Single Review - Cowboy Sitting at the Bar - Cody Pennington

It is clear that shows where you can hear “all the hits” from current and past Nashville performers are very popular in the UK – as we discussed when we recently reviewed One Night In Nashville.  For many, this may be the only chance to hear the songs that you hear on the Radio performed live, albeit not by the original artists.  UK Based Nashville artist Cody Pennington is about to embark on a UK tour where he will be performing such songs with his band, but Cody is absolutely not just a covers artist, he writes and records his own music and this week sees the release of his latest single which he even produced himself!

This ain’t the first bar I came to tonight

Its just the closest to the last

Cowboy Sitting At The Bar is a recognisable story to anyone familiar with the Country music genre – a heartbroken cowboy who turns to drink to try and ease the pain.  Most of us can relate to that!  The approach that Cody has taken is to put the lyrics against a quite upbeat, happy production.  The song writing is first rate, the words and emotion so recognisable and the contrast with the music and tempo give a different dimension, conjuring up the cowboy sat in the corner of the bar while around him people are having a good time. 

I’m searching for healing in a bottle of Jim Beam

The pedal steel helps to set the tone and describes the heartache as only pedal steel can before the guitar takes us on to the forced jollity of the uptempo chorus reflecting the fact that, although drinking away troubles, the story is set in a bar full of other people

This place feels like a second home

A place you can sit at the bar on your own

You’ve got enough cash you’ll never really feel like you’re alone

It is rare to find a song where the words and music almost contradict each other but come together in such a well thought out way.  The performance itself is also spot on – a little tiredness in the vocal, and real country sound overall so that you almost see as well as hear our storyteller and his weariness and heartache.

Cody Pennington may be performing other people’s songs in his stage show, but he writes as well as they do, and if he performs their songs as well as he does his own, then the shows will be a really great night out!

Cowboy Sitting at the Bar, the new single from Cody Pennington is available to download and stream from Friday 21 April

For more details and tickets for his UK tour go to CodyPennington.com

Find and follow Cody on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and sitting in the corner of a bar drunk on whisky and you…

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