Trace Adkins: “I Went to That Well One Too Many Times”
The fallout continues from Trace Adkins’ stupid song “Brown Chicken, Brown Cow”, as he continues to try to lump blame on others for the song’s unpopularity, though finally admitting to some culpability himself. Despite CMT reporting that Trace used an appearance at the Country Radio Seminar to “apologize profusely to the radio crowd,” Trace is now telling The Boot he’s “Not Sorry”, but that…
“I apologized for asking some ultra-conservative radio stations to play it. I should have known better than that. I’m the first one to stand up here and admit that I don’t always pick the right singles but, hey, [radio doesn’t] help very much. I’ve never had radio collectively come to me and say, ‘Oh, my God. Please release this song.’ Ya know, why? Because they don’t listen to albums anymore. That’s why.”
Yes ladies and gentleman, even Trace Adkins is now complaining about the short-sightedness of country radio. And Trace Adkins and his fans continue to misunderstand that the backlash for “Brown Chicken, Brown Cow” has little to do with “ultra-conservative” morality, beyond maybe it targeting kids. The criticism is more about decency from an artistic standpoint; that the song blatantly preys on the insipid nature of mass consumers, and it does so in such a transparent way, this likely lent to its lack of success. It was also too similar to Trace’s “Honky Tonk Bandonka Donk”, which even Trace is is now admitting.
“I guess I went to that well one too many times. They’re over it. it’s like if I was a painter. I was painting landscapes and I couldn’t sell any of them, then one day I decided to paint a bowl of fruit and someone walks in my studio and immediately buys it. Then I start painting more bowls of fruit, and they’re selling great for a while and I stop painting landscapes. Then someone comes in and says, ‘Got any landscapes?’ ‘No, I quit doing those.’ ‘Well, I want those now.’ ‘Oh.”
March 18, 2011 @ 10:28 am
What a pathetic representation of an artist! Trace, in art history and art criticism, we call that “sofa art”. You paint a painting so that it expresses something you want to express or to comment on a recent “conversation” in the world of art…not because it matches the drapes and the rug.
Shame on him. I think that last quote sums up what is wrong with most mainstream music today.
March 18, 2011 @ 10:35 am
Excellent observation KAK, good artists set the trends, or at least influence them, not follow them.
March 18, 2011 @ 10:35 am
Why do we have to keep talking about this stupid song??? Didn’t just write about it a couple of weeks ago?
March 18, 2011 @ 5:42 pm
Good point. There’s lots of bad songs being put out by Nashville. I can’t write about every one, and even if I could, I don’t know that it would be engaging enough to do so. Same could be said about all the current artists “going country”. I could talk about Jennifer Aniston, 80’s pop start “Tiffany”, the dude from “Styx”, frikkin Lionel Ritchie, but I don’t. I’ve been talking about Gwyneth Paltrow, and about this song, because I think they symbolize the extreme and the danger that bad pop country songs or artists “going country” embody. So I draw a line in the sand, say “enough is enough”, and don’t shut the fuck about it until it is defeated. And then when it is defeated, I will continue to rub it into their face until they get the point that this shit won’t fly. I’ll be like the chicken head tied around Old Yeller’s neck, smelling, festering, a constant reminder of their transgression so they never do it again.
We won, this is a victory.
But beyond that, if this is not want to read about, don’t. I don’t expect everybody to read every one of my articles. I am flattered when even one person reads one of my articles.
March 19, 2011 @ 3:51 pm
I get why you’re writing about it. I understand its importance. Proceed.
March 19, 2011 @ 7:58 pm
Where is your victory? Maybe I am blind.. But I’m not seeing it.
March 20, 2011 @ 11:38 pm
I don’t know that I would characterize it as “my” victory. I would say it is “our” victory, with “our” or “us” being country music fans.
I first started talking about this song before it was even released as a single. I saw the “Badonka Donk” connection with this song, that Trace is now admitting to, and decided that it was a song that needed to be challenged head on, and I have done that at every step. The song was NOT given much radio support, and now Trace, instead of sitting at home counting his money, is in full spin mode and trying to cover up what was an admitted bad move. I think this is a huge victory.
March 21, 2011 @ 6:03 am
I think i must be blind also with this victory thing.
March 21, 2011 @ 11:27 am
And you know what, that is totally fine. I don’t expect everyone to agree with what I write or even appreciate everything I write. What I don’t agree with or appreciate is the characterization that “pop country bashing” is all that happens around here, and that it is at the expense of supporting music. It makes up 10-20% of the articles here, and I can’t be blamed if they get 80-90% of the attention, which in regard to traffic, they do. Every time I write one of these, I get people bitching that they don’t want to read about this stuff, and they’d rather read an album review. Funny I never see those people commenting on the album reviews, or interviews, or other articles supporting the music, and those kind of articles get 1/4 of the traffic these kind of articles do. Another problem is that many people use Facebook as a filter for Saving Country Music, so they don’t even see the positive articles. I can’t be responsible for that.
If you don’t want to read this kind of stuff, the solution is simple. DON’T READ IT!
March 21, 2011 @ 12:21 pm
I see what you’re saying.. Its a win because it was an epic fail.. Problem is I expect it will happen again and it will catch on and someone will reap the cash reward..
March 20, 2011 @ 11:03 am
Artists that make art because they have to or because it is a sincere creative outlet need to be celebrated. This is one of the things that makes humans human and not simply upright walking primates. Trig does this. He celebrates here on SCM.
Artists that make art to make a buck need to be chastised and called out for what they are: corporate whores. Trace Atkins is an excellent example of this. Corporate whores celebrate winner-take-all capitalism and every bad and ugly thing that accompanies this. They do nothing with feeling or integrity. They stand for the commoditization of human goodness.
Trig does this too. Here is an example. I see it as a victory just as I see his reviews and celebrations of other artists as such. This isn’t an opinion piece. This is pointing out Trace Atkins direct and honest pursuit of the almighty dollar in the name of country music.
March 18, 2011 @ 10:40 am
If you are just recording music to make money it’s time to step down. Yes we all have jobs that we go to in order to pay the bills but doing something artistic in any type of genre is supposed to come from your heart and soul. Otherwise you might as well be singing karaoke. Trace, sing what you WANT to sing. Not what the masses want to hear.
March 18, 2011 @ 5:18 pm
@ Nikki
He can not go to making music that is real at this point. I dont know this guys music, but I do know that once you sell out to pop-country, you are only relevant as long as pop-country radio likes you. If he quits now, the mindless listeners would forget about him in a week. I dont know this guy or his music, my question is does he even write any of his own songs.
March 18, 2011 @ 5:27 pm
Not only would they forget about him, they would laugh at him, tear him down like Billy Ray Cyrus’s mullet. Trace Adkins as an artist works only one way: megahuge. If he had to even par down to playing county fairs and 1,500 capacity venues, he’d be filing for bankruptcy. He is a corporation, with very high overhead. The beast must be fed.
March 18, 2011 @ 6:51 pm
I know. It’s just sad. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and think that at one point in his life he might have just wanted to sing. Then someone started waving money at him and he gave in to it. It happens way too often and I can only shake my head at the madness. I love my job and the people I work with. I have been offered better jobs with better money but I have turned them down. To me it is more important to do what you love than have that extra big paycheck.
March 18, 2011 @ 7:43 pm
Totally off topic here, but I did ask the question of did he write any of his songs.
for youre listening pleasure, thank me later
willie and waylon
write youre own songs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXavCs-wSJQ
March 18, 2011 @ 9:00 pm
I might be mistaken but I don’t think he plays any instruments either. So he doesn’t write his songs, doesn’t play his songs. Hmmm. He just stands there and looks pretty?!
Another manufactured pop country megastar who eventually will lose their luster because they do not have any real talent other than being attractive and being able to hold a tune (sometimes).
March 20, 2011 @ 3:47 pm
He plays guitar
March 22, 2011 @ 11:28 am
“So he doesn”™t write his songs, doesn”™t play his songs. Hmmm. He just stands there and looks pretty?!
Another manufactured pop country megastar who eventually will lose their luster because they do not have any real talent other than being attractive and being able to hold a tune (sometimes).”
I assume you have the same feelings about George Strait too? Holds a guitar,doesn’t write his songs,women go nuts over his looks and he can hold a tune…Careful!
