John McCain Wants You To Remember When We All Liked Big & Rich

Dan Gibson | August 5, 2008 11:30 am
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Back in 2004, it was OK to like Big & Rich. They had a remarkably listenable debut album that was a breath of fresh air from the somewhat lousy country music scene at the time, as well as fun personalities. But their charm wore off rather quickly somewhere around the Cowboy Troy solo album, and John Rich became a bit of a caricature of himself as a judge on CMT’s Gone Country and NBC’s Nashville Star. However, even if the Village Voice Web site doesn’t want to acknowledge it now, 2004 was a different time, a time when critics sent Horse of a Different Color to the 39th spot in the Pazz & Jop poll. Take a moment and remember those accolades while you download Rich’s cleverly titled tribute to John McCain, “Raising McCain.” While the lyrics “He got shot down in a Vietnam town fighting for the red, white and blue / then they locked him up in a Hanoi Hilton, thinking they could break him in two” wash over your ears, just think of those days back in 2004 filling out your year-end ballot and wonder what happened. To him and to us. [John Rich]