Jake Owen – Easy Does It – CD Review

15 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Jake Owen – Easy Does It – CD Review


Jake Owen – Easy Does It (RCA, 2009)

Jake Owen is part of a group of talented musicians whose careers have not (yet) hit the big time. He is often mentioned together with guys like Luke Bryan, but where Bryan seems to have just one trick up his sleeve, Owen has been developing his writing and I am rooting or him.

After an intriguing, sweeping intro, ‘Tell Me’, a rocker about falling for someone who is not good for you, opens the disc with verve and the tone it sets continues (almost) throughout.

While thematically not breaking new ground, most songs deal with romantic love and having fun living life, Jake Owen demonstrates he has a way of writing extremely simple songs without insulting your intelligence. On love songs ‘Easy Does It’ and ‘Don’t Think I Can’t Love You’ as well as the cheerily cheeky ‘Cherry On Top’, Owen really plays to his strengths. He signs phrases most women want to hear…and most men wish they could say.

In the press notes it’s mentioned that Owen always treats women with respect in his songs so ‘Who Said Whiskey’ is a bit of an odd one. A song about a woman who if you get her drunk will get sexy and wild and the guy’s plan to do just that jars with the rest of the lyrics.

Also strange is the enigmatically titled ‘Green Bananas’. The important live-in-the-present message is being conveyed by lines like ‘I don’t buy green bananas/ I don’t plan that far ahead‘, but I can’t help but feel it would be more effective in an uptempo track.

Several recent albums have included re-records of older songs, not re-inventing them but duplicating them. Here ‘Eight Second Ride’ is repeated from the debut album. It’s really not clear why.

A standout and possible future hit is ‘Every Reason I go Back’ which serenades small town life, accepting that everything bad about it is also everything that’s good. On closer ‘Nothin’ Grows in Shadows’ (along with ‘Cherry On Top’ one of only two songs Owen didn’t help write), he warns school bullies and pushy parents that they will regret behaving that way so they better change their ways. But the song ends with a curious, and unnecessary, marching band and bagpipe segment.

I really like this record. It’s fun, sweet and totally unpretentious. The songs fit Owen’s image and deep voice. I know it doesn’t push any boundaries but who made up the rule that every album has to? If Jake can keep going the way he’s going, can keep the music fresh and can get himself on some big tours, I think he will be around for a long time.

Liv Carter

Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Liv Carter

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