Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio, we’ve been listening to Matt Burke’s latest single, I Don’t Drive A Truck, and yes… it is a country song!
I Don’t Drive A Truck tells the story of Burke’s experience growing up in Florida. An upbringing, he says, that was more alligator-dollar-store-trailer-park country than 4×4-buck-hunting-bass-pro-shop country.
I Don’t Drive A Truck tells of Burke’s version of country: all the things that he believes are country, compared to Nashville, where he now resides. He speaks of people being quick to judge what they think “Country” is, and he hopes to put things straight with this track. The song has some clever and fun lyrics to back up his claims; “got a couple of cars that won’t start parked in my front yard”
From the title, you just know how this song is going to go. There’s no pretension here. This is a straight-up, driving with the windows down, country rock song.
I Don’t Drive A Truck fades in on guitar and then swiftly moves straight into some bright and punchy drums with a sweet little guitar solo before the vocals come in.
When Burke’s vocals come in, there’s no doubt about it, this is a country singer. His voice is strong and effortless and has all the hallmark twang of a great country vocalist.
The chorus is catchy and we love the subtle backing harmonies that are brought in, together with some nifty little snare fills that added a nice dimension.
With a Lynyrd Skynyrd-style (especially their later material) guitar solo and a breakdown version of a chorus that builds back up again, I Don’t Drive A Truck is a well-written and well-performed song which has “Hit” written all over. We are in no doubt that Matt Burke is a classy country performer.
Ideas from our ears
A hi-pass filter at 35Hz would remove all the sub-bass rumble and allow more space in the low end. A small cut around 450Hz would reduce some slightly ‘honky’ tones in the vocal track too. To our ears, the backing (not the vocal) could use some extra fullness in the 250Hz to 2kHz range (where most of the vocal sits). This could be achieved with a single band compressor in that area, reducing gain during vocal lines and adding maybe ~3dB between vocal lines. Finally, a light compressor/limiter on the master with maybe 3-5dB of make-up gain would add extra warmth and thickness to the track overall as well as raising the volume to match similar releases. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.
Final thoughts
Matt Burke’s, I Don’t Drive A Truck is a wonderful country song with a catchy chorus and a great theme. For fans of Kevin Fowler, Chris Stapleton, Tyler Childers and Waylon Jennings.