Most people know Riley Green for his two hits “There Was This Girl,” and “I Wish Grandpas Never Died,” that really got Green to mainstream radios. Since then Green has been fairly quiet and hasn’t had much music that has taken off. With this new album “If It Wasn’t for Trucks” Green seems to have built some more momentum. 

The title song “If It Wasn’t for Trucks” starts out slow and builds to a faster, more upbeat song. The rhyme scheme is very nice with lines like “Why would any teenage boy cut grass and save up all that cash,” and “How would I have gotten to Tennessee without that bucket seat”. It makes the song almost impossible to not sing along to. Although the song still has the cliche country in it about trucks, God and the casual lines about granddaddy that are found in a lot of country songs, the song is definitely worth the headline.

The album contains four other songs. My personal favorite is “Jesus and Wranglers” a song that seems to be very ironic given how the album holds a lot of the cliche country. It makes a call back to the old days. The song mentions driving a manual truck and bringing back Wranglers and not wearing skinny jeans. It begins to describe what most people think of when they think of the southern boy. It mentions wearing an old dirty Braves cap and a blacked out Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt with Wrangler jeans and old beat-up boots. 

It wouldn’t be an album of Riley Greens without some type of song dedicated to the generation before him. A touching song called “Behind the Times” brings the whole album together. The song can be compared to “Waiting on a Women” by fellow country singer Brad Paisley. It begins by describing an older gentleman on a bench going over his life. The song gives a lot of advice to the younger generation like trusting the lord and saving half of what you make. The biggest thing I like about this song is the older style it seems to take. The song really reminds me of the days of 2000s country music when lyrics had more meaning behind them and the song was deeper compared to the surface level lyrics of today. 

Overall, the album seems to be amazing. The album has its ups, downs and cliches but that is to be expected by any artist in country nowadays. I wouldn’t be surprised to find some of these songs on the local radio station in a couple months. Green has put together an amazing album that seems like it could reignite the popularity he gained from previous hits.  

Rating: 4/5