Song Review – Mickey Guyton’s “Nice Things”
The argument to put more women on country radio is not just about gender equality. It happens to be that if you want to improve country radio, putting more women in the rotation would be a potent strategy to revive the format to past greatness. From Carly Pearce’s new single, to Miranda Lambert, to now this new song from Mickey Guyton, it is the women who are setting the pace for quality in mainstream country.
Women aren’t being held off of country radio because there’s better material from the males out there. Women are being held off of country radio because they are better than the men. Songs that make you think and feel stuff don’t sell Budweiser and full-sized domestic trucks. And the women of country are more stubborn than their male counterparts in being willing to compromise.
Mickey Guyton’s debut single “Better Than You Left Me” announced that she was not just another pop star searching for greener pastures in country. But just like Maren Morris and “My Church,” a deeper listen to her debut EP revealed that pop was still a big part of the strategy. This puts these performers in a sort of country music no man’s land where they can’t count on the support of grassroots country music fans, yet radio remains lukewarm due to the resistance to putting women on the radio at all.
For a while it looked like Mickey Guyton might become the latest victim of country radio’s latest turn away from women. Just getting a new single of any sort from the starlet is a promising sign. The fact that it is once again a solid offering in the songwriting department, and showcases Guyton’s strong country music voice gives you even more hope. Whether country radio will play the thing is a whole other story. But they can’t play what isn’t offered in the first place, and it’s good that Mickey stuck to her roots instead of pandering to the Kelsea Ballerini model of radio success.
“Nice Things” delves into the possessive nature of love in a bold effort that accentuates Guyton’s vocal strengths, and is stirred with Jerry Douglas-sounding rootsy dobro. Mickey Guyton resists the temptation to inflect her voice with urban annunciations and R&B styling that is all the rage in the mainstream country today. Of course all of these things will be strikes against Mickey’s effort to get this song in front of people via the vehicle of radio. Whether any song does well on the radio has nothing to do with the quality or even the infectiousness of a certain tune, but the willingness of fat cat corporate radio programmers to be receptive to the idea of playing it, often greased by their buddies on Music Row looking to push a certain label’s agenda.
“Nice Things” is good but not great, yet it shows once again that the leadership to lead country back to its roots is though the women, and that’s also where folks should gravitate when looking for something of quality in the mainstream.
August 3, 2017 @ 1:26 pm
Big smile on my face when Mickey started singing.
Country music is in the house.
“Women are being held off of country radio because they are better than the men. Songs that make you think and feel stuff don’t sell Budweiser and full-sized domestic trucks.”
Uncalled for. Thinking and feeling are good things, Trig, but don’t make them enemies of selling beer and trucks. They’re also what makes this old world go round.
I’d listen to this song any day — up in my truck, drinking a beer. Life’s fun when it’s full of contrasts. That’s what makes it great when Waylon gets up there, drunk off his ass, laying it down good and hard — and then Jessi follows, with that sweet “I’m Not Lisa.” Kinda hits you right there in the middle, doesn’t it.
Takes all kinds to make a World.
August 4, 2017 @ 9:44 am
I am a woman, and I disagree that women are better than the men. First, many males produce songs that make you think and feel. Two of my favorites are “I Drive Your Truck” by Lee Brice and “You Should Be Here” by Cole Swindell. Second, saying that women are better than men at something is a stupid generalization. It’s no better than saying that men are good at earning the paychecks while women are good at staying home and raising the kids.
August 4, 2017 @ 2:56 pm
Robin ….a woman wrote I Drive Your Truck ….but yes……Lee Brice knew it was a GREAT song
August 3, 2017 @ 1:33 pm
great voice! I’ll definitely be keeping an eye and ear out for her.
August 3, 2017 @ 1:38 pm
I like it! Pretty tune, sort-of clever lyrical hook (a variation on the phrase “this is why we can’t have nice things”), vocals way up front, and musically I think it hits a sweet spot between rootsy and poppy that doesn’t seem too remarkable in and of itself but on country radio would hit me as a breath of fresh air. 🙂
August 3, 2017 @ 1:48 pm
This is a really nice find. I like her voice, and she seems to have an authentic feel. I wish Mickey Guyton luck. I will be checking out more of her material.
August 3, 2017 @ 2:25 pm
I think Mickey has of the best voices in country today. This song in particular showcases a new side of her voice that’s a little more delicate. Was happy with this release – (basically the antithesis to “Heartbreak Song”, her last single.) Hopefully the new record is heading more in this direction!
August 3, 2017 @ 2:38 pm
Wow, I’m pleasantly surprised. I saw her last year with David Nail and Will Hoge for a benefit concert. She did great, but she did not strike me as particularly country. I was expecting that her Nashville handlers would push her into the Kelsea Ballerini mold. Hopefully this song is not an exception but the norm of her future material.
