Fresh off the heels of gaining a wider audience through Average Joe’s Entertainment’s release of 2010’s Halfway To Heaven and as a writer and co-writer of Jason Aldean’s recent hits (“My Kinda Party” and “Dirt Road Anthem”), Brantley Gilbert has partnered with a bigger indie label in The Valory Music Company to record and release his third album.  So it was odd, at first, to hear that the Georgia native had went into the studio with Dann Huff to record “Country Must Be Country Wide,” a song he co-wrote with Mike Dekle and “Anthem” co-writer, Colt Ford.  The oddity is that it appears on that Halfway To Heaven album and the recording isn’t all that much different sonically. 

With a lyric that discusses how far-reaching country music really is, despite the ‘southern’ nature of many country songs, “Country Must Be Country Wide” certainly hits all the right notes with radio people. The tune, which rocks as hard as any of Aldean’s bigger hits, certainly will appeal to the growing fan base that has come over from 80’s and 90’s rock and metal and it no doubt will appeal to the 20-somethings like Brantley Gilbert himself.  These two groups of people are undoubtedly the core of Aldean’s audience and they’re likely to like Gilbert too (if they already don’t), especially when you add the fact that Gilbert has a much, much rawer voice than Aldean.  

It is that rawness of his voice along with a DYI, grassroots approach that helped Brantley Gilbert gain the attention he is now receiving.  Add in a strong stage presence and help from good labels like Average Joe’s and now Valory, and all signs seem to be pointing to Brantley Gilbert becoming yet another artist to keep an eye on in 2011.  It’s true that “Country Must Be Country Wide” might not appeal to everybody, particularly traditionalists. But then again, when has much of what is on mainstream country radio over the last 10 years or so been that appealing to them?