I’m writing this on a Monday night (just about, it’s almost midnight) so you best believe I get the opening lines of “Being Here, Being There”
“If today was a train, it’d be off track
If it was a fish, I’d throw it back
Feel like the whole damn world gone mad
Ain’t nobody ain’t had a day like that”
Sings Rodney Atkins in that deep voice he’s got and who can’t empathise?
He’s always had that, that’s why, through all his trials and tribulations he’s remained so popular, and that’s why whatever I say about Rod And Rose kinda doesn’t matter for diddly squat. The record that he’s made with Rose Falcon – his wife since 2013 – will see millions of streams and couples everywhere getting their 2022 anthems sorted.
Which is why – and apologies for the personal shit – about the only thing I empathise with in these five songs is the opening verse. Hell, I’ve spent my life avoiding anything approaching a grown-up relationship, a policy that means I can write album reviews at midnight in my mid-40s and no one cares, so its not all bad.
So, whilst empathy is at a premium, I do get why “Rod And Rose” is a fine EP. For one thing their voices compliment each other perfectly, for another they can write a damn fine country song. “Fine By Me” is a prime example. Try and avoid its chorus, I dare you.
Falcon has a way of delivering these words that is better than some of those £1 a minute phone lines I definitely didn’t ring in the late 80s (the day I found out my parents had an itemised phone bill ranks as one of the worst I ever spent) and on “Put Me Back Together” it works perfectly.
These are polished gems, but they could have only been done by a married couple. That stops “Anyway” being cloying sentimentality, and instead being warts and all, and “Figure You Out” being a promise rather more than it might be.
There’s something about country that lends itself to the duet, I suppose. And this is no different, although its originality sets it apart – even if I am not its target audience, I am proof that even without an ounce of romance in your soul you can still enjoy this record. It hasn’t convinced me to find the love of my life, but then I am a lost cause. Ask any woman I know.
Rating 7/10