memory lane up in the headlights
(or: november 7’s honey from the hive)
posted at 9:57 am by brandon in sweet you rock and sweet you roll
Jason Aldean — “Dirt Road Anthem” (from My Kinda Party
While trying to keep the birthday girl entertained yesterday morning before work, I was channel surfing past the Great American Country channel — which Sherry Ann used to hilariously refer to as “the Gack” because when it first appeared on her cable system, it sounded, according to her, as though it was being broadcast from a hole in the Earth — and happened to get myself sucked into the video for this criminally catchy ditty, which subsequently lodged itself in my skull for the entire remainder of the day. (God help you if you manage to get this one stuck in your head — lest you actually desire to have the words “chillin’ on the dirt road!” repeatedly slip from your lips at the most inopportune times because you simply can’t help yourself — although it must be said that, apparently, not everybody is susceptible to this song’s charms: A continually asks me to move forward whenever we’re in the car and “Anthem” pops up in the iPod rotation.) Aldean is up for a quintet of the coveted Country Music Association Awards later this week (including Song of the Year for this very work), and you have to reckon he’s a good bet to win at least one trophy. And you have to reckon he deserves to, if for no other reason than there’s no doubt he incited coronaries all up and down Music Row for somehow persuading crunchy music’s notoriously prudish program directors to add what is essentially a gussied-up rap tune to their playlists.
November 7th, 2011 at 10:01 am
Catchy, yes. Song of the Year-worthy? No way. I’ve never understood Aldean’s appeal but I feel we’ve discussed that before.
November 7th, 2011 at 10:08 am
Alls I know is: you cannot evict this one from your head once it slips in! (I didn’t really get Aldean either until I caught the episode of Crossroads that he did with Bryan Adams, and then it started to click for me. I don’t know, I like that he knows exactly what he can and can’t do, yet he’s not afraid to push the boundaries a bit. I dig that. As for Song of the Year, I’m personally rooting for my old fave “If I Die Young” but wouldn’t be at all crushed to see Miss Matraca back in the winners’ circle where she eternally belongs.)
November 7th, 2011 at 10:14 am
“If I Die Young” seems too massive to ignore, but I agree that Matraca should be an annual contender for that award. It’s going to be an interesting night. I think we’ll see a split of the major awards with no one really dominating. I’d like to see a little shakeup (ZBB for Group, Civil Wars for Duo). Everyone should just feel fortunate that Miranda Lambert had a quiet year during the eligibility period.