Luke Combs has put out two albums in the last three years — both remained firmly entrenched in the Top 5 of the Billboard country album chart since their release. His stranglehold makes him the most promising and influential new country star of the last five years, something he’s achieved by learning from the sins of the genre’s recent past.
Combs’s success comes in the wake of the reign of bro-country, which in the early to mid 2010s suffocated Nashville with its hip-hop-inflected posturing and primitive understanding of women. In the time since, male singers have adjusted … slightly, becoming more gentlemanly and worshipful of women, and also more mindful of the genre’s roots. Combs sprinkles in little bits of these progressive gestures, and anchors them with a hearty voice and taut songwriting.
He is post-bro, but not unrecognizably so. That kind of approach has worked as well for the rising stars Hardy and Morgan Wallen, who tweak the bro formula through a wry lens.
On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about Combs’s long run and the slow metamorphosis of the bro in country music.
Guest:
Grady Smith, host of the Grady Smith on Country YouTube channel
Source: Music - nytimes.com
