Colt Ford - Thanks for Listening

[StevePulaski]

Thanks for Listening (2014)
By: Colt Ford

Rating: ★★★

While being unsurprisingly brushed off by mainstream country stations and being largely ignored by Nashville, country-rap/hick-hop artist Colt Ford doesn't seem to mind, cranking out new music left and right, never leaving his fans too long under the confines of material that has gone stale. In a sea of manufactured country that spits cheap sloganeering and portraits of lifestyles painted by those who never lived them, Ford stands out as not just a country singer, embracing a unique and relatively underexplored genre in contemporary country, but also has shown his knowledge in business management skills, with his label Average Joes Entertainment in striking signing deals with other artists and maintaining solid record sales without core exposure.

Colt Ford has also managed to prove to be some kind of wizard, making dozens of songs about the same thing, the same idea, and the same overarching concept, but making almost every one entertaining and fun in their presentation, flow, and lyricism. Ford continues his wizardry and unprecedented hot-streak with Thanks for Listening, his fifth album in six years and a thoroughly acceptable and rewarding album that features twelve more songs of doing what the man himself does best - blending two ostensibly incomparable genres. Ford's formula works a bit like this: make a checklist of all things country, implore listeners to embrace its culture, structure his songs with breakneck, country-rap verses and bleeding-heart truths about God, guns, and guts, wraparound the song with a core idea in its usually hard-hitting final verse, and tack on a chorus by a younger country singer, who provides the song with a more traditional genre-vibe.

With Thanks for Listening, he provides us with several memorable tracks that can fitfully be added to his impressive and rarely disappointing discography, with songs including "Cut 'em All," one of the albums most raucous tunes featuring the unexpectedly solid rapping talents of Duck Dynasty's very own Willie Robertson, the wholesome, nostalgic trip "Sip it Slow," featuring great work by Lee Brice, and one of Colt's three solo tracks "Outshine Me," with an inanely infectious chorus thanks to the wise use of autotune to Ford's voice. Ford rarely lets the album slip into redundancy with a briskly-paced line of jovial romps that show just what the countryside really means, putting other featured artists like Survivor: Nicaragua contestant Chase Rice on the extremely enjoyable track "High Life," Walter Hayes' slick and breezy vocals on the effective romance tune "Dirty Side," and notable country stars like Keith Urban, Justin Moore, and Daniel Lee to add some variety.

Excusing some lyrical repetition in the chorus departments of some of these songs, and the forgettable nature songs like the Urban-featured "She's Like" and the Moore-featured "Farm Life," Ford keeps things very acceptable with Thanks for Listening which, in many ways, adheres to Ford's unexpected success in a niche genre. The whole album provides the wholesome feel that Ford is really thanking us for supporting his person, which is what makes country still such a prominent genre in music, and with every track on here, even the lesser ones, Ford is never boring and always an exciting musical presence.

Recommended tracks (in order): "Outshine Me," "Cut 'em All," "Workin' On," "The High Life," and "Dirty Side."