Originally Posted By: Charlie Fogle
"You appear to be defining a "good song" as what Luke Bryan or Blake Shelton do "

Well, yes and no. Regarding Bryan and Shelton, I define the songs they release as singles to be "good songs" relative to the influence they tend to have on the current country genre and where their songs usually peak on the charts as opposed to my perception of the quality of how it's written. Even someone who does not particularly care for the genre would likely acknowledge Shelton's #1 single "Home" to be a good song as on the strength of the song itself also was a #1 single for the writer Michael Buble in a completely different arrangement in a completely different genre of music. I was not addressing your or my taste for the songs of that particular genre but the quality of "It's All In The Heart", its theme, lyrics, message and such.

My defining "It's All In The Heart" as a "good song" was to mean the same as I consider "Home" to be a "good song." My intention was to say "It's All In The Heart" has the strength to be a hit across several genres of music. <grin> you and Greg will have to decide what to do if Luke Bryan calls to ask to record it....

I have nothing but good feelings and good things to say about "It's All In The Heart", the write, production, arrangement and performance. What I lacked in clarity initially is an understatement to the enjoyment of my several listens.



Charlie - thanks for the follow up and the clarification. I hadn't heard "Home" - is it, indeed, a fine song - it was released in 2008 - Blake used to do really good stuff...

Do you know "Austin"? one of his earlier ones - I love this song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb1DTsxBOfE

We've gone around several times about "modern country" in other threads, so I don't want to get into that here. I've just grown weary of those who are constantly saying "well.. that sounds 'dated'" simply because it doesn't sound like bro-country. There is a lot more to "modern music" (and modern country, for that matter) than that particular sound... Pretty much anything that falls in the Americana category these days would likely be labeled "dated" by someone who only turns on Country radio for 5 minutes and then leaves because it isn't for them. There is a lot of good music out there...
Again - thanks for the thoughts...