BIG & RICH

Big & Rich: John Rich, Big Kenny.

Additional personnel: Martina McBride, Gretchen Wilson, Cowboy Troy, Jon Nicholson.

Producers: Big Kenny, John Rich, Paul Worley.

Big & Rich: John Rich (vocals, acoustic guitar); Big John (vocals).

Additional personnel include: Adam Shoenfield (electric guitar); Mike Johnson (steel guitar); Nicole Summers (flute); Michael Rojas (keyboards); Matt Pierson (bass instrument); Wayne Killius (drums); Gretchen Wilson, Martina McBride (background vocals).

Listening to any number of the slick chart-busters produced by the Nashville machine, one might wonder what would happen if all those immensely talented musicians and songwriters were left to their own devices, entirely free from commercial restraints. HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR presents a definitive and immensely enjoyable answer.

Comprised of ex-Lonestar lead vocalist/bassist John Rich and longtime Nashville songwriter/scenester Big Kenny, Big & Rich stakes a claim as country music's counterpart to They Might Be Giants (or perhaps even Frank Zappa), combining a dizzying array of styles and unorthodox lyrical subject matter with gleeful abandon. Charging out of the gate with a song that borrows from Limp Bizkit and prominently features Cowboy Troy, "the world's only six-foot, five-inch, 250-pound black cowboy rapper," the album careens from Jimmy Buffet-like party anthems ("Big Time") to AC/DC-influenced, double-entendre-laden rockers ("Save a Horse [Ride a Cowboy]"). Luckily, the incredibly high caliber of musicianship and unwavering creative spirit keep the record from ever slipping into parody. Instead, Big & Rich have single-handedly created a new hybrid genre that promises to inspire a host of similarly inclined free spirits.

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