Homegrown By Zac Brown Band Review

As country music continues to evolve into the new year of 2015, some interesting trends are starting to form. Bro-country is far from gone, but ballads driven by pathos from the likes of Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood have managed to top the country music charts all during January. Those kind of tunes managing to find dominance amongst the world of country music is encouraging to see, especially since it seems to be helping the newest tune from the Zac Brown Band find gigantic commercial success.

Text Me Christmas Embraces Modern Technology In A Timeless Manner

Welcome to 25 Days Of Christmas Pop Culture! From now until Christmas Eve, I'll be tackling one piece of Christmas pop culture! It could be a book, movie, TV special, song....so long as it's festive for this time of the year, it'll be checked out in this daily column!

There's a recurring tendency to put seeming hip above quality in any form of media that deals with modern technology. The title alone of Text Me Christmas should make one wretch, longing for the days when Bing Crosby crooned Yuletide tunes. However, this song manages to subvert one's expectations of a song that leans so heavily on 2014 technology to create a surprisingly sweet song.

Eric Church's Talladega Does A Magnificent Job Reminiscing About The Past

I've made it no secret to say how much I enjoy Eric Church, and I'll keep up tradition and make it no secret in this review. The dude just oozes talent, especially in songs like Springsteen and Give Me Back My Hometown, and seeing him pop up looking like a badass biker on the Country Music Awards last night reaffirmed my admiration of the dude.

Jason Aldeans Burnin' It Down Is Occasionally Catchy But Overall Weak

Just a bit of scruff on his chin, a cowboy hat, tall frame...Jason Aldean could be taken for a country music singer any day of the week. But his astounding success in the world of country music is likely to surprise anyone. He's had twelve number one songs in his nine year old career, and every song he's released in the last six years has either gone gold or platinum. His first track, Burnin' It Down, is the first from his new album called Old Boots, New Dirt, and the success it's found is astonishing. 

Toby Keiths New Song Brings Together Booze And Patriotism

I kinda owe my whole obsession with country music to Toby Keith, a guy I grew up listening to whose music was a constant fixture in my household. How Do You Like Me Now?!, Courtesy of The Red White And Blue, and especially I Wanna Talk About Me were songs I heard endlessly and adored. What's great is that those songs hold up wonderfully as an adult. They remain not only great to listen to, but also have great lyrics and tackle some nicely realized situations unique to country music.

Dierks Bentley Yearns For Human Connection In His Newest Song

While the likes of Chase Rice settle for singing about women in a manner that would have been sexist in the 1930's, Dierks Bentley sets his goals higher in terms of musical content. The signer has always been more at home with songs that have some sort of painful emotion laced on them. Now, he's done some fun upbeat tunes (5-1-5-0, Drunk On A Plane), but his more somber work is just masterful. Just one listen of Settle for A Slowdown and you'll know that it is in working with the more melancholy aspects of the human condition that Bentley finds glorious success.

All Josh Turner Wants In His New Song Is Tranquility

Well Josh Turner, where on Earth have you been hiding? The country music singer has been laying low since 2012, which was pretty much the most inconsistent year for him in terms of what kind of success his singles achieved. He only released two songs in the year, but one of them, Time Is Love, went on to become the number one country song of 2012, a monumental achievement. However, his other tune that year, Find Me A Baby, became his 2nd lowest charting song ever. That kind of bizarre activity led to his brief hiatus that comes to an end with his new single, Lay Low.

Garth Brooks Returns to Country Music With A Middling New Song

I'd heard that Garth Brooks had a new song out earlier in the week, and like any sane human being, became overwhelmed by anticipation. Whenever I heard it was about to be played on my radio this morning, I nearly lost my mind. Who wasn't eagerly awaiting the first new tune from the legendary singer who took the artform of country music to the next level in the 90's? Friends In Low Places, Unanswered Prayers, Two Pina Coladas....the list of great songs he brought to life goes on and on. His newest piece of music, People Loving People, is a strong departure from those past songs, in that it's just not that good.