Single Review: 'Drivin' Around Song' – Colt Ford
11 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Single Review: 'Drivin' Around Song' – Colt Ford
Songwriters: Chris Tompkins, Rodney Clawson, Craig Wiseman
I’m of the mind that, these days, country music isn’t so much about the sound as it is the subject matter. Colt Ford’s new single doesn’t have twangy guitars, pedal steel, or fiddle, (it does have some banjo though!) but it’s very much a country song.
One of the things I really like about the song is that it’s written about something that everyone’s done but that (as far as I know) no one’s really written about. It makes me think of aimless nights I’ve had just driving around to parts unknown because you’ve got nothing better to do and it captures that activity really well. It’s really a celebration of the audience it’s aimed at, as much of country music through the ages is.
The warm synths, palm-muted banjo parts, and the opening melody played on the piano give us a night time kind of feel and set up the subject matter well. In general, there’s a lot of ear candy on this song with little melodic guitar, piano, and synth parts coming in and out, yet everything’s very clean and clear.
Lyrically the song is great. Colt’s verses are well done, though there are a few lines that I feel like were included simply because they rhymed. He keeps the same flow throughout the track but I kept hoping he’d break into a Ludacris-style double time here and there as the tempo is perfect for it, and it would have really broken things up rhythmically. But the song’s chorus is where it really shines. Jason Aldean’s auto-tuned (on purpose) vocal lets loose one of the best written choruses I’ve heard in recent memory; one that shows how knowledge of hip hop and its rhyme schemes can co-exist with country music, and to great effect:
‘Hey this is for the drivin’ round, Jack And Diane town, anywhere Saturday night,
Yeah this is for the back roads, turning up the radio, headin’ right
where the two lane turns into Main street, cruising the same streets…’
Great stuff! The choruses really pop as instruments trickle in from the verse to create a really well done incline of dynamics.
For all the denigration Colt Ford gets from purists, country music could take a lot of lessons from how his songs are written and produced, and ‘Drivin’ Around Song’ is a really excellent example of that.
Liv Carter
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.
Latest posts by Liv Carter (see all)
- Well yes, racism, but it’s more complicated - February 13, 2017
- Black River Entertainment had a great reason to party! - October 25, 2016
- Keith Urban returns to the States for US arena leg of his “ripCORD WORLD TOUR 2016” - October 10, 2016
