Never knew my old man’s truck could even run like that
Should’ve known better than to take that curve so fast
Daddy pulled up, I was down in a ditch
He asked me why I did what I did

I was out of my mind, she was out of this world
There was this girl

As almost 30-year old Alabamian Riley Green’s fun, up-tempo “There Was This Girl” enters the Top 25, one is reminded how conformist and uninspired much of today’s County music scene is, including this song.

Many of the male acts sound interchangeable– their delivery a nasal, quasi-southern accent and/or Oklahoma twang, bad grammar and lyrics that range from sublime to clever to banal.

Year in and year out, the Country chart is dotted with newcomers who’ve fought their way onto various platforms to get their songs heard by the public and 2018’s crop of newbies, which includes Brett Young, Kane Brown, Jimmie Allen, Mitchell Tenpenny, Jordan Davis and a handful of others, now also includes Riley Green.

…on the other hand, Joe Diffie’s 1994 robust, shit-kickin’ “Pick-up Man” delivers the goods.