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Post by singingsparrow on Jul 23, 2010 2:27:19 GMT -5
I agree "If You're Going Through Hell..." was a great song, perfectly delivered and it really was a stand out record. Plus I quite liked how it didn't have any rhyming in it. "Watching You" was a little bit too "cute" but was meant for radio. "These" are my people was a throw away, not horrid but didn't leave any kind of lasting mark. "(Cleaning This Gun) Come On In Boy" was really good, it was a very old story but told interestingly and I found his everyman voice worked greatly in the songs favor. "Invisibly Shaken" was a good song but not made for radio at all, I'd say it was even more unradiofriendly than "The House That Built Me". "It's America" was his worst single bar none. I really Loved "15 Minutes" but can also see why it didn't make it bigger. "Chasin' Girls" left no impression on me. "Farmer's Daughter" falls somewhere in the middle of "Chasin' Girls" and "It's America", almost horrid but really inoofensive...boring.... "Honesty (Write Me A List", "In A Heartbeat", "Someone To Share It With" & "My Old Man" were really good songs that I think sould've been bigger. "Monkey In The Middle" and "Sing Along" were meh.... If he would've released "Angel's Hands" instead of "Invisibly Shaken" I think he'd have at least made top 20 and probably continued his momentum. Having said that the video for "Invisibly Shaken" was beautiful and featured Lauren Lucas so I can't complain too much. "If You're Going Through Hell (Before The Devil Even Knows)" has plenty of end rhymes in the verses. That said, I overall agree strongly with your assessment of Atkins' singles history to date. He simply covered a collection of well-written songs during the "If You're Going Through Hell" that were accessible and appealed to tried-and-true country themes, but also stood out in that they had some unique flair and personality to them. The title track had some engaging rhymes and figurative language, "Watching You" had a charm to it in that it toed the line between cuteness and humor, and "Cleanin' This Gun (Come On In Boy)" took the worn-out theme of overprotective parenting but put an entertaining twist on it that Atkins sold very well. I thought "These Are My People" was the only dud. The songwriting just wasn't as witty, interesting and sharp this era, with the exception of "15 Minutes". Atkins relied too heavily on material that just grasped for topical straws but were refined of that unique personality and descriptive lyrics that made the "If You're Going Through Hell" era singles stand out. Whether he sung about "Simple Things" or "Best Things" or "Friends With Tractors" or having "Got It Good", he dwelled too heavily on a tired country theme but ultimately left behind a collection of songs with no staying power because of their lack of personality or emotional appeal. That's, I believe, the main reason Atkins abruptly hemorrhaged momentum this era. Namaste, Lisping Hibiscus
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2010 19:04:59 GMT -5
Rodney seems to be doing alright with this now...up to #17 after 21 weeks, with most of the big boppers (aside from Brad and ZBB) ahead of him now. I think that, with some older songs ahead of him not likely to last more than a few weeks or a month or so, that Rodney could take this song into the top 10 yet. It's not guaranteed, but I don't think it's too much of a stretch. I've really come to enjoy this song--it's not a classic, no, but it's a laid back, feel-good song. And I must say I was very impressed with the video--one of the best videos I've seen recently. The scenes were great and it goes very well with the song lyrics. It also wasn't cheesy. There have been too many lame videos lately (Reba's, Brad's, and Trace's were all disappointments to me). I hope Rodney can get back to the top 10 and return with another solid album and have an era halfway-close to the success of "If You're Going Through Hell".
