Quick Thoughts on Nashville Outlaws Motley Crue Tribute

OK, so I haven't listened to the entire record, only the one minute snippets available to preview on iTunes. But that's enough to know that Nashville Outlaws - A Tribute to Motley Crue is not the massive train wreck I expected it to be.

There is some good, some meh, some bad and a couple truly inspired tracks.

Pretty much, every artist that tried to do a standard remake of a song just came off as a watered down version of the original: Rascall Flatts' "Kickstart My Heart", Justin Moore's "Home Sweet Home", Eli Young's "Don't Go Away Mad", Brantley Gilbert's "Girls, Girls, Girls", Gretchen Wilson's "Wild Side" and Darius Rucker's "Time for Change".

Florida Georgia Line actually sounds like a good Southern Rock band with their version of "If I Die Tomorrow". If they would stay in that pocket they probably wouldn't be the butt of so many jokes that they are today.  And Cassadee Pope stays pretty true to the original on "The Animal in Me", but I like way she does it.

Some artists decided to stray off far from the original, with mixed results. Lee Ann Rimes' "Smokin' in the Boys Room" is just....odd. And not quite right. Clare Brown & Sam Palladio on "Without You" just falls flat. Big and Rich's "S,O.S." is ill-conceived and boring.

But.....and wait for it, there are three gems on this record.

Aaron Lewis, lead singer of the band Staind turned a pretty bad Motley song into a pretty damned good country song. His version of "Afraid" might be the largest departure from the original, but also the most successful.

Lauren Jenkins (don't know who she is) but her version of "Looks That Kill" is pretty killer in it's own right.

Finally, the Mavericks' doing "Dr. Feelgood" is just about genius. It takes the original out of the streets of Los Angeles and transports it right into Miami. It feels very "Miami Vice". And it doesn't feel wrong.

Are You Ready for A Country Motley Crue Tribute?

By now, most everyone has heard that Motley Crue has announced their final tour. It will run through the end of 2015 and then that's it. No more Crue.

They even added the twist of signing some sort of legal document that prevents them from ever touring again. Whatever that means.

Can they reunite for festivals? How about a residency in Vegas? Who knows?

Also coming out of that news conference was the disturbing news that the head honcho at Big Machine Records, Scott Borchetta, plans on releasing a Motley Crue country tribute album with the artists of his label. Some of Big Machine's artists include Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line, Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw and Cassadee Pope.

Sure, some Motley songs lend themselves easily to being "countrified". "Home Sweet Home" and any other power ballad would slide quite nicely onto current country radio. Other songs such as "Girl Don't Go Away Mad" and "Same Ol' Situation" fall along the same lines.

But how about "Dr. Feelgood", "Kickstart My Heart", "Looks That Kill", "Live Wire" and "Wildside"?

It's been suggested that I keep an open mind about this. And I will. But I just can't see those songs being anything but a train wreck. I could be wrong. Taylor Swift could do a killer version of "Dr. Feelgood". Maybe Rascal Flatts surprises with a new and unique twist on "Live Wire".

Or not.

Somebody's going to make some money on this ill-advised venture. And that's what it's all about in the end, right?