Skip to main content

Song review: How Country Feels by Randy Houser

So if you somehow have made it this far and never listened to Randy Houser, I would strongly urge you to start. Why? Because he's among the best male vocalists in country music today. And one of the most underrated. For some reason he seems to fly right under the radar of a lot of country fans and that's a shame.

He signed on with Stoney Creek Record, sister label of Broken Bow Records, earlier this year and "How Country Feels" is his first single with them. If I'm not mistaken, this was released a couple of months ago and seems to be making an impression. I've seen a bunch of good comments from other fans and can't help but feel that this song could do some very good things for Randy.

Why do I think so? Well, keep on reading and I'll tell you.

First of all, this was written by Vicki McGehee, Wendell Mobley and Neal Thrasher - three great writers who have all written some pretty big hits. In country music, it all comes back to the lyric and there are some really good lyrics in here. "How Country Feels" was a great title for this song because that's what this song is about - how country feels and more than that, how it looks and how it sounds. This isn't a song that tells you that the country is awesome; it shows you. And in doing so, avoids becoming just another one of "those" songs.

So how does it do that? Well, it does that by involving just about all of the senses and the way it does that is one of my favorite things about the songs. Let's look at the first verse: "You were raised on an asphalt farm/ Ain't never heard a rooster crow/ Never walked barefoot by a river/ Felt the mud up between your toes". And later on, "You ever watched the sun go down/ from the bed of a pickup truck". Sound. Touch. Sight. A lot of songs try to paint a nice picture, this one creates more of an experience. Nice lyrics.

I don't really have too much to say about the music other than it fits the lyric and has a nice groove to it. Solid playing and production. I'd consider this song to be very radio friendly and it's one that might just give you an urge to roll the windows down and crank the music up. More than likely catching yourself singing along in the process.

As far as the vocal, to go back to what I was saying in the introduction, Randy is one of the strongest male singers in country music. He sounds really good in this, it's a great vocal and he does a really good job in selling it. The thing about Randy is that as good as he sounds on here, this is just a hint of what he's capable of vocally. He has such a rich tone to his voice and I love voices like that.

All in all, I feel like this is a very strong single that might just get him the recognition he deserves. The video of this will be debuting soon. In the meantime, they've posted the trailer for it on his website www.randyhouser.com . Looks like it should be a good video for a really good song. I urge all of my readers to go to iTunes and download it if you haven't already.

Thanks, as always, for reading!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Song review: Water Tower Town by Scotty McCreery

I have an odd relationship, or whatever you want to call it, with American Idol. I was interested when I heard about it and watched the first three seasons, got annoyed with the third season and didn't watch the next only to start watching again during the fifth season. I loved the show during its sixth and seventh season, but started getting annoyed with it in the eighth. Sometime between then and now I've gone from being annoyed with it to now hating it as I see it for what it really is. I could go into more detail about that, but I won't. At least not here; maybe at another time. I'm sure many of you are wondering why I'm bothering to bring it up in the first place. Well, it's because I decided to do a review of "Water Tower Town" by the current American Idol for my next song review. Now, if you're a fan of American Idol, you might not like what I'm going to say next, but I ask that you stay with me because it'll end up being importa...

Album Review: Let It Go by Eileen Carey

Country. Pop. Rock. Eileen Carey's music blends all three styles together in a way that feels uniquely hers. I've just been trying to think if there's any other artists out there like her right now and I can't think of any. Eileen grew up in Ohio and relocated to California over 20 years ago. An independent artist, she has made quite a name for herself in California. That said, she spends a fair amount of time in Nashville and come to find out, she used Nashville musicians to track the songs of  Let It Go with all of the vocals recorded in Los Angeles. Oh, what a world we live in. I feel like you can hear influences of both places throughout the album. Let It Go is Eileen's fourth album and features three covers and eight originals. Five of which Eileen co-wrote and I was pleasantly surprised to see that another artist I like, Amy Dalley, co-wrote the other three. She (Amy) wrote "Anything That Reminds Me Of You" with her husband, Jack Sizemore, who i...

Song Review: Tip it On Back by Dierks Bentley

Before I get to my review, I want to give a shout-out to the Dierks Bentley Congress aka the @dbcongress. They are members of the Dierks Bentley fan club dedicated to supporting and promoting Dierks any and every way possible. They have a blog page,  found here , which includes links to their Facebook page and twitter account that you'll find to the right when you click on the link. If you're a Dierks Bentley fan and aren't following them, you really should be. They're pretty much my go for anything Dierks related - articles, interviews and so on. They also keep everyone updated on where his songs are on the charts and post all sorts of links to places to request or vote for his songs. Well worth the follow, I assure you. Last month they had the opportunity to interview the three gentlemen who wrote "Tip It On Back" - Ross Copperman, Tully Kennedy and Jon Nite. I strongly recommend that you go and read it as it's a very enjoyable read. You can find it  h...