NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 13, 2013 - Reinging CMA Entertainer of the Year Blake Shelton reconnects with his redneck roots on a brand new song "Boys Round Here," a charming romp off the singer's upcoming Based on a True Story... album, out March 26. Featuring vocals from the Miranda Lambert-helmed Pistol Annies, Shelton dives head first into a rather tattered collection of Country cliches about "drinking that ice cold beer, talking 'bout girls, talking 'bout trucks."
The most redeeming qualities of the song -- which was co-written by Rhett Akins and Dallas Davidson -- lie in Shelton's tongue-in-cheek delivery and the multi-layered production. Although it is admirable that the Nashville star is exploring more pop-leaning material with obvious crossover potential, his new entry does not live up to earlier work, such as debut single "Austin," off his first self-titled major label record.
“I don’t know what the official word is, but I do get a say-so, I think, so I’m hoping ‘Boys Round Here’ could be the next single. I love that song. To me that is the best way to put into a song my personality and the kind of people that I hang out with," Shelton explains to Rolling Stone. "That is, the guys back in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, and in every town around this country… [On the line ‘don’t take no s---‘], we do have a radio edit where we use the word ‘lip’—‘don’t take no lip.’… I also love that for once I got to pull from my Jerry Reed influence on that one and kind of do some talking in it. Jason Aldean is actually probably a really good rapper; I do more of the Jerry Reed-type rapping. Recitation. Or as Ashley Monroe said yesterday, ‘resuscitation’—and never understood what she said wrong, and we all laughed at her.”
His current single "Sure Be Cool If You Did" raced up the charts and is expected to top the Mediabase radio airplay tally at the end of the tracking week on March 17. “It’s got a lot of the elements that you try and include on an album, all in one song: It’s kind of manic, it’s a little bit mischievous, it’s got a cool groove to it, it’s happy, it’s in a bar...," he describes. "It’s just about a guy picking up a girl. It’s easy to listen to and not have to think about that hard. And the production of that song is what I was the most excited about, because it’s kind of an indication of where I’m going musically. It’s got a loop in it, and it’s got some snaps and some samples and different sounds like that that people I don’t think would have ever expected to hear from me. But when I turn on the radio, I hear these records that Luke [Bryan] and Carrie [Underwood] and Jason [Aldean] are doing, and I’m going, ‘Man, I want in on some of that.’ So I wanted to incorporate some of the things that they’re doing on my album, too. Jealous.”
Take a listen to the new song to the left.
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