Categories : Music Reviews.
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Rating: 1.5/5 Released: June 5, 2007 Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
Only a few short years ago, it seemed like Big & Rich might be exactly what country music needed. Their hit ‘Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)’ managed to simultaneously stick it to indie rockers, R&B princesses, and especially the play-it-safe mentality of CMT-era country. It seemed likely that with their new album, Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace, they would continue along the same path. After all, they’ve brought in John Legend and Wyclef Jean for guest spots, and they even do a cover of AC/DC’s ‘You Shook Me All Night Long.’ There’s no way this album would devolve this once-promising band into the very thing they once seemed to be the antithesis of, right? Right?
Ugh.
If Big & Rich truly believe they are “somewhere†between raising hell and amazing grace, it would seem they’re much closer to the latter than the former. The album’s first five songs all make direct reference to Jesus, praying, (avoidance of) the devil, and/or angels.
By the time you get to the embarrassing reggae swagger of ‘Please Man,’ on which Wyclef Jean compares himself to Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers and Charlie Daniels, you almost don’t have the strength to know what these guys are going to do to the aforementioned AC/DC classic. Predictably, the song sounds somewhat less menacing when tackled by a newly reformed Nashville franchise band. Someone tell these guys that this song wasn’t meant to be classy, please.
One can’t help but feel that Big & Rich have done irreparable damage to the once promising niche they found themselves in.
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