“The 77 writers from all over North America who voted in the 10th annual Country Music Critics Poll named [Brad] Paisley Artist of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year and cited his latest release, American Saturday Night, as the year’s second best album.” – Geoffrey Himes in Nashville Scene.

Well, dang. I guess that justifies learning another Paisley song. I considered learning “Welcome to the Future,” which reached #2 on Billboard’s Country Songs chart^[1], a while back, but didn’t want to over-Paisley this blog. But it’s been a while now, and I think the song deserves its attention. Written by Brad and consistent hit-writer Chris DuBois^[2], the song takes a macroscopic look at the way technology, globalism and race-relations have evolved over the past 50 years. Particularly worth noting is the third verse, which paints racism’s ugly picture with the image of a cross burning in a (presumably black) kid’s front yard for asking out a (presumably white) girl. I think this is interesting because it’s on the country airwaves not only condemning overt racism, but also condemning a quieter symptom of lingering racism: disapproving of interracial couples.

For all of its merits, there are still a couple things that bug me about this song. Specifically, there are two lines. The first is maybe just a personal dislike of calling things “a revolution” due to overuse of the term, so Every day’s a revolution bugs me. But then if I think of the other, more mundane meaning (which I don’t think was really intended as its mundanity runs opposite of the song’s theme), I kind of like it, because it’s true: the earth makes one revolution on its axis every day. The second thing that bugs me is that Martin Luther King Jr. is referred to as Martin Luther. This makes me nuts because those are two distinct historical figures, but since the context clears up who’s who, I guess it’s okay. And I apologize if those pseudo-critiques brought you too far into my world of hearing things literally.

Musically, this song was crafted to showcase Paisley’s guitar-slinging between just about every line, and as a result, the verse structure is surprisingly sparse by contemporary country hit standards. It was pretty hard to get the phrasing right when learning this one. And the “Hey”s in the chorus and bridge overlap, so I had to do this one as a multi-track. Instead of filling the whole thing out with bass and fake drums, though, I kept it to acoustic guitar, a lead and some back-up vocals (on the “Hey”s) and then a synth, to bring in one of Frank Rogers’ notable production choices the Paisley version. I really like the electro-sounding synth in the original recording as a nod to the concept of “the future.”

It’s been a while since my last post, but I finally found some time now that I’ve recovered from the holiday mania, and found some motivating inspiration in the new Lady Antebellum single, “American Honey.” One the whole, I’d rate the song at about a 7 out of 10, but if I could, I’d give the chorus melody a 12.

I was driving to lunch one day last week, and after hearing it on the radio, was crushed that I couldn’t just hear it again. This is one of the few songs that I’ve heard recently that has actually got me to go buy the song from iTunes for a whopping $1.29. The concept and verses seem a little lacking on first listen; in a way they sound like a rehash of Tom Petty’s “Free Falling” (and a million other songs) in that they’re describing a good American girl. But in the third verse the song takes a reflective twist, revealing that the singer is that girl, later in life, which is a redeeming payoff for the song. However, if the chorus hadn’t been so perfect, I would probably have changed the station before ever getting to the story’s payoff at all.

Again in the chorus, it’s not even the lyrics that I love, it’s the melody. Jason Blume makes a case that it’s not the lyrics that make a hit, it’s the melody. And he’s right. Of course the lyrics have to be great, too, but without the melody, no one would buy the record. Honestly, the title and hook lyric “American Honey” kind of irks me, to be perfectly honest, but it’s catchy. And it’s smashed into your head at the end of not only every chorus, but also every verse, so you’ll never forget it, and won’t have any trouble finding the song on iTunes.

According to iTunes, “American Honey” was written by Cary Barlowe, Hillary Lindsey and Shane Stevens. I think they might have listened to a lot of Huey Lewis when writing this one… listen for it in the chorus. Whatever they did, it worked.

I made another multi-track recording of this, mostly because I started with a midi piano track so I could transpose easily and find the right key for me to sing in, with a drum track to make it easier to stay in time. And then I added the harmonies, so I figured I should finish it out with bass and guitar. It’s not perfect, of course, but I got tired of working on it, so here you go, even if I am a bit flat in a couple places, and even if it’s weird for a male to be singing this song.

I find it interesting how a good number of country songs have Christian themes, but they aren’t constrained to being gospel. Instead, they qualify as country. Maybe I don’t understand where the line is drawn or what qualifies as gospel, but I always wonder about that when I hear references like “please lord” or “say a prayer” in the lyrics of a country or pop song. And in this case, half the song is a prayer.

Categorization aside, the simplicity of it is just beautiful. Just about every time I hear this song on the radio, I tear up at least a little, and I don’t even have kids!

“All I Ask for Anymore” was written by a songwriting power duo consisting of Casey Beathard and Tim James^[1], who both have a stable of previous cuts and hits. The lyrics in the song do a great job of being so straight-forward you don’t really even have to think about them, with one notable exception of some ingenious foreshadowing in the first verse. In the singer’s list of smaller things he’s prayed for in the past, one of them is “one pink line when Katie said, ‘I’m late.’”

