Country Mike Blog

The Bartender and more

Mike Sudhalter  |  May 7, 2007

I recently heard a potential No. 1 hit that was never released as a single.

Blake Shelton released a song called "The Bartender" on his Blake Shelton's Barn and Grill album, which was released in 2004. Don't ask me why it took me so long to discover it.

I'd already downloaded a couple of the hit songs on the album, including "Some Beach" and "Nobody But Me".

The song tells the story from behind the bar about all of the people who come into this particular bar. All of them have their own stories, but the bartender is there for all of them.

I think this would have been a great song. Hopefully, Shelton can re-release it down the road or someone else could cut it.

There's a great Texas artist I discovered over the weekend, Chad Hammock. I recently purchased his song, "Follow the Lonestar", which is about a guy from Texas who visits California and wants to go home.

My favorite part of the tune is when he sings "Hill Country Rain!". You'll know when you listen to it.

It's a song I can relate to sometimes because I live in California, but sometimes, I miss the other places I've lived in my life.

Anyways, the song has kind of a rock-feel but a country theme, which is typical of a lot of Texas Country music.

Country music thoughts

I think it's great that CMT has a video session around certain themes. Today, I saw one for mothers. Maybe it's because Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday.

American Idol alum Bucky Covington has a new single is a "A Different World". He didn't write the song, and it's kind of hard to imagine a 29-year-old singing about how different things were way back when. Yes, I am 27 and sometimes I feel old thinking about the pre-historic computers and car phones.

But songs about the past should be nostalgic. I don't know he anybody can be nostalgic about mothers who smoke/drink and baby cribs with lead-based paint. We've definitely made progress since the world in that song.

One of my favorite pasttimes is scrapbooking from different country music magazines, ticket stubs from concerts, etc., etc. I also scrapbook places I've been and sporting events that I've attended. It's great to look back at those memories. At this point, I have three of these books, and I always show them to friends - especially the ones who like country music.

Another pasttime, albeit a relatively new one, is listening to my IPod and playing Shuffle. There's 2,638 songs on there. Let's see the next three that come up on shuffle:

"Not In the Cards" from Rhett Akins' 1998 What Livin's All About album. It's kind of a neat, lighthearted songs who receives postcards from an ex-lover, saying the relationship is over.

"You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This" - Toby Keith What a great song! I remember seeing him in concert in Kansas City, Mo. at the Station Casino (now, Ameristar Casino) in 2000 when this song was brand new. The video had a pretty creative storyline too.

"Meet in The Middle" - Diamond Rio One of my favorite DR songs. They're definitely one of the most underrated bands in country music. The early stuff is better than the more pop-oriented stuff.

Finally, another great thing about the IPod is guessing who sings what songs. Sometimes, you may not know the artist on there or it's a song that you haven't listened to yet. When you find out, it's like 'Whoa, that's Toby Keith? Didn't Know That?" Usually, I'm pretty good with telling who's singing what, but nobody's perfect.