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Post by singingsparrow on Aug 24, 2010 19:12:49 GMT -5
Rodney seems to be doing alright with this now...up to #17 after 21 weeks, with most of the big boppers (aside from Brad and ZBB) ahead of him now. I think that, with some older songs ahead of him not likely to last more than a few weeks or a month or so, that Rodney could take this song into the top 10 yet. It's not guaranteed, but I don't think it's too much of a stretch. I've really come to enjoy this song--it's not a classic, no, but it's a laid back, feel-good song. And I must say I was very impressed with the video--one of the best videos I've seen recently. The scenes were great and it goes very well with the song lyrics. It also wasn't cheesy. There have been too many lame videos lately (Reba's, Brad's, and Trace's were all disappointments to me). I hope Rodney can get back to the top 10 and return with another solid album and have an era halfway-close to the success of "If You're Going Through Hell". His label has to be feeling great about the digital sales strength of "Farmer's Daughter". It's enjoying a similar cult success as Craig Morgan's "Bonfire" has. It has now surpassed 300,000 units in digital sales and will surely go Gold soon. I think its robust digital success will be what carries this track over the top and into the Top Ten. It also appears to be getting much better callout than any of the original "It's America" era singles were receiving. Namaste, Lisping Hibiscus
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Post by singingsparrow on Sept 8, 2010 11:27:29 GMT -5
Looks like this single is starting to hit its stride now.
And, given the late summer through mid-autumn is the peak of the harvesting season, it wouldn't be surprising to me to see this song continue to accelerate up the chart, especially given the strong digital sales which probably motivated its upwards momentum to begin with.
Namaste, Lisping Hibiscus
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dcowboy77
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Post by dcowboy77 on Sept 25, 2010 14:03:15 GMT -5
Here it comes, another flop for Rodney... And that will make it the fourth? Fifth? lol. Top 10. Karnak you are not lol.
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mairy
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Post by mairy on Sept 28, 2010 12:29:05 GMT -5
Here it comes, another flop for Rodney... And that will make it the fourth? Fifth? lol. Top 10. Karnak you are not lol. Actually, I was still considering it a flop until a couple weeks ago. It was slowly climbing without me paying attention. This morning, when I saw it was top10 I listened to it again and realized I had just listened to it a couple of time, and that was a long time ago. I really don't care about this song, and I am sooooo surprised that it's doing well. I miss old Rodney, the one from the previous album.
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Post by singingsparrow on Sept 28, 2010 18:55:35 GMT -5
www.theboot.com/2010/09/24/rodney-atkins-new-album-2010/Are you doing anything differently with the songs you've recorded for the new project than your previous two albums?
'Farmer's Daughter' is different than anything I've recorded. I've never really done that kind of love song before. We've actually got some love songs that we've done that real woman would want to hear. I remember when I was a kid hearing stuff like [Alabama's] 'Close Enough to Perfect,' I thought it was more of a real lyric, more true to life, than one that painted the perfect picture of the moon and stars where everything's perfect. We found a song written by Jim Collins and David Lee Murphy, 'Cabin in the Woods,' which is along the lines of Kenny Rogers' 'She Believes in Me.' So we're doing those kind of lyrics, different but very cool. Then we've got some funny stuff, life songs again but different from 'It's America.' We're trying to make sure that everything stays real and there's a little bit more grit. I've been real honest with myself on a lot of these songs. A lot of times that's really what you relate to. It's fun. I think it will be an incredible album.
Did you write many songs yourself for the new project?
I only wrote a few, and I drove my co-writers completely crazy! I'm a tweaker, I like to keep working on stuff. A couple that I was a writer on, I wrote straight out of my life. 'Growing Up Like That' is one that is very different. I was just sitting in the room telling these guys about the first time I put up a basketball goal. It was when I was ten and my dad basically told me, "Son, you need a goal to keep you busy." So he gave me an old creosote pole out of the barn, sent me out to find a place with no cow patties and get to it. I dribbled that ball 'til the grass was brown and then there was nothing but dirt. That's where I learned to shoot baskets. My co-writer Ben Hayslip commented that you want to give your kids everything you can, things that we didn't have when we were kids, but in doing so the one thing we don't give them is the things that made us who we are. We started talking about those kinds of things, so we wrote a song called 'Ain't Nothing Wrong With Growing Up Like That."
