Supplied Photo Members of the group Spring Creek Station, left to right: Jeff Logsdon, Courtney Swan, Dustin Watters, Eric Barley, Allison Lowman and Rob Robinson.
Many Country music promoters and programmers may have noticed some reaction to bro country, but the pendulum isn’t yet swinging away from the popular style.
“Swinging away from ‘bro country’? Highly doubtable – not yet anyway,” says Chris Michaels, program director at the Peoria area’s top radio station, WXCL-FM 104.9/ The Wolf, which has a Country format.
“Trends are definitely cyclical, and this one will be also, but I think we will hear the bro country lyrics and attitude for a while still,” he continues, adding that he’s heard no negative criticism of such songs.
“Our audience is majority female and as program director of The Wolf for the past eight years, I haven’t received any complaints from female listeners about song lyrics,” Michaels says.
But some recording artists are complaining – by creating music that either avoids 4×4 pickups used for work AND love, or spoofs the notion of beer and pork rinds as romantic dinners.
* “Somethin’ Bad,” from Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood is a memorable, melodic story, described as an over-the-top, Thelma & Louise-like tale with expendable male characters.
Lambert sees both sides of bro country, telling Rolling Stone, “It has this whole theme of party and tailgate and bonfire – I love all that stuff, but there is so much more you can sing about.”
* Maddie & Tae’s “Girl in a Country Song” is a bit more bitter, singing, “We’re lucky if we even get to climb up in your truck/keep our mouths shut, and ride along/and be the girl in a country song.”
* It’s not just women. Eric Paslay scored a Top 20 hit with “Song About a Girl,” which sings, “This ain’t about tailgates/Ain’t about bonfires/Ain’t about souped-up cars, water towers/Drowning in a bottle of Jack/This ain’t about Chevys/Ain’t about money/Ain’t about blue suede shoes, coo-coo-ca-choos/Got nothin’ to do with that.” Kenny Chesney’s “American Kids” offers ideas as alternatives. In a prepared statement, Chesney explains, “There’s so much more to country than trucks, creek beds and cut-offs.” And the John Abbott Band’s “I’ll Sing About Mine,” written by Brian Keane and Adam Hood, is as pointed: “The radio’s full of rich folk singing about places they’ve never seen.”
Even Florida Georgia Line – famous (or infamous) as leaders of bro country – departed from the pattern with their tune “Dirt,” about everyday working people and local color. Bill Knight