Review: Those Back Roads Aren’t Sugarcoated on Tyler Farr’s “Country As Shit,” Featuring Jelly Roll

In 2020, Morgan Wallen was doing some “Country A$$ Shit,” on his mega-watt Dangerous: The Double Album. Carrying a similar sentiment, Tyler Farr trimmed back Wallen’s fishing, girls, PBR and other “country-ass” shenanigans further and took it down some grittier roads on “Country As Shit,” featuring Jelly Roll.

Co-written with Jason DeFord, Vicky McGehee, Josh Mirenda, and Andy Sheridan, and produced by Jason Aldean, Kurt Allison, and Tully Kennedy, “Country As Shit” doesn’t play nice as Farr insists What you see is what you get.

The bare-knuckled anthem honors Farr’s back road Missouri roots and all its roughened edges — This one’s for the ones who been livin’ off blocks / With the dogs on the porch ’cause the doors don’t lock / Got a boat in the back with a trailer as a dock / On that same piece of land Daddy’s granddaddy bought / Might seem a little different, but it’s our kinda livin’.

“Country as Shit” is Farr stabbing at his outlaw ways, revering the likes of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, who are also referenced on the track. Farr represents his upbringing and his community, from the mud-crusted nights, cooling down with the typical daily rounds of ice cold beer and night hunting — Yeah, fishin’ ain’t the only thing that we do in the dark / Got the windows rolled up … That light is about to sparkin … ‘Round here our trucks stay muddy / Out here our cooler’s loaded down / Ain’t scared to knuckle up buddy / You better think twice ‘fore you run that mouth.

The most recent in a series of singles Farr has released since his second album, Suffer in Peace, in 2015, “Country as Shit” is another slice of life, according to the Missouri native, whose coarser vocals are complemented by Jelly Roll’s less abrasive harmonizing.

There are no frills here, and regardless of its rough ends, Farr is unashamed, unrefined, and adamant about keeping it real right through the end I will not apologize / You know just what you get / Come and take a look where I live … Backwoods ballin’ I’m never callin’ it quits / Breakin’ bottles and holler swaller and spit / Keepin’ it country as shit.

Farr’s latest is not for everyone. It’s not pretty, but to Farr, it’s real as — as the song goes — shit.

Tyler Farr by Jeff Johson / BBR; Jelly Roll by Taylor Hill/Getty Images