Song Review – Michael Ray’s “Real Men Love Jesus”
The environment in modern country music right now is such that we celebrate anyone with two ‘X’ chromosomes who can crack the Top 20, yet there’s so many of these middle-tier mainstream males crowding the scene that you can barely keep their names straight. You have male performers who’ve received three #1 stamps without releasing their second full-length record and are on their way to becoming millionaires, yet half the office workers on Music Row have never heard of them.
That is where the handsome, clean-cut Florida native Michael Ray resides, as yet another mid-range country star who winked his way to #1 with a song called “Kiss You in the Morning,” and might be headed right back there with his next single, “Real Me Love Jesus.” Who he is, and how he got here seems unimportant. He’s just another guy with great hair. But for the record, he won some contest hosted by Big & Rich, and next thing you know he’s signed to Atlantic.
Mentioning Jesus in a song is like mentioning politics in a song: it’s always a dicey proposition. Yes I’m sure if you’re someone who holds Jesus in a high regard, the idea that someone could be offended by his name is a completely foreign concept. At the same time, there’s an entire world out there where any time Jesus is mentioned, the talk immediately turns to the Crusades and pedophile preachers. You can get away with mentioning ‘God’ a lot easier, and if you’re singing Gospel, well then mentioning the J-man is just part of the job description. But in secular music, a Jesus shout out is setting yourself up for a divisive situation.
So those are the preconceptions we have to work with before we even hear a lick of music from “Real Men Love Jesus,” and not to mention this title was a fairly popular marketing phrase for Christianity a few years back and is a recognized TV Trope, so that may also grant it a few additional saddlebags. And for the people that do know who Michael Ray is and heard “Kiss You in the Morning,” if you’re on the traditional side of the country music divide, he more than likely got off on a wrong foot already. That’s a lot of demerits against this song before we even get started.
But “Real Men Love Jesus” is not as terrible as it may look on paper. It’s certainly not good, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t somewhat surprised at the style of the music, and the somewhat acceptable nature of the words, however dull and contrived the thing felt. Hey, he mentions the title to a Kris Kristofferson song. I guess that counts for something.
“Real Men Love Jesus” feels like it was styled with popular country music from ten years ago, when country was going through its kinder, gentler phase—in the era that welcomed in Taylor Swift and soccer moms. The music is not all entirely terrible, and the melodic approach fleshed out with actual humans playing instruments feels refreshing, dare I say inviting, after your expectations have been stretched so far in the wrong direction by mainstream country in the last couple of years.
Michael Ray doesn’t have a voice that would be considered exceptional, at least not from what one can hear on display here, but he understands the warm nature the material is meant to be handled with, and even though there’s no linear narrative to this song, it’s not exactly a checklist song either. Beer and of course Jesus are mentioned, but not in that rapid-fire nature that makes for bad Bro-Country. At the risk of sounding corny, there is a reverence to the sentiments expressed in this song that may only be pertinent to a particular segment of people, but can be appreciated for the tenderness they’re delivered in by many.
But if you’re feeling a “but” coming about this song, you’re intuitions are pure. Despite some valiant efforts in this song—that I may even say render the whole “Jesus” concern if not inert, then at least downgraded—the premise here just feels somewhere between dated and wrong-minded. I don’t really want to get all wrapped up in how we now live in a world where Caitlyn Jenner is a popular figure, but do we really want to go down the path of laying out qualifiers about what makes “real” men, and what doesn’t, especially when you add the wild card of religion and Jesus into the equation? The music is 2005, and so is the message, and not in a good way.
But hey, does “Real Men Love Jesus” pass the, “If this song came on the radio, would I immediately change the channel in disgust or anger” test? I guess it does. And maybe this is a minor victory we can all celebrate, regardless of our religious affiliation. Now if Jesus would just come back throw all of the money changers out of the country music temple, we could really get somewhere.
September 23, 2015 @ 8:35 am
Mediocre Christianish country laundry list from a dude that looks like he came straight out of the pages of the Rentboy website.
Alrighty then.
September 23, 2015 @ 8:45 am
I’ll take “Milquetoast Music” for $200, Alex.
September 23, 2015 @ 9:00 am
“Real men love football.”
Yeah, screw that noise.
September 23, 2015 @ 9:49 am
If he really wanted to make headlines he could have asserted that “real men love guns.” He already hit the implicit anti-gay sentiment, so why not?
