It feels like it has been damn near forever since it has truly been warm in Nashville. The chill in the air has finally dispersed and made room for warmer days. Granted, this means my allergies are on Code Red, but I’ll happily turn up a bottle of Claritin in exchange for not having to wear layers to work anymore. With warmer weather, grills throughout the neighborhood will spark up and we all know the smell from a grill can spark up nostalgia.
That nostalgia can come in the form of country music from an era believed to have ended roughly 25 years ago. The late 80s to mid-90s was a boom time for country music and a time missed by many. One Nashville artist is ready to take listeners back to a time when every country singer was draped in over-starched buttoned up shirts covered in wild flame designs. Joshua Hedley is this week’s featured artist on New Music Friday.
Joshua Hedley Neon Blue
Class is in session and Professor Hedley is at the lectern ready to give everyone a MasterClass on the non-traditionalist sounds of 90s country music. Nashville based singer songwriter Joshua Hedley returns with the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2018 debut, Mr. Jukebox. The often called “Mayor of Lower Broadway” displayed his knowledge of the country music sounds of the 60s and 70s on his debut and fast forwards to the early 90s, which is what many to believe to be the last true bastion of country music.
At some point in the mid to late 90s, country music took a left turn somewhere and began to mix with the pop music world. Shania Twain, Billy Ray Cyrus, and LeAnn Rimes all had massive crossover hits in the 90s that helped usher in the glossy pop sound heard on nearly every country song on the radio today. Hedley’s influences can be heard throughout the new album, Neon Blue. Randy Travis, George Strait, and Dwight Yoakam’s signature sounds can be heard all over the record, but make no mistake this is a definitive Joshua Hedley record.
Hedley sings “Been busting my hump just trying to get ahead” in the album opener “Broke Again” and the arduous work put in over the last fours years since his debut pays off on Neon Blue. The 12 songs that make up the album come at a time when 90s nostalgia is red hot and is extremely welcomed, especially by music fans of a certain age that have longed for country music to once again sound like it did during the neo-traditional era of the late 80s and early 90s.
Hedley isn’t afraid to express his feelings on the lack of country in today’s country music in the song “Country & Western.” The ‘traditional outlaw’ proudly claims in the song that he sings about “real life like drinking, cheating, and loving.” The ‘singing professor of country and western’ lyrics draw some great imagery and his fiddle and steel guitar playing are often the star of songs on Neon Blue.
The old-school country singer has made an excellent album that, while it stirs up feelings of country music’s past, its modern production very much gives it a 2022 sound. Neon Blue is a must-have for any country music fan’s rotation. @JoshuaHedley
Steven McCash is the Lead Music Writer and Utility Man for SoBros Network. Steven is the host of the ‘Drinking With…’ podcast, and the pioneer of New Music Friday, highlighting each week’s new releases in the world of music in addition to the occasional live show review. He also pitches in as a Nashville lifestyle writer and football analyst (hence the ‘Utility Man’ title). Follow on Twitter: @MC_Cash75
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