August 3, 2017 @ 2:40 pm
It’s not really my cup of tea, but it’s most certainly country music. I stopped listening to country radio around 12 years ago, but if they played songs like this on there, I might listen occasionally.
August 3, 2017 @ 3:49 pm
Great to hear this after the ‘Heartbreak Song’ that was released previous. I’m a fan.
August 3, 2017 @ 3:59 pm
Love this. Real glad to hear something new from Mickey.
If she ever (finally) gets to release a fufull album, oh, it’ll be good.
August 3, 2017 @ 5:39 pm
Her first song “Better Than You Left Me” was criminally ignored by radio.She is easily one of the strongest female artists to emerge in quite some time.
Unfortunately this one will not get spun either. It’s not the formulated hooky pop drivel that is force fed down your throat by most country stations.
As for not pandering to the Kelsea Ballerini model of radio success, she actually did indeed.
Check out “Heartbreak Song” from last year,a perfect example of an artist genre jumping to achieve success in another market.
She is very talented but posesses no loyalty to country music whatsoever.
August 3, 2017 @ 5:43 pm
This is nice sounding, actual music. She’s on my radar.
August 3, 2017 @ 6:13 pm
Not getting into the women on radio argument today.
anyway, for those who don’t know, once I get going on a subject, I go on for days.
I ranted about the Oak Ridge Boys the other day on here, worked myself up and kept ranting to a friend the next couple days.
she played the “American Dreams” tape for me.
I really liked it.
so I rescind and retract some of my Oak Ridge Boys complaints.
“the leadership to lead country back to its roots is though the women, and that’s also where folks should gravitate when looking for something of quality in the mainstream.”
hogwash.
okay, maybe I’ll get into the debate a little.
the leadership to lead country back to its roots is in nobody’s hands, because nobody is doing anything about it.
no, not one.
show me any noteworthy Country Singer who’s made a statement?
not even Sturgill has called it out for “not being Country”
I say the true leader is Marty Stuart, for he and only he has put in the miles and walked the walk instead of just a lot of talking.
Isbell too. but he’s not really country as is exempt from consideration.
anyway nobody on the radio is making real honest country music. Pardi is B.S. just bland watered down unexciting stuff, it sounds Country but it isn’t authentic or agrarian it’s just polished rich kid who probably knows farm life as “be rich farm owner, hire workers, get money, sing about farming” music instead of “nearing retirement age, can’t pay off tracter” music.
and I’d rather hear the latter because it’s more compelling and engaging.
as for the gravitation thing.
okay, Mickey Guyton is loads better than the rest of Country’s females, but the idea that she’s worth gravitating towards is kind of saying “get the least sick fish in that tank full of sick fish.”
my attitude is go outside the tank and get a proper fish.
the ones in the tank are all sick.
picking the least likely to die won’t do you any good.
it’s probably die anyway and then you gotta go get another fish.
August 6, 2017 @ 3:52 pm
I was listening to our local classic country station this weekend while I worked on cleaning up my garage. I realized that most of the songs that make me cringe are by female acts. Barbara Mandrell, Crystal Gayle, Shania, Sylvia, Reba when she started to believe she was an opera singer, Faith Hill, Swifty ; all very popular and crossed over to an extent. When it come to women in Country Music, if it aint Tammy it aint shit.
August 6, 2017 @ 4:06 pm
I personally subscribe to a different theory.
Country Music keeps trying to cram all it’s women acts through the same round hole.
Tammy Wynette is “housewife music.”
not anything I, a single 20-some odd year old due with a bachelor’s in business, no woman in my life and a large model railroad in my basement can relate to.
so I can’t listen to Tammy.
My favorite female acts are Rhonda Vincent, Alison Krauss, Lorrie Morgan, Dolly, Loretta, some Kitty Wells, and Sarah Brightman who actually is an Opera singer.
But most of that is that I can relate to the content/storytelling and lifestyle of the songs.
Lorrie Morgan’s “War Paint” album is a personal favorite. I’ve worn out two cassettes and had to transfer to CD. I’m on my third copy, because it’s just so gooooooodddddddd.
August 7, 2017 @ 9:16 am
Lorrie Morgan’s “War Paint” is one of my top 10 favorite albums ever. There’s not a clunker on that entire record. The title track is killer.
August 7, 2017 @ 11:36 am
my least favorite is that “Don’t touch me” song.
it’s not bad, it just doesn’t gel with the rest of the album. If you came back to heaven and heart over mind are probably my favorites but the hard part was easy just sooooooo well produced. I mean the other songs are “songs she sings” if you know what I mean but but the instrumentation on that one is so precise and fitting.
August 3, 2017 @ 6:18 pm
this song is really nice though, but it just sounds too… folsky for my taste.