September 23, 2015 @ 10:44 am
I’m really glad he didn’t, given the political shitstorm it likely would have spawned in the comments here, but I see what you’re getting at.
September 2, 2021 @ 6:35 pm
I just gave the new record 5 minutes of my day because Billy Gibbons shows up on one song. This guys talking about whisky. Rain, pain, etc. I just don’t buy it. Pain my ass. I’ve concluded Nashville does not foster a creative spirit. That establishment has putting out the same song for 20 years. I turned it off immediately after he sang “I know a thing or two about a thing or two”
Seriously?
More homogenized corporate schlock
Luke Bryon 2.0
That’s not a compliment.
I’m gonna write a song with Jesus in the title.
Jesus Christ. who stole the testicles from country singers?
September 23, 2015 @ 9:01 am
Um. I don’t hate it. I dare say its an actual country song, a mediocre but inoffensive one. It definitely hearkens back to the early 2000’s when artists like Lonestar just slathered sentiment and pro-family rhetoric on top of a pleasant melody. It feels a little more sincere to do that in today’s era, actually, when that sort of thing isn’t what’s selling. Also, Its message on manhood may be dated, but its certainly better than the bro message on the subject. Yeah. I don’t hate it. *shrug*
September 23, 2015 @ 10:16 am
I also thought of Lonestar circa 2003 when I heard this.
September 23, 2015 @ 9:06 am
The title is a turn-off for a lot of folks, but I guess that is the point. Some people love Jesus. Others don’t believe in fairy tales. But whenever I hear a country artist talking about Jesus, I just tune out.
September 23, 2015 @ 10:01 am
I don’t mind Jesus in country music. After all, he is a celebrated figure even among many seculars in that he is among those in their eye who epitomize “the golden rule” and true empathy toward all walks of life.
No, it is when it is broached in a disingenuous way where I have a BIG problem with it. Like with Thomas Rhett’s “Beer With Jesus”, which is one of the single worst recent examples of pandering. Or when many artists randomly shoehorn God into songs for no reason other than to cross off a crucial part of the laundry list song demographic game like on “Boys ‘Round Here”, which abruptly says “Boys ’round here, sending up a prayer to the man upstairs!”
If you’re going to talk about God in your song, do it with feeling and don’t half-ass it. I thought Eric Paslay’s “Deep As It Is Wide” is a fine recent example of a song about faith done right.
September 23, 2015 @ 4:35 pm
I feel the same way about Josh Turner’s Me and God.
September 23, 2015 @ 2:58 pm
I like fairy tales. Slavic fairy tales are especially underrated.
Oh, you were using an internet cliché. Sorry. Disregard my first line.
September 23, 2015 @ 9:19 am
Do you think this guy has ever listened to Sunday Morning Coming Down, or that he even knew he was dropping a reference?
September 23, 2015 @ 9:32 am
Come on folks, cut this guy and song some slack. Like many of us, this may not be our cup of tea, but it is a country song. If it climbs the charts, then at least there is an actual country song at the top of the charts rather than the goat piss they usually play on the radio. At this point in time, with country music so corrupted, we should recognize a step in the right direction when there is one, even if it is middling and forgettable. I would say we need more of this, not less.
Also, this is not totally dissimilar from the tone of some classic stars like George Strait (definitely not my favorite Strait songs, those). Would people bitch of he sang this song?
September 23, 2015 @ 6:53 pm
Again, not a horrible song but I wouldn’t see George Strait singing this … He has had songs about faith … And they have are not checklists like this one
— I Saw God Today
— Three Nails and a Cross
— I Found Jesus on the Jailhouse floor
September 23, 2015 @ 9:33 am
He’s very pretty.
September 23, 2015 @ 9:40 am
I agree with the sentiment as a Christian myself. But it does feel like a ripoff of a movement from 10 years ago, and disingenuous at best.
September 23, 2015 @ 9:44 am
My first exposure to Michael Ray was in early 2013 on John Rich’s YouTube channel. He’s a co-writer of a few tracks on Big & Rich’s Gravity, and he and Rich both performed the tracks acoustically for the videos.
“Run Away With You” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdF8IU6Zjnw
“Don’t Wake Me Up” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zr1BuCJztc
Both of these songs are pretty good, and Ray’s voice isn’t half bad, so what the heck happened here? The one thing I can openly admit to resenting about Big & Rich, at least as far as Rich is concerned, is that he seems to view music in a somewhat cold business way, like many of the suits running the show. Whereas most artists talk in terms of art, he talks in terms of stars (as he says Ray will be in the video) and hit songs. No doubt this also has to do with why he and Big Kenny will pretty much collaborate with anyone in a song, whether they be Clint Black, John Anderson, the Lacs or Jonathan Davis.
*****
Nonetheless, the message of “Real Men Love Jesus” disturbs me. I have enough friends that don’t give country music the time of day because they think it represents an insular and ignorant culture. I spend time trying to convince them that they’re cutting themselves short only for a mainstream song to come along and confirm every cliche prejudice there is about our music. I like a handful of laundry list songs myself, but the primary aspect I resent about them is that they just reinforce stereotypes (same goes for rap songs with similar problems). It’s one thing to state opinions, political or religious, in music. It’s an entirely different ballgame to start lobbing mud at the people that disagree, and to me that’s the difference between a good and bad political song. This kind of stuff makes me ashamed to be a country music fan, and I consider myself a man that loves Jesus. Heck, I even liked Thomas Rhett’s “Beer With Jesus”, phony sentiment or not.
So the instrumental track sounds like it was made in 2005? Yay. The lyrics sound like they’re trying to take us back to a much less tolerant time (and the one we’re in isn’t exactly perfect).
September 23, 2015 @ 10:52 am
what you would call “less tolerant” I would call “less connected.” The problem with 2015 is that we’re so connected to everything… everything in the world is on the media every moment, and we as a species haven’t progressed to the point of being able to handle that much stimulation, so we lash out at every new thing, we take our confusion out on whatever the media tells us to be offended about… 2005 may have been more tolerant after all because people could just leave everyone else alone…
September 24, 2015 @ 9:35 am
Eh, perhaps I was being a little reactionary. I just don’t like these city boy-shaming tunes with their hollow braggadocio that attempts to pander. It’s apparently not enough that we only have laundry list bro-country or metro-bro posturing to choose from in the mainstream, the laundry list songs have to “call out” everyone else. I’m not upset by the song, and for all intents and purposes the finger isn’t pointed at me. The problem I have is that there’s a finger being pointed at all. I’m not saying to betray one’s roots to not offend others, I’m saying don’t rub it in their faces in such an ethnocentric way.
September 23, 2015 @ 11:22 am
Well, to paraphrase the way I heard someone else say it, doing higher-quality songs wouldn’t have helped him get on the radio or get a recording contract.
But as I put it at my own blog, perhaps that may be true, but then I go back to what I say a lot about the mainstream game being rigged with a bunch of crappy rules that don”™t benefit the artists or the longtime fans who give a damn about the genre. You might say he has no choice but to play the game, but as for me I beg to differ. The Texas, Red Dirt, and Americana scenes are full of people who are playing an entirely different game by an entirely different set of rules, and I”™m going to take a shot in the dark here and say that they”™re doing pretty well for themselves, at least well enough not to have to apply for jobs keeping the shopping carts off the Walmart parking lot.
Ray seems to have made his choice, and that is fine. But if songs like this are what comes of it, then he deserves every bit of criticism that comes his way.
September 23, 2015 @ 6:01 pm
If I were a Jew, I would stand as far from the genre as possible, considering the deep religious undertones of the genre. With that said, Mr. Ray is certainly a John Rich protege. This song demonstrates as such.
Yes, I would stay away from him. He has a limited appeal.
September 23, 2015 @ 9:46 am
Short answer: this is the male version of RaeLynn’s “God Made Girls”, albeit with measurably better production. =P
September 23, 2015 @ 10:15 am
I find I am MORE likely to turn the station lately. So I would skip it.
When things go from bad to worse it’s such a bummer that it drags everything down.
September 23, 2015 @ 10:37 am
It’s tolerable, which by the dismally low standards we set after listening to Thomas Rhett means it’s a masterpiece. I find Jesus a lot less offensive than objectifying women, drunk-driving, or Jason Aldean, or pink umbrellas and sugar-shakers…
September 23, 2015 @ 10:48 am
And my problem with Bruce Jenner is not that he/she flipflopped, it’s all that going on TV and hitting me over the head that he/she flipflopped… I have trans friends, but they aren’t on my television preaching to me about it.
September 23, 2015 @ 10:46 am
The Nashville label system isn’t going to be satisfied until it turns all the guys in the genre to soundalikes the same way they did, and continue to, most of the female singers post-Shania.
September 23, 2015 @ 11:09 am
Jesus and family values have always gone hand in hand with country music. This might not be your cup of tea but the message is correct. Billy Joe Shaver’s Everybody’s Brother was totally excellent country AND Christian music. If you no longer wish to hear Christian messages in country music, you must be wanting some sort of “evolution” of country music. Not me, I’ve seen where that goes.
September 23, 2015 @ 11:19 am
I agree that Christian values are very much a part of the country music ecosystem, but they have also been somewhat controversial from the beginning. The Louvin Brothers began as a gospel duo, but then began to sing secular music because of the greater commercial appeal. The Shaver analogy is a good one, though he has a few more skins on the wall than Michael Ray.
September 23, 2015 @ 11:25 am
Yep. I would much, much rather hear Billy Joe Shaver singing a religious-themed song than I would Michael Ray.
“Ain’t no way to get around it, you just can’t beat Jesus Christ.”
September 23, 2015 @ 11:14 am
While I don’t like the insinuation that men who follow a different religion aren’t “real men,” I’ll take the sentiment for what it is. What’s REALLY tone-deaf is putting this song out after that ode to premarital, probably one-night stand sex, “Kiss You in the Morning.” But he’s a real man who loves Jesus, so I guess he’s forgiven for that particular sin, right?
I probably wouldn’t even make that observation if it didn’t fit with the complete lack of personality so many of these male “country artists” have right now. They’re really anti-artists, because they seem to have nothing of their own to say. Am I a bro who likes no-strings sex with girls in daisy dukes, or a family man who loves Jesus? It’s like the suit clones of the previous post. Who are these guys? They’re ciphers.
I guess I’ll give it credit for “sounding like a country song.” That’s high praise these days. Meh.
September 23, 2015 @ 11:19 am
Christian values have always been a part of country music and it should always be accepted in my opinion . Just look at Hank Sr. , probably half of his songs involve God,Jesus,heaven, or something to do with religion.It also dates back before Hank.
September 23, 2015 @ 11:23 am
I was hoping the Kristofferson song mentioned would be “Jesus Was A Capricorn”.
September 23, 2015 @ 11:31 am
I’m sorry, but this is just another bro-country list song to me. As a Christian, I’m actually bothered that the use of Jesus’s name is simply a name drop. Trigger is much higher on this song than I am.
September 23, 2015 @ 12:48 pm
Real Men Love The Easter Bunny
September 23, 2015 @ 2:03 pm
This feels super-tailored to blonde Southern millennials who wear tank tops with scriptures printed on the front. They also probably get wasted at Luke Bryan/Thomas Rhett/Michael Ray/Axepits McBroface concerts on Saturday night before heading to their local mega-church the next morning.
September 23, 2015 @ 2:17 pm
“Actual humans playing instruments” couldn’t help but LOL
September 23, 2015 @ 2:18 pm
Real men don’t wear earrings!
Of all the songs you’ve ever reviewed negatively, this is the first song I let play the whole way through. Maybe that’s how far my expectations have been lowered.
September 23, 2015 @ 2:53 pm
The Jesus part doesn’t even play a large factor here, the real message is that you’re not a real man if you don’t like stuff like football or praying or cliche crap like that. And the sound is just an excuse for people to say, “oh look, there’s a traditional country song on the radio, you happy now you old farts and jackasses?”
Easy 0/10 for me
September 23, 2015 @ 2:56 pm
I have to admit, it is cool to see a singer come out with a title like that. I thought the PC world took that away.
Could the title offend some folks? Sure, if they have the world’s thinnest skins.
There was a review/discussion on Country Universe about this song. It got pretty ridiculous from the first sentence. Trigger does a better job reviewing the song even I disagree with his final conclusion. He just seems less judgmental over the song and does not act like the song is some kind of social segregation anthem. It is just a song about what a man think makes a real man.
September 23, 2015 @ 3:45 pm
I am going to save my ears from listening to this garbage.
September 23, 2015 @ 3:48 pm
Thomas Rhett wrote it- might explain both the good and bad of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdaP5ts5xmM
September 23, 2015 @ 4:33 pm
In the big scheme of things … it’s not a bad song especially given everything else on the radio… but it’s not a great song … both from a musical standpoint as well as a lyrical standpoint … As far as religion and guys and country songs go, I can think of two better songs by Billy Joe Shaver off the top of my head …
1. You Just Can’t Beat Jesus Christ
2. The Tough Get Going
September 23, 2015 @ 5:59 pm
I am probably in the minority here but I got to admit, this is a pretty good song.
September 23, 2015 @ 7:29 pm
The demo by Adam Sanders, one of the writers on this song, blows the Michael Ray version out of the water in my opinion. I think it’s a great song.
September 23, 2015 @ 8:30 pm
Radio-friendly fodder for sure …not terrible by any means, unremarkable vocal , clean , if dated -sounding , production . I’ll take Jesus music over metro and bro anytime …ANYTIME ! I tuned out after the first chorus , though , because I can think of probably 20 artists I’ve been introduced to here on SCM who are FAR more deserving of my ears and my time .
September 23, 2015 @ 10:53 pm
i don’t know about Jesus, but there’s a couple Hindu goddesses i wouldn’t mind taking a run at…
September 23, 2015 @ 11:27 pm
Most of America(around 80%+) believe in God/Jesus. I don’t know why everything has to be so PC now, especially those who might be offended by it are in the small minority. Country has always been religious based, this is nothing new. The song itself isn’t the greatest, but people shouldn’t get their panties twisted over Jesus.
Some of the biggest hits/best songs of the modern era have been religion based, here’s a few:
Jesus Take the Wheel- Carrie Underwood
Three Wooden Crosses- Randy Travis
Long Black Train- Josh Turner
I Saw God Today- George Strait
Something in the Water- Carrie Underwood
Go Rest High on That Mountain- Vince Gill
Family Bible- George Jones
When I Get Where I’m Going- Brad Paisley/Dolly Parton
September 24, 2015 @ 6:35 am
See, you’re missing the problem altogether. The issue is that he’s implying that a man has to love Jesus in order to be a real man. That’s insulting. The songs you listed included Christian messages but weren’t pushy and didn’t list some sort of qualifier.
This song isn’t bad but it should not rise to #1. Even “Something in the Water (that makes Carrie Underwood Scream Every Line)” is significantly better than this.
September 24, 2015 @ 6:55 am
Well, at least some of the people taking offense are Christians who feel that the song uses Jesus as a prop.
September 24, 2015 @ 3:35 am
It’s not awful, but it’s not great either. I tuned it out in my head about a minute into to reading the comments. Unlike other songs, I wasn’t scrolling up as fast as I could to turn off the obnoxious crap playing. I really think you scored in correctly. I certainly don’t care where and how anyone got here as long as they can bring good stuff to the table at this point. I feel like he tried. It just wasn’t that great.
September 24, 2015 @ 5:54 am
This is another laundry list song that happens to have Jesus in the list. There is nothing about WHY these “real men” love Jesus. As far as laundry list songs go, I guess there’s much worse than this. Still, it’s pretty much disposable.
September 24, 2015 @ 6:45 am
The issue with this song isn’t that it mentions Jesus/religion.
The issue is that the lyrics are a horrible, messy list of stereotypes attempting to pander to the intended audience (the title could easily be changed to “Stereotypical Male Country Radio Listeners Love Jesus”). The use of the word “real” in the title is a problem for me — it feels like the song is strongly implying that you aren’t a “real man” if you don’t do all the things on the list.
September 24, 2015 @ 1:34 pm
not good nor bad……..sounds like mid to late 00s country
September 24, 2015 @ 3:18 pm
Real men hate this bullshit song
September 24, 2015 @ 6:38 pm
The lyrics are divisive and somewhat clichéd, but the music is very nice and hearkens back to country music in the 00s. I would take this any day over bro-country or metro-bro.
September 24, 2015 @ 8:34 pm
It’s the most country thing I have heard from a mainstream artist in a year with the exception of the new Alan Jackson song. I would actually listen to modern country radio again if this was the sound they would go to. As far as the song goes I thought it was good, but I am one of those intolerant Christians that you some of the readers are infering about. Also, like that he is from Florida. Todd Villars
September 25, 2015 @ 4:22 am
I am a preacher’s kid, now a converted atheist, was raised with church and the Bible shoved down my throat. People like this do not realize how obnoxious they truly are. A pretty-boy punk like this preaching to me what makes a “real man” based on what he decides to believe religiously? Give me a break. And I gave the song a chance and listened to the first verse, and yes, more country pop written by bean counters in an office cubicle. Trigger, you rightly explain how hacks like this come out of nowhere, as the Music Row manufactured pap that they are, yet you give them exposure on your site. Why? It’s your site, and a very interesting one which I often gravitate to, but why use up space on everything that sucks about today’s country music, including this generic asswipe?
