BRANTLEY GILBERT FT. JUSTIN MOORE - Dirty Money - The Valory Music Co.
Following other previously released collaborations “Me And My House” and “Over When We’re Sober,” Multi-Platinum country rocker Brantley Gilbert now teams up with labelmate Justin Moore for “Dirty Money,” the final preview of his highly anticipated seventh studio album TATTOOS (due Sept. 13, 2024).
The song that kicks off the album, co-written by Gilbert and Josh Phillips, tunes into the rock edged country swampiness that we’ve grown accustomed to within the core signatures from Brantley, perfectly matching the mischievous lyric of passing down the family farmed secrets from one generation to the next, using the farm fields to grow a little more than just corn.
By map dotting how from North to South, East to West, SoCal to Bama and up to New York there’s farmers everywhere plowing the ground, growing it up, and busting their backs to make the “dirty money,” Brantley sets the song in motion by immediately connecting with blue-collar, rural USA, hitting then the anthem-styled chorus that further outlines the everyday plight of the generational farmer who’s trying to make ends meet:
“Everybody gets it different
It depends on where you’re from
Only way I know to get it
Is get it like my daddy done
On a piece of land from his old man
He handed down to me
John Deere ® turns the rows
Sunshine turns it green
And that’s the way we learned it
So, that’s the way we earn it
Pray for rain, from corn to grain
It keeps the whole world turning
Do it ‘cause they need us
We’re proud to be the last ones at the bank
And the first ones up to make dirty money”
Saddling into the second verse, Justin Moore provides definition to “dirty money” when he tallies that the corn they’re growing gets mixed in a copper still and becomes the clear in the jars that everyone is clamoring for, from the sheriff to the pastor, as arena rock shreds of guitar through the bridge add exclamation points to their roots-injected justification for earning their underground payday.
Brantley Gilbert has never shied away from the darker underbelly of the inner workings of Small Town USA, and by recruiting Justin Moore to join him on a song that feels perfectly suited for the Arkansas native there’s an honesty that transcends your speakers through each of their distinctive drawls, adding intrigue note by note as Gilbert continues riding the momentum wave toward the release of the album next month.
(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis/Artwork c/o The Valory Music Co.)