Why I Take Issue With Luke Bryan's New Single, "That's My Kind of Night" (and Why It Pains Me To Write This)

I love Luke Bryan.  I really do.  Just last month I was in the front row of his Dirt Road Diaries tour, rocking out like crazy with no attempt to act like a sane human being and having way too good of a time.  A few days ago, I heard that he was releasing a new single and eagerly waited with my ear glued to the radio all day until they played it...and then something awful happened.  They played it. (you can listen to his much anticipated song, "That's My Kinda Night" here: http://www.directlyrics.com/new-song-luke-bryan-thatrsquos-my-kind-of-night-news.html)  Here's pretty much how it went down:

The Anticipation

It begins. Strong pop beat is not promising.

"I got that real good, feel good stuff"

Around the time the T-Pain reference came

Reflecting.

Now it's catchy, ok?  There's no denying it and that one phrase "catch us up a little catfish dinner" has been popping into my brain at totally random times so I can see why Luke or his manager or record label or whoever decides which songs are to be released to radio chose to put this one out.  I mean, let's be honest, these energetic songs with a popish beat about how great the country life is while a hot girl passes them another beer have been doing tremendously well these past few years, as has country rap.  Considering the success of Luke's previous singles, "Crash My Party", "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye", "Drunk on You", and "I Don't Want This Night To End", I guess it made sense to release another song where Luke kind of comes off as a weird mix between country boy and frat boy.  (Ok, this is getting harsh.  I do love Luke Bryan- I promise I do.  Just bear with me, here).

I think what upsets me the most about "That's My Kinda Night" is that I can't find any resemblance between the character in this song and the Luke Bryan we all fell in love with through songs like "Do I", "What Country Is", "Tackle Box", and "We Rode In Trucks".  Believe it or not, those last two songs are from an album called "I'll Stay Me"...  Oh the irony!

But do you want to know something that may shock you based on what I've said so far?  The rest of his new album, "Crash My Party" sounds pretty darn good.  "Dirt Road Diary" has been a crowd favorite for some time and the studio version sounds very promising.  So please don't walk away from this thinking that I believe Luke Bryan has completely morphed into an unrecognizable artist who is incapable of making genuinely good music anymore, because that couldn't be farther from the truth. He's still got a beautiful voice and a knack for songwriting that landed him a record deal within two months of moving to Nashville years ago.

If you'll allow me to now digress into a short rant about a lot of new country I would be much obliged.

It bothers me that all of these country singers with great CDs mostly full of heartfelt songs that tell great stories end up releasing cliché songs that we've all heard a million times.  In one of my favorite movies, Walk the Line, record producer, Sam Phillips, gives Johnny Cash one of the most beautiful and inspiring speeches ever:

 "If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing one song.  One song that people would remember before you're dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin' me that's the song you'd sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day.... Or would you sing somethin' different. Somethin' real. Somethin' you felt. Cause I'm telling you right now, that's the kind of song people want to hear. That's the kind of song that truly saves people."   

Look, I'm not saying every song on country radio needs to be as intense and deeply emotional as the kind of song Sam Phillips is asking for here and I know that sometimes you just need a fun party
song to dance to but when did it become expected of country singers to release a love/heartache song 50% of the time and a drinking/country-is-better-than-you song the other 50% percent?
           For example,  some of you may remember how much I love Tim McGraw's CD "Two Lanes of Freedom".  It's fantastic. In fact, there are only two songs on that album that I am not crazy about because I think they're pretty reminiscent to every other song on the radio.  Take a wild guess which ones those are.  If you said "Truck Yeah" and "Southern Girl"  you'd be right on the money.  Guess which songs off of his album have been released as singles.  Yeah... see what I'm saying?

Eric Church expresses my feelings way better than I ever could in his song "Lotta Boot Left to Fill".  Just listen to the opening lyrics:
                                           Get ups, Gimics,
                                           One hit wonders that don't stick.
                                           Pretty boys actin' tough,
                                           boy bands, give it up.
                                           And if it looks good on TV,
                                           it'll look good on a CD.
                                          Shape it up, trim it down.
                                          Who gives a damn about how it sounds?

Ok thank you for letting me get that off my chest. I obviously had a lot of feelings.  But listen, please don't think that I despise songs like "Cruise" or "Boys 'Round Here' just because they don't have much substance. In fact, most days I really love them and I'll be the first to yell "Chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco-spit!" whenever the opportunity arises.  I just wish those in the music industry would find the courage to release a song that is new, original, and unique because I truly believe there's a hunger for that among country fans.  Anyone smart enough to capitalize on that hunger may just find a nice spot carved out for them in the long history of country music.  

The Song that Changed Music Forever: "That's All Right" by Elvis Presley

Before we really get going with this blog thing, I should probably warn everybody that I am a huge Elvis fan.   Please, please, please tell me that you didn’t just picture a middle aged man in a white jumpsuit who may or may not have (but definitely did) eat one too many peanut butter and banana sandwiches.  Well, I guess I can’t be too upset if that’s what you pictured because that’s what I thought before I actually started listening to him.  That's when I discovered how much more there is to Elvis and his music than the stereotypical Elvis-like character you see walking around Vegas these days.  I’m not quite sure how I evolved into such an Elvis fan, but before I could stop myself I was obsessed. Vinyls. Movies.  Sweatshirts. The whole nine yards.

Now, you may be wondering how a man deemed the King of Rock n’ Roll fits into a blog about country music.  Well, Elvis was born and raised in the south and started his career singing rockabilly music in a struggling recording studio called Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.  In the early 1950s, when Elvis was still a teenager, he went into Sun Records a couple times to make a record for his mama’s birthday.  While he was there the owner of the record label, Sam Phillips (who also discovered Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis- yeah, he’s pretty awesome), told Elvis that he was an “interesting” singer and told him that he might call him sometime to make a record. 

When Elvis was finally called back a year later (in 1954, I believe) he went in there with his little beaten up guitar and started singing every song he knew for Phillips.  Unfortunately, nothing was really working out too well and Phillips thought he had made a mistake in asking Elvis to come in that day.  He told Elvis and the two other band members with him (Bill Black and Scotty Moore) to take a break, hoping that they would do better after the break.

 Here’s where the story gets good. 

Elvis started messing around during the break and began to play an old song from the ‘40s called “That’s All Right”, except he didn’t use the original arrangement of the song.  He played it faster and added a lot of energy to the song.  As Scotty Moore recounts. “All of a sudden Elvis just started singing this song, jumping and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them”.  The song was very different from anything Phillips had heard before and he knew that it was the sound he had been searching for.  The sound that he knew had been in Elvis all along; all he needed was the right song to let it rip.  Knowing that he had struck gold, Sam Phillips quickly turned on the recorder and told them to repeat what they had just done.  That’s the recording you’ll hear now and the recording that jumpstarted the career of arguably the greatest entertainer of all time.  And guess what?  Because of Elvis’ unique blend of blues, country, and gospel in “That’s All Right”, he was billed as “the freshest, newest voice in country music”.