EDDIE RAY ARNOLD

                                                            "Beautiful Day" 

                                                            Emanant Music/Perry Music Group

I had the pleasure meeting Eddie Ray Arnold just a few months ago when he was in town to play the popular live weekly series Nashville’s Most Wanted. His full band sound perfectly encapsulated the 90’s country covers he slid into his set, but it was his original music that intrigued me most.

His blending of several modern touches with a strong 90’s country vibe smashed into his storyteller type of lyrics and accented his vocal range perfectly so that everything came together just right.

All these signature attributes are exactly what we get from his single, “Beautiful Day,” the first song he released after he signed his label deal.

The midtempo drive in the melody and structure of the song builds you through the opening verse as Arnold wraps his voice into a picture painting lyric to set the scene as he sings of it being a “beautiful day” to just simply be together with his better half, doing essentially nothing other than driving around with the radio on.

The chorus continues to elevate this idea and turn it up a notch as he continues to paint the scene vividly of having the top down on the car, soaking up the sunshine, and turning up the radio and singing along with it until all their worries are gone.

Though we’ve experienced this theme in country music several times before, Arnold does a lot of things right - especially within the lyrics - such as when he cleverly uses perfect comparatives between the emotions they’re feeling and the way she looks to play off those things that are commonly associated with driving: “Blacktop romance, shotgun smile.”

I personally love a simple date without too pressure on it and driving around singing our favorite songs together is the usual go to for me. That said, Eddie Ray Arnold has delivered a song with “Beautiful Day” that I truly believe many people will be able to relate to.

There’s absolutely a modern kissed country sound that also solidly recalls the 90’s style that many refer to as the strongest era of country music. But there’s also Arnold’s ability to take a common emotion that we all have and use his vocal abilities in just the right ways to convey those feelings through our speakers so that the song hits us in such a way that we want to grab our better half and go for drive.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)