Review: Ryan Bingham, “Country Roads”
Hey, here’s something new: a gritty-sounding Americana dude singing about open roads and not giving a damn. Pretty novel, right?
Well, no. But there’s a fierce vitality to Ryan Bingham’s “Country Roads” that transcends the song’s somewhat hackneyed Dylan-on-a-dirt-bike aesthetic. The opening snare fires off like a racetrack gunshot, and the harmonica-driven sound that barrels out after it is so recklessly joyful that it makes every word it touches sound brand-new – and better, somewhat universal.
The Worst Singles of the Decade, Part 5: #10-#1
Time’s running short. If your personal least favorite wasn’t in 
After 
Evidently, country artists in Nashville are damn proud to be from the country – so proud that they each feel the need to record a song proclaiming just this and, no less, release it to country radio. I’ve lost track of the number of these singles put out in the past year, a handful of which I’ve found to be borderline offensive. As a city girl with a heck of a lot of love for the spirit of country music, I’d rather not be made to feel like I’m being excluded from a members-only club.
There is a God” is a thought that often crosses my mind when Lee Ann Womack is singing, so it’s somewhat appropriate that she’s released a song with that title. Of course, Womack’s more effective when she’s singing about Saturday night than she is about Sunday morning, unless she’s hating herself in the morning after that Saturday night.
The banality continues. Read Part 1 
At this point in Toby Keith’s career, he is most associated with a tough guy, ultra-masculine persona that he is usually all too happy to perpetuate. So, it is always a pleasant treat when he slows things down and reminds us that he actually has one of the better voices in contemporary country music. Furthermore, his strong vocals naturally wrap around a ballad better than many of his more ballad heavy peers, which is well demonstrated in his latest single, the jazz style “Cryin’ for Me (Wayman’s Song)”.