Kat: Sometimes I am wary of Chase Rice. He's got a new album, ELDORA, and I remember why I get nervous about him.
If you're into men, Chase speaks like the man you want to be with.
Is there any artist recording right now who comes off more honest than he does?
So why be wary him?
I think of a song -- a Carole King and Gerry Goffin song -- that Carole recorded on her first solo album WRITER:
Can he be real?
I pray he is because otherwise it would be like finding out Joni Mitchell was a virgin and that she'd never fallen in love but had just put us on all those years.
I've got a list of things Chase can be that, if exposed, wouldn't turn me off him.
Gay? I could handle it easily. A selfish lover? I could probably handle that. Addicted to drugs and/or booze? Sure, I can deal with it.
There's little he could do that would constitute a scandal or a need to break away as a fan.
To listen to him these days, is to be in the presence of greatness.
That's so obvious to me. But I belong to a very small club apparently. At least right now.
In the early 80s, before I knew C.I., I caught her on TV on a talk show where people were noting albums. And a man said COURT & SPARK was Joni's best album ever and the best album ever. C.I., when her turn came, agreed COURT & SPARK was a great album but in terms of honesty and art, BLUE was Joni's finest album so far. The man who made the original claim erupted and talked over the next guest who was trying to weigh in, he insisted that what C.I. said was stupid and that all these critics' polls recently had come out placed COURT & SPARK in the 50 greatest albums of all time and not BLUE. C.I. remained calm and just replied something like, "Well everything's not always obvious in real time."
The man was right about the polls. As late as 1984, you would find music critics who downgraded and downplayed BLUE and insisted COURT & SPARK was the masterpiece. C&S is a great album -- even greater if you've done coke -- it and HOTEL CALIFORNIA were true products of their decade, with the music perfectly capturing that glassy cocaine high -- but it's not BLUE. And while COURT & SPARK is a classic, it is not the classic that BLUE finally is recognized as being.
ELDORA is Chase's fourth classic album in a row. He's been on a streak of late that few performers ever catch. Like Joni, Stevie Wonder and Prince, he's become a must listen to artist if you're in the know. THE ALBUM came out in 2021 and was shocking -- he wasn't just a hit songwriter, he was actually a musical artist who could move you. 2023's I HATE COWBOYS & ALL DOGS GO TO HELL continued the trend and worked as an ode to his late father. Last year's GO DOWN SWINGIN was perfection and now we have the 12 tracks of ELDORA.
"She Loves My Tractor." Was that the song? No. She wouldn't have. But the song, a hit for Kenny Chesney, was "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy." Ava and C.I. addressed that bad song years ago in "TV Review: Kenny & Faith let their hair down." I'll simply note that (a) at least Kenny didn't write the song and (b) any woman who ever told a man that would have been lying. Normal women don't have sexual longings for machines shaped like tractors.
ELDORA is a romantic album with songs written by Chase solo and written by Chase with Wyatt McCubbin, Elvie Shane, Kashus Culpepper and Madeline Edwards.
The uptempo "Good Side of Gettin' Older" is a stand out.
Life has got me writing different songs
And time's got me missing things before they're gone
And love is something I ain't fully figured out
But I know it's what this whole thing's all about
And I love "Circa 1943" about a man injured on the battlefield meeting and falling in love with a nurse and then returning to the battlefield only to die while she raises their son. It's a moving story that sounds real. I learned after I fell in love with it that the song was inspired by Chase's grandparents.
All 12 tracks sound lived in and real. All the songs have lyrics that are perfectly matched with the music -- in terms of melody and in terms of rhythm with "One Drink Long" probably being the best example. And I can't decide right now what's my favorite song on the album.
It may be "Sunsettin'."
Or it may be "Cowboy Goodbye."
Tomorrow it may be "Namin' Horses." These are twelve excellent tracks that go to life and living in a deep manner. Chase is either the best faker in the world or a true artist -- or maybe a combination of the two. But he's been producing some of the best music in any genre since 2021's THE ALBUM and he just continues to do so with ELDORA. We have a lot of trash music out there. That is true of any decade. But if you long for real music -- music that touches and inspires -- then you better be supporting real music. Chase isn't writing about fantasy love interests who find tractor's sexy or a laundry list of Grey Goose and gold teeth. He's writing from the heart and he's telling our stories. That's what music is supposed to do. When BLUE was still underrated, C.I. said "Well everything's not always obvious in real time." I think the same is true today of the value and importance of Chase Rice's artistry.
