Blake Shelton

On to Blake Shelton. The only non-band that I'll be covering in these posts unless I fancy going through some solo projects, or somehow get brave enough to write anything about Tom Waits...

Blake Shelton is a Nashville based country artist. I was first put on to him by Biggins, who sent me his single The More I Drink. I'm not normally a big country person, but that song's pretty great so I bought his greatest hits (this was before I banned myself from buying any compilations). I then slowly accumulated the rest of his catalogue up to Red River Blue, and have bought each subsequent album as it's been released.

Unlike most artists I like (perhaps BÖC are a slight, but not total, exception), Blake doesn't really write his own songs. He has a credit here and there but for the most part he is the voice and sometime guitar to a few dozen songwriters' compositions. But damn, what a voice. He's even a judge on America's The Voice.

As a solo artist, I don't even need to do a line-up list. So let's crack on.

Blake Shelton (2001)

In many ways, I think that Taylor Swift followed Blake Shelton's template. Well, it's almost definitely not solely his template but let's go with it. Both started out as 'serious' straight up-country musicians, who got popular and slowly but surely became pop-acts with a country flavour.

Blake Shelton's self-titled debut is pretty country, but it's Nashville country - which is kind of like country but is listened to by people not just from the South.

Opening us up is the fun and fast paced Every Time I Look At You, probably my personal favourite of the album with a great riff, some background banjo and a chorus to sing along to. She Doesn't Know She's Got It is similarly upbeat, kind of like a country version of 1 Direction's You Don't Know You're Beautiful (and yes I made that comparison). The final upbeat song is If I Was Your Man, it's slightly weaker than the others but has fiddle parts so that gives it extra points.

The rest of the album is... actually pretty depressing in that way that country often is. All Over Me has some fantastic vocals from Blake, but is too piano and strings heavy, lacking that country edge. I Thought There Was Time is also a vocally impressive song, and actually feels like a country song, but doesn't stand out. Problems At Home is an oddly preachy and protesty song in a similar way that Livin On The Edge by Aerosmith is - in that it just doesn't sound right coming from this artist.

The absolute stand out depressing song is Austin. A beautiful vocal/guitar combo that tells the story of two ex-lovers who try and get back in to contact with each other, but keep missing the other's calls. Well worth a listen.

Blake considered the slow and sleazy Ol' Red his trademark song for quite a while (I doubt he still does given his change in sound, but who knows). Originally recorded by George Johns, and later covered by Kenny Rodgers, Blake took a go. Blake's is much closer to George's original, as Kenny's was a bit rocked up. It tells the story of a prisoner, condemned for a crime of passion, who becomes friends with the warden's tracker dog which facilitates his later escape. It's a fun story-driven song.

Though relatively unremarkable, Same Old Song is worth mentioning due to what some might see as an irony. The song describes the author's disdain that country music these days all sounds 'vanilla' and samey, with artists only singing about love when there are so many other topics. I think the irony has some purchase, as Blake's latest two (three?) albums in particular fall in to this trap in my opinion.

So Blake's first album is a mixed bag. A handful of fun-loving songs about women, a handful of depressing songs about women, and a handful of wildcard songs on other topics. This is generally the Blake Shelton album format, though some go more one way than others...

The Dreamer (2003)

And until some of his most recent releases, this was the softest leaning Blake Shelton album. It may not shock you to learn that it's also my least favourite album. I'd almost go as far as to say that, on the whole, it's bad.

There is one absolute star of a song on here: Playboys Of The Southwester World. A raucous tune about two close, college-age friends who go and have a wild time in Mexico. It's fast, fun, and genuinely funny. It deserves so much more than the rest of this album.

Heavy Liftin' is one of a handful of Shelton songs that are just cringeworthy. It's a relatively (compared to the rest of the soft stuff on the album) rocky country song about doing manual labour, like the good ol' rednecks used to do. Georgia In A Jug is a forgettable stripped back fiddle and guitar-led cover song about drinking after a breakup. My Neck Of The Woods just about passes as a decent song, it's country rock and it describes a classic southern family.

