After I finished reviewing the albums by Dustin Lynch and Little Big Town, I ran into several interesting new country music releases as of 17th January 2020. The one which fascinated me most is Blue Jeans by Steve Moakler, which I just had to present on Flyctory.com. Though Moakler names Blue Jeans as an album, I would rather see it as an EP (see below).
Steve Moakler – About The Artists
Steve Moakler is originally from my beloved hockey home town Pittsburgh. You might not heard of him too much as an artist (despite five studio albums), but his major success is a songwriter. For example, he co-wrote Dierks Bentley’s huge success Riser. He also opened for several big names of the business, including Willie Nelson, Old Dominion or Faith Hill. You can also see the high reputation Moakler has in the genre by his social media success: for example, 31,000 people follow him on Facebook – though his highest Country chart entry, a 2016 self-titled EP, was his biggest success with peak place #38. His first music video, Suitcase is dated as of 2016 as well and already illustrates his amazing musical potential.
If you want to know – Steve Moakler is just introducing himself on his YouTube channel – nice habit!
Steve Moakler – Blue Jeans – Track By Track
Blue Jeans contains six songs with a total playing time of twenty minutes. I thus treat it as an EP:
1. Blue Jeans
The EP starts with the title track, which was already sufficient to persuade me that I should deep-dive into this set of sings: very classic sound, but still modern and fresh. What a cool country song!
2. One On The Way
One On The Way is a bit slower than the first track of the EP. Nevertheless, I feel that the track is very atmospheric, just enjoy to listen to it.
3. Push
As the background sounds a bit more like electronic music, Push feels different than the first songs from the very beginning. One of these songs which would not be marketed as country music in Germany. Lovely one!
4. How Have We Never
How have we,
Never been the last to leave on Friday night?
Slowly killed a whole red bottle of wine
Lose ourselves, run across that line
After all this time, how have we,
Never walked out, leaned up against your car?
Another musical proof how versatile and taented Moakler is. Just missing something like “How have we never had you on stage in Germany so far” 😉
5. Good Years
With its feelgood atmosphere, Good Years is my favorite song on Blue Jeans. Even though I write this review in Finland, it feels like summer already (in January) when I listen to it.
6. The Picture
With The Picture, Moakler uses the last song to show that he is also not that bad in writing ballads. Happy ending after six episodes of his musical work!
Steve Moakler – Blue Jeans – Spotify
With this link, you can pre-isten into Steve Moakler’s EP:
Steve Moakler – Blue Jeans – Track By Track
Call it album, call it EP – Blue Jeans is definitely a really good collection of six songs. Steve Moakler is very versatile and skilled. I just hope that he will step out of the “background of songwriting” to stage more often and maybe also makes it to Europe. The twenty minutes are a real treat and underline his talent.
Flyctory.com Country Music Reviews
Here are reviews of all country music albums and EPs I reviewed earlier on the website:
Flyctory.com in Pittsburgh
Here are all other postings by Flyctory.com related to Greater Pittsburgh: