Lauren Watkins. Girl. Love ya, really do. But this is barking up the wrong tree. About the last thing that planet Earth needs is the return of Bro-Country as a popular music form—and for so many reasons.
Irrespective of the definitions, the point of highlighting the best “mainstream” albums each year is to reward artists and the industry when they get it right within the closest proximity to Music Row.
You might be surprised to learn that Birmingham, Alabama right in the heart of the country music homeland does not have an annual country music festival. Well it does now.
You can’t save country music while ignoring commercial country. One of the ways we address the mainstream is by highlighting the best albums in the mainstream in hopes they help influence country moving forward.
Clearly the death of his father inspired a dramatic recalibration of priorities for Chase Rice, and that is reflected in the songs of this album. It’s definitely more mature and meaningful than his earlier stuff.
Saving Country Music spends the vast majority of the time focusing on artists and bands that get overlooked and under-appreciated in popular country music. But that doesn’t mean that mainstream country is entirely terrible.
Is country music truly experiencing a transformational moment? Is this moment really touching most every sector of country, including some of the most corrupted corners of the mainstream? If this new Chase Rice is any sort of bellwether, then the answer would be in the affirmative.
Of course around these parts, this is just regular Monday morning conversation. But if you think that dedicated country music fans are repulsed by much of the stuff that transpires in the mainstream of country, think about how you might feel if you’re repulsed by country already.
Instead of Ned LeDoux trying to fight the idea that he’s a protégé of his famous father—rodeo champion and country performer Chris LeDoux—he’s embraced that role, and found his home in the style his father pioneered, and that Ned helped perform as the drummer.
If all you have to prove country music’s intrinsic racism that is regularly cited in conversations and articles is the Lil Nas X anecdote, or the Beyoncé anecdote, or the Morgan Wallen story, then you really don’t have any proof at all.
There are only a handful of truly powerful positions in country music where one individual can make or break a career, or influence the direction of the genre at large. The Global Director of Country Music at Spotify is most certainly one of them.
Morgan Wallen, Chase Rice, Brian Kelley and others were wrong to advocate for big shows. But when it comes to the claims of these artists of hypocrisy, they’re completely right. Since the beginning of the pandemic there has been a glaring double standard in how social distancing is demanded, and excused.
There should be no shame in major music outfits taking money through the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, to keep their road crew and support staff financially stable, despite it being characterized as the cash grab of millionaires by some, aided by certain embellished and misleading headlines in the media.
If anyone in country music has ever deserved to have their career unceremoniously wiped and cancelled, inadvertently or otherwise, it might be Chase Rice. Nonetheless, the criticism of his recent concert that has made him public enemy #1 deserves some context, and a deeper discussion.
For many true country music performers, the bug to write, sing, and play country music bit them at an early age, and never left. For others, country music is simply a vehicle for fame and riches. Specifically, many of them first tried to make it in professional sports before flunking out or getting sidelined with injury.
Two ruinous singles in a row with “Whisper” and “Everybody We Know Does” that couldn’t crack the Top 40 on radio put Chase Rice on the outs with his label Columbia Nashville, and unlikely to see an album release anytime soon. Now he’s back with a new single from a new label that is being sold as Rice’s return to the roots.
Stupid list thing going around the innernets these days asking music folks to list off then bands they’ve seen live, but one is a lie. As a similar exercise to get your country music brain muscles firing and to test your true acumen on the genre, let’s see if you can navigate this difficult intellectual exercise.
The truth is we have no idea why Bill O’Reilly was fired from the most prominent seat in cable news commentary. The allegations against him could all be false claims from money-grubbing hussies looking to take advantage of his celebrity. But in country music, the way women are looked upon, and the way they’re spoken to is spelled out right there in the songs.
It was either feast or famine for country singles in 2016. As the rigged singles system that almost guarantees #1 songs for any releases from big-named artists metastasized at radio—creating an incredible volume of singles hitting #1 for a solitary week before immediately falling off a precipice—if a song happened to not fit into that rigged system…
Everywhere we turn, there are signs that the tide is turning in country music for the better. Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson are turning the tables on the awards shows, a new generation of traditionalists like William Michael Morgan and Margo Price are finding surprising traction. But it’s not all rosy.
With absolutely no hyperbole intended, William Michael Morgan earning a #1 on country radio for his debut single “I Met A Girl” is a historic moment in country music. It’s a point in time when an undeniably traditional country song from an undeniably traditional country artist has topped the chart after a long vacancy for a traditionalist at the top spot.
Every year we wonder if it can get any worse, and while there are positive signs for country music’s future all over the place, the bad stuff somehow continues to only get worse. The only saving grace is that many of the songs highlighted below have become commercial flops, whereas in previous years it would be a virtual Top 10 on the country charts.
The lead single to Chase Rice’s new record is done, finished, finito, dead, and game over according to radio insiders. And the results do not paint a very pretty picture at all for the performer. After a big promotional push by Rice’s label Columbia Nashville, all that his song “Whisper” could muster on the radio charts was a whimper before limping off into the night virtually unnoticed.
Chase was sure saying the right things, as are a lot of the Bro-Country acts who are now acknowledging the flight of interest in the bastardized style of country music. But words are cheap, and actions speak louder. And it didn’t take long for Chase to break his promise that his next album would be “all” about depth.