With the deep baritone of Hank Williams, the romantic charm of Conway Twitty, the rugged voice of Tim McGraw, and the youth and sex appeal of Josh Turner,  Scotty McCreery is an
18-year-old country star in the making with a blend of all of the best parts of modern country music. Unexpectedly starting his career on the pop-culture dominated “American Idol”, McCreery rose up as a unique old country fervor in the midst of unoriginal Top 40 wannabes. When America met McCreery during the first round of auditions, he was expected to be just another average country boy with big city dreams — little did we all know what a rich, deep, melodic, soothing and soul-catching tone would come out of this young man’s mouth.

McCreery’s career started off big with his success as the Season 10 winner of American Idol, pulling in 122.4 million votes, and he hasn’t stopped since. With his first single, “I Love You This Big,” selling 171,404 units in the first weak, hitting the Top 20’s during the first seven weeks of its debut on May 25, 2011, reaching Number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, and reaching Number 32 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs, McCreery far surpassed his peers in the earliest stage of his, hopefully, long sustained career in the music industry. As you can see, this 18-year-old is not your normal truck-driving, mud-loving and country-living high school student.

McCreery possesses such a force about him that brings his modern country music of twang and flair straight back to the good-old-days of country comprised of cowboys and Nashville. His first album, “Clear As Day”, embodies McCreery’s rich voice, fun-loving style, and soulful meaning which America fell in love during his very first audition. With 40:49 minutes of runtime, every single second on this album expresses McCreery’s meaningfull yet playful country sound that we fell in love with in “I Love You This Big”.

Starting off with the single itself, “I Love You This Big”, is basically McCreery’s ‘here I am and I love you all’ song to introduce himself to the country in a way that displays his sweet melodic sound and pure, old soul. Although the lyrics are somewhat too youthful for the true meaning of the song, it provides good interpretation of the fact that McCreery is truly only still a teenager with so much room to grow and mature. Even then, this innocent, loving song is so absolutely adorable that you can’t help but fall in love with the simple lyrics and fresh country twang.

The obvious country song of having a girl, falling in love, and losing her is so apparent in McCreery’s third song, “Clear As Day,” the debut song on the album. Yet, with the unoriginal idea of the song, there is still a personal feel that displays McCreery’s experience and inspiration for the song. The talk of high school football games, Silverado trucks, and Coca-Colas are as relevant to high school in the country as Starbucks, cellphones, and gossip are to high school in L.A.  

Taking it down one notch in his fourth song, “The Trouble With Girls”, McCreery displays his more innocent, immature and loving side. While listening to this album, you might sometimes forget that you are actually listening to an 18-year-old boy because of the maturity in his voice and the meaning in his lyrics. Yet, with this song, it all comes back to the beginning. The simplistic nature of this young lover’s song is such a warm contrast to the heavy meaning in the two songs previously mentioned.

Neither slow and loving or melodic and meaningful, “Walk in the Country”, is pure country fun. Any good country album must have the powerful lyrics, the tortured love songs, and the soulful twang, but it also must have a fun-loving, “drink your beers and get on your tractors” song that has evolved with modern country music.

Blending good ol’ southern style, country-boy attitude, and powerful grace through lyrics and feeling, McCreery’s album Clear As Day is a sure-fire hit. With an album like this, teenage girls and 40-year-old cowboys alike should love every single song on this newcomer’s first try in the music business. Hopefully, this will not be McCreery’s last album whether it be in pop music or throwing it back to old country western. With McCreery’s deep baritone melody, he could sing the phone book and people would listen. This album is obviously one of the best new country albums of today and over time McCreery’s music will grow and he will finally get the recognition he deserves for his talents.

By EMMA RICHIE