I love folk, I love Tommy Makem.
but I feel like the dobro and the acoustic guitar and her sweet sincere sad girl singing style, even though all three are great alone, are less than the sum of the whole.
the verses and intro would probably put me to sleep, and the chorus sounds like contemporary gospel music.
it’s a bit inconsistent, is all.
And wow! a mandolin! Love it to bits!
this sounds like Kate Rusby or something and not like Loretta Lynn…
I like Kate Rusby, but we’re talking Country music so that’s like saying I like pasta that means my love of pasta should make me happy to be served pasta at a taco bar.
I didn’t go to the taco bar for pasta.
I wanted tacos.
to put it plain:
Country Music, maybe this isn’t.
but the pasta sure is nice.
August 3, 2017 @ 8:29 pm
Glad to see a black girl in country music. Anyways, as for the females in country argument, honestly I personally think they don’t succeed in country cause people don’t want to listen to them as much as the guys. This may be an unpopular opinion, but for me to like a song by a female country singer it really has to grab me. I prefer to listen to male country singers (just not most of the ones on radio)
August 10, 2017 @ 9:57 pm
Why is this? Just genuinely curious and trying to learn from people who feel this way. Is it their voices, is it something you can’t relate to, is it what they sing about, is it something indefinable that makes it hard to listen to them just because of their gender? I want to understand this problem because I see so many people say it, but as a woman, I don’t automatically say: If it’s a male artist, the song really has to grab me. So I just really don’t get this mindset and would like to understand it better.
August 13, 2017 @ 12:20 pm
Well… here’s just my take on it:
I don’t listen to Tammy Wynette, because Tammy Wynette’s music, is a lot of “housewife music” which really cannot be relatable to me, a dude out of college who lives with his parents and works 2 jobs.
It’s not that I don’t like her voice or her songs, it’s just that I can’t connect to her songs.
when I was still in High School and later college I really didn’t care for Patsy Cline because her singing style was so “low, slow and time consuming.”
Adolescent me preferred the harder, more energetic stuff from Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, Flatt and SCruggs, etc. because it was wilder and more energetic.
One of the reasons I like Lynn Morris, Rhonda Vincent, and Allison Krauss, as female vocalists, is that they aren’t singing “woman” songs. they are just singing songs, and I can relate to the sentiment of the songs. if it’s a very much “I’m a woman la dee daa” song It’s less engaging.
but a woman singing an “I’m sad” song is relatable because the theme is universal and stuff.
at least that’s my take
August 13, 2017 @ 12:57 pm
Thanks.
August 13, 2017 @ 1:59 pm
yeah! thanks for being open-minded and not just assuming everything is some sort of prejudice!
August 13, 2017 @ 3:31 pm
This is the second time you have referred to TW songs as ‘housewife songs’. Do you think Lorretta Lynn sings ‘housewife songs’?
August 13, 2017 @ 4:49 pm
only the 2nd? I use that term a lot.
I know its not a great way to describe music and it probably over simplifies things, but it’s the only way to describe what I’m hearing.
And yeah, I think Miss Loretta recorded a lot of music that I can’t relate to. but I also feel like she’s got a lot more versatility than Tammy ever did.
I don’t really care to hear “Coal Miner’s Daughter” or “Looking at Country” or “Don’t Come Home Drinking.”
not my cup of tea. But “Van Lear Rose” is a great album and her duets with Conway are some of the best ones in Country Music.
less so George and Tammy.
not to belittle G&T but Conway and Loretta had a much more diverse catalog of material, whereas a lot of G&T’s duets sounded similar.
Also Conway and Loretta had a much more “engaging” dynamic.
They seemed friendlier, happier, and more energetic.
Tammy and George just seem so… wooden, like they don’t really have a connection, when they sing together.
so admittedly my opinions are a bit unconventional…
August 21, 2017 @ 7:20 am
I’m gonna kinda go with what Fuzzy said, plus, I guess I don’t feel as manly listening to female songs. Hope this could help you understand a little, thanks for trying to understanding instead of being hostile!
August 3, 2017 @ 11:06 pm
Reading your comments i started thinking that it’s probably easier for us country music fans in Italy. No country radios here and giants like stapleton sturgill or whitey are virtually unknown. I saw chris last year in a 300 capacity venue in germany.
August 4, 2017 @ 3:02 am
VERY VERY encouraging. THIS is country music in sentiment , in arrangement , in vocal performance and theme . In fact if you took the ‘drums’ off the track , it borders on a terrific bluegrass tune . Very Miranda …very Dolly …or Patty Loveless .
I will mention once again the new Sara Evans single ” Long Way Down” as this one from Mickey has similar qualities in terms of what I’ve mentioned above .
