Somewhere between the soaring fiddle strains and whine of the steel guitar coming from Florence next weekend, you're going to hear these words spoken in a hip-hop cadence:
"Listen up
"Now LA's got the freaks
"That brings them 50 dollar drinks
"And San Antonio was a wild wild rodeo.
"And then Phoenix, Arizona
"We drank way too much Corona
"And we woke up by the river
"Just sittin' cold."
Country Thunder USA, which kicks off Wednesday and runs through April 8, is going urban.
Well, not all the way.
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But the music you'll hear from some of the artists on the four-day festival lineup will sound oddly out of place in the country music setting.
Get used to it.
Artists like Cowboy Troy, who leads the new hick-hop country evolution, and his partners Big Kenny Alphin and John Rich (aka Big & Rich), will be proudly proclaiming phrases not usually associated with twangy country: bling bling, word to your meemaw, bang in your ying yang.
Then there's country music big man Trace Adkins, whose 10-year career has been colored with rowdy, rockin' traditional country tunes alongside tug-at-your-heartstring twangy ballads, singing about the virtues of the perfect "badonkadonk."
Listen in:
"It's so hard not to stare
"At that honky tonk badonkadonk
"Keepin' perfect rhythm
"Make ya wanna swing along
"Got it goin' on
"Like Donkey Kong
"And whoo-wee
"Shut my mouth, slap your grandma."
Urbandictionary.com defines "badonkadonk" as an ebonic expression for an extremely curvaceous female behind.
Boy, never saw that one coming in country music, the purists are likely spouting while spinning their old Johnny Cash 45s.
At this point, those in the Big & Rich Muzik Mafia camp — the mafia supports artists of all genres, from rock to rap to straight-ahead country — are likely reminding those same purists that Cash was an outsider in his day. Those same folks considered him a rock star.
Country music has never been above borrowing from other genres, so it was only a matter of time before someone in a cowboy hat and pressed Wranglers turned his attention to rap. After all, rap music — which critics proclaimed 20 years ago would never have staying power — has found a comfortable footing in almost every genre of popular music. It's become part of our culture.
Adkins, speaking by phone from a concert stop in Portland, Ore., earlier this month, wouldn't concede "Badonkadonk" as a rap song, but he admitted it's a little different. And different is good.
"It has attracted some younger folks to the shows, and I'm happy about that," he said. "They just get raucous and rowdy and just dance. It's a lot of fun to do that song live."
Rap is by no means a new phenomenon in country music. A highlight of veteran Texas singer Neal McCoy's live shows is that moment when he ditches the cowboy hat and slaps on a backwards baseball cap and jams to the hip-hop "Beverly Hillbillies Rap." Even money has it that he'll repeat that song when he plays Country Thunder April 7.
But it is Big & Rich with their sidekick Cowboy Troy — aka Troy Coleman, the 6-foot-4 former athletic shoe salesman from Texas — who get most of the credit for taking rap beyond the live show, into the studio and onto country radio.
Their's is rap mainly in lyrical approach, since they forgo urban rap's MO of sampling — laying new lyrics over snippets of old songs. Country rap is entirely original.
Big & Rich came on the music scene preaching a philosophy of music without prejudice. For them, that meant being open to mixing it up, inviting different ethnic flavors into a music that has long been dominated by white men.
"Music should be the last place prejudice should exist," Rich said in a 2004 interview. "It's all the same chords. It's all the same notes. It's the same words. It's just how you put them all together. . . . We think if it's great music, it's great music, period. It doesn't matter what genre it falls under."
The pair's success was swift. Two months after they released their May 2004 debut album, "Horse of a Different Color," it was certified platinum (1 million sold) on the strength of the first single, "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy." A month later, the album was certified double platinum.
Last November, the pair released their sophomore album, "Comin' to Your City"; it was certified platinum in mid-January.
Ask Adkins if he thinks there's a Big & Rich effect in country music and he balks. No, he says, country music hasn't departed far from its path. It's just adding a few sightseeing trips that are healthy for the genre.
Adkins sees more of an effect from prolific songwriter Rich, whose writing is steeped in country's traditions.
"John Rich is a good songwriter, and John Rich writes a lot of country songs. Some people may think that he's just the Big & Rich thing, but he writes a lot of traditional country songs," Adkins said. "I've heard a lot of stuff that he's written, and it's straight-ahead traditional country. If he's influencing country music, it's in all different directions."
"He's pretty hot right now, and he couldn't be much hotter as a writer," agreed Kix Brooks, the Brooks half of superhot duo Brooks & Dunn. "He's a really good writer, and he writes in a lot of different directions. He's so crazy that sometimes people who aren't around both sides of him don't appreciate what a heartfelt guy he is and how really talented he is."
Brooks, who headlines Country Thunder's closing night April 8, recently wrote a song with Rich that will likely land on Brooks & Dunn's next album.
Quick Take
Country Thunder USA Festival
When: Wednesday-April 8
Where: Canyon Moon Ranch, 20585 E. Price Road, off Arizona 79, Florence
Tickets: $49-$59 daily, $139 four-day pass; reserved seats and VIP packages $69-$500 through Country Thunder, 1-480-966-9920
The lineup
Wednesday
West stage: 2 p.m., JD Simo; 4, Drew Davis Band; 6:30, Cross Canadian Ragweed; 8:30, Trick Pony. East stage: 3 p.m., Doo-Wah Riders; 5, Hilljack; 7, Miranda Lambert; 10, LeAnn Rimes
Next Thursday
West stage: 2 p.m., the Ranchhands; 4, Gary Nichols; 6, Jason Aldean; 8:30, Trace Adkins. East stage: 1 p.m., Erin; 3, Jamey Johnson; 5, Ray Scott; 7, Muzik Mafia; 10, Big & Rich with Cowboy Troy.
April 7
West stage: 2 p.m., Shannon Brown; 4, Harry Luge; 6, Randy Travis; 9, Larry the Cable Guy. East stage: 1 p.m., Erika Jo; 3, Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband; 5, Eric Church; 7:30, Neal McCoy; 10:30, Sawyer Brown.
April 8
West stage: 2 p.m., Cowboy Crush; 4, Hot Apple Pie; 6, Carrie Underwood; 9, Travis Tritt. East stage: 1 p.m., Melody Dunn; 3, Jace Everett; 5:30, Keith Anderson; 7:30, Phil Vassar; 10:30, Brooks & Dunn.
