Musical Musings On a Saturday Night: New Songs from Not-Quite A-list Stars

So there are three songs from certain country artists that have been getting a pretty decent amount of play on the radio here, and all three songs are from artists who had a radio hit or two, disappeared for a while and made something of a comeback with these songs. I thought that was pretty odd, though not necessarily in a bad way...a couple of the songs are quite good. Anyway, here they are:

1. Rodney Atkins, "If You're Going Through Hell." What to say about Mr. Atkins? I'm sure he's a nice guy, and I don't think he's just a no-talent hack, don't get me wrong, but from where I sit he's not too much more than a Tim McGraw soundalike, albeit with a bit more of a traditional sound but not enough of that to make much of a difference. Tim's nothing to write home about as a singer, and one of him is quite enough. As for the song...it might as well be called "If You're Going Through Hell (And Other Cliches)." Doesn't do a thing for me. I'd rather have the time that goes to having this song played on the radio go to the two songs I am about to mention.

2. Steve Holy, "Brand New Girlfriend." Really fun stuff here, I didn't know Steve Holy had this in him. I grinned like the cat that ate the canary when I heard the line, "spent the whole day lyin' on the beach, wearin' nothin' but a smile..." He's got a pretty good voice, too. I'm interested to see what else he has up his sleeve.

3. Blaine Larsen, "I Don't Know What She Said." To hear this guy sing, you'd never guess he was only 20 years old. When I first heard this song, for about the first minute, I seriously thought it was George Strait because of that incredible voice. And what a clever tune! "I don't know what she said, but I sure like the way that she said it..." I would really like to see Mr. Larsen's career take off. I loved his first single, "How Do You Get That Lonely," from his very first album...why I didn't go out and get that cd, I don't know, but now I am going to have to fix that when I get this second one, too. If those two songs are any indication of Larsen's repertoire as a whole, no doubt both those cds will be worth every penny.