Farce the Music: Randy Houser

.99 Review
Randy Houser
"Whistlin' Dixie"

The People's Take

New Hank Jr. (5 Stars) – We have a new Hank Jr. Thanks Randy for bringing country back to our music.
-by Bchurc01

New Country (2 Stars) – Sorry Kids but these New Guys are all the same, Can't sing without Pitch Correction Machines and everybody wants to be a Hank Jr. Whats going on with Country Music, no wonder the Rockin Rollers Laugh at these People, I feel for them. They've gone from Kareokie to Record Deal.
– by MusicMan Nut

My Take

Since this is another "I'm a real country boy" listing song and I plan to rip into it momentarily, I probably shouldn't defend Randy, but MusicMan Nut (People's Take review #2) is throwing a wide net (and what's up with his capitalizations?). Sure commercial country as a whole includes way too many glorified karaoke singers, but Mr. Houser is not one of them. His rich, genuinely country, character-filled voice is one of the reasons I still have hope for the genre. Defense over.

My biggest peeve about this song is that this title/hook was wasted on yet another grocery list. I won't claim to be a consistently Nashville-calibre songwriter (I have a couple of indie cuts and a few published songs) but I wrote a lyric a few years ago called "Whistlin' Dixie" that was about a woman in a poisonous relationship who kept threatening to leave her boyfriend and move to the south, then she finally did it... thus "she ain't just whistlin' Dixie." Again, I'm no Craig Wiseman, but mine is a far better theme for this title, in my humble opinion... but the title's commercial viability is now shot for a while.

Sour grapes (FTM's favorite food source ;)) aside, this is fairly engagingly written for what it is and does present a few elements of southern living that may not have been touched on in the 1,245 previous songs about country pride. It's also well performed. I'm fairly certain that the vocals will never be an issue with Ronnie, errr, Randy.

So why waste that instrument on this song? Surely there's some narrative that could have tied all these good ol' boy touchstones together. I know I shouldn't harp on the genre as a whole when critiquing a single, but at some point, these listing songs became a parody of themselves and even your average country radio listener is going to catch onto that soon enough. This well's almost dry, boys. Find another source, or at least find a more creative way to use this one.

All in all, "Whistlin' Dixie" is far from hate-worthy, but it's a terrible misuse of a fine set of pipes.

Bonus points for not rhyming hippy with Mississippi. And shockingly, this only gets two marks on the checklist.

Total value: .55/.99