Does anyone else ever try to introduce your friends to a new artist or new music and it just doesn’t work?
You take over the aux every chance you get, send them songs you think they’d like, but no matter what you try, it falls on deaf ears… I couldn’t even tell you the amount of times this has happened to me.
Obviously, I love music and I want to tell people about good music, even if it’s not country. But sometimes it’s hard, because people just like what they like and it can be difficult to convince them they might be missing out on something else that’s really good.
Or maybe my friends just have bad taste… which I say in hopes none of them happen to read this today.
I’ve been on such a Texas country kick here lately, and I feel like it’s something that a lot of people don’t really know much about outside of people who live in Texas or just follow country music really closely. In terms of the average listener, it’s kind of the best kept secret in the genre.
There is one person, though, who I’ve managed to sell with relative ease to my friends, especially those who are typically into more mainstream artists and what they hear on the radio. That’s Mr. Sellout himself, East Texas’ finest, Koe Wetzel.
To be honest, it kind of shocked me because he can definitely be a polarizing character (which also happens to be part of what I love about him). And I don’t mean this ironically, but he’s kind of a gateway drug, if you will, to all the other awesome country music in the lone star state.
Maybe it’s the rock and roll, maybe it’s the “bad boy” persona, maybe it’s the Post Malone-esque way he gets you in your feels, whatever it is… it just works.
So, I’m here to let you in on my secret. If you want to get your friends listening to good country music, you might wanna start with these five songs from Koe.
I promise you, it works:
5. “February 28th, 2016”
The iconic song about the time Koe got arrested, it’s still a fan favorite and is best heard at a live show in my opinion. It gets people fired up for whatever reason and frankly, it’s just a fun song to sing along to.
I can say with a high level of confidence I’ve never heard anything else like it, and they probably haven’t either.
4. “Sancho”
This one is probably the dark horse out of the five on the list, but for some reason, it works. One of my best friends (who isn’t a fan of country at all, really) is obsessed with this song, and will go to see him in concert just to hear it.
3. “Lubbock”
Of course, if you want to get somebody into Texas country, you have to give ’em a boot stomper or two.
2. Forever
This is one of my personal favorites and something about it is just so damn catchy. I recommend starting here and then easing them into my number one pick on the list.
1. Ragweed
If this doesn’t make a Koe fan out of ’em, well, they probably just have bad taste in music. I swear, and I say this from personal experience, this will turn the most unassuming person into a fan of Texas country (or at least get them started in the right direction).
It’s how I convinced all of my pop-loving, basic bitch friends that they needed to come see him in concert with me. They even got a little bang for their buck with an exciting girl fight in the front row, but that’s a story for another article…
The next thing you know, they’ll be jamming the Whiskey Riff Texas Country Playlist on REPEAT.
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And if you’re a fan of the hit series Yellowstone, be sure to check out our Yellowstone The Soundtrack Playlist, complete with every single song from the series through Season 3.
