Single Review: Tucker Beathard, “Momma and Jesus”

“Momma and Jesus”
Tucker Beathard

Written by Tucker Beathard, Deric Ruttan and Jonathan Singleton

I’m beginning to suspect that enjoyment of contemporary country music requires a complete lack of familiarity with what came before it.

“Momma and Jesus” is a shameless rip-off of the Confederate Railroad classic, “Jesus and Mama.” Shameless. And Tucker Beathard’s take on the same concept falls so short in comparison to the Confederate Railroad record that it is painful to listen to.

Both songs acknowledge that Jesus and Momma/Mama are two sources of unconditional love. In the Confederate Railroad song, that’s cause for humility and a healthy dose of shame for taking that love for granted. In Beathard’s, it instead produces a self-aggrandizing sense of entitlement.

The message of Beathard’s record is, “Hey! I can do anything I want because Momma and Jesus have to love me anyway.”

An ugly display of arrogance and narcissism.

Grade: F

8 Comments

  1. Your fist sentence of the review is great summary of what I have been seeing. Most of my friends who like this stuff have heard very little of the older country I love.

  2. I admit that I’m not familiar with the Confederate RR song. But I still agree with your conclusion, “an ugly display of arrogance and narcissism.” There’s been way too much of that in the daily news for the past year and a half. It should diminish in a few weeks.

  3. I’m beginning to suspect that enjoyment of contemporary country music requires a complete lack of familiarity with what came before it.

    Of course it does. Modern country is rife with rip-offs. Some that come to mind:

    Luke Bryan’s “Strip It Down” is a rip-off of Dierks Bentley’s “Come A Little Closer.”
    Jason Aldean’s “Crazy Town” is a rip-off of Lacy J. Dalton’s “16th Avenue.”
    Brooks & Dunn’s “Put A Girl In It” is a rip-off of George Strait’s “Living And Living Well.”

    And, like the Tucker Beathard song, the rip-offs are all far inferior.

  4. I told you this guy was bad news…

    On a side note, can these bros stop talking about Jesus in their songs? I’m no religious zealot, but I hate to see the name of one of the most influential men in all of history become a buzzword. This isn’t NEARLY as bad as that atrocity “Real Men Love Jesus,” but it operates on a similar principle: “Country audiences love Jesus, right? That’s a thing, right? Yeah, go with that.”

  5. I agree SRM. Mentioning Jesus is insulting and pandering, just like these guys wearing crosses in their music video. Country music and faith are joined at the hip, but the disrespect to the fan’s faith, in order to sell a song, is disgusting.

  6. Another thing: It doesn’t matter which way they wear their ballcaps, but how many frigging times can we see a picture of these “Bromeisters” in those damned ballcaps before they all start morphing into one generic small-town Southern frat boy?!

  7. Although atrocious, this is probably worth an F+

    Tucker is not that bad a singer which gets him the “+” but the song itself is very poor. Typical committee written song

  8. …in this case, a complete absence of familiarity with country’s past ain’t such a bad thing. it prevents from accidently giving the past a bad name. but his name sounds totally cool, doesn’t it.

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