I definitely agree with most every point the review made too, and most of what’s already been said in the comments, so there’s not much left for me to say. I will add that I think Travis McClain’s theory that name-checking Jesus or the military in a song is a really, easy lowest-common-denominator selling point for way too many music listeners. And he’s right that as long as you don’t criticize either, you’ve written a meaningful song to their ears. It’s frustrating to say the least.

Not only is it sadistic: it’s even sexist in that it implies that, no matter how much the narrator’s mother and the preacher worked to teach him scripture, really it was the beating of a belt inflicted on him by his father that did the trick. It implies that talking sense does nothing, that actions always speak louder than words, and thus justifies the beatings through the father’s logic, as diametrically opposed to the more emotional, idealistic maternal appeal.

This song’s message certainly doesn’t speak for me, and I certainly believe the vast majority of parents of the 21st century (or any century, for that matter). The belt may belong in the consensual BDSM scene perhaps, but not in any parental household.

And then for people to put Johnny Cash’s (or any other country legend’s) name into the lyrics of a song only to do it for the purposes of not only to distort the man’s true self but also to merely sound hip should be considered a gross insult to the intelligence of any true country music fan and scholar.

You said it. The same goes for songs about mama. Recently my local country station played Jesse Lee’s cliche-laden new song called “Like My Mother Does, and asked listeners to call in and vote on whether or not they liked it. My call was the only negative one. Every one else was saying “Oh, that song made me cry! It reminds me of MY mother!!”

Not many people today are discerning enough to realize whether or not a song really is an artistically relevant contribution to country music.