Chad’s Top Ten Country Songs of 2014 [Video]

Let the debate begin!  I love putting together Top Ten lists and here's my list of the Top 10 Country Songs of 2014.  There was a lot of good music this year but, for me, these are the great ones. 

#10-  Somethin' Bad- Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood

I wasn't a fan of this song until I sat inside LP Field during the 2014 CMA Music Festival.  It was then, when Miranda and Carrie walked onto the stage and tore that song a new one, that I fully appreciated what it meant for country music to have its two "It" girls join forces.  Look.  I am not making it up when I suggest that country music has pretty much chewed up and spit out its female artists.  These two, for all practical purposes, are the only ones left.  The only ones who consistently impact radio and the country charts.   And when they sing "Stand on the bar, stomp your feet start clappin'" they're sending a signal that they're not going anywhere.

#9-  Too Fast- Jason Aldean

There is some amazing country music on Jason Aldean's new CD Old Boots, New Dirt.  Unfortunately, he hasn't released the really good stuff to radio.  But do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of his latest disc.  And check out track #8.  "Too Fast" recalls shades of "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray.  In fact, I consider this country music's version of that song.  Written by Chris Stapleton (who's incredible) and Lee Thomas Miller (who also wrote the stellar title track), "Too Fast" is a powerful song about restless souls.  And I have a hunch that Jason Aldean heard the demo of this and decided it was a bit biographical.   He spent a lot of 2014 on the road and on stage, but the tabloids spent a lot of the year speculating about his life off it.   Aldean sings "I've been makin' a livin', not makin' a life and knowin' that now well it cuts like a knife."  Maybe so.  I, personally, am loving listening to Jason work out his struggles and demons through song.

#8- Drinking Class- Lee Brice

If there was ever a song just tailor-made for the country music fan, this may be it.  Lee Brice's blue-collar ballad is a rousing, soul-stirring anthem that sounds like it could be ripped from a Broadway musical.  Think "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from Les Miserables.  This is THE song for the working man and woman.  "We're up when the rooster crows.  We clock in when the whistle blows.  And tomorrow we'll do it all over again."  Lee Brice is one of the most exciting singer/songwriters in the business right now.  You can pretty much count on him to deliver songs that will punch you right in the gut and make you lift your glass . . . especially if you belong to the drinking class.

#7- Where It's At- Dustin Lynch

Dustin Lynch may be the most hit ("Cowboys and Angels") and miss (the wretched "She Cranks My Tractor") singer on the country charts.  He's either brilliant or horrific.  But "Where's It At" truly has one of the best choruses of the year.  "It's 2am when she's reaching over.  Faded t-shirt hanging off her shoulder."  Who didn't sing along with those lyrics this summer and who out there didn't have those lyrics jamming in your brains?  Of all the folks in my Top Ten this year, Dustin Lynch is, by far, the less likely candidate.  But the man, somehow, some way, managed to make the line "Yep, yep.  As long as I get that" sound like poetry.

#6- Something In The Water- Carrie Underwood

I know, right?  You're gasping because I have two Carrie Underwood songs inside my Top Ten.  Whodathunkit?  But this is Carrie Underwood at her absolute best.  I'll admit.  I just don't buy it when Carrie's singing songs like "Last Name" or "Two Black Cadillacs" or "Blown Away."  I know she likes to appear a little edgy, but it's Carrie Underwood for crying out loud.  Remember, she won American Idol Season 4 because she became America's sweetheart and THIS is the kind of song America's sweetheart truly excels at.  There is no other singer in country music that could pull off this song.  It is an absolute powerhouse from start to finish.  As if the notes aren't knockin' on heaven's door, the pace and tempo are frantic.  And Underwood simply steps to the mic and slays it.  For me, this is her best vocal performance EVER!  And it's just fitting and perfect when she transitions into "Amazing Grace" at the conclusion of the song.  I have sometimes been blind to Carrie's talents, but now I see.

#5- Midnight Train-  Garth Brooks

He's back.  And thank goodness.  You knew there was bound to be a ton of debate about Garth Brooks' new CD.  Some people love it.  Others think he's stuck in the 90's and failed to make a CD with singles that could truly impact the modern-day country chart.  My hunch is that Garth just doesn't care what any of the critics think.  But here's what I think anyway.  Man Against Machine has one of the best songs of the year on it.  "Midnight Train" is vintage Garth Brooks.  No one sings a story song or paints a picture with lyrics as vividly as Garth.  And "Midnight Train" is the little engine that delivers.  The chorus of this song is a cold chill factory, much in the way "Standing Outside the Fire" was.  And only Garth could get away with the audacity to have his background singers morph into and mimic the sounds of a train whistle as they sing and sustain notes.  In any other artist's hands, this would have seemed like an embarrassing cliche.  In Garth's hands, it's a locomotive that will run your soul over.

#4- She Don't Love You- Eric Paslay

I know exactly where I was sitting the first time I heard this song and I will never forget that moment.  Jaclyn and I were at The Grand Ole Opry and Eric Paslay was on stage performing.  He stood there holding his guitar and started to sing this song.  We were absolutely transfixed and I had chills running up my arms and down my spine.  Paslay is country music's newest "gentle giant."  And that giant has a gigantic voice.  And when he lays those rock-infused tones around a song about phantom love, it's music magic.  Paslay's voice is a dagger than jams the lyrics straight into your heart.

#3-  Leave The Night On- Sam Hunt

Make no mistake.  Country music has evolved and it's never going back.  While the ongoing debate about rap's place in country music continues to boil the blood of Bubbas everywhere, this guy is completely redefining what country music is and how it sounds.  You could take any song on Sam Hunt's Montevallo CD and drop it on pop radio and it would work.  He is equal parts pop and R&B, but just happens to identify as a country artist on country radio.  "Leave the Night On" may contain the wordiest hook of the year, but it's also one of the catchiest.  And you think this song unexpectedly tore up the country chart in 2014?  Watch what his country rap ballad "Take Your Time" does to it in 2015!

#2- Like A Cowboy-  Randy Houser

The pure definition of power ballad.  Randy Houser can absolutely sing his face off.  And he blows the rafters out of the barn with this soaring song about a cowboy and the woman he loves in between rodeos.  The song took its sweet time climbing the chart, but Randy Houser powered through this song and stole my heart away the first time I heard it.  Just like a cowboy.

#1-  Give Me Back My Hometown- Eric Church

One of my absolute favorite pop songs of the 1980's was "Life in a Northern Town" by Dream Academy.  This, to me, is country music's answer to that song.  Except this one is even more fleshed out lyrically and musically.  Eric Church says this is one of the saddest songs he's ever performed.  And I get it.  I think every single person who truly listens to this song will relate to some part of it.  The get-togethers at the Pizza hut.  The Friday night lights.  The touchdowns.  The dreams.  The harsh realities of love and life.  With "Give Me Back My Hometown" Eric Church has given country music fans a timeless ode to small towns and sleepy street lights.  This is absolute genius songwriting, singing and producing.  It is, for me, the absolute best song of the year.

To see Chad's list of the Worst Songs of 2014, CLICK HERE!