016 @ 4:50 pm
5 decent Fowler songs- Senorita Mas Fina, Triple Crown, Ain’t drinking anymore, Speak of the Devil, & Don’t touch my Willie
June 3, 2016 @ 6:54 pm
I thought “Don’t Touch My Willie” could have been a lot better, if instead of him telling the woman “Don’t touch my Willie/ I don’t know you that well…” she had told HIM, “I won’t touch your Willie/I don’t know you that well….”
Paul Overstreet did the similarly-themed but much funnier “She Only Likes Me For My Willie.”
I don’t know who stole the idea from whom.
June 4, 2016 @ 3:27 pm
I always liked Hard Man To Love, and If These Old Walls Couls Talk.
June 3, 2016 @ 7:08 pm
“Sellout Song” would have been a lot more cool and cutting coming from someone else.
This was exactly my take on it. It was no “Hank” or “Standards,” but from someone else it might have been on that level.
June 3, 2016 @ 7:21 pm
Fowler has written some great songs–“Beer Bait and Ammo,” “Lord Loves the Drinkin; Man,” “Long Line of Losers,”–and this is a great parody. It’s far wittier than the Maddie and Tae song.
June 3, 2016 @ 8:59 pm
This song/video comes across like a Saturday Night Live parody skit . It’s coming from a different place than “serious ‘ bro-shit .It knows it , WE know it and its all good fun. period . I get it . I like it . Its doing more good than harm to the shitty state of shoddy country radio by calling it out . As a REAL slap in the face to the biz , Fowler has a better voice than just about all of those ‘ real’ bros .
June 3, 2016 @ 10:12 pm
As I’ve said many a time before Kevin Fowler is what pop country SHOULD be. light hearted usually catchy fun sometimes comedical but still country. He usually has decent musical arrangements, he has a good voice and knows how to be funny and play stereotypes without taking anything to seriously.
June 3, 2016 @ 10:14 pm
Good perspective.
June 4, 2016 @ 10:10 am
This needed to be done. But I’m the one that can’t stop listening to Squelch.
June 4, 2016 @ 10:15 am
I’ll admit, I find it pretty damn funny that Fowler put Casey Donahew in his video, when that guy has basically been the poster child for Texas artists who pump out Nashville-lite crap that just name drops Texas a bunch. God, he sucks so much….sorry fans.
That said, I do like this song. Fowler is awfully hit or miss for me, with a lot more mediocre in his song catalog than anything else. He gets points for a funny video and decent song, but I’m not sure it’s going to hold up the same way Wade Bowen’s “Songs about Trucks” has. It feels like the sort of “FU” song that is going to be fun to listen to a couple times and then the joke will get old, awfully quickly. Bowen’s song at least had some bite and story to it.
June 4, 2016 @ 12:07 pm
I think Donahew has some gems in his catalog, but his proclivity for pandering and really sub-par vocal skills will keep me from buying his albums.
June 4, 2016 @ 7:10 pm
I’m really behind the curve on “Texas Country”. To me, Texas Country is Guy Clark, Townes, Keen, Lovett, Ely, Jimmie Dale, Hancock, Shaver, Charlie Robison, and of course, Willie and Waylon.
I know time moves on and the next generation needs to take the torch, but those artists all, well, [I]sounded[/I] like Texas. These “new” guys just sound (to me) like everything else on mainstream radio. Where’s the next “Me and Billy the Kid”, “The Road Goes On Forever”, “Old Five and Dimers Like Me”, “Desperados Waiting on a Train”, “To Live is to Fly”, “L.A. County”? I hear nothing of the quality of those songs and others of that ilk coming out of that region nowadays. To each his own, I suppose.
As far as this song goes: after watching the video, I believe the clincher in the lyric is the entire second verse and the last line in the chorus, where he sings “what’s so wrong with a sellout song?” He’s clearly (to these ears) saying, “yeah, we sold out, but we got paid and folks love it and it makes ’em happy – what’s wrong with that?” That’s precisely the attitude defenders of bro-country have when arguing their point. I’m not saying this song is an all-out defense of bro-country masked as a sendup of it, but I believe it’s closer to that than it is to making a mockery of the subgenre.
June 4, 2016 @ 8:27 pm
Next gen songwriters from this region you’re looking for are (including but not limited to) John Fullbright, Evan Felker, Sean McConnell, Robert Ellis, David Ramirez, William Clark Green, John Baumann, Cleto Cordero, Ryan Beaver.
June 4, 2016 @ 11:47 pm
This is a Zane song. This is his attempt at a pop song. Looks like he hit it out of the park. And Kevin doing it makes it even better. Kevin is a pop Texas music artist point blank. He is a great entertainer and this is a great example of his entertainment.
June 5, 2016 @ 1:50 pm
Zane Williams should be a star in country music end of discussion. I don’t know a lot about the Fowler guy.
June 5, 2016 @ 4:45 pm
Great review! As usual what I felt but could never pen as well as you. My only question why 6 stars and not 3?
June 6, 2016 @ 7:12 pm
I thought the song and video were hilarious. Although I’m not burnt out on ripping on Nashville country. Not yet, anyway. Actually one of my only complaints is that there are just a few TOO many bikini girls/women as objects/the usual bro crap. I get it’s funny at first, but it goes on too long and then you’re just as bad as standard bro country. Even Trigger said “enjoy the girls”. Et tu, Trigger? I mean, it’s annoying to be laughing at first and then, oh, the usual from both bro and red dirt. When do women in country get a break? I don’t think Zane Williams did it on purpose, but it definitely lessened the appeal for me. However Zane=brilliant, so overall it was awesome. “So catchy even haters sing along” and “the lyrics suck but no one cares” were my favorite lines.
June 7, 2016 @ 9:26 am
Fun novelty song no more no less. Always happy for Zane to get a cut. Never been a huge Fowler fan. That being said, the Red Dirt scene, especially the Texas side of it was built on being a charismatic live performer. Kevin Fowler is just that and still draws very well. A bit of the pot calling the kettle black for certain but taken as a novelty,a pretty fun song and video.