The Weekly Single Recap: March 22, 2012

Ten singles are featured this week, including new songs from Dierks Bentley, Dustin Lynch, The Farm, Jon Pardi, Ryan Broshear, Neal McCoy and Glen Templeton.

This week we have a strong handful of singles worthy of the title of "Best new release of the week." In fact, all but a couple of these ten tunes could be the winner of this title and while new offerings from Dierks Bentley and Glen Templeton and Eric Paslay certainly made their marks, it is Jon Pardi's "Missin' You Crazy" that strikes our fancy the most for new songs this week. We also revisit two singles recently profiled (Dustin Lynch's "Cowboys and Angels" and The Farm's "Home Sweet Home" to celebrate the Top 40 status of both singles at country radio. We believe both singles are just getting started. Now onto this week's single recaps!

Dierks Bentley – “5-1-5-0”

Dierks has hit #1 with both singles from Home (“Am I The Only One” and the patriotic title track) and now he’s returning with a trademark stylized song that just suits both Dierks’ live show and summertime radio playlists. It rocks, it rolls yet it remains a distinctive country song. The melody is infectious and that dang chorus “5-1-5-0, just this side of loco” is going to get in your brain and not leave for days. In other words, another future top 5 and likely #1 hit from Dierks. Hopefully though, this one will help him sell some albums and singles digitally.

Ryan Broshear – “Let Your Redneck Out”

Not technically a single, we still wanted to get some of y’all aware of this talented singer who recorded his self-released debut album with Dan Agee and Joe Nichols’ backing band. The album is all solid neotraditionalist stuff but this tune is most definitely one of the songs that feels like a break out tune. Vocally a mix of Tracy Lawrence and Haggard, he’s definitely an artist who is country. If you like Jason Aldean’s songs about real-life and good times, you’re certain to dig this radio-ready track.

Jon Pardi – “Missin’ You Crazy”

It can be hard for a new artist to break through and with “Missin’ You Crazy” Jon Pardi is attempting to do just that. While radio will ultimately decide whether this song has the ‘stones’ to be Jon Pardi’s breakthrough hit, it certainly won’t be for a lack of quality as the songwriting is tight, the vocals are strongly country and the production allows room for fiddle and steel guitars to be more than just background flavor (they get an instrumental break before the final reprise of the chorus). It all adds up to a good solid debut.

Eric Paslay – “If The Fish Don’t Bite”

First impressions about “If The Fish Don’t Bite” are that Eric Paslay is going for more of a ‘straight-up’ country sound on this song that wasn’t evident on first single “Never Really Wanted” and you know, while it might be a little different than I would’ve expected, I’m all for any approach that gets the talented singer/songwriter (he is a co-writer on “Bare Foot Blue Jean Night” and “Even If It Breaks Your Heart”) on the airwaves. The lyrics are fun as it talks about a couple who can get to doing something else if the fishing trip doesn’t go as planned. Gifted with the kind of pure, folksy voice a la Steve Azar, Eric Paslay does stand out a bit on the radio and that’s all good. This is catchy and radio ready and the melody features more than a ‘window dressing’ of steel guitars in the mix.

Neal McCoy – “Shotgun Rider”

Written by Ben Hayslip, Rhett Akins and Dallas Davidson (The Peach Pickers), “Shotgun Rider” certainly sounds ready (like most peach pickers songs) for mainstream radio. The real issue one might have with it is that it doesn’t really sound like a distinctive enough single, even if the production from Brent Rowan, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert allows for nice little instrumental highlights like honky tonk piano, a mandolin solo and steel/slide guitar moans in the mix. The vocal from Neal McCoy is as good as any uptempo he’s ever had and if this song doesn’t get him back on the radio, he might not be able to get any other songs on the radio. Still, after it’s done being played on radio, will anyone remember “Shotgun Rider,” outside of McCoy or Peach Picker fans?

Logan Mize – “I Give In”

We’re big fans of Logan’s new record Nobody In Nashville and while we shared “Sunflowers” with you earlier this week, we wanted to highlight another tune from the record here. Set to be released as a video single, “I Give In” is a slide-guitar laced tune solely written by Logan. Like a lot of the artists in this week’s rundown, he has a unique voice to himself that helps you know that you’re listening to a Logan Mize song and this song, which finds him singing about the powers a woman has on a guy and his life. It’s a fun, tempo-filled roots-rock kind of song that would do well on multiple radio formats in addition to his country home.

The Farm – “Home Sweet Home”

We talked about this song a few weeks ago but with the list of new songs not that large this week, we’ve revisited this one and the Dustin Lynch one below. This great tune is definitely a perfect song to re-arrange your mood and with Nick Hoffman’s fiddle guiding the melody, the song sounds like nothing else on mainstream country radio now. That fiddle is a lead instrument in many instances and the three-part vocals from Nick and Damien Horne and Krista Marie is simply stronger than your average band. It’s rockin’, melodically memorable and lyrically picaresque. What else do you need to know?

Dustin Lynch – “Cowboys & Angels”

This newcomer is one of Roughstock’s new artists to watch (Ones to Watch in 2012) and it’s because of “Cowboys and Angels” that the newcomer is here. His smooth baritone is clear and effective and the lyric is sweet and right on point. The production never gets too far in the way of the Tennessee-native’s charismatic voical. This is a song that mixes the earnestness of Brad Paisley’s best with the romantic sly sexiness of Garth Brooks’ best. The song has hit the Top 40 so it looks like it’s definitely on its way to being one of the breakthrough singles of 2012.

Glen Templeton – “Sing That Song Again”

Last year Glen managed to get “Am I The Only One” into the Top 50 at country radio before teaming up with Black River Entertainment. He went back into the studio to record a few new tracks to go with his previously recorded album and this tune is like “Springsteen” in that it shows how powerful memory hooks songs become in our lives and how music is really the soundtrack to our lives. Written by Peach Picker Ben Hayslip and Canadian artist Deric Ruttan (who also co-wrote a little song called “What Was I Thinkin’,” you might have heard of it), “Sing That Song Again” feels like a strong radio offering from Glen with modern production and it manages to showcase his strong voice. It doesn’t hurt that there’s a hint of Conway Twitty (who Glen portrayed in a touring theatrical production) in the vocals either.

Josh Kelley – “The Best of Me”

This tune, written for the soundtrack to the successful film Act of Falor, is not technically a single but it is one of the best songs from a very strong soundtrack and a song that proves once again what a talented songwriter the MCA Nashville artist is. Josh Kelley is simply an artist that should appeal to mainstream country radio and this tune itself should be a song that they’d wanna play.