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Take Five
December 2, 2016
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“Why Is It So Much Harder Than I Want It To Be?”
That’s MCA/Nashville Sr. Dir./Southwest Promotion Miranda McDonald, summing up how all of us feel when asked to boil down a year’s worth of great songs to her final, five top picks of 2016. As usual this time of year, All Access is polling (ok, badgering) radio, label, and other Country music industry pros for their five faves to be published in the Country section of AllAccess.com the week of December 19th. We’ll leave ‘em on the site during the year-end break for everyone to scrutinize, compare, contrast, and – of course – second guess. Think of it as a mini-vacation from your holiday ritual of eating, drinking, caroling, and barely tolerating that odd, irritating in-law over the holidays.
You’re welcome.
Along with the picks many have sent, we’ve seen and felt the angst, indecision, and a wish to potentially revise original selections. And, I get it. Consider for a moment the song choices at our collective disposal. How many singles were released in 2016? Jeez, I have no idea – was I in charge of counting? Hundreds? But even if you simplified it by saying only the #1 songs for the year are eligible, you’re still looking at about 50 possibilities – because apparently there’s a law somewhere that says we absolutely, positively must have a different #1 song every week (column idea to self: Revisit that argument in 2017), right?
Therefore, deciding is hard.
Choosing five favorite songs – for the whole year? A nearly impossible task, compared to anything else coming in sets of five. Like, it’s easy to give someone a high-five, or even five bucks, right? Counting five fingers on your dominant hand? So much simpler than picking top tunes. Ditto, naming the five senses; remembering “Five gold rings” from “12 Days Of Christmas;” citing Five For Fighting’s one founding member; or binging all six “Party Of Five” seasons. Remembering your five-digit zip code, the Fifth Dimension’s two career #1s, or Lifesavers original five fruit flavors? Candy from a baby, relative to recalling five songs from the past 52-weeks. Arguably, one could walk the five New York Boroughs, knock out a five-day work week, or repeatedly recite all five vowels (yes, only five – because, Y is a part-timer, the equivalent of a weekend jock in radio) faster than it takes to agree on five faves.
“Here's how I picked,” said Scripps VP/Programming Beverlee Brannigan, detailing her highly scientific, analytical process. “I've got the radio on, doing something else; these are the songs which catch my ear/caught my ear, and I think, ‘what a great freakin’ song,’ and I haven't tired of hearing them. I may or may not especially enjoy singing along with these.”
Some take the unconventional approach. Soon-to-be-retiring KBEQ/Kansas City PD Mike Kennedy chose the Keith Urban “Ripcord” album cut, “That Could Still Be Us.” #Bold. “Great song, gives me chills,” said Kennedy. Valory Music Co. Sr. VP/Promotion George Briner included Randy Travis, simply singing the word “Amen” on last month’s CMA awards. One word? Sure, why the Hell not? We’ll accept, because: Randy Travis.
Dierks Bentley is the first artist we’ve ever asked to participate, and even he appears to have see-sawed while selecting. “I’ll probably want to change this list as soon as I press send,” Bentley emailed us, while demonstrating what a huge Country fan he’s always been. “I love listening to Country radio as much as I did when I was 17, and I feel like there are some really cool new sounds and voices out there. Tough to narrow down, but I’ll mention a few. Seven is my number, so I’ll give you seven.” Hey, if Dierks Bentley says seven is the number, seven it is.
For him.
For mere mortals like you and me, it’s still only five. Those are the rules, according to my editor. There are many things I’m not good at, but being obedient and following orders? I’m an overachiever in that department. Call me crazy, but I love staying employed; it’s kind of my thing.
Whittling all of the year’s best songs down to five? Like you, it’s a task I find daunting, herculean, and arduous; perhaps onerous, one might say. Not only that – it’s effin’ hard, man.
So here’s where I’m at as of today, right now. Ten songs to consider, in no particular order. Well, maybe except for that first one:
- Keith Urban – Blue Ain’t Your Color (Capitol Nashville)
(As if Keith Urban would NOT be on this list?)
- Tim McGraw – Humble And Kind (Big Machine Records)
- Thomas Rhett – Die A Happy Man (Valory Music Co.)
- LoCash – I Love This Life (Reviver Records)
- Cole Swindell – You Should Be Here (Warner Bros./WMN)
- Luke Bryan – Huntin’, Fishin’ And Lovin’ Every Day (Capitol Nashville)
- Florida Georgia Line – H.O.L.Y. (BMLG Records)
- Chris Stapleton – Parachute (Mercury Nashville)
- Dierks Bentley – Somewhere On A Beach (Capitol Nashville)
- Maren Morris – 80s Mercedes (Columbia Nashville)
Whew! Looks like I’ve got some work to do here. Knowing me, this list will get bigger before it gets smaller. It’ll expand and contract over the next two days, like a living, breathing organism. Think amoeba or paramecium here. I’ll probably need the entire weekend to concentrate, deliberate, and mediate, not to mention, noodle over.
But you? Maybe you can rattle off five awesome tunes in a jiffy. If so, good on ya (show off), and bring ‘em on! Email them to me, Monta Vaden, or Briana Galluccio here at All Access if you haven’t already done so. But do it before close of business Monday, December 5th (Wow! There’s that number again!), or we can’t be Top Five Friends this year.
As for me, now that I think about it, I’m overthinking, and my brain hurts. Probably a good time to step away from the process and take five.
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