CD Review: JT Lewis – Good Times
by Matt Belyea for Country Music News International
When you try to make a stew, and you have a recipe. And you decide that it needs to be a bit more, adding this and that, borrowing a little beer and sunshine, a little Buffett and some Church throw in for good measure.  Sometimes the mixed-up stew just doesn’t taste all that good. Unfortunately, that’s kind of what JT Lewis delivers here on his release “Good Times”.
JT is a Baton Rouge native who has decided to chase the dream in Nashville and been touring the country on self-supported tours for the last few years. His live shows are billed as high-energy but that doesn’t come across on this release. Not that he doesn’t try, but he tries too hard on this release, each song is rehash of a popular artist. My hope is that he will mature over time and find his own voice in the future.  Will this release pass muster for the background music at the 20-something summer party?  Sure, throw it on.
Good Times: The title track, a bouncy summertime song that copies it’s beat and attitude from
The aforementioned Darius Rucker tune. Flat production doesn’t help bring the song to life, and I credit the musicians tracking the song with some nice top notch playing.
Creekin’: A play right out of Eric Church’s songbook, with less drama and lyrics that contain gems “like bubbles in a bud, getting my float on”… nuff said.
Beach Body: How many cliches can we fit into a 3 minute, ala Jimmy Buffet – my favorite line here, rhyming “”pina-cola-ti”…. Sorry, is that too harsh? Not sorry. This is a bad song.
Just a Truck: Again, if I listen to “I Drive Your Truck” – a beautiful country song by Lee Brice, I can See how JT wanted to write similar song. That’s the problem, writing songs that can’t measure up.
Here at Country Music News International we believe in Bluegrass and Country Music. During this difficult time we have to stand together. Almost everyone in the business is being impacted financially. In order to help artists, songwriters, musicians and any related music business like music stores, publicists, record labels, music bars, instrument companies, record studios … keep business moving forward, we are making an unprecedented offer. For more details: https://countrymusicnewsinternational.com/advertise