ELVIE SHANE

                                                              "County Roads" 

                                                               Wheelhouse Records

Elvie Shane’s debut single “My Boy” immediately put him on the country music map as it climbed the charts and secured the #1 spot on the back of an incredible lyric and emotionally charged vocal, that well decisively modern in its overall feel, recalled the days of powerful, traditional country songwriting and storytelling.

However, as strong as “My Boy” is, Elvie Shane has also shown us an entirely different layer of his arsenal on his debut album Backslider, offering several songs with more of a rocking and edgier side such as “My Kinda Trouble,” “Love, Cold Beer, and Cheap Smoke,” and his brand-new single, “County Roads.”

The fuzz in the guitars the moment that you hit play instantly adds a rock-kissed fuel to the country fire and draws you into its catchy rhythm, which continuously builds through the verses as Shane’s raw, honest vocals pull you through a school of hard knocks idea in its lyrics as he sings:

“I got a public education, but it didn't come from class

It came from long rides home on a bus in the back

Where we learned how to cuss from them high school kids

Throw a punch, take a punch, steal a kiss.”

He quickly shifts the lyric, though, into being about a girl that came into his life when he was just 16 years old and he was driving his first fox body Mustang, which then pushes us into young love and the street-smart lessons he sings about learning on them old county roads.

I absolutely love how this lyric continues telling that story in the second verse as we see cars becoming such a passion for Shane that he loses the girl because of them stealing his attention away from her.

The car theme runs steady throughout the song with Shane cleverly re-referencing it again in the bridge when he sings, “here's to the scrapes and the dents and the scars,” a comparable lyric that raises a glass to the lessons learned along the way, but one that also continues signifying that his love affair with cars has never ended since he first got hooked on them.

Elvie Shane has a way about his music where he can take a specific scenario, connect the listener with it, and deliver a strong, poignant message. “County Roads” comes at us from a perspective in the here and now that looks back on all the different moments that helped shaped who you are today. We all have a past, we all have our specific moments, and Shane masterfully twists us into looking back on our own while we’re busy listening to his which gives us a strong personal connection to this up-tempo song.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)