A Thousand Horses - "Smoke"

[Deleted]

This song is shaping up to be a big hit (I'm not surprised, either). It was #63 on the iTunes all-genre chart this morning, and it's currently at #7 on the iTunes country chart, just behind "Little Red Wagon".

This looks like a future #1 hit, and it will probably be the biggest OTV selected-hit since "Leave The Night On". Dustin Lynch's "Where It's At" was a pretty big hit (especially with peak airplay and recurrent airplay; sales were pretty good but not huge) but I think "Smoke" could be at least that big, and I think it could go on to out-sell Dustin's song as well.

[Markus Meyer]

Yeah, sales have picked up for this one. Kinda surprised since this one doesn't strike me a particularly memorable.

[Deleted]

Mar 18, 2015 21:31:28 GMT -5 Markus Meyer said:

Yeah, sales have picked up for this one. Kinda surprised since this one doesn't strike me a particularly memorable.

As I said in my previous post, I'm not really surprised that this is doing so well. What does surprise me is that the country industry and country radio have taken so long to fully embrace a southern rock/country group like A Thousand Horses. Back in 2008, when Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" blew up, I figured it was only a matter of time until there'd be a couple of other southern rock/country hybrid groups/artists on country radio, but it never really happened. And that surprises me, because "All Summer Long" was huge (and of course it samples the southern rock classic "Sweet Home Alabama"), and so I thought for sure that the industry would say "hey, maybe he's [Kid Rock] on to something"... (I still hear "All Summer Long" all the time, btw).

I feel like The Cadillac Three really missed the boat here--both of their 2 singles have been way too polarizing for radio (and Jaren Johnston's vocals haven't helped). They sold well but weren't quite mainstream enough to do well on the radio. A Thousand Horses, on the other hand, are very commercial and radio-friendly at the same time. And I really think they're the perfect mixture of country and southern rock.

There are several male country artists who obviously have strong rock leanings (Jason Aldean, Brantley Gilbert, Eric Church, Kip Moore, etc) but they're more in the Bruce Springsteen/Tom Petty heartland rock vane rather than southern rock. The Zac Brown Band has dabbled in rock/pop sounds throughout much of their career (and now they've even released a straight-up rock song to rock radio), but again, they haven't really done southern rock. Blackberry Smoke could have been really big--and they probably could still be big on country radio if a mainstream label were to take a chance with them--but after one album (The Whippoorwill) for ZBB's Southern Ground label, they've moved on to Rounder Records and are no longer catering to country radio. If Blackberry Smoke had been signed to Republic Nashville (like A Thousand Horses is), or if they had stayed with Southern Ground now that Zac has the partnerships with John Varvatos, BMLG, and Republic, perhaps they would be a major player right now. They are hugely popular on the touring circuit, but they've never had much success on the radio.

If Lynyrd Skynyrd was a newer artist today, they would probably be considered as much country as they were rock/southern rock. Same thing for the Allman Brothers and Marshall Tucker. Kid Rock could probably get played on country radio too (especially his newer music like "First Kiss") but the problem is that, up until now, he's never been seen as a country artist, and thus I believe he'd have a hard time shaking that perception that so many have of him.

Nowadays the rock radio formats have such a small audience, and there really aren't any big popular southern rock bands who still get [new] music played on the radio. A lot of people who listened to older rock music now listen to country radio instead, too.

[rsmatto]

jhomes87, While they're not focusing the way a major would, Blackberry Smoke is indeed working their single at country radio. It's just getting more of a secondary look than anything, at the moment.

As for this song, Markus Meyer, It feels exactly like something fans would dig, especially given the amount of fans looking for something just like this band and that they can draw in 'rock' fans as well as 'mainstream country' fans too. In fact, I think this is exactly why BMLG signed the band AND why Waterloo Revival has joined Big Machine along with The Cadillac Three still being signed to the label.

[onebuffalo]

Mar 19, 2015 18:25:57 GMT -5 rsmatto said:

jhomes87, While they're not focusing the way a major would, Blackberry Smoke is indeed working their single at country radio. It's just getting more of a secondary look than anything, at the moment.

As for this song, Markus Meyer, It feels exactly like something fans would dig, especially given the amount of fans looking for something just like this band and that they can draw in 'rock' fans as well as 'mainstream country' fans too. In fact, I think this is exactly why BMLG signed the band AND why Waterloo Revival has joined Big Machine along with The Cadillac Three still being signed to the label.

