Music

Chris Young Gets Crafty, Per Esquire

"Sober Saturday Night" Makes the "Best" List
by 11/30/2015

Obviously, Adele made the list. Right? It’s probably against the law to have any kind of a “best-of” rundown and not include her.

But this is what I’m loving about Esquire’s newest list of bests: Chris Young is on it, too.

And it’s not just his current single that made it. It’s a deep album cut called “Sober Saturday Night.” Which means that the people at Esquire aren’t just throwing a perfunctory country radio hit on the list. They are listening to Young’s entire I’m Comin’ Over album.

Young’s song is one of the magazine’s 10 Best Songs of November 2015, and they admit that it sounds like “a million other overinflated country power-ballads,” but that it has a crafty conceptual twist. And that they like it because, “Sometimes we’re a sucker for an overinflated country ballad. The best of ’em hinge on universal experiences, and let’s face it, we’ve all been here a time or three: ‘Ain’t no whiskey strong enough to make things right.’”

I’d agree with all that. But I like this tune for a few other reasons:

1. Young wrote it with Brett and Brad Warren, two of the finest country songwriters to ever put pen to paper.
2. Young sings it with Vince Gill, whose heavenly voice is always a welcome addition to any song.
3. It makes sobriety sound miserable, which is a new twist in country’s current lyrical path.

Alison makes her living loving country music. She's based in Chicago, but she's always leaving her heart in Nashville.
@alisonbonaguro