The Worst “Country” Songs of 2020

Due to COVID-19, and then the protests and riots after the George Floyd killing, the Saving Country Music snark machine has been pretty much powered down and collecting dust for the better part of 2020. With so much negativity already out there in the world, why feed that beast? Also, as we’ve seen over the last few years after moving away from Bro-Country era, there’s just fewer really bad songs. Even though “Boyfriend Country” is pretty stomach churning, it’s not nearly as enraging as the Bo-Country stuff.
But there has been as few instances of country music malfeasance so egregious, it would be unconscionable to not address. So as we near the end of the year, let’s look back at a few of the worst offenders.
And before you start crying, “Hey, wHy Don’T you FoCUs On the gOOd STufF !?!” Maybe actually get out there and read the record amount of reviews Saving Country Music has posted in 2020. You can start with the 2020 Album of the Year Nominees and the Song of the Year Nominees.
Sam Hunt – “Hard To Forget”
Haha. Okay… So this is how Sam Hunt is making his music, “… more traditional in terms of the genre … that’s definitely where the songs are leaning at this point,” like he promised us he was doing last summer? By filching a piece of a sacred Webb Pierce classic and misappropriating it for a shitty, derivative drum-looped pop song that sounds like everything else in popular music?
About the only solid Sam is doing for actual country music with his new track “Hard To Forget” is offering a outstanding side-by-side comparison of how eloquent and heartfelt country music used to be, and what a fetid, steaming shite roll it has become thanks to hacks like Sam Hunt. The bowel movement that is Sam Hunt’s “Hard To Forget” is far from solid. It’s one of those nasty, watery deeds where no matter how much you wipe afterwards, you never get it all, like there’s a Sharpie stuck up your rear end.
Do I really even need to offer my angry little words toward this stupid song? Doesn’t all this go without saying? Birds will fly upside down over Sam Hunt’s “Hard To Forget” because it’s not even worth shitting on. The truly offensive thing here is the fact that Sam Hunt really does believe he’s doing a good turn toward traditional country by sampling Webb Pierce’s “There Stands The Glass.” Yet Hunt might as well have walked into a studio, had the engineers bring the feeders up, and told all traditional country fans calmly and politely to go fuck themselves. (read more)
Florida Georgia Line – “I Love My Country”
Ladies and gentlemen, the world has been besieged by an unfathomable scourge sweeping over the nations, infecting our most vulnerable, forcing people to shelter in place, shuttering businesses and freezing the free practice of commerce like we’ve never seen before, unleashing other untold disruptions and horrors to life on this fair planet on an unprecedented scale. This scourge, this infection, this terror beyond comparison and imagination that is ravaging our entire way of life has a name well known to many, that immediately incites shrieks of panic; that has become dubiously popularized through a diabolical history of spreading dread and dismay. This name that we speak of, this indefatigable scourge, this apex of frightening alarm is of course none other than the efforts of … COVID-19.
You thought I was about to compare the music of Florida Georgia Line to COVID-19, didn’t you. Didn’t you? Even that seems out-of-bounds in these dark days. But this terrible duo’s new song “I Love My Country” is so colossally disappointing, it’s work breaking the quarantine on snark and negative commentary to offer fair warning about.
“I Love My Country” tests positive for sucking ass. Instead of stoking national pride, “I Love My Country” induces vomiting in the way it tries to pass itself off as a country song, even having the audacity to mention fiddle and steel guitar in the lyrics, yet good luck finding hide or hair of these things in the mix. Instead what you get is the same Nickelback-inspired rock guitar that’s sullied this duo’s entire career, discretionary and distracting electronic drum beats, suburban rap, and the same token banjo every bullshit Southern pop song employs in a worthless attempt to claim affiliation or affinity for county music. (read more)
Luke Bryan – “One Margarita”
It will forever be a stain and a laughing stock on the country music genre that at the moment when the American continent was the most roiled in disease and upheaval in modern times, one of the most popular songs, if not the most popular song in country music was a doltish ditty by country music’s version of Gomer Pyle about drinking margaritas. Make no mistake, the media outside of the country fold who loves to point and laugh at the imbecilic Southerners and rural rednecks out partying on their on their boats on the local impound lake have had a heyday in their think pieces with this development. And if we’re being honest, they’re right in their revulsion towards “One Margarita.”
