The Singles Jukebox

So remember this next time you think we give country a free pass, eh?

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[3.55]

Anthony Easton: Can we decree a moratorium on songs that mention tractors? Also, can we discuss the sheer purposelessness of shaking it for the squirrels? Or the awkwardness of rhyming squirrel with girl?
[4]

Michaela Drapes: Oh, no. This was doing so, so well until the chorus. The rest of the song is beyond incredible (I’d totally climb up on the hood of Luke Bryan’s daddy’s tractor and dance to it) — but that chorus is like a lead ballon that totally ruins the rest of the proceedings. How unfortunate.
[1]

Zach Lyon: He isn’t rapping, but he’s a better rapper than Jason Aldean. I really do love his cadence in the verses/bridges, but that doesn’t save the song from its own ill-fitting sleaze, and I worry that Country Girl would seriously hurt herself if she were to actually shake it at the level of force and duration of time Bryan commands.
[4]

Jonathan Bogart: The title of the song is more honest than the chorus. I’m sure the catfish swimmin’ down deep in the creek appreciate the sentiment, but come on, dude.
[3]

B Michael Payne: While I can somewhat get behind the song’s sentiment, I also think it’s unpleasantly atavistic. As well, I’m a coastal elite. And I’m always afraid a redneck will shotgun shoot me Easy Rider-style, and it makes me pretty strongly resent any pro-redneck propaganda.
[1]

Sally O’Rourke: Any country song could throw in a few references to honky-tonks and rednecks and call it a day; it takes a true master to also work in catfish and grandma’s yarn. Add in the bridge’s conceit that country girls have the moral imperative to shake it for the harmony of the universe, and I’m starting to wonder if Luke Bryan is the most subversive satirist in country music. Even taken at face value, though, the tautness of the song structure and the crisp production rescue “Country Girl (Shake It for Me)” from the novelty ghetto. And despite its ridiculous lyrics — OK, especially because of its ridiculous lyrics — I can’t listen to it without a big stupid grin on my face. Guitar!
[7]

Chuck Eddy: As tragic as it may be, some musicians have to stoop to music that rocks and swings and has some funk to it, and that people might even want to dance drunk to on Saturday nights. Almost makes me want to boost this song’s points, but I have to be honest — even if country strip-club rock is a new idea, I’m not sure I actually need to hear the stuff. Maybe if I actually went to strip clubs, who knows. Then again, not everybody can be the first Big & Rich album, either.
[6]

Edward Okulicz: We wouldn’t bat an eyelid at a little lustful spoken word at the beginning of a song in any other genre, but we might expect it to have a bit more charge if it was a dance-pop hit or a hip-hop song. As it happens, it’s an interesting novelty to hear a trope underused in country in a song like this, but the song runs out of imagination pretty quickly. Streaks of fiddle and organ give it fantastic colour, and it’s got a pre-chorus to die for, but the song stops dead when the chorus comes in. There’s just nothing there.
[3]

Hazel Robinson: I’ll admit a lot of country sounds the same to me but this is basically the same song that appears every summer, in a very mildly altered guise, about a girl doing it for you in some way whether it’s their jeans or their hair or their, uh, shaking. And did he say “shake it for the catfish swimming down deep in the creek?” Needs a reggaetón remix.
[2]

Katherine St Asaph: This evokes roughly the same feeling as Blake Shelton hitting on 18-year-old Casey Weston on The Voice: Luke Bryan = puke, crying. Wish I could find a thing wrong with the backing track.
[5]

Jonathan Bradley: At least Cowboy Troy seemed like a nice guy.
[3]