Of course Trace Adkins’ vocal performance is killer, and the producer’s use of a guitar in Drop-D tuning really brings out and echos the low baritone in his voice, too. And as always, I love all the pedal steel. Currently this one is #15 on the Billboard Country Songs chart, but I bet it’ll keep climbing for a bit.

I did my best live guitar-vocal of this song, up a step from where Trace sings it, but it’s still crazy low!

My buddy (and new co-writer), Cam, suggested I learn Rascall Flatts’ “Fast Cars and Freedom.” I’d heard the song a time or two, but never really got into it until I actively listened. What a sweet song. And it’s compelling to listeners in multiple ways. Even if you don’t understand the full story right off the bat, you can still sing along to some of the key lines because they’re all so full of imagery and melody.

The song is just full of hooks from the first guitar riff to the weird rock-star break in the chorus–”Baby don’t move / right here it is”–that makes you want to pump your fist in the air. And of course the first and last lines in the chorus are extremely strong.

The song was written by Gary LeVox, the lead singer in Rascall Flatts, with Wendell Mobley and Neil Thrasher^[1]. When the artist is a co-writer, I sometimes wonder how much credit they should get, especially when working with a writer as proven as Thrasher. Of course, it could have been almost completely written when LeVox brought it to Mobley and Thrasher… who’s to say? Also, somewhat unrelated, can we just take a minute to laugh at their names?

The structure of this song is simple on a macro level: Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Chorus. But the chorus really has three parts to it, which actually doesn’t fit one of Jason Blume’s rules tools for songwriting: never have more than two melodic or rhythmic structures to one section of the song. There is a LOT going on in this chorus, but somehow it all fits together. The first chorus melody comes in, followed by a punctuation-like change (the “rock-star break I referred to earlier), then back to the first melody, and then to a weird kind of chorus-coda, which contains the title hook. Interesting. I can only imagine that this is the product of either A) a 5-minute magic song or B) about a million rewrites.

This was a fun one to learn to play. Of course the recording isn’t perfect, but I’ve got other things to do, songs to write, etc. You know how it is. And happy Thanksgiving!

A couple weeks ago I watched the CMA awards and was really impressed by Lady Antebellum’s performance of “Need You Now,” which has been stuck in my head since. It’s #1 on Billboard’s Country Songs chart and #5 on the Hot 100, so apparently I’m not alone in liking the song. The three band members, Dave Haywood, Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley are credited for co-writing the song with current hit-maker Josh Kear (”Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood, “Wild at Heart” by Gloriana).

There are a couple of things that I find interesting about this song. First off, it doesn’t feel like a country song. There’s this weird sub-genre of pop country that is swallowing up what I’ve always considered pop/rock. Some call is “cross-over,” usually meaning that a country artist has crossed-over into pop/rock. I’ll agree that when an artist does a song like this, it’s a “cross-over,” but I think it’s a cross-over in that the artist has recorded a pop/rock song that might still smell of that crystal-clean Nashville production. In this case, it’s a rock ballad, and it reminds me of both the Alan Parsons Project’s “Eye in the Sky” (in the melodies) and also something off of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors.

Secondly, the song’s topic rings true for anyone in this cell phone generation who has loved and lost and gotten wasted. This is the first song I’ve heard about a drunk-dial, which is something that seems to be creeping into the collective social consciousness more prevalently these days. About a year ago, Google Labs released an optional add-on for their popular Gmail service called Mail Goggles which, if enabled, requires the user to solve three simple math problems before sending an email if it’s late at night, and perhaps to prevent a drunk-email. Maybe it’s the acceleration of communication technology these days that has raised the awareness of this, or maybe people drink more, or maybe my generation has just reached (or passed) the stage in life when this is most likely to occur. In any case, it’s an emotionally charged social situation that people can relate to, and one that hasn’t been overdone in songs yet.

This song is performed as a duet, but it also works as a solo song. However, the duet adds a lot of energy and contrast in the verses, and any other artist would be hard-pressed to make a recording of this song that’s as good as this single.

For example, I made a multi-track recording (including canned drums!) this time in learning the song, and of course it’s not anywhere near as good as the original. But I feel like it paid off in understanding a little bit more about the song’s melodic structure. There are a variety of melodies and counter-melodies played by the instruments that interact with and draw contrast to the vocal melodies throughout the song. In particular, there’s a little signature piano hook that pops up throughout the song, and the bass line melodically ascends counter to the verse melody. I took the liberty of omitting and/or changing the lead guitar part as I’m not much of a slide guitar player, and I didn’t record (or learn, honestly) the harmonies. This song was a stretch for me vocally. I transposed it down a step from the recording, but I don’t think it was enough. This was a good home studio learning experience for me, though, and taking note of how all the instrumental parts in the song are so strategic was also educational.