Another tune on the new album, 'Every Time Life Lines,' is about that time in life when someone reached out and grabbed a hold of me when I needed it, or about just calling home on Sunday afternoon. It's about the people that keep you grounded. My goal for this album when I started out was I wanted this stuff to land somewhere between Charlie Daniels and Alan Jackson. If I can land between that, and that's what these two songs are, that's where I want to be. Everything you do is not great, every song you find is not right, but there are some things you fight for. There's another David Lee Murphy song, 'She'd Rather Fight,' which is hilarious. He's one of those guys who will pitch you a song he wrote and he sounds so cool it's hard not to like everything.* * I have to say I'm optimistic about his next album. It sounds like it's going to have a lot more substance and blood than "It's America". I've been saying that I like Rodney Atkins personally, and believe he has potential to be something more as an artist, given he has dealt with his share of adversity throughout his life, from his frail health in his youth to growing up an orphaned child to struggling for years to make it where is today career-wise..............yet has emerged as one of the most charming, positive-minded artists we know. I believe, if he wanted to, he has the potential to write some compelling material were he to dig deeper down into what triggers and encourages his positive frame of mind and touch up on the struggles he overcame to get where he is. Sadly, he has seemed reluctant to stretch himself recently beyond the confides of pangloss anthems, positive Hallmark Card platitudes and Hollywood endings. "If You're Going Through Hell" was an overall engaging album because songs like the title track had more teeth to the lyrics than just the carpe diem platitudes. With "It's America", however, most of the record obsessively reached for anthemic quality while compromising all the personality and wit that made the former album appealing in the process. During the "It's America" era, it felt that Atkins went on "Don't worry, be happy!" auto-pilot and the songwriting quality suffered. I really like what I'm hearing in this interview. It seems Atkins has learned his lesson from the commercial failure of "It's America" in relying on painted-feel-good-anthems-by-numbers and grasping of topical straws. It definitely looks like Atkins is moving in the right direction and is recording (and in some cases penning) songs that harness Atkins' refreshing optimistic personality but come across as much less fluffy and much more convincing this time around with more intimate, emotionally-engaging and descriptive lyrical quality. Namaste, Lisping Hibiscus
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2010 0:51:36 GMT -5
^Awesome news. Sounds like a great album could be in the works. I really like "Farmer's Daughter", so I'm glad Rodney will have new music ready to go to sustain his momentum.
On a side note, I thought this paragraph was funny:
Sounds like Rodney was a tad bit frustrated with Curb. He's got the right idea...the album was old, and even though I'm not terribly surprised at the success of "Farmer's Daughter", in a sense it is suprising simply because of the astonishing shortcoming that was "Chasin' Girls", a single that should've fared much better but for some reason didn't, and it could've easily killed the momentum he had going--or perhaps it did, and he's just gotten it back somewhat. Either way, I hope Curb doesn't put Rodney in a situation that Jo Dee Messina or Tim McGraw have been put in; Rodney has become a proven hitmaker just like they were, so I hope Curb doesn't harm his career like that...
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dcowboy77
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Post by dcowboy77 on Oct 2, 2010 13:09:59 GMT -5
As others said this feels very "big green tractor" ish....to me thats good.
You can even substitute the line: "i fell in luv with the farmers daughter" with "i took her for a ride in my big green tractor"
it fits perfect. This songs doing ok but since "tractor" was #1 4 weeks i thought it would be doing better.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2010 14:40:38 GMT -5
As others said this feels very "big green tractor" ish....to me thats good. You can even substitute the line: "i fell in luv with the farmers daughter" with "i took her for a ride in my big green tractor" it fits perfect. This songs doing ok but since "tractor" was #1 4 weeks i thought it would be doing better. Similar songs, maybe. But Jason Aldean is red hot, and when he released "Big Green Tractor" he was coming off a #1 hit. Rodney is coming off 2 flops, and hasn't had a #1 hit since "It's America".
