O.k., I listened to "Only by His Grace", "1982", and "Cheap Motel".
Please take these comments with a grain of salt, since country is not my favorite genre. Actually I avoid country
, or maybe a truckload of rock salt!....but here goes.
You sing very well and you have a good country style, and I had no problem hearing the words you sang, which I think is important for commercial country. Plus, if you are going for lyrics that are easy to understand, you have achieved that.
Even though I object to most country music, I think it can be said that great country music is like any other genre--it has to have a strong hook. Something that stands out, as a chorus most likely, that is the 'motif' of the song and that doesn't sound like any other country song. I would work on that a bit in the songs. Just try to be more inventive and take chances.
In "1982" (I think) there was a line about listening to 'Skynyrd', which sounded like it could be a good hook, but then the chorus seemed to come later (am I wrong?). Anyway, I liked that line.
Just a minor point: in "Only by His Grace", if I were the writer I would have taken the line "only by amazing grace are we free to live again" and moved it all down by about a 5th. This would make it match the rest of the range of the song and not seem out of place. That is obviously the climax of the tune, but climaxes don't have to be higher in pitch, just feeling.
Having said that, I would expect these songs to be as good as anything i hear on the radio when I spin my dial and hear an occasional country station.
Keep up the good work and good luck.
JR
