Get your “Girl Crush” on at Country in the Park
Get your “Girl Crush” on at Country in the Park
by Chris Narloch
Little Big Town, the popular country band currently riding the charts with their sultry single “Girl Crush,” will perform live at this year’s Country in the Park, an annual country concert presented by Sacramento station KNCI.
That controversial song was removed from playlists by some country stations earlier this year but has since become a number one hit, despite lyrics that seem to flirt with same-sex attraction.
The narrator of “Girl Crush” is a woman who wants to taste the lips of her ex’s new girlfriend and drown in a bottle of her perfume in order to get close to her former flame again. (The sex of the “ex” is left to the imagination.)
Whether you think “Girl Crush” is adventurous or just a tease, the song’s gay-friendly lyrics and passionate vocal are definitely sexy.
I am looking forward to hearing Little Big Town sing that song live at Cal Expo, on Saturday, June 20, when the country quartet headlines perhaps the finest lineup since Sacramento’s Country in the Park started.
In addition to Little Big Town, this year’s concert will feature handsome hunk Jason Michael Carroll, the hit duo Thompson Square, and the superb solo artist Ashley Monroe, who moonlights as one-third of Miranda Lambert’s excellent side act, “Pistol Annies.”
Besides the quality of the talent involved, the other great thing about Country in the Park is how
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reasonable general admission tickets are. With concert prices skyrocketing to absurd levels, it’s nice to see a major music festival with four good acts for only $25. (If you buy your tickets at Dimple Records and pay cash, there are no extra fees, which works out to just $6.25 per band!)
The final reason I am supporting this show is because three of the scheduled bands boast female lead singers. (Little Big Town consists of two male and two female vocalists, while Thompson Square boasts one of each.)
Sadly, women are in short supply on current country radio, which is in a serious “bro’-country” rut.
Most of the multi-act country tours out on the road are exclusively male, and a country consultant created a firestorm recently when he advised radio programmers to play mostly music by men if they wanted to make more money.
Since country music is the house that Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn built (along with Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, and George Jones), I found those comments incredibly sad and sexist.
That’s why this 51-year-old gay man will be getting his “Girl Crush” on at this year’s Country in the Park.
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