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Post by singingsparrow on Oct 2, 2010 17:51:29 GMT -5
As others said this feels very "big green tractor" ish....to me thats good. You can even substitute the line: "i fell in luv with the farmers daughter" with "i took her for a ride in my big green tractor" it fits perfect. This songs doing ok but since "tractor" was #1 4 weeks i thought it would be doing better. Similar songs, maybe. But Jason Aldean is red hot, and when he released "Big Green Tractor" he was coming off a #1 hit. Rodney is coming off 2 flops, and hasn't had a #1 hit since "It's America". "Farmer's Daughter" is proving to be a hit because it's an easily-accessible song, performed by a vocalist who may not have the shiniest vocals but exudes genuine personality and charm. It's not a song that aims for importance or hits you over the head; it's a feel-good simple story set to song and such a song wouldn't come across as authentic without a plaintive simple vocal. "15 Minutes" failed because, as much as I loathe saying it, sounded too country/traditional for Country radio. And "Chasin' Girls" failed because of the poor timing of its release. It's no surprise that this song really started catching fire as the summer came to an end because it's the harvesting season as well. Thus, unlike last time, Atkins also has a perfectly seasonal song on his side as well (because even though the song mentions hot temperatures implying its summer, farming is a profession that requires an arduous year-round commitment, and autumn is the most prolific season of all in agriculture). Namaste, Lisping Hibiscus
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2010 14:58:08 GMT -5
This song has had a pretty impressive and steady run, and I hope Rodney comes back with some great new music soon...
At 30 weeks, he's moved up to #6, and had a lead of just over 1 million AI's on Brad Paisley last week. But I fear Rodney has hit the end of the road...he's suddenly down 40 spins for the week on MB...he could sneak up to #5 (with Easton falling) maybe, even if he loses his bullet (may or may not), but that all depends if he can keep ahead of Brad for one more week, and I'm not sure about that...
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Zazie
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Post by Zazie on Oct 29, 2010 22:13:05 GMT -5
We should have 6 songs on next week's Billboard with 30 million plus in audience, 4 of them posting numbers in excess of 33.5 million. And they might all be bulleted, or at any rate all except Darius. Ridiculously high numbers. Poor Rodney, about to be passed by Paisley too, just can't compete with those numbers. This song's doing very well, but the competition is too rough. Of course Rodney posted some impressive audience numbers of his own, back when Watching You and Going Through Hell were on top of the charts.
Hibiscus, I like your detailed comments on farming and the fall. But what do you mean by "plaintive simple vocal"? Thanks.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2010 0:01:52 GMT -5
Rodney held at #6 this week on BB, but he did manage to stay ahead of Brad on MB and move up to #5. On BB he gained only 303k...but I'm inclined to think he's not done yet. While it appears he's been slowing, he's about 2.2 million ahead of The Band Perry, and even though they're moving fast, I think Curb and Rodney want to go higher. There was an ad in tonight's BCU saying "top 5 and powering up!" for "Farmer's Daughter", so I'm inclined to think Curb wants to push the song higher. I don't think he'll get back ahead of Brad, but I do think he can maintain his place ahead of The Band Perry...at least for now.
I suppose we can't quite rule this song out, as far as #1 contenders go. It won't get there this week (if it even gets there at all)...Sugarland and ZBB won't allow for that. In the end I still think it's more likely that this song will stall in the top 5 even if they push for #1. The reason I think so is because of the ZBB song...if that one gets at 3+ weeks, I don't think Rodney can wait that long. Even 2 weeks could be too long of a wait. The lead singles are starting to sort themselves out into #1 contenders and not #1 contenders, and a few other non-lead singles are doing so as well. The way I see it, Sugarland hits #1 next week, then ZBB gets anywhere from 2-4 weeks at #1 (that'll be really interesting to watch), potentially followed by Brad (if he can wait it out or knock off ZBB) or The Band Perry, with Tim and Kenny probably after that--and I still won't rule out Jason, Carrie, or Keith. I think Rodney can stay ahead of TBP for a little while, and perhaps move as high as #4 or maybe #3, but I think the summit will be blocked.
Still, I think this one's had a great run, and I'm interested to watch its next few weeks. Hopefully Rodney can keep some momentum at radio and come back with a great new lead single for early next year..
