Wesley Hogan’s felt appreciation of Tracy Chapman’s Grammy duet with Luke Combs (here) sent your editor back to another crossover move by the Man of Country, Morgan Wallen. I’m reposting the video of his duet with Lil Durk (along with a short comment on it below). Wallen’s & Durk’s mannish boys’ stance seems backward compared to Chapman’s and Combs’ progressive politesse. Yet the rougher guys’ vernacular — “I’d’ve stayed my ass at home” — brings home the less than colloquial lyrics — …”I’ll get a promotion…we’ll buy a bigger house and move to the suburbs” — that undercut (slightly) Chapman’s attempt to make a song of the people, by the people, for the people. You need to keep an ear out for how underdogs talk now if you mean to write to/for them. I’m glad Wes Hogan is out to make sure we don’t forget C’ and C’s award show turn, but Wallen’s & Durk’s forgotten collab belongs to a river of song that runs below all the Broadways in this world — deep beneath the attention of the gentility. B.D.
I got out of the hospital on Dec. 31 and this was my New Year’s song! A while back, Morgan Wallen was caught on camera throwing the N-word around, yet his collaboration with Lil Durk, who’s not exactly a paragon either, makes the prospect of a genuinely integrated American culture sing. “Broadway Girls” is beneath the ken of censorious Cancel-cultists, but leave those goodies alone. Come dance to the future with Morgan and Lil Durk.