This song is a superspreader event of fatuous stupidity made even worse by a video showing folks partying nut to butt in a crowded pool like a COVID-19 shaming video. Read the damn room, Luke.
Tim McGraw – “Way Down”
(Officially released in 2019, but came to prominence in 2020)
It’s never too late to revitalize your career, or to train wreck it. Tim McGraw saw all the hubbub being made over “Old Town Road” and decided he could mumble rap about pure nonsense and call it country too. Bad for him though, none of the Gen Z’ers with their Tik-Tok apps know or care who Tim McGraw is, and now he’s exposed himself as just another old white dude looking like an idiot with his 53-year-old hip-hop gesticulations in a shirt two sizes too small. Faith Hill should make McGraw’s gym rat ass sleep on the couch for six weeks for releasing this mess.
A few years ago he was winning the CMA and Grammy Award for Song of the Year with the Lori McKenna-penned “Humble & Kind.” Now Tim McGraw is tractor rapping, “I’m talkin’ way outside with the crickets and the dogs and the ye’haws, and the grandmas…”
Oh, and get a load of the innuendo embedded in these lines:
“Got the country music playin’ and the country girls that know how to take you, way down, way down, way down…”
“Put your mouth to the spout where the gospel comes out, way down, way down, way down…”
Is this just a blow job song disguised as a Southern anthem, Tim McGraw? These lines make Lil Nas X’s verses about booties and boobies feel Shakespearean. (read more)
Garth Brooks – “We Belong To Each Other”
Oh thank God. With the vacuum of leadership and trust the United States is experiencing as we pinball from one crisis to another in the throes of racial injustice and political strife while a pandemic continues to persist, we search our elected officials and popular icons for a voice of unity and purpose, pleading with the heavens, “Who will will rise out of the noise and madness to save and unite us all?” Meanwhile the answer has been right under our noses the whole time. How stupid have we been? Clearly, our savior, the man who can resuscitate the unity and hope in America is none other than a pudgy 58-year-old Garth Brooks.
Look, I’m a Garth Brooks apologist. And make no mistake, that’s an occupation that will keep one quite busy. But there’s no real apologizing for this. “We Belong To Each Other” is the slap dashing together of extremely cliche and tokenism frap passed off as verses. The only saving grace here is that this song will pass like a fart in the wind, and hopefully, never be spoken of again.
“We Belong To Each Other” is Garth making a pathetic attempt to interpret Doo-Wop for no other apparent reason than it gives him a good excuse to put a chorus of black backup singers behind him in the mix so he can claim claim diversity and inclusion, and then double damns the song by setting it in some weird island time vibe, perfect for sipping a fruity drink out of the husk of a pineapple to, while in the real world buildings burn and protests rage. The lyrics are like the scribbles on an inspirational version of a Mad Lib sheet, perfectly passionless and uninspired, and rendered inert aside from the incidental comedy they afford.
If only it was as easy as recording formulaic pablum to fundamentally address the systemic problems we haven’t been able to pacify in generations. But the only thing people will unify behind from “We Belong To Each Other” is how this song is just another bad and forgettable Kumbaya attempt by Mr. G. It was so bad, he even left it off his latest album Fun. (read more)
Dustin Lynch – Tullahoma (The Whole Damn Album)
The career of Dustin Lynch is now such a catastrophic natural disaster, it is visible from space. Need a coaster to keep those unsightly water stains off your coffee table? Maybe something to shove under the leg of that tipsy table to keep it from wobbling? Shit, who are we kidding. Nobody even buys CDs anymore, so you can’t even use it for that. And it would be a waste to impress this new record from Dustin Lynch that besmirches the name of the great town of Tullahoma on anything tangible.
Oh sure, you see Dustin Lynch standing there in his cowboy hat, with a chin so chiseled it could cut granite, and song titles such as “Momma’s House,” “Old Country Song, “Country Star,” and “Little Town Livin,’” and you think maybe you stumbled upon some good old-fashioned boot scooter of a country record. But no dice. Dustin Lynch’s words say one thing, but his actions speak louder.