Do you attribute the fact that Blackberry Smoke had the top selling CD a few weeks ago and would like to build some buzz for the single? I think it was great that they came out of 'nowhere' to score a feat like that.

[zjames]

I felt pretty indifferent about "Smoke" at first, but after hearing it on the radio quite a few times I'm starting to really like it. It's just really smooth and the instrumentation in my opinion fits the smoke comparison.

[trebor]

The chorus at 2:00 and to fade that sets in at about 3:10 is pretty much the same as the vocal bridge in Abba's: "The Name Of The Game" at 1:30
Had my fair share of blast of the past reviews today including Abba and while I was listening to "A Thousand Horses" just right now the similarity really stroke me and I had to "rewind" several times.

[ericNY2002]

As of this morning, Smoke is sitting at #4 on Mediabase, and looking like #1 bound. Would love to know the 1 station on the Mediabase panel that still hasn't added the song yet. Smoke been stuck on 150 stations (out of 151) for weeks now.

[Deleted]

On the Hot 100, this just hit top 50. It's #49 currently.

[dm2081]

Has anything heard about a favorite for second single? Quite a few songs are available to preview on iTunes now (and have been for a while). I'm not sure if these guys are going to be huge and have a couple more big hits, or if "Smoke" will be the only #1 this album cycle. The popularity of "Smoke" leads me to believe they'll have a few more decent sized hits, but then I also remember they got a major helping hand with the OTV treatment. I think they still would have a hit on their hands without the OTV, but I'm not sure if it would have been as big of a hit. Anyways, "Tennessee Whiskey" and "(This Ain't No) Drunk Dial" sound like good options for the second single. Even though these guys have a HEAVY southern rock influence, I find it interesting that their songs are sounding more country than many of the format's superstars.

[sabre14]

May 19, 2015 22:25:41 GMT -5 dm2081 said:

Has anything heard about a favorite for second single? Quite a few songs are available to preview on iTunes now (and have been for a while). I'm not sure if these guys are going to be huge and have a couple more big hits, or if "Smoke" will be the only #1 this album cycle. The popularity of "Smoke" leads me to believe they'll have a few more decent sized hits, but then I also remember they got a major helping hand with the OTV treatment. I think they still would have a hit on their hands without the OTV, but I'm not sure if it would have been as big of a hit. Anyways, "Tennessee Whiskey" and "(This Ain't No) Drunk Dial" sound like good options for the second single. Even though these guys have a HEAVY southern rock influence, I find it interesting that their songs are sounding more country than many of the format's superstars.

I haven't listened to their album but I think A Thousand Horses will have at least a couple more decent sized hits. "Smoke" has sold pretty well and hasn't had much, if any trouble in its chart run once it was the OTV selection. This is clearly a single that iHeartMedia hit on and the momentum should carry them into a successful follow up. Another factor is they have a strong label behind them and the their southern rock style might be becoming more accessible on mainstream radio than it was before, with The Cadillac Three getting airplay (though they have definitely had some troubles getting sustained airplay with their first two singles, though single selections might have had something to do with that IMO).

That being said, they do need to make sure they select the right follow up and not one that is too far rock. I think "Smoke" was the picture perfect song to debut with on terrestrial radio. "Drunk Dial" is a song that was played on Sirius/XM before they signed with BMLG.

[onebuffalo]

#1 in Canada!

[Deleted]

May 25, 2015 13:17:04 GMT -5 @daydrinker said:

That said, A Thousand Horses and FGL aren't coming in very strong right now at all. Both have slammed on the brakes considerably last week and I think Billy/Mercury could make trouble for them if they chose to this week. I'm sure I'll get some raised eyebrows for this conspiracy theory, but I suspect Republic Nashville is being given a tighter budget to work singles to radio lately and as such they can't quite match the artificial levels of airplay other labels have been able to push their songs to, so while "Smoke" and "Sippin' on Fire" at legit #1 hits, they are struggling to get much higher and possibly losing to other labels that funnel more money and resources into radio promo.

I will say that my eyebrows rose slightly. I don't think any of the BMLG imprints are having any trouble competing with other labels at radio right now. Rather, I think the reason both "Smoke" and "Sippin' On Fire" slowed down is perhaps because Republic (and other BMLG imprints) look at the charts a little differently. I realize that Kenny Chesney just had a huge week and that he really closed the gap between himself and FGL...and yet it's still a pretty big gap.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, perhaps the label spent last week not really working "Smoke" and "Sippin' On Fire" because they didn't need to? Other labels that had songs in the 2-3 spots might have pushed for more spins last week, but in the end it wasn't going to change the chart position. It was plainly obvious that Billy was going to be #1, and that Kenny and everyone else below him isn't a threat, so my guess is that Republic is hoping that, because they didn't push for extra spins for 1000 Horses or FGL this past week, then maybe radio will be more willing to give them extra extra spins during their 'max spins' week. (Also, keep in mind that it was also a holiday weekend; a lot of songs slowed down, so that could have played a factor in the recent trajectories for "Smoke" and "Sippin' On Fire", and it also could have affected how Republic was approaching the radio promo here).

