Brent Cobb Skewers Bro-Country With New Song ‘Yo Bro’
Singer-songwriter Brent Cobb is sick and tired of bro-country dominating country radio, and he's not afraid to say it loud and clear.
The Nashville-based artist released his critically acclaimed self-titled debut EP in 2012, and has toured as an opening act for Blake Shelton, among others. His own music leans heavily toward traditional country, with banjo and mandolin a common recurring thread. But his new song, "Yo Bro," takes a very different route, openly questioning the content of bro-country songs while emulating many of the same production elements.
The lyrics lampoon the very idea of writing songs with the same themes over and over and over: "If it's true that's all you gotta do, that's crazy / Thought it was lazy / But count me in like a pig in a pen if it pays me," Cobb sings, adding, "You don't have to think a thing / Just drink and shake it / And fake it 'til you make it."
"It was inspired by frustration," Cobb tells Rolling Stone Country. "I had a few folks in the industry say, 'Man, if you could just do something that was a little more mainstream, you'd really be doing well.' But just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. And just because you should do something doesn't mean you can. "Yo Bro" sounds like bro country and it looks like bro country, but it's not. I'd say it's the anti-bro."
Cobb has scored a number of successes as a songwriter, with cuts by Kellie Pickler, Little Big Town, Eli Young Band, David Nail and even Miranda Lambert. Ironically, he also wrote a song called "Tailgate Blues" for Luke Bryan, which touches on many of the common themes of bro-country.
In fact, Cobb — whose cousin is producer Dave Cobb — grew up in Georgia, just like many of bro-country's top proponents, and even stayed at Bryan's house when he first moved to Nashville. But he's not worried that his new song will offend his contemporaries.
"We all grew up that way," he says of the fun-in-the-country themes reflected in bro-country. "But they know as well as I do that it's more sacred than that."
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