.99 Review: Rodney Atkins - Farmer's Daughter

Rodney Atkins - Farmer's Daughter

Listen HERE

The People's Take

ANOTHER HIT (5 Stars) - This song is great!!!! Another HIT from Rodney can't wait to hear the rest of the album.

-Redneck JB

Another hit! (5 Stars) - I love, love, LOVE it! ;D

-Robinson :)

Super! (5 Stars) - Another great song from country's best star!!!! Keep 'em coming Rodney!

-rodneyfan

My Take

The plusses: It's not nearly as puerile (yeah, I pulled out the thesaurus for that one) as most of Atkins' recent knuckle-draggers. Also, it's pretty catchy. One more: it's unmistakably country.

The negatives: From the moment you read the title, you know this isn't going to plow up any new cropland, and your assumptions are correct. Of course Atkins works for the farmer. Of course the farmer's female offspring is a dime. Of course Atkins gets him a piece of that sweet potato pie. Of course they get married. Of course the bridge is only there to serve standard procedure.

The WTFs: He goes from seeing the farmer's daughter to tapping it inside of two lines with little explanation of how he got from point A to point P. How romantic. I guess we should just assume that she immediately finds the dirty farmhand's potential big green tractor skills to be worth the suspicions and doubts her dad would undoubtedly have about someone he hired to shovel shit and feed bovine.

The bottom line: It's not as bad as I'd hoped it to be, and his career has probably not reached its omega as suspected in this parody. That said, it's still dumber'n a Jake Owens groupie and twice as forgettable.

Total Value: .45/.99

The Checklist:

Church/God

Mama

Boots

Name Dropping

Dying Person

County Fair

Lost Love

Love

Hometown Pride

Kindly Advice

Truck

Whiskey

Beer

Life Affirmation

USA

Soldiers

Pop Sheen

Star Power

5 Hip-Hop/R&B Parody Covers

Satire of country music Saturday night/Sunday morning songs

Note: This is a satire.

Play Hard, Pray Harder

©2010 Trailer satires

Saturday night I get my truck waxed up

Head down to the bar and drink a cup

And do some lines of coke

Came in with my girl but left with my ex

Had some public unprotected sex

Gave her clap but she don't know

Chorus

I play hard, so I pray harder

Sunday mornin' I ask the Father

To forgive me of my sins

Then I go and do it again

Yeah, I play hard, so I pray harder

Sunday mornin' in the Baptist church

Track marks achin' and my head it hurts

Singing Amazing Grace

Thinkin' 'bout fightin' the night before

I hope the cops don't find the corpse

But the Lord says it's okay

I play hard, so I pray harder

Sunday mornin' I ask the Father

To forgive this sinner's soul

For smokin' a big fat bowl

Yeah, I play hard, so I pray harder

Bridge

I love Jesus and the US of A

You know what I mean?

But I like gun runnin' and gettin' laid

So thank God I'm redeemed

I play hard, so I pray harder

Sunday mornin' I ask the Father

To forgive my dirty deeds

My arson, lust and greed

Yeah, I play hard, so I pray harder

Regular Guy Reviews: Nightjar - Hometown Stranger

I caught wind of this album while chatting Butler (I'm rooting for you Monday night!) basketball with co-lead singer Christopher Hess on Twitter. I checked out the (3 free!) songs on his band, Nightjar's website and was hooked. Sometimes the best music is right under your nose and you don't even know it.

Hometown Stranger is a feast of heartland rock, complete with yearning lyrics, horns, organs and plenty of guitar. It's custom built for spring and summer with the windows down.

Check Your Mirrors opens the album with a Slobberbone-esque upper-shelf bar band sound and a "Bad radio vocal effect" they were very happy with (as Hess told me on Twitter). This song rocks - it's one of my favorite songs of the early year - and it's a fantastic way to lead off a varied and satisfying album.

Much like Two Cow Garage, whom they also bring to mind, Nightjar alternates between 2 lead singers with contrasting voices. There's the bumpy gravel road voiced Hess (who is a professor by day!) and the smooth voiced Greg Osborne, the respective songs they sing giving the band almost an entirely different sound. You get a more mainstream AAA leaning with Osborne and a gritty, roots rock feel from Hess.

Diamond Joe Hodson shreds on the guitar, blending hard rock-ish riffs and solos into the Americana with ridiculous ease. His playing is a definite stand-out on this album, but it never overshadows the overall product.

Besides Check Your Mirrors, my other faves include album-closer, Lonesome Whistle, a touching ode to a dearly departed grandmother, and Catch My Soul, a hook-laden pop-rocky (not to be confused with the mouth tingling candy) track which would have sounded right at home on the radio between the Gin Blossoms and Blues Traveler in the 90's (though the sound is not dated).

Fans of Bruce Springsteen, Lucero, The Replacements, Whiskeytown and the aforementioned Slobberbone and Two Cow Garage should find Hometown Stranger to be right in their sweet spot.

Check out previews and/or buy it here.

A Venn Diagram for Monday