Granted, you’ll hear ample caterwauling of cliche country-isms in the moronic lyrical phrases of this record. There’s even talk of country legends, steel guitars, and old country songs on the radio. But the music is all pop, rap, and rock, nearly everything but country, almost like Dustin Lynch is playing keep-away from the genre. And each turn of phrase and song structure is so especially formulaic, you can predict where it’s going with even the most rudimentary understanding of popular music. The only thing “country music” about this record is that’s what gets curb stomped consecutively for eleven tracks while your ears start to bleed. (read more)
December 14, 2020 @ 11:24 am
Thankfully, I have never heard any of those songs and am not going to ruin my holidays buy starting now! And I don’t believe I have even heard of Dustin Lynch. Happy Holidays folks!
December 14, 2020 @ 5:05 pm
I’m with you, my ears have not been molested by any of these songs! Think I’ll keep it that way!
December 15, 2020 @ 1:16 am
Dustin Lynch started off making really good music with The Western Underground, then his first album had a couple of very good, very country tracks (Cowboys and Angels is worth listening to). Then went to the dumb side.
December 15, 2020 @ 8:55 am
Glad you said that… Cause I’ve always felt a lil guilty about liking Cowboys and Angels.
December 16, 2020 @ 7:19 pm
Hey, never feel guilty about liking a great song…I’m in the camp who still loves Cowboys and Angels to this day. Definitely one of the best mainstream singles of 2012, and proves that Dustin could be so much more if he actually put in the effort. Sad what he has become.
December 19, 2020 @ 5:56 am
I haven’t heard them either, so we win
December 14, 2020 @ 11:28 am
hOw DaRe YoU cOmPaRe LuKe brYaN tO GoMeR PyLe!! HeS a NeCkBeArdeD AnGEL!!! YoU’ll Pay fOr ThiS TriGgER. YoU’Re JuSt JeAlOuS!
December 14, 2020 @ 12:42 pm
All of these words were spelled correctly. And, you forgot “hater,” and “if you don’t like it – don’t listen! God bless!”
December 14, 2020 @ 1:11 pm
My apologies…
YoUR jUSt A dUmBaSS HATeR TiGGeR!! IF YoU dOnT LiK LuKe AnD HiS BEutiFuL AcM AwARd WHinING PoEtry U DonT hAVe tO LiStEn!!! HOw ManY AwARds DO u HaV TIggEr? tHaTs right ZERROOOO
OnE MArgArITa tWO mARgErITa 3 MaRgArEETa ShOTTT is ThE SoNG OfThE YeAR WhoS WIT mE???
December 14, 2020 @ 2:36 pm
Laughing.
January 28, 2021 @ 5:57 pm
Lol ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ????
October 14, 2021 @ 9:23 pm
LuKe BrYaN hAs A rAnCh, wEaRs SkInNy JeAnS aNd FlAnNeL sHiRtS aNd CaLlS hImSeLf “COUNTRY” IM SORRY WHAT THE LITERAL F***K GOES THROUGH THAT SON OF A BITCH’S PEA BRAIN?? HE WILL NEVER KNOW COUNTRY. CHRIS LEDOUX, (MAY HE REST IN PEACE) IS COUNTRY, LUKE BRYAN IS A FRICKING DISGRACE TO HUMAN SOCIETY, AND YOU ARE DUMB.
December 14, 2020 @ 1:15 pm
AanD GoD BlesS!
December 14, 2020 @ 2:25 pm
Dude, I was cracking up at this. Thank you for bringing some much-needed levity to a fairly stressful day!
December 14, 2020 @ 2:39 pm
You’re welcome! I’m glad I could help!
December 14, 2020 @ 4:44 pm
God damn those are terrible. Be honest, Trigger – were you able to listen to these all the way thru? I could not. Fucking horrible crap. You reallly should prepare your readers better for that…whatever-the-hell garbage. Damn dude.
December 14, 2020 @ 12:47 pm
Why do people do this with the alternating caps/ lower case? I see it a lot and don’ get it.
