truck songs of the week #34: inside the Brad Paisley Cinematic Universe
new music featuring karaoke, Gold Label & a short-bed Chevy
This week is back. I took September off but have a lot of fun, windows down music queued up for you this fall.
Drive safe.
Get the full 2024 playlist here.
“Train of Thought” by Vincent Mason
Listen for the creaky vibrato when he sings the word “train” and the weirdly satisfying internal assonance of “No, I ain’t gonna chase ya, I ain’t gonna call.”
Meanwhile, I’m fascinated by his mysterious Spotify bio. Why is “Dance Floor” capitalized? Does he hate dancing? What does it mean??
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
“A Hundred” by Reyna Roberts
Listen for the swaggering banjo lick on a “from the vault” single that fuses “Outlaw Country” and “Dirty South.” Reyna Roberts writes songs like she’s not over Beyoncé’s “Daddy Lessons”1 and I’m not mad about it at all.
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
“Truck Still Works” by Brad Paisley
Welcome to the Brad Paisley Cinematic Universe (BPCU)! This catchy new single is a sequel to the 2003 song “Mud on the Tires.” The old pickup truck is nostalgia incarnate.
I generally think of Paisley as someone who scores high on the novelty index2 — a trap to which excessively clever country songwriting can be particularly prone — but this song listens like a catchy summer anthem.
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
I wrote about cowboy boot brand names in country music for Texas Monthly. You can read it here — or here, if that link is paywalled.
The cover art for Post Malone’s country album involved dropping a 1971 powder blue Ford truck into a lake, and the behind-the-scenes photos are even better than the art itself.
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Roberts was one of the contemporary Black country artists to appear on Beyoncé’s reimagining of “BLACKBIIRD.”