Chase Rice’s “I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell,” or What Happens When An Artist I Though I Despised Makes A Really Solid Album?

Rather than beat around the bush, it’s just easier to come out and say it- Chase Rice, to me, defined for many years what was so wrong with modern country music. He, along with Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, and all their kind, turned the very fundamentals of country music upside down during the bro country era. Drum loops. The same kind of songs written over and over again. And over again. Misogyny and objectification. Shallowness. Never ending summers. Tone deaf to criticism. Hell, Chase was one of the co-writers of “Cruise,” the song that launched that brand of country music! Should I go on? I could, but I won’t. You get the idea. And if you’re reading my stuff, you probably agree. So, what am I supposed to do when I listen to Chase Rice’s 2023 I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell on a whim, find myself not just enjoying it but replaying it, and coming away 100% impressed- and not just because the bar was so low?

I’m not one to force myself to listen to new albums if I’m not immediately interested. I’m not a critic or someone who has all the upcoming albums on my radar. After all, you’ll recall that I didn’t even give Charles Wesley Godwin a fair shake right away due to some internal bias that he was Tyler Childers-lite (you can read about my transformation here). And yet, for some reason, I decided to give Chase Rice a fair try. After all, he’d been making the rounds in the press about how he was finally able to be the artist he wanted to be. How he was determined to release more substantial music. Chase even claimed that the music he’d released in the past wasn’t “really me that much.” We’ve all heard that story before: Formerly-popular artist attempts comeback after a fad ends by distancing himself from the music that once made him popular. If we’ve read about it once, we’ve read about it a hundred times.

No, I wasn’t to be fooled by the press coverage and the interviews. I internalized the album’s release back in early February and thought about giving it a try one day. Well, this weekend I figured it was as good a time as any. And I couldn’t be happier that I did.

First, a word on what I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell is not. Chase Rice did not all of a sudden become Kris Kristofferson with his songwriting (worth mentioning here that Chase Rice wrote or co-wrote every song on the album). The instrumentation is not all of a sudden Childers-esque. But let me very clear- this not one of those mainstream records that contains a few good deep cuts with the rest throwaways. No, this is a solid country *album* from start to finish. If I had to pick a class of country music the record belongs to, I’d say early Eric Church or aughts Dierks Bentley. Organic, relatable, and above the fray of the rest of the mainstream. Perfect for those albums that made country music interesting in the decade after Garth’s retirement.

The album kicks off with “Walk That Easy,” featuring a Kip Moore-reminiscent lead guitar and urgent beat and lyrics about how “love don’t walk that easy.” It’s a little list heavy, but overall it’s a steady attention-grabber that made me intrigued to sit with the rest of the record.

The second track, “All Dogs Go To Hell,” is where the songwriting becomes better than what Chase Rice has presented to us before. It’s clever and follows one of the classic country themes- denying things clear as day, and in this instance, refusing to admit that the narrator misses his woman. It sounds damn good too with a tasty touch of slide guitar, background vocals, and a bite of twang. In fact, the production is worth mentioning here for the entire record. Nothing is over-powering. The guitars aren’t mixed loud in your face. The vocal is warm. Even the rowdier tracks are done in a, for lack of a better word, respectful manner.

And don’t get me wrong, there are some straight-ahead, rollicking rowdy tracks on the album. “Way Down Yonder” is a gothic Appalachian tale of life in the Moonshine holler. A real boot stomper. “Bad Day To Be A Cold Beer” doesn’t break any ground, but it’s fun as hell and reminded me a ton of Montgomery Gentry. “Sorry Momma” and “If I Were Rock & Roll” back to back bring to mind Chief-era Eric Church with the up-front swagger undercut by a current of self-awareness that’s gone far too missing in today’s country music.

But the best tracks on the album are the reflective, sometimes somber, more Red Dirt-influenced numbers. “Goodnight Nancy,” which features the talented Boy Named Banjo, is led by a slide guitar and has one of those choruses that really pick up the tempo when it hits. “I Hate Cowboys,” like “All Dogs Go To Hell,” is another clever spin on a familiar topic in the genre. It’s one of those songs you can picture the narrator speaking to a buddy about at the bar on a Friday night after a long week. “Key West & Colorado” contains perhaps the only instance of more modern, mainstream country production on the record, but it’s saved by an authentic vocal and decent storytelling by Chase in a trip to let go of a former lover.

But a standout in my mind is “Bench Seat.” The music video itself provides an entirely different spin on the song, and I encourage those who are reading to check it out (I do want to mention a Trigger Warning here for those who watch). That song itself is sung from the dog’s perspective, and I honestly can barely write about it without tearing up thinking about all the dogs I’ve loved. The production is just so warm and nostalgic. The piano is tasteful and smartly covers the story. Well, well done.

I couldn’t be happier that I took this trip with I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell this weekend. I’ve been so caught off-guard lately with new releases and discoveries. Music never ceases to hit when you least expect it. I encourage those who are reading to rid yourself of your pre-conceived notions of who Chase Rice is an artist. If this is the start of a new era for his music, and it’s only going to keep getting better? That’s great for all of us who consider ourselves fans of country music.