December 14, 2020 @ 12:57 pm
It is a mocking tone of speech derived from a spongebob squarepants meme. I’m just poking fun of the stans that visit the site and angrily comment whenever Trigger posts an article like this.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mocking-spongebob
December 14, 2020 @ 4:06 pm
Thanks! Wow. I’m learning so much more than about music on SCM. Last year, I learned about the term “stan” and today spongebob lettering.
December 14, 2020 @ 4:17 pm
You’re quite welcome, hoptowntiger94. Please utilize the useless knowledge wisely. With great power comes great responsibility.
December 14, 2020 @ 11:51 am
Did you see Lorie Liebig calling you out on Twitter for being a hypocrite while in the same breath propping up Maren Morris for doing the exact thing she’s attacking other country artists for? She also accused you of shaming people but she’s too scared to name names and offend the very people her and Marissa Moss are sucking up too because it benefits their gritting. Also wasn’t she the one with the name and shame BLM list?
December 14, 2020 @ 1:16 pm
Quarter-wit hacktavists gonna hacktavist
December 14, 2020 @ 2:42 pm
liebig & moss are idiots.
But, sshhhhh.
December 14, 2020 @ 4:23 pm
I don’t participate in social media back and forths, and you won’t find anyone who understands how the internet and social media algorhythms work who would ever advocate doing so. And for these Twitter personalities to act like I’m obligated or morally compromised for not participating in their online flame wars verifies just how engulfed they have become in the Dopamine-inducing echo chambers that much of the media is stuck in today to the detriment of us all. I have a platform. It’s called Saving Country Music. I’ve gone through much personal hardship and sacrifice for going on 13 years to create it, and seed it with now with over 6,400 published articles. If I post something false on this site, I run the risk of being sued. That is how you know what is posted on Saving Country Music is factual, or at least verified from original sources in the effort to be as factual as possible by what is known at the time, despite the characterizations of some Twitter users. Section 230 protects social media networks from legal ramifications, and that is why some use social media platforms to post false statements that no publication or website would ever post, and no editor or legal department would ever approve. I use Twitter to post links to my articles, and aggregate news. I rarely even look at my mentions. Only 1 in 6 people are even on Twitter. Twitter is not the internet. I don’t use the comments sections on Saving Country Music to hide from drama on Twitter, I use them to communicate with readers in a way that fosters discussion, where Twitter fosters argumentative interactions, and often a vacuum of facts, mandated by restricting communications to 280 characters, and the algorithm incentivizing negativism. Also, the Saving Country Music comments sections are open to everyone. If someone doesn’t like something posted in them, they have every right to share their perspective within the platform. No account is necessary, like Twitter. Or, they can share their perspective wherever they choose, including Twitter.
I stand behind everything I have posted here on Saving Country Music. And if I can’t, I offer a correction. I am not perfect. But I am honest, and always work to present the facts of any issue to the public. The CMAs did not restrict the speech of participants in 2020. This has been verified. Presently, there is no evidence that Charley Pride contracted COVID-19 at the 2020 CMA Awards, though he very well may have, and it is important that the media continue to look into that matter, as I am.
The idea that it is okay to lie or speculate on Twitter in a way that is damaging to individuals and organizations because it is only Twitter is very dangerous. The CMA has now had to release two statements in as many months solely off of people spreading speculative, misleading, and in some instances, knowingly false information, often for the purpose of padding their social capital in Twitter scenes, and sowing division out of spite. This has been a problem for years over many issues in country and roots music, but now it has reached a new level, and it also undermines the actual work to hold institutions like the CMA to account for their actions.
It is my obligation as a journalist to present factual information to the public when false information is perpetuated, including on social media. This is not “bullying.” This is journalism. And if these individuals feel bullied, or face other ramifications for their irresponsible behavior, they need to blame themselves for sewing division with spurious information, not the individuals working to set the facts straight. Nobody should have to face personal harassment, and in no way have I, or would I advocate for that. And if individuals are engaging in that behavior, they should cease. And if this is happening, I encourage anyone to send me any and all evidence of such harrassment, and I will actively work to track down the responsible parties. But by spreading false information on Twitter, these bad-faith actors are the true bullies, and the instigators of unnecessary conflict. And in the case of Charley Pride and the CMAs, it is a bereaved family who advocated and encouraged Charley Pride to attend the 2020 CMA Awards that is the true victim of this infernal dialogue being fueled by opportunistic speculation on Twitter by irresponsible celebrities and media members.
(posting this statement here with no better place to put it)
December 14, 2020 @ 7:02 pm
Posturing, grandstanding, and selective fake outrage. It’s all pretty exhausting. I don’t understand how people can live in that world for too long. I made it about a month. You’ve created a good thing here. I’ve discovered so much good music and also found your commentary on these issues to be level headed and logical. Considering how they operate (not to mention their questionable love of country music in the first place), perhaps them taking issue with you is the greatest compliment you could ever receive.
December 15, 2020 @ 4:00 pm
Not sure how 230 is relevant at all. A person may not hold Twitter or Facebook liable but that doesn’t mean the author is protected.
December 14, 2020 @ 12:15 pm
So I take it the Tim McGraw song isn’t a cover of the last single Elvis charted while he was alive?
December 14, 2020 @ 5:29 pm
To put it mildly, No. The “Way Down” you’re talking about was a great old-school rocker written by Laing Martine, and was indeed the last song The King got onto the Hot 100 while he was still breathing. McGraw’s is, and I say this as nicely as possible, nothing of the sort.
December 14, 2020 @ 6:06 pm
The only time Elvis’s “Way Down” should be in the same sentence as Tim McGroan’s “Way Down” should be if the words “is a million times better” as in Elvis’s “Way Down is a million times better Tim McGroans “Way Down”
December 14, 2020 @ 12:24 pm
Wow. This is actually a surprisingly short list. I suppose that’s a good thing…? Except when you consider these are just about the most popular artists in the format at the moment. Baby steps.
December 14, 2020 @ 12:26 pm
Sam Hunt recently posted a video of him on his social media playing bluegrass at a house with a bluegrass band and it….did not suck? Strange pivot from what he’s continued to put out over the past 5-6 years.
December 15, 2020 @ 10:45 am
I’d be interested to see that. I just searched Sam Hunt bluegrass on YouTube and watched a video of him on what appears to be the Bobby Bones show, with a bluegrass backing band, and well….that absolutely sucked. He had a second guitarist, mandolin, banjo, dobro, bass; and none of them contributed anything worthwhile. That doesn’t mean that Bobby Bones wasn’t freaking out talking about how great it was.
December 15, 2020 @ 10:55 am
Here ya go. Agreed that the bobby bones show version stunk.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=226100632264229
December 15, 2020 @ 4:42 pm
I guess we can conclude that as long as Sam Hunt isn’t being Sam Hunt, he doesn’t completely suck. Not that he had any fun guitar licks/leads to contribute to this either. At least his cringe-inducing talk singing wasn’t there.
December 14, 2020 @ 12:49 pm
Roast Sam Hunt much as you like and rightfully so but i catch myself singing Hard To Forget chorus a good bit.
December 14, 2020 @ 1:12 pm
Really not a fan of Sam Hunt and the production on Hard to Forget sucks, but honestly if it was produced as a traditional country song….it’d sound very similar (and better) then a lot of 90’s songs. The writing is actually witty and clever, but the production is ass.
So much promise in this one, but as usual…Sam fucks it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnhtw3W-R48&ab_channel=AshleyWalls
https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2020/04/13/sam-hunts-hard-to-forget-would-have-been-a-great-90s-country-song/
The rest of these there are absolutely no defending. Just yuck.
December 14, 2020 @ 1:42 pm
Not gonna lie, it pains me to say it, but Sam has talent. I appreciate his experimentation, but he takes it way too far. If he would ease up on injecting popular styles and trends into his music (and avoid butchering/remixing old classics), he could be a bona fide force in modern country music. Don’t hold your breath though… I hope he proves us wrong, but it will likely never happen. He’ll continue feed the Nashville machine.
December 14, 2020 @ 8:15 pm
Yeah, that’s the disappointing part. It’s that he chooses to be a wannabe pop country “star.”