So the remaining... 6(?) songs. Ugh. I guess The Baby is a good showpiece for Blake's voice. Asphalt Cowboy sounds like it was sent to the wrong artist - not a Shelton song at all. In My Heaven makes some peculiar melody choices which just sound wrong. The Dreamer is... fine. Underneath The Same Moon sounds like it was meant to be the backing for a particularly sad moment in the rain in a romantic drama. Someday just goes nowhere.

The Dreamer, on the whole, is a step backwards for Blake Shelton. The material is uninspired and easy. Not even the best voice in the world could have rescued this album. But Playboys, what a tune.

Blake Shelton's Barn & Grill (2004)

Now this is more like it. Blake's humour had come through on a few previous songs like Playboys and Ol' Red, but it really shines on B&G.

We open with Some Beach, a summer-drenched laid-back tune with a double entendre that only works in the south of the US of A. Each verse details a menial frustration in the narrator's life before saying he'd rather be on 'some beach... somewhere'. But with a southern drawl, some beach sounds an awful lot like sum' bitch.

Cotton Pickin' Time is equally tongue-in-cheek, though more upbeat, detailing the story of a young cotton picker that falls in love with the neighbour's daughter who he finds skinny dipping down by the lake.

After many years I'm still not sure whether What's On My Mind is meant to be amusing, but it's about a man who doesn't think his woman can handle what's on his mind... Makes me laugh.

A little less happy, but still done with a bit of a wink, is On A Good Day. A classic 'guy got dumped and is drinking his sorrows away' song that lists the things that he can handle on a good day, but today is not one of those days. On A Good Day is third from last on the album, and is actually followed by two further songs about drinking: The Bartender and I Drink. The former is a slow, sombre reflection on the life of a bartender and his relationship with his patrons. The latter is also slow, but in a way that kind of makes it sound like the guitarist was drunk when playing - it's about a guy who doesn't do much but drink.

So that's about half of the album, and sticking to the template the rest are mostly love songs. Nobody But Me is pretty short, coming in at 2.39, but is probably the best. A great vocal performance over pianos, though it isn't very country. Love Gets In The Way is much more guitar-driven, though feels a bit confused as to whether it's up or downbeat.

Goodbye Time and When Somebody Knows You That Well are the full on depressing songs. As usual, can't fault the vocals, but neither grip me.

Final mention has to go to Good Old Boy, Bad Old Boyfriend: a slow sleazy song about a guy who's good to his friends, but not to his girlfriend. It borrows heavily from The Beatles' You're Gonna Lose That Girl by ending with the narrator suggesting the woman should end up with him instead.

Overall, a huge improvement on The Dreamer with some of my favourite Shelton songs.

Pure BS (2007)

Pure BS is such a good title, thought I should start by pointing that out. This album is extremely ballad heavy, with only three rockier country songs out of 11 (3 more on the deluxe edition, one of which is kinda rocky).

Because of that I always feel that this album is a bit misleading, because the two rockiest songs open the album. This Can't Be Good is a heavy and sleazy tune about a guy drinking with a sheriff's daughter girl by a river, who then both have to escape when the sheriff chases after them.

Now. The More I Drink. This is the song that got me in to Blake Shelton in the first place (thanks Biggins). My favourite drinking song of all time. Period. It's a bit honky-tonk, and all the better for it. 'If I have one I have thirteen, there ain't no in between'. And I can even kind of play it on guitar. Even better!

The last non-ballad is the standard album's closer: The Last Country Song. An upbeat song about an old country bar that is having a final blow-out before the big city buys up the land and puts some apartments on it or something.

The rest of the album consists of 8 thoroughly depressing songs. Some of them have the classic Shelton humour cutting through though. It Ain't Easy Being Me is a cover of a Chris Knight song, but Shelton's version is a notch less sad than the original.

Other standouts in this category are I Have Been Lonely (for the melody and tempo being much more upbeat than the lyrics), She Don't Love Me (for it's melancholy ending) and I Don't Care (but he does).

There is a 'deluxe' version of Pure BS which I have. Two original Shelton penned (solo, with no outside help, which is extremely rare) songs and a cover.

Chances is the better of the two originals, even if it does begin with a very dodgy rhyme (closing and chosen). Not that I Can't Walk Away is poor, but perhaps my British upbringing doesn't let me empathise with a song about being sore after bull-riding.

