With Ready Set Roll Chase Rice’s years of hard work is finally paying off with a six (or seven if you buy the physical version) track EP gaining wider fan awareness than ever before. This was bound to happen given the fact that Chase is one of the co-writers on one of Country Music’s all-time most-purchased singles, Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise.” But while he’s gained a larger awareness thanks to his friendship and association with FGL, make no mistake, Chase Rice has been building to this moment since he stepped foot in Nashville.
The former Crewmember for Jimmie Johnson’s NASCAR team, Football player and Survivor TV show contestant presents a cohesive package with Ready Set Roll that presents an artist that’s of the moment in Country Music but one who is well aware of its history. The album was half produced by Songwriter Chris Destefano and Scott Cooke (most-often an engineer for Joey Moi) with Chad Carlson keeping his credit on the “How She Rolls” remix and songwriter Rhett Akins serving as the executive producer for the project.
The title track has sold 100,000 downloads before gaining much airplay at all but one terrestrial radio station and SiriusXM’s “The Highway,” the latter which also played this album’s “How She Rolls” before “Ready Set Roll.” “Ready Set Roll” is catchy and why the computerized intro and closing computerized voice may be off-putting to some, it’s just an effect that really doesn’t ruin the likeabilty of the rest of the track, a song which is about a couple going out for a nice little ride in his truck together. Over-used theme? Maybe. But the song is still very strong. The EP largely covers affairs of the hart and good times with “Party Up” and “Best Beers Of OF Our Lives” covering the party times while “Country In Ya” is very much a pop-leaning song about getting a city girl a little more countrified.
As good and/or interesting these songs are, “Look At My Truck” and the piano version of “Jack Daniels and Jesus” showcase an songwriter/artist with more to say than just good time vibes and pick-up lines. “Truck” is another case of using the sturdy country trope for more than cliche lyrics. Instead, it’s basically a song which correlates the shape of a truck with what Rice’s narrator has been through in his life stating, “If you wanna know, wanna know what I’m made of, just look at my truck.” As for “Jack Daniel’s And Jesus,” it showcases a darker, Garth-like story song about real life struggles that happen to us all. This piano version of “Jack Daniels and Jesus” may be reason enough to purchase the physical CD copy of Ready Set Roll, it certainly was for me.
There’s a lot of potential showcased on Ready Set Roll and it’s a path to stardom that Chase Rice is heading to with a strong collection of songs that showcases an artist who is very much of the moment with quite a few of these songs but he also proves that he is more than just the ‘ditties’ that cover trucks, parties and moonlight rides.
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