Luke Combs- Fathers & Sons
Label: Columbia
Producers: Luke Combs, Jonathan Singleton, and Chip Matthews
The fifth studio effort from the country headliner, a surprise Father’s Day concept record that chronicles his experience with fatherhood as well as his relationship with his own father, is the kind of specialized release that has become nearly extinct in the country art-form, especially at the peak of one’s superstardom. Fathers & Sons finds Luke Combs completely pausing his high-octane blustery machinations with today’s top forty country sounds, and turning inward toward the sensitive reflection of his more tempered hits like “Even Though I’m Leaving” and “Fast Car”. This focused pivot puts full emphasis on Combs’ own songwriting and taste in that of others, which is given its best spotlight possible by way of a completely acoustic production featuring Sam Bush’s mandolin, Stuart Duncan’s fiddle, and Josh Matheny’s dobro. This refreshingly organic backdrop and the personal nature of the compositions beautifully showcase what we’ve known all along about Combs: he’s not just one of country music’s best modern entertainers, but also one of the genre’s premier young storytellers. The thematic thread of the record travels movingly through the challenges his profession presents to his fatherly role (“Front Door Famous”, “In Case I Ain’t Around”) through the intimate memories created with his kids as time slips away (“Huntin’ By Yourself” and “Little Country Boys”–a Luke Bryan co-write that puts Jason Aldean’s “Let Your Boys Be Country” to shame BTW), observations about his sons’ singular identities (“Whoever You Turn Out To Be”), before tying it all back to parallels and deviations with the layered relationship with his own father (“Ride Around Heaven”, “All I Ever Do Is Leave”, the wrenching closer “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”). This record is a true love-letter that ties three generations of a family together, and is all the more powerful for its equal attention to its complicated nuances, as much as its sentimental highs. The gorgeous melding of Combs’ lovingly pure vocals, the cohesive beating hearts of these stories, and the rootsy musicianship that elevates them both produces a continuous arc of musical storytelling, homespun emotion, and personal reflection that have always been the makings of country gold. This may technically be a “side-project”, but it’s also the best record of Luke Combs’ career thus far. It’s the kind of artistic moment that separates the mere hit-makers from the true artists. Fathers & Sons is not only an instant Father’s Day staple, but both a high-water mark in the modern country canon, and the 2024 popular music landscape in general. A crowning achievement.
Track Listing:
- “Front Door Famous” (Luke Combs, Nick Columbia, Blake Densmore, Noah Thompson, Robert Snyder)
- “In Case I Ain’t Around” (Combs, Jamie Davis, Ray Fulcher, Dan Isbell, Reid Isbell)
- “Huntin’ By Yourself” (Combs, Fulcher, Thomas Archer, Alex Palmer, Michael Tyler)
- “Little Country Boys” (Luke Bryan, Dallas Davidson, Blair Daly)
- “Whoever You Turn Out To Be” (Rhett Akins, Ben Stennis)
- “Remember Him That Way” (Combs, Jessi Alexander, Jonathan Singleton, Erik Dylan)
- “The Man He Sees In Me” (Combs, Josh Phillips)
- “All I Ever Do Is Leave” (Alexander, Singleton, Andrew Dorff)
- “Plant a Seed” (Combs, Jeff Hyde, Wyatt McCubbin Snyder)
- “Ride Around Heaven” (Combs, McCubbin, Casey Beathard, Jeremy Stover)
- “My Old Man Was Right” (Combs, Lori McKenna)
- “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (Combs, Fulcher, Adam James)
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