But we can't finish this without talking about the Michael Buble cover: Home. A classic Buble song, Blake pulls it off fantastically. Blake's voice is a match for Buble's on a good day, and this was a good day. The country twang gives it enough to feel unique.

Buble seemed to be pretty happy with Blake's version, and they did a duet live here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q33YUxnGvwE

And they reunited for a Christmas version... see below...

Startin' Fires (2008)

Not many rocky songs on this album either, but there are some fantastic ballads. 

Opening with the rocky Green; this is an odd song about how hillbillies who live off the fatta tha lan' were living the environmentally friendly lifestyle before it became popular/necessary: 'I was green, before green was a thing'. 

I may as well finish up the heavier song roundup before moving on, so the other one is Country Strong. Some great fiddle playing, and the lyrics just describe how great it is to be a cowboy. 

Then there are 10(!) ballads... She Wouldn't Be Gone is clearly the best one of the lot, and was the lead single. It's just really powerful, and an anthem for anyone who realises and regrets how much they messed up a relationship. This Is Gonna Take All Night is also quite good, but mostly for the jokey/innuendo-driven chorus: 'Girl tonight I'm making up for lost time, I hope you got a good night sleep...'

The rest of the ballads kind of mix together and fade in to obscurity. The title track (Good At Startin' Fires) is good. Never Lovin' You is a very country, twangy guitar ballad. Bare Skin Rug is co-sung by Shelton and his future wife, Miranda Lambert - it's fine, and I think the title is a pun?

To be honest, this is a pretty forgettable album. 

Hillbilly Bone (2010)

All About Tonight (2010)

So along with his record company (Reprise), Blake decided that one way to respond to the increasing influence of streaming and downloading on the internet would be to not make albums anymore. I mean, who buys a whole album anymore, right?
So, 2010 saw Blake release two 'Six-Packs'. Basically, two 6 song-length EPs. 

The first of these is Hillbilly Bone. There's some good stuff on this. I'd classify 4/6 as upbeat. The opening title track is a fun duet with Trace Adkins about how everybody is a bit of a hillbilly deep down. This is followed by Kiss My Country Ass, a bit of a southern pride song but not in a confederate way. 
Can't Afford To Love You is a fun love song about a poor guy trying to woo a rich southern belle. Almost Alright is about trying to put on a good face after a bad breakup, and has a great line: 'I'm getting back to hatin' me some soft rock', which I always find ironic as after these two EPs Blake goes back to full ballad. 

All About Tonight also has a lot of good stuff. The title track is a fun song about going out and getting drunk, and for some reason was 1st in a list of the most intelligently written songs of the last decade (primarily based on the use of some long words like 'concoctions' if you ask me). The other 5 songs are all about women. That Thing We Do, Draggin' The River and Got A Little Country are the more upbeat ones. I always laugh at the last of those because I imagine that Blake's singing about The Queen (she's got a little country, haha etc.).
Then we have some proper ballads. Who Are You When I'm Not Looking has some awful rhymes (looking, bookends and cookin' are all meant to rhyme...), but a nice message of genuinely wanting to know the person behind the face they put on for you. And then there's Suffocating... Which sounds like a Dreamer or Startin' Fires reject. 

If these two EPs had been put together, we would probably have my favourite Blake Shelton album. There's so much to love. It's mostly upbeat, the ballads are few and the songwriting is strong.

Red River Blue (2011)

Red River Blue is the first BS album I bought in real-time. I got in to him in late 2010 so this was good timing for a new album the next year. I remember listening to it for the first time in my then girlfriend's house and thinking... Hmm, there's a bit too much ballad for me.

But on reflection, it's quite a Pure BS-ey album. The opener, Honey Bee, is a catchy soft-rock-country song. I was playing Pokemon online with Biggins once, and he didn't realise that we had voice chat on, and he was singing this. Good times.

A lot of this album is catchy soft-country. Ready To Roll and Good Ole Boys are all pleasant songs for a day in the sun, sipping on beer. Hey is a very odd song, which is one of those songs you sing along to without quite knowing what you're saying. Once you think about it, you realise the lyrics are just total nonsense. But it's a fun listen anyway.

But God Gave Me You, I'm Sorry, Over and Red River Blue overpower them with their saturated ballad-ness. All 4 are fine, but they don't reach She Wouldn't Be Gone levels. 

