Luke Bryan - What Makes You Country

The Guardian 60

The reigning king of country returns with more bulletproof tracks about drinking, hunting, driving trucks and babes in Daisy Dukes

Anyone who needs reminding of the vast gulf that can still exist between British and American pop culture might consider the case of Luke Bryan. His name is unlikely to provoke more than a blank stare in Britain, but in the US he is one of country music’s biggest stars, a man who has sold 34m albums and singles, and whose last album, 2015’s Kill the Lights, kept Dr Dre’s Compton off the No 1 spot in a much-publicised chart battle. A look at his website is like a glimpse into a parallel musical universe: tours that ignore Manhattan and LA in favour of farms in Centralia, Missouri, and Edinburg, Illinois; gigs in South Carolina cancelled as a result of weather evacuations; merchandise that includes not merely T-shirts and trucker caps but cornhole boards, ideal for your next tailgate; and sponsorship deals with hunting equipment retailers.

Related: The burdens of 'bro-country', a music critic's term gone wild