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Post by singingsparrow on Nov 2, 2010 0:24:14 GMT -5
Rodney held at #6 this week on BB, but he did manage to stay ahead of Brad on MB and move up to #5. On BB he gained only 303k...but I'm inclined to think he's not done yet. While it appears he's been slowing, he's about 2.2 million ahead of The Band Perry, and even though they're moving fast, I think Curb and Rodney want to go higher. There was an ad in tonight's BCU saying "top 5 and powering up!" for "Farmer's Daughter", so I'm inclined to think Curb wants to push the song higher. I don't think he'll get back ahead of Brad, but I do think he can maintain his place ahead of The Band Perry...at least for now. I suppose we can't quite rule this song out, as far as #1 contenders go. It won't get there this week (if it even gets there at all)...Sugarland and ZBB won't allow for that. In the end I still think it's more likely that this song will stall in the top 5 even if they push for #1. The reason I think so is because of the ZBB song...if that one gets at 3+ weeks, I don't think Rodney can wait that long. Even 2 weeks could be too long of a wait. The lead singles are starting to sort themselves out into #1 contenders and not #1 contenders, and a few other non-lead singles are doing so as well. The way I see it, Sugarland hits #1 next week, then ZBB gets anywhere from 2-4 weeks at #1 (that'll be really interesting to watch), potentially followed by Brad (if he can wait it out or knock off ZBB) or The Band Perry, with Tim and Kenny probably after that--and I still won't rule out Jason, Carrie, or Keith. I think Rodney can stay ahead of TBP for a little while, and perhaps move as high as #4 or maybe #3, but I think the summit will be blocked. Still, I think this one's had a great run, and I'm interested to watch its next few weeks. Hopefully Rodney can keep some momentum at radio and come back with a great new lead single for early next year.. With the way virtually all the singles below the Top Ten have slowed down, and all the larger names in the Top Ten frantically rushing to the summit simultaneously, I do believe Atkins may still have a real outside shot at topping the chart here. As long as there's no one else striding behind him, taking his sweet time and allowing the blockbuster names to do their thing first may be the best thing that could possibly happen for him. Rucker is now descending with Swift certainly expected to do so this week as well, with possibly Sugarland making it a hat trick. That would leave only the Zac Brown Band and Brad Paisley to reckon with, and while the former could easily enjoy a multi-week #1 if they wanted to, I'd bet the band would more likely want to move on to their next single (I bet they want "Colder Weather" released sooner rather than later) Obviously Atkins must keep his own single alive first and foremost, but if the "Top 5 And Powering Up!" mantra is any indication, Curb sees an opening and I do truly think they can pull this off, as unlikely as it may seem at the moment. Namaste, Lisping Hibiscus
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2010 1:03:22 GMT -5
^Yeah, I guess I see that point. Right now I'd say it's a bit more unlikely than likely still, since there are still some big names and Rodney hasn't had a big hit in a while, but I'll say he's got a 30-40% chance of getting to #1, and it could grow.
I've also thought your thoughts regarding the ZBB song...it may be acting like a 3-4 week #1 song, but it seems like another song always comes along and challenges, or the artist at the top wants to release another single. I can't imagine that "As She's Walking Away" will lose audience at a fast rate, even as it hits recurrency, but with how red hot the ZBB has been, I can't imagine that it would hinder the climb of single #2 by very much...I do think they will try to get "Colder Weather" out and that it could run all the way into March.
All of this (Darius & Taylor falling, Sugarland nabbing just one week at #1 or falling, and ZBB maybe content with 2 weeks) could really play into Rodney's hand...the biggest question mark to me is if radio stays on board with "Farmer's Daughter" as Rodney and Curb try to wait out the superstars. Certainly radio could stay on board...I know Rodney has been slowing a bit as far as audience gains go, but with a push now coming, and callout scores still very high (he's at #1), fans and radio still seem to enjoy the song a lot, so perhaps this summer turned autumn theme song may actually have a chance at #1 in the beginning phase of winter?
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