Shenandoah brought along some of country music’s heavy hitters to collaborate on their latest album ‘Every Road’, released Friday. The 10-song collection features nine duets with the likes of Brad Paisley, Ashley McBryde and Dierks Bentley, among others. Shenandoah did a nice job of tailoring every song to sound like it would fit on one of the artists’ own albums, while mostly not losing their own musical identity.
For this album, the songs that I was most drawn to are the ones that brought out the best in Shenandoah’s duet partners. ‘Make It Til Summertime’ is a duet with Luke Bryan and this song brought out the vintage Luke sound that I’ve been yearning for since he splashed onto the scene with ‘All My Friends Say’ and ‘Country Man’. Both artists sound authentic and if they played this in a honkytonk it would not feel out of place. ‘Every Time I Look At You’ with Lady A brought out a facet of Charles Kelley’s vocals that I didn’t know he possessed. Though I have never once doubted the group’s place in country music, admittedly Kelley’s voice doesn’t typically have that country twang other artists have. Yet on this song, he’s sounded more country than he ever has before, and it sounded natural to me. The only thing that irks me, not only with this song, but some of Lady A’s other hits, is whoever of Kelley or Hillary Scott takes lead, the other has to sing lyrics toward a gender they wouldn’t normally sing a love song about.
There were a couple of songs on this collection that, while not necessarily bad, didn’t quite make the impact I was hoping for. ‘Life Would Be Perfect’ has some classic Brad Paisley guitar riffs, but the lyrical content left a lot to be desired. It’s a schmaltzy, unrealistic song that basically says if nothing in life every goes wrong, it would be perfect. Well, duh! I didn’t need a song to tell me that. Don’t waste your time with that one. And title track ‘Every Road’ with Dierks Bentley is just a bland story of someone who tries to find success out in the world, but will always have a place to come home to. I almost fell asleep listening to it.
Overall, I think a duets album was a smart choice for Shenandoah. It wasn’t a slam dunk, but there are definitely songs on here that can make an impact with fans and country radio. To listen to ‘Every Road’, click here.
