Brandon Kinney

Written by Paul King

 

Without doubt Brandon Kinney's "Smells Like Texas" is the funniest, most irreverent cd that's ever come across my desk.  It's just a brilliant ride into the twisted world of bar-b-cue's, porn on the internet (he swears he's never seen any), drinking, and bodily functions.  This record is redneck! And just funny!

The first thing you have to know about this cd is, it's not a 'comedy' cd.  That would be insulting to the writing - and the writing is pretty amazing.  There are a lot of writers who write nothing but silly songs - and it's mostly true of new writers who you see at the open mic nights, trying to be too clever by half.  Always trying to show their 'writer wit', but usually falling flat and not realizing that their songs only serve to make them less appealing.  That's not the case here.   While the songs on "Smells Like Texas" aren't serious, Brandon Kinney is.

 

 

Brandon is a professional writer who's had cuts on everyone from Willie Nelson to Randy Travis to Randy Houser - he simply knows how to write good songs.  Which is what this disk is full of - well written songs that would make Roger Miller (the king of offbeat Country) proud.

 

 

To give you an idea of what this cd is like, take Brandon's former classmate at Belmont, Brad Paisley, as an example.  Brad has had numerous songs that venture on the absurd become singles - from "The Fishin' Song" to "Celebrity" to "Alcohol" to "Ticks" - he's made a good living having hits on the radio like this - and I don't know anyone who doesn't enjoy listening to those songs (even if, like me, you're not too much a 'fan' of Brad).  "Smells Like Texas" is what you'd get if you got 10 better songs on a Brad cd (without all the hugely depressing, over-serious songs that make up the remainder of his singles).

 

 

"She's Gonna Have My Children" is a masterpiece!  As well as the other 10 songs.  Just brilliantly written and fun.

 

 

Brandon has been here in town for a while, and for whatever reason (all I can say is complete stupidity on the part of the fine folks) Capitol Records, the label Brandon was signed to until recently, dropped him.  I can see the powers at Capitol saying to themselves "we don't know how to market this" - sophistry!  Anyone with half a brain would know exactly how to market this cd - College.  This is the end all/be all of college life.  This is a southern frat party on a tractor. Tailgate parties at games.  NASCAR.  This is 'bottom up' music.  You know, the kind that sells?  But who needs sales in this environment?  I mean, obviously the industry (and especially Capitol) is doing great!

 

 

Ok, so maybe that's a little overboard, but look, when an album like this gets shelved by the label and then is dropped completely, it hardly gives me faith that they know what they're doing there.  Especially after seeing the success Paisley has had as a result of this type of music.  I wonder if Bowen was still around, if he'd let that happen?  I kind of doubt it.

 

 

But one smart thing Capitol did do was allow Brandon to keep his masters - which means it's available on Itunes. Cheer up - buy this record.