Professional golfer turned full-time redneck country-rapper
Colt Ford settles into his backwoods groove on his fourth album,
Declaration of Independence. The title is a bit defiant and so is the album,
Ford boasting how he's a "shotgun toter/Republican voter" on the opening "Answer to No One," a cut that shamelessly cops from
Kid Rock and sets the pace for the rest of the album. Ford is certainly more country than
Kid, something that the never-ending parade of country stars makes plain, but he certainly has a hard rock streak, going so far as to invert the riff from
White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" for his "Dancin' While Intoxicated (DWI)." This helps accentuate his swagger, a swagger that's in full effect here as he brags about the country and everything that comes with it -- the Jack, the trucks, the girls, and the guns.
Ford weaves some sentiment into the boasting and it's nearly as effective as the party rockers...if you can embrace
Ford's big-boned bravado. Over the course of an album it gets slightly wearying, but taken in doses it has its appeal and he's a little more musically adept than he initially seems, blending to the styles of
Darius Rucker,
Kix Brooks,
Jason Aldean, or
Montgomery Gentry. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine