Showing posts with label Ronnie Dunn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ronnie Dunn. Show all posts

Jul 22, 2014

FTM Praise: The Kiss of Commercial Death

With Jon Pardi's "What I Can't Put Down" struggling to find footing on the charts, I came to this realization. You can pretty much guarantee that if Farce the Music really likes a mainstream country single, the song will not have a whiff of the top 10 on the country charts. Don't believe me? Here are some commercial country singles we enjoyed, and their peaks on the US Country Chart.

Chris Young "Neon" - 23 (2012)

Sunny Sweeney "Staying's Worse Than Leaving" - 38 (2011)


Chris Stapleton "What Are You Listening To" - 46 (2013)

Charlie Worsham "Want Me Too" - 46 (2014)

Lee Ann Womack "Solitary Thinkin'" - 39 (2009)

Alan Jackson  "So You Don't Have to Love Me Anymore" - 25 (2012)

Kacey Musgraves "Blowin' Smoke" - 31 (2013)

Gary Allan "It Ain't the Whiskey" - 40 (2013)


Julie Roberts "Wake Up Older" - 46 (2005)


Brandy Clark "Stripes" - (did not chart) (2013)


Dierks Bentley "Draw Me a Map" - 33 (2010)

Little Big Town "Your Side of the Bed" - 29 (2013)

David Nail "Sound of a Million Dreams" - 38 (2012)


Ronnie Dunn "Cost of Livin'" - 19 (2011)

Jamey Johnson (All singles 2009-2012) - 34, 52, 39, 51, DNC


Emily West "Blue Sky" - 38 (2010)

George Strait "Drinkin' Man" - 37 (2012)


Kellie Pickler "Someone Somewhere Tonight" - (did not chart) (2013)

Jul 23, 2013

In the Year 2030: July '13


Scott Borchetta again pimping the latest late-teens country-pop ingenue
and it's way creepier than ever.

Blackjack Billy enjoy a case of Old Milwaukee and fondly
recall that time they put an album out 17 years ago.

Number 1 country song is the hip-hop anthem "Slut-ass Hoe" which wasn't
even released to country radio but gained interest because the rapper casually
mentioned being from the south in the lyrics.

Shooter Jennings/Triggerman feud enters its 20th year with no sign of a truce.

A retired Ronnie Dunn lists his career regrets as follows: breaking up B&D,
that rap song in 2013, and that EDM album in 2014.

Trucks banned for environmental reasons. 
Country radio shuts down until songwriters can regroup.

Hunter Hayes' career comes to an end when his voice finally changes.

Shinedown's third country album goes double platinum.

Rascal Flatts plan reunion tour, to the delight of caterers across America.

Aging Brantley Gilbert fans dismayed to find that their sagging
BG tattoos now resemble the word "butt" in cursive.

Jun 24, 2013

Ronnie Dunn's New Ink

Now that Ronnie Dunn has followed the fools' parade into hick-hop, he's updated his forearm tattoo to reflect his new calling, yo.



Jun 11, 2013

Little Known Facts: June '13



While Darius Rucker did not write "Wagon Wheel," he did help produce "Chinese Democracy" for Guns N' Roses.

Joe Diffie and Ronnie Dunn are recruiting a third member to join their new hick-hop outfit, Middle Aged and Cray Cray.

Make sure you check inside your Pepsi cans this summer. One lucky person will open a can with a life size Justin Moore cutout placed inside.

Colt Ford has never eaten the bones at Kentucky Fried Chicken but has swallowed an entire bucket of chicken twice.

If Blake Shelton's voice had the same inflection as his brain, he'd sing like Ben Stein.

Both members of Florida-Georgia Line thought Nelly was the chick from Little House on the Prairie before their "Cruise" remix, and they were still okay with it.

16-year-old girls love Jason Aldean and Jason Aldean loves (The remainder of this Little Known Fact has been deleted based on advice obtained from Trailer's lawyer)

Gary Levox puts his pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us. He requires a hydraulic hoist but still does one leg at a time.

Pistol Annies' rumored break-up is being blamed on Ashley and Angeleena coming to the realization that Miranda actually talked them into singing backup on "Boys Round Here."

Billy Currington doesn't know the meaning of moderation. Seriously, he doesn't know the meaning of the word.

------------------------------
Thanks to (?) Jeremy Harris for most of these.

Jan 5, 2012

The Final Straw




"…one of the most real country songs I've ever had the pleasure of listening to." - Country Standard Time

"A masterpiece that is as timely as it is well written and sung." - That Nashville Sound

""Cost of Livin'" is a remarkable artistic triumph that any artist would have just cause to be proud of." - 1 to 10 Country Review

"…the most frighteningly real song of 2011. – Dan Milliken (Country Universe)

"This track is a masterpiece, which I can’t praise enough…" - My Kind of Country

"…the song and Ronnie’s performance are a potent reminder of music’s gift and potential for reflecting life as it is — and for offering messages that truly matter." - Country Music Rocks

"If it doesn't reach the top 5, I'm done with country radio, other than making fun of it. This is a signature song of our times." - Farce the Music

"Shame on the program directors and station owners who don’t have the testicular fortitude to play “Cost Of Living…" - The Music Junkyard

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

So, here we are. 2 months have passed since Ronnie Dunn's "Cost of Livin'" peaked at #17 on the Bob Kingsley Countdown (and at similar rankings - mostly lower - on other charts) and I, true to my word, have not listened to top 40 country by my own decision in some time. To be fair, I rarely listened to it anyway, other than morning shows to hear traffic and weather reports, but still. This unforgivable snubbing of a masterful and universally praised song is the end. Screw you, country radio.

I'm not going to put this on the listeners for a change. Sure, 20-30% of listeners probably hated this song because it was too slow, too sad, too country, too real - but the rest either loved, liked or tolerated it. Surely that's about the same numbers for any given hit single on the radio. So why did "Cost of Livin'" get frozen out (of the top 20 in many cases)?

Could this theory be correct? I think it's very possible. I won't say it's a government conspiracy - more likely a business conspiracy. Big business would like to put forward the idea that the economy is improving - there's the axiom "as you think so shall you be" - no matter how slowly this may be so. And just maybe, they'd be so brash as to nudge Clearchannel into putting the kibosh on this song. Ronnie Dunn didn't, and for that, I applaud him.

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.” - Mark Twain

This was originally going to be one of my "sackpunch" articles, but country radio programmers have no balls. I doubt anybody was going to lose a job over playing Dunn's song, so why'd they stop playing it? If I knew the inner workings of single promotion and demotion, I'd have a stronger case here, but there's undoubtably enough blame to go around. I'm guessing programmers do as they always do - follow. Follow the lead of higher ups. Crank the happy stuff, the revolving-door redneck stuff, the mild 'she-left-me' songs with hopeful endings, the drivel that sells ads. Eyes on the bottom line.

In a way, eyes on the bottom line got us here… to this economy. Buying the cheapest crap, hiring the cheapest labor, resting on the cheapest of excuses. Get it now! Live for today! While that may be a good plan for the individual on some levels, it's not conducive to society's long-term success. I'll get off my lame attempt at making sense of America's financial situation, because I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I just know what I like to listen to. I just know I want something aimed at the heart, not the wallet.

How dare anyone in power determine for the listener what he or she wants to hear? Yet, this is country radio's business model. The 'failure' of Ronnie Dunn's "Cost of Livin'" is a microcosm of what's wrong with commercial radio and I'm done.

I know traditional country won't be played on mainstream country radio anytime soon. I've come to accept that. What I can't accept is that they won't even play something that makes the listener feel any feeling other than happy or blissfully ignorant.

For that, I feel that they can kiss my ass goodbye.

Aug 14, 2011

Snap Judgments: Promo Only Country Radio August '11

In this edition of Promo Only Country Radio, it has finally happened. There's almost nothing here that actually qualifies as country, in my book. There's pop, there's hair metal-esque power balladry, there's rap. We've already reached the mono-genre that Triggerman at Saving Country Music talks about all the time. Sad, but true.

Click song titles to listen.

Hard to listen to any of her songs without bias now. Sure, she's no Chris Brown, but her name still carries some baggage. This is an inspirational pop tune, a la what she used to put out a lot (huh huh huh - you said "put out a lot") after "Blue." She's in fine voice here. It's not a bad song, probably good enough to return Leann to the upper realms of the charts. Not something I plan to listen to again, but it won't make me change radio stations.
C+

I like his voice. First time I've actually heard it. This is a power ballad. Poison with a twang. I like it in a guilty pleasure sort of way but I can't, in good conscience, give a really high rating to a non-country song released as a country song.
B-

Steve's settled into this groove of earnest songs that don't have much spark, but do carry plenty of honesty. This is a non-flag-waving tune about a soldier returning from, presumably, the Middle East, and hoping to ease back into real life. It's very strong lyrically. There's an unspoken fear underlying the narrative that maybe his family doesn't need him as much as he needs them right now and that's heartbreaking. Good stuff, maybe a little too down-tempo to be a big hit but who knows?
B+