December 16, 2020 @ 7:24 pm
I also hate to admit it (and although he isn’t country in the slightest), Sam does have talent. 2016 from his new album is actually a really good song. If he made more songs in that same vein, he would still be no George Strait, but I bet a lot of us would like him quite a bit.
December 14, 2020 @ 1:04 pm
This is hilarious and a well deserved middle finger to the artists who produced the above mentioned stains on musical integrity. I heard the voice of Jack Black’s character from High Fidelity as I read it…
December 14, 2020 @ 1:24 pm
“Malfeasance so egregious” it could only be so popular in clown world.
December 14, 2020 @ 1:41 pm
Trig,
Do you think Sam Hunt will ever go Bluegrass in his music?
He teases it often & recently performed Bluegrass versions of his hit songs on the Bobby Bones show.
It sounded good!! Hope he fully commits to a bluegrass album someday
December 14, 2020 @ 1:44 pm
I’m not holding my breath. Remember, his last record was where he was supposed to “commit to country roots,” and we got “Hard To Forget.”
December 14, 2020 @ 3:43 pm
I think Niko Moon’s “Good Time” tops all of these in terms of awfulness. Straight up trap crap. As horrible as “Hard to Forget” was, it at least sampled a song that was honest to goodness country. “Good Time” doesn’t even try.
December 14, 2020 @ 6:43 pm
Couldn’t agree more. That song is an absolute hammered turd.
December 14, 2020 @ 4:10 pm
Trig …
Are you dong a most disappointing/ worst albums of the year. It seems there were a lot of disappointments this year and one in particular I’d love to take to task if you don’t (she has a weekday show on Outlaw Country SiriusXM).
December 14, 2020 @ 4:12 pm
… and it’s been showing up high on other publications year end lists when it has no business being considered.
December 14, 2020 @ 7:59 pm
Thank you for saying this. I totally agree. I’m mystified by the album and the reception it has gotten. Have you given it a few spins? I couldn’t bring myself to do it, but I’m thinking maybe its charms would unfold with multiple listens?
December 14, 2020 @ 4:29 pm
I probably won’t do a list like that, just because I don’t like to run down folks who either may just be starting their career, or may be trying to revitalize it.
I agree, I am left quite befuddled by the new Elizabeth Cook record, and the reception it’s received. But as well all know, many end-of-year lists are more about how hip an artist is in a scene than actual artistic merit. I don’t want to say it’s “bad.” Frankly, I should probably spend some more time with it. But I took it as a genre exit towards rock and pop, and I’m just not the best for critiquing those efforts.
What really sucks is I have a lot of respect for Elizabeth Cook and think she’s great. But she basically ended her country career right as I started this site. Since then, her output has been kind of all over the place. Though again, I don’t necessarily what to characterize that as “bad.”
December 14, 2020 @ 7:30 pm
Curious what your beef is with this? It’s not in my Top 10 but not that far off. It definitely leans rock but more country than her last album (which I also like)
December 15, 2020 @ 7:02 am
I disagree that Bones is more county than Exodus to Venus (I comfortably ranked Venus in 2016). If I squint, I can at least find traces of country music on Venus that is more organic, rock based. Bones is artificial, synthesized noise (which may pass as the country on radio today, IDK). It’s a terrible pop record that was poorly produced and mixed.
When I ask anyone in the business about Bones, they roll their eyes and say it’s her new young “musician” beau who is pushing this sound. A direction that makes no sense and doesn’t help her brand or match her personality. I get you do strange things for young cock, but derailing your career?
Cook’s name comes up in the SCM comment section every time Trig posts an article about a new Grand Ole Opry inductee or the possibility of a Hee Haw revival. Her show on Sirius is great, I hardly miss it. I often say I wish she was my neighbor. But this album was a disappointing shock. She’s selling one thing with her personality that doesn’t match her music output of late.
December 15, 2020 @ 8:15 am
I do prefer Exodus to Venus and also have it ranked higher, but to me that is a straight blues rock album which is right in my wheelhouse. This has a lot more steel and songwriting in general is closer to her earlier stuff.