To me, it was plainly obvious that Billy would get his week at #1, and it's plainly obvious that both A Thousand Horses and Florida Georgia Line are going #1 as well. Kenny had a monstrous week, but that's probably because he was pretty much the sole beneficiary from the Tyler Farr collapse. Maybe it helps that Tyler is another Sony/Columbia artist, but I think Kenny's gains would have been just as big if Tyler were a UMG artist. Kenny just happened to be in the right place at the right time to benefit from Tyler's collapse, and of course songs like "Raise 'Em Up", "Say You Do", "Homegrown", "Drinking Class", etc. are still decreasing in airplay as well.

"Smoke" and "Sippin' On Fire" both had nice spin gains today, whereas Kenny suddenly careened to a halt. That's just kind of the way things work on the charts, especially in the top 20--lots of stopping and starting. Last week it was A Thousand Horses and Florida Georgia Line that hit the brakes, while Kenny was standing on the accelerator. This week it looks like radio is putting the brakes on "Wild Child" (and perhaps Carrie's "Little Toy Guns" as well) in favor of "Baby Be My Love Song", "Love Me Like You Mean It", "Sangria", "Love You Like That", and "Girl Crush". The difference is that, unlike last week with Kenny, this week it's not one song being the sole beneficiary of the collapse of 1-2 other songs. Instead, the available top 10 spins are being spread out among 4-5 other artists this week.

[Marv]

This is definitely one of the very best debut singles in recent memory that doesn't sound like anything else, and scooting to #1 in a very respectable 20 weeks is a very noteworthy accomplishment for a debut single.

Streaking to the top in a mere dozen weeks in the case of Jesus Take The Wheel and Redneck Woman, or seventeen weeks as I Loved Her First did were all extremely impressive chart accomplishments worthy of recognition, and all of the compliments which followed.

Those artists all received plenty of praise during their respective chart runs, and these folks certainly deserve their share of accolades for this great tune as well, and I'm definitely looking forward to their next single.

[sabre14]

May 31, 2015 22:19:07 GMT -5 Marv said:

This is definitely one of the very best debut singles in recent memory that doesn't sound like anything else, and scooting to #1 in a very respectable 20 weeks is a very noteworthy accomplishment for a debut single.

Streaking to the top in a mere dozen weeks in the case of Jesus Take The Wheel and Redneck Woman, or seventeen weeks as I Loved Her First did were all extremely impressive chart accomplishments worthy of recognition, and all of the compliments which followed.

Those artists all received plenty of praise during their respective chart runs, and these folks certainly deserve their share of accolades for this great tune as well, and I'm definitely looking forward to their next single.

iHeartMedia gets at least a secondary assist (hockey or basketball reference), lol. Debuting all the way at #28 was a nice start after the "On The Verge" selection.

I do think this would have become a hit in the end; it just would have taken longer to get there.

[Deleted]

As expected, "Smoke" is #1 on both charts. They'll almost certainly (99% likely) get only 1 week at the top, given that they've already announced the 2nd single, "(This Ain't No) Drunk Dial", and that Republic Nashville label-mate Florida Georgia Line is sitting in the #2 spot.

Here's the Billboard chart highlights blurb on "Smoke" rising to #1:

Rookie country/Southern rock quartet A Thousand Horses becomes the first group (of at least three members) to send a debut entry to No. 1 on Country Airplay this decade, as "Smoke" rises 2-1. The band is the first group to crown the chart on its first try since Zac Brown Band arrived with the two-week No. 1 "Chicken Fried" in December 2008. Prior to A Thousand Horses, Maddie & Tae was the last act (either duo, group or solo) to send its introductory single to No. 1 when its "Girl in a Country Song" led the Dec. 20, 2014, list.

"Absolutely unreal! I've dreamed of this day since I picked up a guitar and started trying to write songs when I was 12 years old,"A Thousand Horses frontman Michael Hobby says. "We are all so appreciative of country radio for [its] support and to the fans for making this song theirs."