More pop country. Not grabbing me at all. Yawn. Bouncy and uplifting I guess, but I wasn't paying much attention. That's what country radio is counting on!
C-

I've heard this song many times, so this isn't a snap judgment. Cost of Livin' is an awesome song, far and away the best commercial country single of 2011, possibly the best in recent years. If you don't like it, I don't like you. If it doesn't reach the top 5, I'm done with country radio, other than making fun of it. This is a signature song of our times.
A+

A double-entendre stretched into a 3 minute country song. It is country, so there's that going for it. Going down, rod in her hand, pretty pink bobbers... yeah this is about fishing. Quite honestly, this is as dirty as anything 2 Live Crew ever put out... and your kids will be singing along to it. Disconcerting in my book. Kinda catchy but I can't get behind this at all.
D

Yep, still the worst thing I've heard in recent memory. Insert humorous comparison to feces here: _____ See this review.
F

This has a different feel to it, more organic than most of what's on the radio. It reminds me a little of "Lover, Lover" a little, but more uptempo. If country must stray from its roots, I suppose this is an acceptable road to take.
B

You want to know why there are hardly any females on the country charts? Because EVERYTHING new that comes out sounds just like this. Girls, quit following... we need some leaders.
D

Idol's runner-up delivers a "mama" song much better than Idol alum superstar Carrie Underwood's recent one. Surprisingly, this is one of the few country-sounding songs on this collection. I think I hear fiddles somewhere in there. Good voice. Solid debut.
B-

Speaking of Carrie... here's her latest, a soap opera-ready power ballad with former-neo-traditionalist Brad Paisley that ain't bad but ain't much. Huge hit that'll be all but forgotten a year from now.
C

It's sad when I was actually looking forward to this song to break up the monotony. Ugh. Not good. Colt still can't rap. The vocals are so strangely processed that it barely sounds like Craig Morgan singing the hook. Colt still can't rap. Did I already say that? This is the hick hop version of one of Eminem's songs about his daughter. Positives: nice message, country instrumentals. Negatives: everything else.
D+

Taking a cue from Chris Young, Jerrod re-releases a single he already put out. In fact, I already reviewed it on one of these Promo Only write-ups. Happily, it has grown on me since the last time I reviewed it. Sadly, it's still not anything special.
B-

I like Scotty's voice and the fact that he says he plans to "stay country," blending Conway and Merle into his modern sound gives me hope for him and the genre as a whole. However, his first one out of the gate is too cheesy for me to even listen to, much less enjoy. The fact that the hook is an unintended double-entendre for wang size is just embarrassing. 10 years ago, you'd have been labeled a perv for interpretting it that way but these days... with even news websites using dirty double-meaning headlines.. you have to be cognizant of every possible meaning, intended or not.
C-

Already tanked, and for good reason. While I have a guilty desire for B&R to come back with something as shamefully catchy as "Ride a Horse," it's not looking likely. This is a lunk-headed piece of crap. Not clever, not catchy, not anything. I thought John Rich was a big time songwriter. You're only as good as your last hit. He's gonna be auctioning off Mt. Richmore bottle by bottle in no time at this rate. This is garbage.
D-

Today is not your day, Shania. Boring. Nearly unlistenable inspirational dreck. I didn't expect anything remotely sounding like Tanya Tucker out of Ms. Twain, but this is ridiculous. Apparently Mutt Lange was the mad puppet-master behind Shania's success, because if this is any indication of what we might hear from her from this point on, she's done.
D-

What more is there to say? I've run this song into the ground and still no one gave a shit. It hit number one like I knew it would. I'm done here.
D-

Apr 4, 2011

ACMs Wrap-up

Just a few more observations from Trailer's La-z-boy about last night's ACM show. (in no particular order that they appeared on the show)




















Ronnie Dunn seemed a little out of sorts and somber without his old partner in crime, Kix, who was seen working a coffee cart backstage.






















Jason Aldean struck an even more outlaw pose than ever before.




















Not one to be out-outlawed, Eric Church took it a step further. Many think he crossed a line.






















We witnessed the triumphant return of the Taylor Face.


We also witnessed quite a dog and pony show of celebs with questionable country cred.













Donnie and Marie Osmond






















Rihanna got into the spirit of things.
























That famed country crooner Celine Dion made an appearance.















And yeah, this was just nasty...

Mar 28, 2011

Snap Judgments: Promo Only Country Radio April

Click the song titles to listen.


