Little Rebellion Music

Songwriters: John Rich, Rodney Clawson, Vicky McGehee (radio edit) (additional lyrics by Big Kenny on album version)

When Big & Rich burst onto the country music scene they brought something new. Their funky arrangements, creative songwriting, and irreverent attitude made them exciting outliers on the progressive end of country radio. Almost a decade (and a long hiatus) later, they have gone from innovators to imitators, chasing the genre’s lowest common denominators. I evidence this claim with their new single, ‘Party Like Cowboyz.’ *

What momentarily sounds like a promising banjo-and-fiddle intro gets interrupted by Metallica an overblown guitar riff, before the duo starts describing the “part-ay” with pseudo-rap verses full of country girls, dudes, various alcoholic beverages, and something about riding ‘a hottie with a brain.’ **

Pretty much melody-free, this song gets all its rhythm from internal rhymes; a linguistic trick I really like, provided that it is not wasted on lyrics like this:
We’re ‘bout to do this
Pumped on adrenaline
We’re getting jackety jacked-up, beer-backed, and doubled-up
Stand up and make some noise
We’re gonna party like cowboyz

The partying also seems to have lead to some forgetfulness. Or else they must be very proud of having thought of the Tonto/pinto rhyme, seeing as they recycle it from their 2003 debut single, ‘Wild West Show.’ If it was meant to be self-referential, all it achieved for me was to taint the memory of that excellent song.

If I wished to be generous I could say this probably works played live at a club show, but this is a radio single and therefore open to be judged in that context. I would not infringe on anyone’s right to party, like “cowboyz” or otherwise, but please do it with a song that is a little less obviously clamoring for relevancy.

* I’m not even going to start on the ridiculousness of exchanging the ‘s’ for a ‘z’ in the title.

** I really wish I could say I made that last one up, but alas.

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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.

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