A serviceable BS album, it delivers on both ballad and country counts, but it doesn't stand out particularly. 

Oh, and the bonus track on the deluxe version, Chill, is pretty great.

Cheers, it's Christmas (2012)

I really should have written this one in December rather than late January...

So Blake made a Christmas album. Mostly Christmas staples with a few originals for good measure. It's such a warm album, you can almost feel the fire from the cover when you listen to it. 

It's got quite a family feel. There are lots of guest stars and features (Kelly Clarkson, Miranda Lambert, Dolly Parton etc.). 

Michael Buble turns up to duet on a re-written Christmas version of Home. It was a nice idea, but the lyrics feel so forced (the word 'Christmas' is shoehorned in to a few places where the original only had a one syllable word). 

In the end, there's not a lot to say about this album. It's got lots of Christmas songs and they've been 'country'-ed up. I like it, and it works for a seasonal listen.

Based On a True Story (2013)

'Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Redneck'

Autotune! Alert! Bro-Country! Bigger ALERT!

Based on a True Story begins with Boys 'Round Here, an embarrassing attempt to celebrate good ol' fashioned values and times where men worked the land, then went out for beers with the boys to 'talk about girls, [and] talk about trucks'. And you can be sure 'ain't a damn one know how to do the duggie' like these youn'sters today. 

Fortunately the rest of this album is pretty good. Small Town Big Time is a fun hard(er) country rocker, which works despite the awful autotune in the chorus. I Still Got A Finger is another song with a jokey wry smile you can hear Blake singing through, along the lines of Some Beach. Ten Times Crazier is also pretty upbeat, although an out and out love song about how the singer is ten times crazier about his girl that football and cars (etc.). So romantic. 

Sure Be Cool If You Did was the lead single, and is perfectly fine except for the main chorus line which tries its damned hardest to gloss over the fact it's trying to rhyme 'this' with 'did'. You can pronounce either as Southern as you want, the s sound does not rhyme with the hard d sound. 

Two slower songs which aren't about women (what?!): Country On The Radio and Granddaddy's Gun. The former is an odd riposte to Same Old Song from his first album, where the lyrics describe how it doesn't really matter if all country songs sound the same and cover the same topics. That's all right then...

The latter is a well meaning song about the memories someone has about going out shooting with his grandfather, and now that he's gone the gun is imbued with all this sentimental value. You can't quite get away from the 2nd Amendment connotations though... Couldn't it have been about a car instead?

The rest of the album is the usual country ballad stuff. My Eyes has some good lines ('Tonight, my eyes are the only thing I don't wanna take off of you'), Doin' What She Likes and Mine Would Be You are both also fine. 

It's the same format as all BS albums, but the quality is generally a tad higher than Red River Blue. 

Bringing Back The Sunshine (2014)

This album starts off so promisingly. Bringing Back The Sunshine is such a great opening song, with its electric guitar intro and lyrics which describe coming back after being away for a period. The chorus comes rushing in, and it starts feeling like a proper driving song. You could fool yourself into thinking the song was causing the clouds to part if you looked up.

Unfortunately, it's pretty mediocre from then on out. Neon Light was the lead single, and somehow manages to be both too twangy country and too poppy (in the verses and chorus respectively). 

Buzzin' attempts to pull off a similar trick to Hey from Red River Blue, where the lyrics are mostly nonsense. But it's just not as catchy. Although, it has one of the best multi-levelled puns I've ever heard in a lyric: 'Hanging with my buds, speaking of buds who's got a light?' (In case you don't get it: the puns are on buds as buddies, buds as budweisers, light as bud light, and light as a cigarette lighter).

Just Gettin' Started rounds off the upbeat songs, and album. It's quite a good drinking/partying song, although some of the lyrics feel like they should have been redrafted. There's a reference to granny's slippers somewhere which just doesn't fit.

Good Old Country Song keeps up the tradition of having a nostalgic meta-song about how great old country songs are. 

The other 7(!) songs are full on ballads. Worth mentioning are: A Girl, which is a cute retelling of teenage love; Sangria, which has a vague Latin feel; and I Need My Girl, which has quite a loud and emotional chorus. 