Bridgette Tatum - Hillbilly Rockstar
Huh? I was expecting a chick. Holy sh*t, according to the Google, it is a chick! She sounds more manly than Bryan White or Gary LeVox could ever hope to. This sounds like the Lost Trailers under a new name or something. Hillbilly Rockstar is in the vein of "Holler Back" and "She's Country" with the modern rock production and some nods to something more urban. It's kinda catchy and I'm guessing by the placement at the head of this comp, that somebody's putting a lot of promotional cash behind this band. That doesn't make it a good song. Seriously though, I'm gonna have to see some nude pics or medical documentation regarding this person's sex before I believe they are female. (kidding, but still...)
C-

Chris Young - Tomorrow
Chris strikes while the iron is hot with another winning single. It's early to say so, but he's something of a modern Keith Whitley, albeit with less of the stone country sound. It's a song you'll swear you've heard a million times before, but Chris invigorates it with his killer vocals and confidence. I love it. If you're wondering who's going to fill the shoes of Alan Jackson or George Strait, look no further. I don't have "man crushes" but if I did...
A

Toby Keith - Somewhere Else
Toby has been on a steady slide to Nashville's B-list… not that he cares. He hasn't hit the top of the charts in who knows when, but this song might change that. This is an earworm of a loser anthem. Toby actually sounds like he's having fun for a change (though I thought he sounded enthused on Trailerhood, which underperformed). Good stuff.
B+

Colt Ford - Country Thang
Already reviewed this. Won't listen again.
F

Keith Urban - Without You
Downtempo and earnest. Not exciting me though. Good enough for background music and selling ads though.
C

Jody Booth - Gold Digger
Perversely, I was hoping this was a cover of Kanye West's "Gold Digger." I wanted to see how he tackled the troublesome "-igger" rhyme. It's not. It's not bad though. Jody's got a rich, 90's country sounding voice and a lot of potential. I don't think the lackluster chorus does the verses or his voice much justice, but overall…decent.
C+

Gretchen Wilson - I'd Love to Be Your Last
Simple, heartfelt and beautiful. If this isn't Gretchen's comeback hit, she won't have one.
A-

The Doobie Brothers - World Gone Crazy
For a supposed foray into country, this sounds way too much like what used to be called soft rock. Oh, right…. still, this is cheesy as hell. Too much so even for country radio. Some 50-something guy on P90X dating a girl his daughter's age and driving a Miata somewhere will love this… but not me.
D+

She's got a nice voice and it's a sexy song, but the chorus seems half-hearted and the production is too pop for my preferences. Not all that memorable.
C-

Eli Young Band - Crazy Girl
Texas country dolled up for Nashville. Sounds like a hit to me. Also sounds like something that doesn't excite me in the least, but I guess I won't change the station if it comes on.
C

Ronnie Dunn - Bleed Red
Meh. Nice sentiment and Ronnie's voice is always great, but aside from the cool plunking piano notes, the tune is a bore. (*follow up - it's growing on me)
C

Eric Church - Homeboy
I'm at a loss on this one. This should be the moment for Eric to capitalize on his recent successes with something that knocks it out of the park and vaults him onto the A-list. Instead, it's an awkwardly conceived take on a brother who's slipped into rebellion and hip-hop culture. It is catchy though, and the theme will resonate with a lot of listeners.
B-

This may be a tired theme, reflecting on those who have passed on, but it's a genuinely affecting song much in the way Jamey Johnson's "In Color" was. Snapshots and details, rather than rote Hallmark card prose, give this real emotion and Moore's performance is pretty strong. I love to pick on Justin, but I can't do it this time out.
B+

This begins our portion of the Promo album in which I've never heard of any of these people. There's an obvious political pecking order to these things, with the superstars and handpicked up-and-comers leading the way. The B, C and D-listers always round out the collections. Tonja has a good enough vocal performance here, but the song is dull and won't be getting much Clearchannel airplay.
D+

Levi Hart - Borderline Crazy
No. Clever title, but that's all this has to offer. They don't even use that cute wordplay to craft a memorable hook. Bad 90's country come to town.
D

River Road - Something I Can Wrap My Arms Around
This is catchy and pretty well written. Sounds like a cross between Restless Heart and some 90's hat act. Not bad, but the band sounds canned and flat.
C-

D.J. Miller - Whatever it Takes
This begins the portion of the review where I get slackjawed and sleepy because of the general mediocrity of the songs. DJ sounds good, but this is nothing new by any stretch of the imagination. A middling "proclaiming my love" ballad that drew my first yawn.
D

Brice Beaird - Old Rock Church
James Tayloresque. "esque" might be an understatement. Is this James using a fake name? Good lyrics, nice change of pace, but I'm not a huge JT fan. Still, bonus points for not sounding like 1997 rehashed. Very nicely shot video too!
C+

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