July 11: "Dirt Road Anthem" -- Jason Aldean

So you're sitting there cruising in the car and this upbeat, catchy country song called "Dirt Road Anthem" comes on the radio. All of sudden the singer, Jason Aldean, slides into a rap segment that is not the typical direction you're expecting from a C/W song. Suddenly you're tapping your foot because it's country, it's rap, and the lyrics make you think of an idyllic place where you wished you'd grown up. Also, it's such an odd combination--like peanut butter and bacon--that you're intrigued and think this Aldean guy may be onto something.



We at GSD love Jason Aldean's "Dirt Road Anthem," which is #4 on this week's Billboard Country Top 40. And we'd like to think Aldean is paving new ground with his country/rap hybrid but he's really at the back end of a list of singers who've gone down the hip hop/dirt road before. First, Aldean's hit is a remake of a Colt Ford/Brantley Gilbert song from 2008 (that's right, two years ago). (Colt Ford's story is fascinating in its own right as Ford, a.k.a. Jason Brown, is a former low level pro golfer from Athens, GA.)

Also, you could make a serious and legitimate case that the forerunners of the country/rap hybrid aren't from the 90s but go all the way back to the beginnings of hip hop with the legendary 1970s musicians C. W. McCall and Charlie Daniels.



C.W. McCall's "Convoy" is a classic hit from 1976 and a GSD Staff Fave. The popularity of this song proves that people from the mid-70s were still coming off a fairly robust late-60s/early-70s drug-induced high. Essentially, though, the song is a rap song with a low rent group of commercial background singers who carry the chorus. It was one of those niche songs that people purchased as a 45 and played on actual record players.



Charlie Daniels's song, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," hit #3 on the pop charts in 1979 and left an even more indelible mark than "Convoy." Unlike McCoy, Daniels was no one-hit wonder and enjoyed a long music career, playing thousands of State Fairs around the country well into the 1990s.

So go on and get Aldean's hit onto the iPod, and if the spirit moves you, pick up "Convoy" and "Devil Went Down to Georgia" to pay homage to the true pioneers of new country music.