CD Review: LOCASH – Beers to Catch Up On – by Jeffrey Kurtis for Country Music News International Magazine & Radio Show
BMG/Wheelhouse
Though only recently getting their
biggest breaks, LOCASH has been part of country music’s fabrication for well
over a decade. Preston Brust and Chris Lucas found success as songwriter’s with
Tim McGraw’s “Truck Yeah” and Keith Urban’s “You Gonna Fly,” but through
relentless touring and building a grassroot following, they broke through as
artists in 2015 with “I Love This Life.”
With “One Big Country Song” recently
finding its way to the number one charting position, the duo is now set to release
“Beers to Catch Up On” – a song from their latest album Brothers and
penned by Rhett Akins, Jeremy Stover, and Paul DiGiovanni.
As LOCASH usually does, a catchy, pop
infused backbeat laces the melody of the mid-tempo song and provides you with a
clap-a-long groove that sucks you in and has you swaying with its end of summer
vibe. Once hooked into the groove of the song, however, it’s the lyrics that
will capture you as they tell a story we can all relate to; a nostalgic look
back to our younger, and often carefree, ways of life.
A phone call from an old friend is the
catalyst as the opening lines immediately toss you into the story, “I got a
call out of the blue from an old buddy I knew in school and the second I heard
his voice I went straight back.”
From here, we (as the listener) are allowed
to eavesdrop on their conversation as they run down a list that relives those
Friday nights when they were up to no good, while also confessing that they
sometimes need to rewind back to those youthful days in order to balance out
today.
There are a few things that instantly caught
my attention upon my first listen of this song:
1) The well-crafted lines of lyrics such
as, “I got some 12-ounce, small town memories.”
2) When singing of having beers to catch
up on, they don’t make it brand specific which allows the listener to insert
their own memories and whichever ale relates to their story best.
3) This is also the second song in a row
where LOCASH references a legend; On “One Big Country Song” they sing, “Not
everybody knows the words to Mama Tried,” and here, “We play all of them Hank
songs” – Junior or Senior (your choice again, for whatever fits best into your own
story).
What should make this song the next big
hit for LOCASH, though, is that the lyric never really sees the old friends
getting together to do any of the stuff they talk about on the phone, which is
a perfect imitation of life. We all talk with old friends, relive those memories,
and say to each other that we need to get together and do it all again, but how
often do any of us actually do it?
Take a listen to “Beers to Catch Up On”
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfJbm88h-e8