Gary LeVox – Country Universe

A Country Music Conversation: Sirius Top 1000 Country Songs of All Time, #990-#981

June 4, 2019 Kevin John Coyne 6

The conversation broadens with two more writers joining in.

Single Review: Dan + Shay, “How Not To”

June 26, 2017 Kevin John Coyne 3

I guess that we can call Rascal Flatts influential artists now.

Single Review: Rascal Flatts, “I Like the Sound of That”

November 18, 2015 Kevin John Coyne 4

A solid chorus and a pleasantly twangy arrangement make the new Rascal Flatts single listenable.

Single Review: Rascal Flatts, “Rewind”

January 22, 2014 Kevin John Coyne 5

Using the word rewind in 2014 is a bit dated and quaint, don’t you think?

Concert Review: Carrie Underwood with Hunter Hayes

December 3, 2012 Kevin John Coyne 10

Carrie Underwood with Hunter Hayes
The Blown Away Tour
Prudential Center
Newark, NJ
December 1, 2012

There’s a desirable sweet spot in every big performer’s career where they finally have a large number of hits to fill out a two-hour show, a compelling enough current album to sustain audience interest between the hits, and the appropriate level of earned confidence to take some bold risks in staging and presentation.

Carrie Underwood just hit that sweet spot.

Single Review: Rascal Flatts, "Come Wake Me Up"

July 12, 2012 Kevin John Coyne 5

“Come Wake Me Up” is the best composition that Rascal Flatts has tackled in a very long time, and the opening verse is a beautiful throwback to the sound of their best song to date, “I’m Movin’ On.”

Single Review: David Nail, “Someone Like You”

July 5, 2012 Kevin John Coyne 4

You really can’t mess this one up.

“Someone Like You” is going to be covered endlessly anyway. It’s already a standard.

Single Review: David Nail, “Let It Rain”

January 24, 2011 Tara Seetharam 8

“Let It Rain” kicks off with Nail’s cheating character claiming he’s more crushed by the pain he’s caused his wife than by his own feelings of shame – but does anyone really believe that? The chorus is nothing if not a pity party, centering on a singular theme: “She don’t love me anymore.”

Single Review: Lady Antebellum, “Hello World”

January 11, 2011 Kevin John Coyne 17

A running narration of the most boring drive through town ever.

I realize they’re trying to go for something deep and meaningful here, but it sounds like little more than Bruce Springsteen at his most self-indulgent.

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.”