Country music is definitely cool again. With lots of young artists leading the way, the genre often finds itself back in mainstream media.

Kelsea Ballerini has defined herself as one of these new stars. Apparently she wasn't a die hard country lover as a girl growing up, which might seem unusual for someone who spent their formative years on a farm in East Tennessee. She used to sight Britney Spears as an early idol, but after hearing Stupid Boy, by Keith Urban her musical epiphany happened and she started to delve into the huge catalogues of country music stars and now cites Shania Twain as her greatest influence. 

The song LA has a lot to live up to, with some of her older hits like ‘Miss Me More’, ‘Legends’ and ‘Peter Pan’, earning countless award nominations, new releases will be carefully looked at for shortlisting. Lyrically, this is an interesting song and seems to fit perfectly with where Kelsea Ballerini finds herself in her career and possibly her private life. For many outside the country music world, the name might not be familiar, but there is a sense that’s it’s a matter of time until more mainstream fame beckons and the lyrics here point to that uncertainty about the glitz and glamour of LA and how will people from her hometown will judge her, the line ‘Will Tennessee be mad at me?’ suggests that she may have a sense of betrayal for moving. The song itself seems to sit across genres, it definitely has a country flavour, but there is a more modern pop twist to it that will certainly appeal to a wider audience. Kelsea Ballerini has a gorgeous voice, that suits this style of song beautifully, with guitars providing the majority of the backing to her vocal which is prevalent and confident, quite rightly, and shows not only her songwriting prowess, but her classical delivery and style is as good, if not better than a lot of her contemporaries. 

With the drum sample and texture of this song, Kelsea Ballerini is using some of the tools that the likes of Taylor Swift have previously to appeal to a huge audience and I think the image of this song and catchy chorus will mean more and more listeners will be turned on to Kelsea Ballerini. 

 Country      Singer-songwriter 

Author: Phil Arnold

Phil Arnold is a musician, producer and music reviewer from Devon, in the South West of England. Whilst not writing music reviews, Phil also writes and records under the name of Ugbrooke.