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Single Review: Danny Gokey, “I Will Not Say Goodbye”

July 13, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 30

There’s the core of a good song idea here. Really. And he’s singing from the heart, clearly addressing this song to his late wife. It’s hard not to feel guilty criticizing this record.

But I’m gonna have to do it anyway. If I didn’t already know Gokey’s back story, I’d think he was just trying to imitate Rascal Flatts. Listen to the chorus, which he sings like it’s a carbon copy of the verse from “What Matters Most.” In that hit, it was “I’m not a-fraid to cry, every now, and again, even though, with going on, with you gone, still upsets me.” In this song, it’s “I will laugh, I will cry, shake my fist, at the sky, I will not say goodbye.”

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Single Review: Reba McEntire, “Turn On the Radio”

July 7, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 79

How to review this new Reba McEntire single?

I could…

A. Write something short and not particularly clever:

Turn off the radio!

B. Moan that this is a record beneath the talents of a future/should already be present Country Music Hall of Famer:

Why is the great voice that brought us “You Lie” and “Somebody Should Leave” singing this?

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Single Review: Jerrod Niemann, “Lover, Lover”

July 5, 2010 Dan Milliken 15

Country music legend tells of a certain powerful, polarizing breed of radio single, said to have been spun together out of pure cane sugar by Aphrodite herself (or her Southern Baptist counterpart, April-Jean the Angel. Depends who you ask.) The single appears only sporadically, sometimes waiting years to fully reemerge – but when it comes, it walks loudly and carries a big, hooked stick.

It’s been known to travel under many names: “Ooo, Turn It Up!”; “I’m Getting Kind Of Sick Of This Song”; “Oh God, AGAIN?”. All of them worthy monikers, to be sure. But for the purposes of this review, we’ll keep things straightforward and call it the “Shameless Pop Ditty.”

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Single Review: Joe Nichols, “The Shape I’m In”

July 3, 2010 Kevin John Coyne 6

I remember thinking when I first heard Sara Evans sing “Cheatin'” that it was the best record Reba McEntire hadn’t recorded in a long time.

Listening to the new Joe Nichols single “The Shape I’m In”, I’m thinking the same thing about George Strait.

Perhaps it’s just because “The Breath You Take” is still a fresh disappointment in my mind, but I can’t help thinking Strait would’ve knocked “The Shape I’m In” out of the park.

That being said, Nichols does a good job himself, in a vocal performance that is so inspired by Strait it might as well be an homage.

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