Single Review: Easton Corbin — “All Over the Road”

Songwriters:  Carson Chamberlain, Ashley Gorley and Wade Kirby

Despite being self-titled, Easton Corbin’s 2008 debut album drew many comparisons to established country names with similarly deep voices and tight, clever songs wrapped in steel guitar. And while sounding like George Strait or Joe Nichols doesn’t hurt the buzz around a new artist, it certainly sets the bar high.

Corbin delivered, taking his first three singles inside the Top 15 and proving himself a professional in the neo-traditional intersection between Joe Diffie ditties and Keith Whitley weepers. Sophomore album All Over the Road continues that trend, even as the novelty wears off and the collection skews slightly less memorable – a collection of bonus tracks to the first record, perhaps, instead of a frame built upon a solid foundation.

Still, title track “All Over the Road” captures Corbin’s easy charm in both form and function thanks to his very own Keith Stegall: producer Carson Chamberlain returns, injecting the track with a comfortable, updated take on nineties country. That groove supports the song’s cheeky lyrics about the on- and off-road scatterbrained, light-headed symptoms of love and lust, its winking, self-admitted defeat begging not to be taken too seriously by traffic cops or crosswalk monitors. (After all, the only country music driving advice worth holding onto involves George Jones and his infamous John Deere – an entirely different PSA altogether.)

For all its protagonist’s zigs and zags captured brilliantly by Corbin’s “little bit o’left/little bit o’right” directions, “All Over the Road” stays squarely between the lines and right at the speed limit, a sweet spot for the singer and his fans.