Last Tuesday brought about the release of new country artist Craig Campbell’s debut album “Craig Campbell”. Even though you have probably heard the first single off the album being played for several months now, the album was put off until now for release. This seems to be a growing trend with country music. I don’t know if the record companies are responsible or if it is the artists’ choice. The only thing I can think of is maybe they stumble across a great song while making the album and decide to go ahead and release it to hype the album up. It seems to me that releasing a single six months ahead of the album, allows time for the listeners to forget about the song. Therefore, I’m not sure it is a great strategy. In any event, if people have forgotten about Campbell’s debut single “Family Man”, they won’t forget about him once they hear some of the other songs on this CD.
As I have already mentioned “Family Man” was the first that we heard of Craig Campbell and I believe that song turned a lot of heads. When I first heard the song’s chorus, I thought it was Alan Jackson. I’m sure that you have heard the song as it has been play a lot by radio stations in my area. If this is the type of song you like, I think you will enjoy the rest of the album. There are several other songs that stand out on the album. I think “My Little Cowboy” probably has a chance to be a single. It’s about a father’s feelings toward his son. While the son thinks he is failing at what he does, the father still is proud of him and encourages him to keep trying. A couple of my personal favorites are “That’s Music To Me” and “It Probably Ain’t”. “That’s Music To Me” is about the life and music that he loves. It refers to “Saturday nights full of Haggard and Whitley” as part of the type of music he loves. “It Probably Ain’t” is a clever song. I know there seems to be a lot of hit songs now telling people how “country” they are. This song simple states that if you have to tell how country you are… you probably ain’t.
Overall, I don’t think the album has a really bad song on it. There isn’t one instance in listening to the songs on the album where I said “what was he thinking?” I’m not saying that this will be an all time great CD but I think it is one that you will listen to most of the songs, if not all of them when you pop it in the CD player or fire up the mp3 player. Craig Campbell has made a strong statement with this first album. Not only do the songs have a more traditional sound, but some of them let you know where his allegiance lies. Let’s hope Craig Campbell, along with Jamey Johnson and Chris Young are on the way to bringing traditional country back to country radio. The album is available both on CD and mp3, check it out and let me know what you think.
Buy it here: Craig Campbell
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