September 25, 2015 @ 11:31 am
I appreciate your concern Pete, but I’m not a promoter. Promoter’s get paid. I’ve found over the eight years of running this site that the idea that if we ignore what’s bad, then it will go away is completely erroneous. Just is the idea of giving exposure to what we think is good will create “support” around artists who need it. Michael Ray is a major label artist with a #1 song. The “exposure” he will get through this article is infinitesimal in the big scheme. However the exposure the dissent with his song will get will (and has) received significant exposure, and is an important element in the creative process that I am more than happy to facilitate. The idea that it doesn’t matter what we think, or that it does not good to criticize bad music is just another way to quell dissent. That is why, in my opinion, we have an obligation to speak up, and speak out about what we don’t like.
September 25, 2015 @ 12:15 pm
I know, Trigger, and hell knows I have done more than my share of handing shit music and artists their ass in a basket. I realize now I have become the kettle calling the pot a utensil. Both sides of the coin is always a good thing.
February 27, 2016 @ 4:37 pm
Sounds like you got some Daddy issues dude. “People like this don’t realize how obnoxious they are.” Why is stating your belief obnoxious. You have no idea how many times I have had college professors insinuate that I can’t think for myself because I am Christian. You know what the best reaction to this is? Respectfully disagree and let them know you expect the same respect. It comes with the territory. You listen to country music and Jesus is gonna be a major part of it. Same as me going to college is gonna involve a lot of atheists who think I am backwards for being Christian. If ya preach tolerance then learn to tolerate others. Some Christians can be obnoxious yes. But so can a lot of atheists.
September 25, 2015 @ 6:51 pm
Here’s another song that says that real men love Jesus … but isn’t just a check list … and sounds way more country
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5zwq9RCeISY
February 22, 2016 @ 12:22 pm
Honestly, I don’t like this song at all. I’m a Christian and think this is just disrespectful to use Jesus just for money and to get radio airplay time. Let’s face it, the only reason Michael Ray has a record deal I’d because he is attractive (to some people; not to me, I think he looks like a greasy-haired praying mantis. Keep in mind this is coming from a teenage girl.) and can attract 14-year old girls and soccer moms to his concerts. That seems to be the way Nashville works nowadays. I think it’s sad how this bullshit can become a hit, and an incredible song like Mickey Guyton’s “Better Than You Left Me” can barely crack the top 30, and an all-around fun, traditional country song like Kacey Musgraves’s “Biscuits” misses the top 30 altogether. It’s a damn shame what country music has come to. Hell, not even George Strait, the king of country music, can get a hit anymore, and clowns like Michael Ray and Puke Bryan can rack them up left and right. I really miss late 90s–early 2000s country. For the longest time, I felt like I was the only girl my age not obsessing over Luke Bryan and his skinny-jean clad flat pancake ass. But after reading blogs like this one and Country Perspective, I am glad that I’m not the only one tired of bro-country and desiring more substance from country radio. However, I don’t believe that substance and good music are entirely gone from country radio, it’s just harder to find. There are plenty of artists left, such as George Strait, Alan Jackson, Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves, Ashley Monroe, Gary Allan, Josh Turner, Mickey Guyton, Jon Pardi, Maddie and Tae, Tim McGraw, Mo Pitney, Carrie Underwood, Jana Kramer, Chris Young (sometimes), Dierks Bentley (sometimes), Cam, Brandy Clark, and Miranda Lambert, to name a few, who still seem to care about and respect country music enough to put forth a good effort on their music. Michael Ray doesn’t seem to care. To me, he seems like he’s more interested in raking in the dough than making good, authentic, honest country music.
Sorry for my long rant. 😉 Think I’ll shut up now and go listen to Gary Allan’s Smoke Rings in the Dark album. 🙂
July 7, 2016 @ 2:50 pm
For me, my biggest problem with this song is with lines like “Real men love women, fast cars, and livin'” and “Real men like football, cowboys, and outlaws.” And I agree that the vocals are nothing special here. Although my score for this song is a lower than yours, I think you’re the best at reviewing songs like this and H.O.L.Y by Florida Georgia Line.