Bafflingly...

...some folks out there don't think Gary Allan sings country music.

Songs like this put the easy lie to that theory:




Granted, it's rougher than his early stuff, but it's on par with my absolute favorite song from him:




I guess it might not be what some folks think of as traditional country, but to a girl raised on the outlaws it's pretty much spot-on.  Gary Allan hits all the classic touch stones of country music except the blue-collar stuff, and there's damn near no one left in Nashville who knows what the fuck do to with those themes.

I know how the argument goes, though.  Gary Allan recorded a cover of a Vertical Horizon song!

Yeah, and he did it so well that precious few people recognize the other one as the original:



And anyway, covering a rock song can't possibly kick you out of country music, 'cause if it does Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash are both gone.  Jennings in particular recorded a lot of non-country stuff, and made it his own*.  So to call Allan non-country because of the one song while ignoring an incredibly country discography just doesn't make any sense.

Of course, the people I've seen doing this have by and large all been over on Saving Country Music, where they think that Hank III is the be-all and end-all of country, so it's pretty clear they don't actually know what the fuck they're talking about.



*I recently learned that Waylon Jennings did a cover of "McArthur Park", apparently to get in the pants of some female singer.  Coulda knocked me over with a feather.