March 22, 2011 @ 2:47 pm
I don’t have to be careful about liking George Strait. He was a real ranchhand played his songs around the campfire and was told he ought to go to Nashville. He has a gentle spirit, not cocky and conceited, sings songs from his heart, not about honky hineys and brown farm animals and baseball teams and hot mamas to catapult him to stardom. He holds the records for number one hits and yes, could be considered pop country to a degree but not all the way. I think there is a huge difference between George Strait as a performer and Trace Adkins the performer.
I look at George Strait as a Conway or George Jones, in that company, and down to earth as all get out.
Besides, George Strait was the first concert I took my son to. AND, my son sang Clear Blue Sky at kareoke when he was like 8 years old and did a damn good job so, Yeah. I dig George Strait.
March 20, 2011 @ 6:45 pm
Then maybe he might try choosing songs not for their “commercial appeal” and poppiness and quit selling out to make money. That is one facet of being a pop country sellout: Choosing songs only for the chart position strategy.
If you love and respect music, then you wouldn’t do that.
March 22, 2011 @ 6:11 pm
Hey not a whole lot of argument here,I like George Strait too.Kind of lost on the picking songs for “commercial appeal” only.To sit there and suggest George has never done that makes me scratch my head a bit.I guess he’s gone in the recording studio all these years and says “give me songs that have no commercial appeal.I don’t want hits”.
Oh well,just as long as we all understand he’s no more of a songwriter than what Adkins is.
March 18, 2011 @ 11:12 am
Seems like he went to the Mark McGwire School of Apologizing. His painting analogy would’ve been more accurate if he’d have said “I took a dump on a canvas and tried to sell it as art, I’m sorry.”
March 18, 2011 @ 11:22 am
I agree, Burch. But in all honesty, even that dump on canvas would have more value because of its commentary on the state of the art world. What I mean is, what Trace is saying here is that he doesn’t even think about what he is doing as shit and that shit as a commentary on the music scene. He just makes what he thinks will sell. That’s pathetic to me. Even more pathetic than selling poop.
March 18, 2011 @ 3:09 pm
that is a degradation to poop salesmen.
March 18, 2011 @ 12:20 pm
The guy’s a ding-dong, obviously. But if people weren’t buying this shit, the epidemic would soon cease. Even if this single wasn’t as successful as he or his label wanted, it still made money I’m sure. More than I’ll ever make anyway. There needs to be a country audience that demands more. Right now there’s a small rebel army who rejects this crap, but in the post-Garth era it’s gonna take a collective awakening. Mainstream Country has always sucked–with a few exceptions. That’s why I rejected it growing up. Trace Adkins, Kenny Chesney, and whoever, are just the latest Mac Davis’ and Anne Murray’s and whatever other soulless crap that was “cool” thirty years ago. Even Waylon and Willie and Hag and George Jones’ sales for a really successful record topped off at a million copies sold–that just doesn’t cut it for major labels now. They’ll keep hawking schlock until it ceases to sell, unfortunately. And, unfortunately, it continues to sell. I’m optimistic that it will eventually be overthrown, but then they’ll just market Blake Shelton as Outlaw Country (which seems to be what they’re doing now), and hope that people accept the lesser of two evils. I saw a quote somewhere from someone that said Nashville doesn’t try to make music people LIKE, they just try not to make records that people DON’T LIKE. Looks like Trace Adkins made a record that some people don’t like…Sorry for the ramble.
March 18, 2011 @ 5:31 pm
Another way I’ve heard it put is that Nashville makes the product, then creates the dermand.
Blake Shelton is slowly climbing up my shit list. David Allan Coe needs to run him over with his Panhead for ripping him off.
March 22, 2011 @ 11:33 am
Amen.Take away his twitter page that’s filled with 16 yr old little girls who think he’s “cool” for pretending to be drunk all the time,where would he be?! Now he’s in Hollywood on yet another sickening singing show.The dude done got on my nerves a long time ago
March 18, 2011 @ 2:49 pm
If this was the same CSR luncheon, early March, and I believe it was, there were other artists there doing songs for the showcase.
One artist took his alloted time and did a version of Merle’s “You Take Me For Granted”, with the sentiment being that he was speaking for real country music. I.E. radio and big labels are taking it for granted. A nice touch, and something that we might appreciate an artist doing from within the Nashville scene.
