JORDANA BRYANT - Saddle Up - Independent
Since first entering our radar with her song “Guilty,” Jordana Bryant has continued to develop her unique pop country sound, crafted a signature feel, and elevated her buzzworthy status through a transparency that’s opened her diary to the listening audience.
Navigating her young adult life through its inevitable twists and turns, her emotional pulls have endearingly connected heartstrings with the 20-something demographic to allow Jordana to become an understanding shoulder as her songs have provided the soundtrack to the experiences of their lives.
Following her last single “Fire Works,” the rising starlet now returns with “Saddle Up.”
In a perfect continuation of her flirtatious, falling in love era, the song co-written by Jordana, Jonathan Gamble and Sajan Nauriyal floats its catchy melody atop the breezy carefreeness of the lyric as Bryant focuses not only allowing her own heart to fall, but basking in the glow of her better half falling more and more in love with her as their romance blooms.
With a pop induced flavoring washed in bouncy guitar riffs that pull from a 1980’s branded influence, Braynt paints the picture throughout the opening verse of her modern-era John Wayne, her rodeo cowboy, singing of him living his life in one place for only a few short days at a time, never putting his boots down for too long before moving on to the next town…until the day that he crossed paths with her.
Wearing confidence in her audible smile and a knowingness in her wink, she radiates your speakers throughout the remainder of the song with a spotlight shined on the changing of his ways, from drifting cowboy to settling down with her, rolling boldly into the chorus with a firm definition that showcases who he used to be against who he is now with her by his side:
“I got him hanging his saddle up
Something he hadn’t done yet
Thinking he’s had enough of riding into sunsets
He’s kicking his boots off
Nowhere that he’s headed now
Yeah, this cloud of dust is saying he could settle down
He was a skipping town boy
Now he’s a stick around boy
He’s a don’t wanna lose what he found boy
Yeah, he’s still a cowboy
But I got him hanging his saddle up”
“Saddle Up” conceptually moves the love story started in “Fire Works” into its natural next chapter, but it also intriguingly plays out a lot like an answer to Garth Brooks’ “Rodeo,” whereas the cowboy in question in his hit song couldn’t resist the call to the next town, Jordana instead puts her reins on her cowboy and completely settles him down.
(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)