I agree the production could be better, but the back half is pretty solidly country influenced and Two Chords and a Lie and Mary The Submissing Years are both excellent songs. I finds Bones and Bayonette extremely grating, which is why this is only a top 20 or so album for me.
I do find it strange that her personality does not match up with her last two records. I do like a few of the pop songs for what they are, but the front half is the weakest part of this album and the love this is getting on year end lists is kind of silly. It’s good, but nowhere near the best, but that is what you get when mainstream sites try to rank country music. I would much prefer pimping the hell out of American Aquarium or Ward Davis.
December 15, 2020 @ 9:06 am
I have been an Elizabeth Cook homer since reading a feature on her in the old No Depression magazine and buying her Balls album in 2007. That album, Welder and Gospel Plow, are three that I just love. Exodus of Venus is an album that I merely liked when it came out, but it has grown on me. A lot.
A couple of years ago, I saw her do an afternoon solo acoustic show in Annapolis. I really liked the new songs that she did (she definitely did Stanley By God Terry and Half Hanged Mary and I think Mary The Submissing Years and Daddy, I Got Love for You). It made me hope that her next album might be more of a left of center (left of center in the artistic sense, not political) interesting country music project, but different from Balls and Welder. And Aftermath definitely isn’t that. I don’t consider it pop, but more of a noisy rock album. And not swampy like Exodus of Venus. I don’t dislike the album and I can at least listen to it all the way through, which for example, I can’t seem to do with Sound and Fury these days.
December 14, 2020 @ 5:27 pm
I am surprised the Wine Moms haven’t come in here yet. They are usually plastering threads like this with their usual drivel!!!
December 14, 2020 @ 8:33 pm
What, no Russell Dickerson? He so annoys me. Also whoever it is who sings “Pretty Little Heart” and “Big Big Plans.” Yuck. And you forgot the most horrible pop country song in history, “10,000 Hours.”
And while Luke Bryan is sometimes silly, I will forever love him for “I Believe Most People Are Good” because of its pro LGBTQ stance so I’m okay with his dopey summer anthems.
December 14, 2020 @ 9:54 pm
Those 2 awful pop songs you mentioned are currently blocking “Ain’t Always the Cowboy” from reaching #1 at radio…
Trig, I’m Fuming. ARNOLD IS GETTING ANGRY. (In George Costanza voice)
December 15, 2020 @ 1:39 pm
Russell Dickerson looks like Orange Cassidy from AEW, but with a shittier haircut!
December 14, 2020 @ 8:54 pm
someone needs to subpoena Tim McGraw, and once he is under oath, ask him how much of his early [better] material was completely written by his ex, Chely Wright, and why doesn’t he spend as much money as humanly possible to get her to go back to doing just that.
December 14, 2020 @ 10:16 pm
What are you blathering on about? McGraw never dated Chely Wright, nor did she write any songs for him.
December 15, 2020 @ 4:45 am
confused him w/ paisley, sorry jimmy
December 15, 2020 @ 3:19 pm
No worries! I wasn’t sure if you were trying to be funny or had the wrong guy.
BTW: I blather a lot, and get confused. 😉
December 14, 2020 @ 11:16 pm
I have tried to listen to the music of FGL & friends occacionally but it never clicks with me. Lyrically there’s definitley a target audience, which i’m not a part of, and musically it sounds too boyband-ish and lacks twang. When l listen to newer music, i’ll stick to the ameripolitan sound.
December 15, 2020 @ 12:32 am
I second the call for Dan and Shay to be on this list. I’m sure they’re both lovely boys, but I find their music unlistenable.
December 16, 2020 @ 7:27 pm
Dan + Shay are the literal worst. That is all. Carry on.
January 28, 2021 @ 5:53 pm
I’m actually surprised that Dan and shay+Justin Bieber weren’t on here.
December 15, 2020 @ 12:46 am
Dustin Lynch “playing keep-away from the genre”! The lyrics were hard to understand, but “pedal steel; steal kisses from you” is quite a combo!
I honestly have listened to so little Garth that if I didn’t know it was him I might have thought We Belong to Each Other was a vanity project by some rich dentist trying to impress a much younger woman.