March 18, 2011 @ 3:07 pm
whore.
March 18, 2011 @ 5:17 pm
Shut the front door. Wasn’t Trace the one saying, “SO WHAT” in another interview. Now, it’s a bunch of backtrackin’ mumbo jumbo about well water.
I think we should say, “OH WELL.”
Maybe Taylor can write him a song.
March 18, 2011 @ 5:32 pm
Taylor writes better songs than Trace’s cabal of writers that he has also thrown under the bus because of this song, however sarcastically.
March 18, 2011 @ 8:55 pm
Please don’t tell me that Taylor Swift sets the bar! Oh. Wait. We are talking about pop country. Maybe we should start from Taylor Swift and spiral down . . .
March 18, 2011 @ 5:30 pm
“Yes ladies and gentleman, even Trace Adkins is now complaining about the short-sightedness of country radio”
That short sightedness stretches waaaaaay past country radio
March 18, 2011 @ 8:06 pm
so when he is going to apoligize for making shitty music and taking part in the sissification and destruction of country music ?
March 21, 2011 @ 1:03 pm
I love how i can not reply to your current comment below me. I for one come on this site from time to time and comment on all articles written not just the pop country ones. The main point i had was when are we going to move on to something new? If you go to your home page you see two articles on the front page written about this song. As far as “pop country” bashing goes you have basically bashed Trace Adkins to death in the last couple months for whom plays “Pop Country”. I am not a Trace Adkins fan.You say that people think all this site does is bash pop country , well in a sense it kinda does when you write 3 articles bashing the same song in the last couple of months. Who cares what Trace Adkins sings?? Let him sing what ever he wants.
March 21, 2011 @ 1:57 pm
Repo,
That’s just how the nesting comments work. They only tier so far. Usually what I do is find the next available comment that has a reply option, and it will put that comment below the last comment in that thread.
March 21, 2011 @ 2:24 pm
Cool deal!! I didn’t realize that.
March 24, 2011 @ 11:16 am
God this guy makes me sick and the worst part is when you try to say anything bad about him or have a conversation in general with a typical person about thye state of country music today the jump all over you like you’ve just told them you were a terrorist, the idol worship is poathetic I’m over it and I wish i could just liine all these pop country men up kick them in the balls and tell them that was for Hank.
March 30, 2011 @ 3:39 am
Trace did go to that well one to many times ladies and gentlemen I present to you a list of Trace Adkins novelty songs!
Honky Tonk Badonkadonk Jamey Johnson co-wrote this song
Ladies Love Country Boys Jamey Johnson also co-wrote this song
I Got My Game On Jamey Johnson also co-wrote this song
Swing
Hot Mama
And yes there are probably more but I do not want to devote anymore of my time to figuring out what they are. And no I am not trying to hate on Jamey Johnson I own the Guitar Song and The Lonesome Song and think Jamey Johnson is a great artist, I am just trying to make a point.
April 21, 2011 @ 9:53 am
Wow!….people who share the same view as I do. I was introduced to this turd last night, and this might go on my list as the second worst country song I’ve ever heard. (Honky Tonk Badonkadonk being #1).
I’m sick of singers picking a phrase, or a gimmick that they KNOW will be popular and recording a song about it. I’m looking at half your songs Brad Paisley. I’m suprised that there isn’t a song called “Fishin’ Fartin’ and Fornicatin'” — don’t steal that, Jamey Johnson!
March 11, 2013 @ 2:44 pm
You people are so full of yourselves… For most of you I’m guessing it’s just flat out jealousy! If you think you’d do it differently you’re fooling yourselves. To begin with the artist has a lot less say in what happens especially in the beginning for sure. They call it the Music Business for a reason because that’s what it is! It’s not the Music Hobby or the Music I just have to express myself, eat beans and live in my car because I’m so righteous about my “art”. Get over youreselves. And for all you Country Music purists touting Hank etc. Hank would knock you off your high horse you’re on. And my biggest point is music is music and good is in the ear of the listener. I don’t care who the artist is or what “genre” it’s suppossed to be. If I like it I like it – if I don’t I don’t! Personally there’s several “Country” songs I don’t care for that’s just the nature of “Music” as a whole in my opinion. What I find considerably more offensive is the self-righteous arrogant attitudes…