Luke Combs

One Liner:  Nashville country tropes but with some enjoyable tunes nonetheless

Wikipedia Genre:  Country

Home: Nashville (via North Carolina)

Poster Position: Headliner!
Both Weekends.
Friday.

Thoughts:  I literally just typed Luke Bryan as the title for this.  So weird that there are so many dudes with generic ass names in the country game right now, with Zach Bryan and Luke Bryan and Luke Combs and Zac Brown and Kane Brown.  We need L.B. Combs to release a country album and come full circle.

As I've said many a time, the Nashville country sound is never where my ears are aimed.  Give me the Texas country or red dirt or Americana or outlaw-style country and I'll mostly be okay.  But the Kenny Chesney, Morgan Wallen, etc. machine is never going to by my style.  BUT, I actually tried out this dude's album of songs about fathers and sons, and I actually enjoyed some of it.  Here was my review at the time:

"Luke Combs - Fathers & Sons.  Combs is not someone who is on my radar in the slightest, so I'm not sure how this album came to be in my New Stuff list, but I'm honestly glad it was.  Cheesy as shit - just absolutely dripping in gooey American, plasticky cheese like a soggy nacho at the bottom of a paper bowl at a little league game - but also endearing to me in an unexpected way.  These songs are all, or at least mostly all, about fathers and sons.  And being that my son is now away at college for his Freshman year, hearing songs like "The Man He Sees in Me" or "Huntin' By Yourself" brings a different level of poignance that I never would have given them the time for ten years ago.  For example, the chorus to "Huntin' By Yourself," with these lines: "I already knew he wouldn't see a thing / Been three more times and it's always the same / 'Cause he moves too much and he talks too loud / But I don't mind 'cause I'm finding out / That even if it's just time we're killin', it's never felt more like livin' / They'll make you cuss and wear your patience thin / But next thing you know, they're all grown up and then / You're huntin' by yourself again."  All too damn true.  Like I said, sappy and cheesy, but also a well-crafted encapsulation of an emotion that I am living in today.  "The Man He Sees in Me" is the top track so far, with 53.3 million streams [now up to 63.8 million].

I also have to note that the backing band on that song is excellent.  Sounds like the folks who back up Allison Krauss.  "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" also rings very true to me, except for the divorce angle to it, but the idea of a song wishing his dad would take him out to the ballgame just to hang out.  A friend gave me tickets to go see a Texas basketball game with the boy before he went back to school, and it was a very fun evening.  The album is pleasing to me - very basic arrangements, kind of a slow burn of pleasant country tunes about young fatherhood.  I guess I don't hate all Nashville country as much as I thought."

There you go - a ringing endorsement!  And I will 100% note that now that I am listening to the regular "most popular" tunes in his Spotify, this is more what I was expecting.  Heavy twang on the vocals and lyrics that make him sound like an everyman, buying a six pack and getting a Hooter's waitress's number on his bill.  Top song is from 2017's This One's For You, "When It Rains It Pours," with just over a Billion streams.

I'm sure dudes who treat their girlfriends like crap play this song as their theme song to justify their assholery.  But if I am being honest, even though it is twangy generic-ness, I kind of like the angle on a happy breakup that ends well for the guy.  "I've been on one hell of a redneck roll for three weeks now" is where you know it is not a redeeming song though.  But still, kind of makes me think of one of those Alan Jackson good times tunes.

Born in Huntersville, N.C., he grew up in Asheville before heading off to Appalachian State University.  After five years of school and just 21 hours left for a degree in criminal justice, he bounced on school to move to Nashville and pursue his musical career.  Great choice, honestly.  HIs debut single from his first full album went to number one on the country radio airplay chart, so he went in the right direction immediately.  His first five singles actually all ended up at number one on the Billboard country chart.

I think when he popped onto my radar (and likely for many other folks) was in 2023 when he covered Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car."  He does a good job with it, leaving the lyrics alone and keeping the arrangement pretty much the same as the original.  It sounds very good.  793.5 million streams.

Live version, but you get the idea.  Such a good song.  At the time of the release, and it's wild popularity, I recall a little bit of controversy about it.  On the one hand, people were excited that a black woman was the author of a number one country song, but on the other hand it had people wringing their hands about the success of a white man using that song, in comparison to when a black, queer woman sang the same thing.  I just thought it was cool to have that song pop back up into the national consciousness - it is excellent, lyrically, and still very much resonates today.

His second-biggest streamer is from the 2018 album This One's for You Too, and is one that I feel like I have written about before.  Or maybe there are just multiple country songs where a guy is like "she's nuts but I love her anyway."  That's the one, it was Eli Young Band's "Crazy Girl" that I was thinking of.  Anyway, "Beautiful Crazy" has 1.048 BILLION streams.

A billion damn streams for that song is just wild to me.  "Yeah she's crazy, but her crazy's beautiful to me" is just like, not actually nice?  And there are a lot of comments on the YouTube video that are all like "my husband told me this is my song, I love him so much."  Lady, your husband just called you a nutjob and says he likes you despite what a huge psycho you are.

2022's Growin' Up has the classic hallmarks of the generic Nashville stuff that is painful for me.  Heavy rock guitars, generic lyrics, soulful belting with a heavy country twang.  "Any Given Friday Night" is the classic one - boys chasin' girls and hangin' at the Dairy Queen, etc.  But the big song is a rough-edged love song called "The Kind of Love We Make."  640.8 million streams.

Oh hell yeah, grandpa is about to tear that granny to shreds!  She was trying to read the classifieds, but PopPop had other plans that involved burning down the entire house while he went to town.  I get it - catchy, poppy, soulful - and why it could be a big hit.  But that is the kind of song that I would definitely skip if it came on a radio station or mix.

His 2019 album What You See Is What You Get is more of the same - long necks, John Deere, blue collars, fixin' trucks, big mouth bass, whiskey, Brooks & Dunn, honky tonks, rhyming honey with money, etc. etc. etc.

Weird anecdote on his Wikipedia: "In 2023, Combs obtained a $250,000 SAD Scheme default judgment against Nicol Harness inadvertently, who was a fan who had sold $380 worth of tumblers featuring a likeness of Combs. Combs subsequently issued an apology, sent Harness $11,000, and offered to sell the tumblers through his official merchandise store to assist with Harness's medical bills."  He inadvertently sued someone and took a judgment?  Is that a problem that famous people have, to just accidentally sue people and take the case all the way to judgment?  I wish I had that issue.

Anyway, while if this was the headliner for Two Step Inn, I may have gone over to see what he was like in person, but with him likely against Hozier, Cage, or Empire, there is just no way I'd choose him over those other folks.