I may not make it through Way Down. Why am I doing this to myself? I think I will need to listen to Frisco Mabel Joy at least 100 times to forget this. Actually the rap part is fucking hilarious. But probably not worth it. Wait. The feeble whoop at the end is priceless!
In the first 23 seconds Luke Bryan has rhymed “little” with “little” and “here” and “here” if I am not mistaken. Also his head bob thing at the intro. The clouds ain’t leakin’ no rain, two pisses shaken…I give up.
I can tell what genre i love my country is supposed to be. great.
Good christ. ssam hunt. fuck
December 15, 2020 @ 1:39 am
Hmmm, I’m not convinced the Garth one is all that bad. But then, I go to folk festivals where the moral lecturing is extreme and the Kumbaya wannabee songs are really awful. And those who write the worst are hailed as progressive, daring writers. So, in that context it just sounds like a harmless ukulele tune.
And not sure I agree that bro country is worse than boyfriend country. There IS good bro-country like Luke Bryan’s first album. Even some early Paisley like “Mud on the Tyres”. It just needs real instruments and not to take itself seriously.
I mean, i would put Beautiful Crazy in this list. (Wrong year, I know) Seriously, stop telling girls to be proud of having their life in a mess and not trying to fix it. Yeah, I get it, he’s trying to get lucky with a girl who has nothing to really compliment her on so he does a good job of chatting her up with BS.
P.s. in response to Trig’s earlier comments about making his own platform. Much respect for it. Also, I’m not on any social media, so I’m glad he does it.
Despite being an early adopter of social media, I’m seeing it become less useful and more counter-productive, and more people are leaving it.
December 15, 2020 @ 4:04 am
Only thing good about the Sam Hunts song is that I found Web Pierce. Searched high and low for Web Pierce and found his record with the sampled song “There Stands the Glass” at an antique shop.
December 15, 2020 @ 7:46 am
I needed a good chuckle today and this sure provided it. Thanks Trigger.
December 15, 2020 @ 9:19 am
“That’s what I love about those college girls. I get older, they stay the same age.”
– Luke Bryan, Probably
December 15, 2020 @ 10:48 am
wtf is this traditional sample disaster.. this is the lil nas trash approach to country music and his is not as horrendous as this
December 15, 2020 @ 5:47 pm
Trigger. Did Garth steal your girlfriend at High School??
December 16, 2020 @ 7:56 pm
May I present to you, the actual worst song of 2020:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XZZ3XCFxAfo
Thank God it didn’t make much noise on the charts. It’s truly horrid.
December 17, 2020 @ 8:23 am
One Margarita would not be sufficient enough to make it through one Luke Bryan album. In fact, I’d likely need a straight tequila night to make it through that shit.
December 19, 2020 @ 9:08 pm
Luke Bryan filmed the video for “One Margarita” before the pandemic. I don’t like the song either, but I can at least be bothered to do some research.
December 19, 2020 @ 9:27 pm
Who said otherwise? Nothing was said about when the video was shot, just that it was a bad look during the pandemic.
December 20, 2020 @ 7:35 pm
Holy shit. I haven’t laughed this hard in a while. Thank you so much. I needed that.
December 27, 2020 @ 7:46 am
The one thing I absolutely do not get is the amount of “wannabe back in college syndrome” in a lot of these mainstream country music singers. I usually don’t give singers like Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, and Morgan Wallen a second glance. They’re such low hanging fruit at this point and they don’t know any better, and never have. But Luke Bryan? Jesus Christ on a crutch!! This guy has the ability to make decent mainstream country when he wants to, and actually did so in the late 2000s. But he’s mutated in to a guy who is in his mid-40s and fantasizes about hitting on 18-22 year old girls in his music. Seriously, how immature is that? He’s almost become the living embodiment of that character in Varsity Blues, who goes to high school parties even though he is in 50s!!
January 28, 2021 @ 5:52 pm
I’m actually surprised that Dan and shay+Justin Bieber weren’t on here.
August 16, 2021 @ 10:13 pm
Can’t Thank you enough for this.
HOTTEST PLAYLIST hands down. Perfect. Thank you.
If you got more let me know so I can add. NAILEDIT