Country Mike Blog

Half-albums? I'm not buying it

Mike Sudhalter  |  March 12, 2010

So Blake Shelton just released six songs an called it "Hillbilly Bone."

They included his current single, "Hillbilly Bone," with Trace Adkins, and "Kiss My Country A**", a tune that was done better the first time by Rhett Akins.

But I've heard that this may be the new trend. Release less music more often.

Does it make some sense from a marketing standpoint? I don't know - I've never been a focus group, and I'm a country music fan, not a statistic on a piece of paper.

And I'm saying that I love going to the store and unwrapping a much-anticipated album. Heck, I even enjoy downloading a must-anticipated set of tunes.

EPs are nice as teasers. But I need the whole enchilada. And I don't think that a little music, here, a little music, there, is good.

The only reasoning I could see is that things are always changing in the digital age, and less music more often makes more of the songs relevant. Instead of burying the 10th, 11th and 12th songs like basketball players on the end of a bench who never play.

Who knows? Maybe my philosophy of full-length albums will be as outdated as Vinyl Records.

Marketing-wise, major props to Luke Bryan

Yes, the dude releases full-length albums. But during spring break, he releases a handful of songs about, well, spring break.

The songs don't appear on his albums (well, there was an acoustic version of "All My Friends Say").

But this is a really cool approach by Bryan that few are emulating. He's capitalizing on a specific event and tailoring songs to it. They are fun songs, to boot.

Speaking of people with EPs, Sarah Buxton once recorded an album, which she sarcastically named "Almost My Record." Now, her entire record is out, and there's a version on itunes that has all acoustic, more informal versions of those same songs.

As far as pop-country goes, it doesn't get much better than Sarah Buxton.

But if you want to talk Texas Country, I can't wait to go listen to some Josh Grider.