Randy Houser, "A Man Like Me"

I am just loving the steel guitar intro to this track!  So raw.  So natural-sounding.  So unlike the token steel fills superfluously inserted to make non-country songs "country."  A honky-tonk piano chimes in when the second verse rolls around, and is prominently heard during the instrumental break.  This single from Randy Houser's new album They Call Me Cadillac has a fresh throwback traditional sound that will cause it to greatly stand out from the radio fluff surrounding it.

But while I am overwhelmed by the spectacular neotrad arrangement, I am underwhelmed by the song itelf.  It seems any line from this song could have been culled from an earlier single release.  You could draw a straight line from Sawyer Brown's "Some Girls Do" to Eric Church's "Guys Like Me" to this song.  The song is about how thankful this man is that he has a woman who can love a man like him.  That theme has been done several times, and it unfortunately seems to get less interesting each time.

But even though the actual song is not particularly interesting, Randy sounds like he believes in it, and is just having a good ol' time singing it.  He settles into a soft groove during the verses, and then lets loose on the chorus.  A rollicking melody allows Randy to prominently display the nuance and power of his fantastic singing voice.

With this is mind, I will forgive the dull lyrics... this time.  This may not be a great song, but it is a great performance from an artist who is coming closer to living up to his incredible potential.

RANDY'S SCORE:  6
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)