The other 4 are a bit bland and forgettable. 

There is some good stuff on this album, but on the whole it's in the bottom half of Blake's albums, ranked by quality. Just download the opening song.

If I'm Honest (2016)

So in real life, Blake and his wife of about 4 years, fellow country artist and sometime collaborator Miranda Lambert, had recently divorced. And this is very much a 'break-up' album, mixed with some messages of hope for the future.

Odd, then, that we open with something that feels like it was written for the album before they decided what tone it was going to have. Straight Outta Cold Beer is lyrically very similar to Boys 'Round Here, minus the embarrassing lines. So not a great message, but it's fun enough.

Where to go from here... A lot of this album is very depressing. Bet You Still Think About Me does what it says on the tin. Every Time I Hear That Song is also pretty self explanatory. Came Here To Forget is at least chortle inducing - not sure you did Blake because half this album is about her!

She's Got A Way With Words also deserves a shout out for having some of the worst lyrics Blake has ever had to force his way through. 

The latter half of the album is a bit more positive, and seems to signal Blake's soon-to-be relationship with Gwen Stefani. Go Ahead And Break My Heart is a duet with Gwen, which is an interesting song for how upbeat it is in contrast to its lyrics. 

Doing It To Country Songs also deserves a shout out for being the equivalent of the 'isn't country music great' song. A lot of this song's albums are very self-descriptive aren't they?

Who knows why, but Blake took this album as an opportunity to rerecord 'hillbillies were environmentally friendly before it was cool' Green from Startin' Fires. It's barely different at all, other than some slightly improved production. 

Only slightly less confusing is the song Blake recorded for the Angry Birds movie: Friends. It's... ok... I guess?

I'd say other than Friends, Green, Doing It To Country Songs and Straight Outta Cold Beer, you'd be hard pressed to refer to much of this album as 'country'. It's so poppy all over the place. The production is too good, and there aren't many guitars (I don't think there's a single banjo).

To bring back the comparison with Taylor Swift, this is Blake's Red album. We're dangerously close to falling off the cliff in to full on pop... and we know that pop is a gateway genre that can lead to misguidedly attempting rap and R&B. Or is that just Swift?

Texoma Shore (2017)

So where did Blake go next? Did he follow Taylor's lead and dive head first in to pop?

NO HE DID NOT and I'm so glad. 

He went straight back to what he does best. An album half country rock and half country ballad. Phew. 

I'll Name The Dogs is a great little upbeat love song, if a little 'old fashioned' in its gender stereotypes: 'You name the babies, and I'll name the dogs'. 

At The House is similarly lovey topic-wise, but is also upbeat and feels far from a ballad. I think we're starting to feel Blake's personality here, he's in love with Gwen Stefani and he's SO HAPPY about it, so all these songs which might have been ballads have been given a boost. 

Having said that... Most of the rest of the album is quite ballady, although some of them are the best ballads that Blake has ever recorded so it's hard to complain too much. 

Why Me might be my favourite Blake ballad of all time. Simply put, it's about being shocked that this women is with you. 'Why me, out of everybody, baby, why me?'. 

Hangover Due is a super chilled Sunday anthem for spending a hangover day with your girl. 

When The Wine Wears Off is a heartfelt worry about whether a girl will stay with you the morning after. It's nice to have a gender reversal of that trope. 

The other ballads are good too. But I don't want to go through all of them. 

Songs on other topics include Money, which is the worst song on the album by some margin (another Hey/Buzzin'-like song that just doesn't work). I Lived It fills the space of the 'country music is great' song, though is more nostalgic about a simpler life than simpler music (ooo burn). 

Yes, it would have been nice to have a few rockier songs. I'll Name The Dogs is probably the rockiest, and that's a stretch. But importantly this feels like a country album, and it's got some good songwriting.

I wasn't looking forward to this album, following the musical misstep of If I'm Honest. But after Texoma Shore, I am looking forward to the next one. 

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So that's Blake Shelton. I like a lot of his music. I also don't like a lot of his music. (And with that sort of insight you wonder why I never became a music journalist).

Sometimes it's nice to listen to something very well produced. Sometimes it's also nice to hear about what the American South is up to. 

Plus, Blake still has one of the best voices in all of Country music.