Take a Back Road

Take a Back Road

by Rodney Atkins
Take a Back Road

Take a Back Road

by Rodney Atkins

CD

$10.99 
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Overview

Rodney Atkins' fourth album for Curb generated excitement over the summer of 2011 due to its title track's pre-release single, which shot up the charts due to its hook, George Strait namecheck, and nearly irresistible, soulful female harmony chorus. Co-produced by Ted Hewitt and Atkins, Take a Back Road advances virtually every studio trick and songwriting formula (read: cliche) in contemporary country music, and it's meant to. That single likely won't be the last one from this set, either. More than any record in his catalog, Atkins -- with Hewitt (and more than likely Curb's A&R staff) -- sculpted this record for a long run on the charts. It utterly lacks any hint of originality Atkins may have ever possessed. "He's Mine" is momentarily arresting, with enormously compressed electric slide guitars underscored by bass drums and tom-toms. They're briefly supplanted by acoustic guitars and Atkins ever-so-sincere vocal quieting things down in the first verse. It doesn't last. The rest is a slow shuffle, fueled by '80s hair metal-sounding guitars playing 21st century contemporary country bombast. (Think of a collaboration between .38 Special and Ratt backing Montgomery Gentry and you get the picture.) "Family," with its wah-wah harmonica and strummed acoustic and pedal steel guitars, back Atkins' baritone in celebrating all that's weird and wonderful in blood relations. The ballad "Feet" is simply embarrassing for its exaggerated cornball sentimentality: "...We go to bed buttin' heads and tuggin' sheets/But we never go to sleep/without touching feet." The backwoods nostalgia in "Cabin in the Woods" is offset by shimmering synths in the midtempo pop song entitled, ironically, "Just Wanna Rock N' Roll." "Tips," one of four tracks co-written by Atkins, features blazing "redneck rock" guitars, but they're anchored by a banjo to make it safe for "country." All the while, the tune directly cops a riff from Lynyrd Skynyrd -- Atkins namechecks their "Gimme Three Steps"; good thing too, because without that riff, there's no song! There isn't an original melody, lyric, or production element on Take a Back Road. That said, these simple facts virtually guarantee the album's place on the CC charts. It perhaps very cynically "gives the fans just what they want." If only the country music fans would finally say, "enough is enough." ~ Thom Jurek

Product Details

Release Date: 10/04/2011
Label: Curb
UPC: 0715187925526
Rank: 98377

Tracks

  1. Take a Back Road
  2. He's Mine
  3. Family
  4. The Corner
  5. She's a Girl
  6. She'd Rather Fight
  7. Feet
  8. Cabin in the Woods
  9. Just Wanna Rock 'N Roll
  10. Growing Up Like That
  11. Tips
  12. Lifelines
  13. Farmer's Daughter

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Rodney Atkins   Primary Artist
Jack Pearson   Slide Guitar
Angela Hurt   Vocal Harmony
Mike Johnson   Guitar (Steel)
Vicki Hampton   Vocal Harmony
Kim Keyes   Vocal Harmony
Lonnie Wilson   Drums,Percussion
Ilya Tochinsky   Banjo,Mandolin,Guitar (Acoustic)
Troy Lancaster   Guitar (Electric)
Tim Lauer   Keyboards
Scott Sanders   Guitar (Steel)
Larry Paxton   Bass
Larry Franklin   Fiddle,Mandolin
Gary Prim   Keyboards
Liam Bailey   Banjo
Brent Mason   Guitar (Electric)
Ted Hewitt   Percussion,Vocal Harmony,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Mike Doucette   Harmonica
Gordon Mote   Keyboards
Mark Prentice   Bass
Ashley Cleveland   Vocal Harmony
Bryan Sutton   Banjo,Mandolin,Guitar (Acoustic)

Technical Credits

David Lee Murphy   Composer
Ben Hayslip   Composer
Bob Regan   Composer
Kristin Barlowe   Photography
John Ozier   A&R
Benji Peck   Design
Luke Laird   Composer
Jesse Jo Dillon   Composer
Walker Hayes   Composer
Billy Decker   Mixing
Wendell Mobley   Composer
Joey Turner   Engineer
Dean Dillon   Composer
Rodney Atkins   Composer,Engineer,Producer
Jim Collins   Composer
Chris Tompkins   Composer
Tony Haselden   Composer
Tony Martin   Composer
Phil O'Donnell   Composer
Craig White   Engineer
Casey Beathard   Composer
Neil Thrasher   Composer
Rhett Akins   Composer
Tom Shapiro   Composer
George Teren   Composer
Ted Hewitt   Composer,Engineer,Producer
Tim James   Composer
Dale Dodson   Composer
Marv Green   Composer
Kelly Lynn   A&R
David Bates   Assistant
Rodney Clawson   Composer
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