And yes Trigger …for a long time women have been recording and releasing the smarter songs ….the songs of substance and , for the mostpart , staying truer to the genre’s traditions than the bros .( Maddie and Tae , Rae Lynn etc.. )
August 4, 2017 @ 6:37 am
if by “the bros .( Maddie and Tae , Rae Lynn etc.. )” you mean “Maddie and Tae and Raelynn are just as bad as the bros”
then yes you are totally right.
August 4, 2017 @ 2:58 pm
no F2S ….I meant that IMO Maddie and Tae and Rae Lynn are women recording some terrific material….like Miranda or Dolly etc…
August 4, 2017 @ 7:56 pm
Albert, did your pet rock land on your head?
August 5, 2017 @ 1:02 am
I was quite serious Fuzzy . Perhaps you’re not a fan of the folks I mentioned but their album was top to bottom solid writes and LOTS of trad instruments , not to mention great vocals and harmonies and a SUPERB production. SUPERB ! . LIGHT years past what T. Swift was writing at that point in her career .
August 5, 2017 @ 7:51 am
Agreed on Raelynn. Some might not like her voice but she wrote a really good album.
August 5, 2017 @ 9:39 am
Raelynn is one thing.
admittedly not the Country Music I normally wanna hear.
Maddie and Tae though… I guess I’m just soured by the whole Girl in a Country Song farce and it’s made me view their later “real music” output through the lens of that heaping pile of trash… it’s just sooooo… fake.
Now this is admittedly coming from someone who’s taste in Country Music runs a little towards the more honest and less refined side. I prefer my bluegrass and my true western influences.
and all that jazz
August 4, 2017 @ 6:33 am
Women are not played on the radio as much as men for one simple reason……………It is a well documented fact that women control radio dials in a home or office more so than men……..and they prefer to hear male voices as opposed to females. End of story.
August 4, 2017 @ 9:10 am
I Really like Mickey’s voice, her singing style, and this tune.
Just beautiful.
Thanks.
August 4, 2017 @ 10:40 am
I like that Mickey probably can equal Carrie Underwood in vocal strength, but unlike the superstar, she knows how to dial it back and not blow the roof off of the building in every single song. Sometimes nuance and subtlety are the key to a great song.
I feel like Carrie Underwood would blow out her vocal chords singing happy birthday…
August 5, 2017 @ 7:55 am
Love Mickey she has a beautiful voice. As far as women in country go, I still want to know where all these people who say women are the best thing in country listen to women. It’s certainly not reflected in CD sales, digital downloads or streaming.
We can shit on radio all day long but thry pretry much takes their cues from what the broader audience, including women, want to listen to and it’s not female country singers.
August 5, 2017 @ 9:38 am
“they pretry much takes their cues from what the broader audience, including women, want to listen to.”
The idea that there is any free will from consumers involved in the building of radio playlists is laughable. Consumer sentiment may factor in about 10% to 20%. Maybe. Radio is what the industry wants it to be.
August 5, 2017 @ 1:43 pm
Consumers have free will in downloading and streaming music. While it might be laughable that consumers have any say in programming on radio, how can we deny the sales and streaming charts?
August 7, 2017 @ 3:47 pm
“It’s good that Mickey stuck to her roots instead of pandering to the Kelsea Ballerini model of radio success.”
Really?
I guess you’ve never heard her last song Trigger….”Heartbreak Song”?
Ever see the video?
Obviously not or you never would have made that ridiculous claim.
August 7, 2017 @ 3:54 pm
A couple of people have brought up “Heartbreak Song” and selectively mentioned that quote, while leaving out the one about how a deeper listen beyond “Better Than You Left Me” revealed pop leanings.
“But just like Maren Morris and “My Church,” a deeper listen to her debut EP revealed that pop was still a big part of the strategy. This puts these performers in a sort of country music no man’s land where they can’t count on the support of grassroots country music fans, yet radio remains lukewarm due to the resistance to putting women on the radio at all.”
I’m not reviewing “Heartbreak Song” here, I’m reviewing “Nice Things.” I make no apologies for Mickey’s dalliances in pop, nor am I attempting to hide them.
August 7, 2017 @ 8:07 pm
Mickey seems pleasant enough.She has been around for over a year with no new album, will one be coming out soon?
Speaking of great new female country music Trigger, how about the new EP from Margo Price “Weakness”?
August 11, 2017 @ 10:07 pm
let’s all be honest please.., we all know why country radio owners wont play mickey. If jesus Christ was black, they all would turn muslim,
August 13, 2017 @ 12:37 pm
Jesus was born in what is today the Middle East. he would be considered anywhere from “olive” to “black” depending on people’s perspective of skin tones. He would have been born in an area east of the “Roman Empire” and Romans are generally portrayed as having looked like White Europeans although most of this is credited to Hollywood.
At any rate he was much darker skinned than the average Caucasian.