Okay, hear me out… this is actually pretty damn good.
Earlier this year, rapper T-Pain released a covers album called On Top Of The Covers, which included a cut of the country classic “Tennessee Whiskey.”
Of course, the song was made most popular by the great Chris Stapleton when he included his powerful rendition on his amazing 2015 Traveller album, but “Tennessee Whiskey” was actually originally recorded by David Allan Coe as the title track to his 1981 album.
Written by the great Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, it peaked at just #77 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1981, though George Jones’ 1983 cover peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart the year of its release.
Anywho, I’ll admit that I was a huge fan of T-Pain back in middle and early high school (so I’m probably really biased here), and listened to songs like “I’m ‘n Luv (Wit a Stripper),” “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” on repeat… though his collab with Lil Wayne on “Can’t Believe It” will always be at the top of my list and I digress…
A fan on TikTok shared a video of T-Pain’s live performance of “Tennessee Whiskey” at a show a couple weeks ago, and in my opinion, it’s a lot better than the studio cut.
I love the background vocals that bring such a cool R&B twist to the song, and although T-Pain used to be the King of autotune, he can actually sing his ass off.
Now I’m not saying that he’s going to be dethroning Stapleton for the best version of this song anytime soon, and I’m sure he doesn’t think that either, but credit where credit is due because this is an amazing performance.
I think it’s fun to see the multi-faceted sides of artists like this when it’s done with respect, and this was really cool to watch:
@its_kortana Tennessee Whiskey #tpain #tennessee #fair #tennesseewhiskey #fyp ♬ original sound – tana
The studio cut:
“Tennessee Whiskey”
