Country Mike Blog

Pat Green, What Were You Thinking?

Mike Sudhalter  |  January 31, 2009

A couple of days ago, I was willing to give Pat Green the benefit of the doubt. He's expanding his career, and it's unreasonable to think that he'd spent the rest of his career in Texas bars and honky-tonks, the same way he did about a decade ago.

But Green reversed any sympathetic feelings when he re-made his hit, "Carry On", on his album, "What I'm For", released earlier this month.

The song sounds pretty much the same, but the tweaking of some key lyrics were symbolic of a Pat Green who has lost his musical soul.

In the original version, he actually says the words of what BS represents; to make it cleaner, he just uses "Billboards and BS" in these lyrics.

The original version namechecks Texas music icon Walt Wilkins, while the newer, generic one just says "my friend, Walt." It could be Walt Disney, for all we know. That just shows a lack of respect for Green's influence, Wilkins.

But oh I forgot, he's not influenced by unique musicians like Wilkins anymore. I'll bet his justification was that the national audience doesn't know who Wilkins is - few knew who Chris LeDoux was when Garth Brooks name checked him in "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old). So that's no excuse.

Then - the worst offense to all Texans - was when Pat sang "come down to my place and drink with me a while", instead of "come down to Texas and drink with me a while."

It used to be that Texas was an important part of Green's music. Even though he's expanded his horizons, it can still be that way. That's what made him unique. I don't think any Texas Music fan will care for this version of "Carry On." And prospective fans won't find anything special about it.

The only thing Texas about Green now is the fact that he calls Ft. Worth home. If Green doesn't put Texas back in his music, he'll soon find out that the rest of the country isn't buying into his act.