It seems these days that a requisite for an artist to break into the country music mainstream is to release a song that discusses small town country life. When listening to Mark Cooke’s debut single for Cotton Valley Records, it’s easy to just read “Cant Cheat In A Small Town” and write it off as but another hackneyed variation of that required theme but I’ll be damned if the lyrics to this tune don’t touch on a different variation of small town life.
It’s a tune that finds Cooke singing as the betrayed partner in a relationship and he tells his partner “You can’t cheap in a small town; the news will beat you home before the sun goes down.” It’s actually a true lyric in the sense that folks in small towns will spread ‘the news’ quickly, something that can’t possibly happen in the big city.
Produced by J. Gary Smith for the new label Cotton Valley Records, “Cant Cheat In A Small Town” is a well produced, well-written debut single and despite a few points where Cooke’s voice is somewhat ‘sharp’ sounding, he doesn’t sound like anyone else on the airwaves right now and that’s a good thing.
Ultimately due to people like ‘similarity’ in their songs and Cooke’s own unique vocal style, he may have a hard time getting the tune up the bigger charts but I have few doubts that this single will thrive on the more ‘wide open’ “activator” and Music Row charted stations.
You can support Mark Cooke by purchasing this isngle at Amazon | iTunes.
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