A Nashville country rebel in the mold of Travis Tritt -- in other words, a defanged and marketing-driven pretty boy whose punkin head David Allan Coe or Waylon Jennings would smash a beer bottle over just on general principle -- Jake Owen makes his debut with the utterly formulaic Startin' with Me.
Opening tracks "Bad in Me" and "Yee Haw" try so desperately hard to establish Owen's image as a bad-ass hellraiser that they finally become comical, and not the knowingly self-mocking Big & Rich kind of comical, either.
Every note on Startin' with Me is as perfectly placed as Owen's artfully mussed hair in the reg'lar joe glamour shot on the front cover.
Owen and producer Jimmy Ritchey carefully check off all the country radio clichés: Drinking ballad? Check! Cry for the good Lord's deliverance? You betcha! Leering misogyny disguised as praise for the female of the species? Got yer "Something About a Woman" right here, pal! Naturally, something so perfectly contrived can't help but be at least modestly successful on a commercial level.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Bad in MeBrett James, Jake Owen, Jimmy Ritchey | Jake Owen | Play | 03:25 | 7 MB | 24 MB |
| 2 | Something About a WomanJake Owen, Jimmy Ritchey | Jake Owen | Play | 03:13 | 7 MB | 23 MB |
| 3 | Startin' with MeJake Owen, Jimmy Ritchey | Jake Owen | Play | 03:56 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 4 | Yee HawCasey Beathard, Jake Owen | Jake Owen | Play | 02:52 | 6 MB | 21 MB |
| 5 | GhostsJake Owen, Jimmy Ritchey, Jonathan Yudkin | Jake Owen | Play | 03:51 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 6 | Eight Second RideEric Durrance, Jake Owen | Jake Owen | Play | 03:04 | 7 MB | 23 MB |
| 7 | Hard Not to Love YouJake Owen, Jimmy Ritchey | Jake Owen | Play | 03:19 | 7 MB | 23 MB |
| 8 | The Bottle and MeWes Hightower, Jake Owen, Jimmy Ritchey | Jake Owen | Play | 03:03 | 6 MB | 21 MB |
| 9 | Places to RunJake Owen, Jimmy Ritchey | Jake Owen | Play | 03:30 | 8 MB | 22 MB |
| 10 | Long Night with YouJake Owen, Jimmy Ritchey | Jake Owen | Play | 03:55 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 11 | You Can Thank DixieJake Owen, Jimmy Ritchey | Jake Owen, Randy Owen | Play | 04:26 | 10 MB | 30 MB |
| 38 mins | 88 MB | |||||
| 38 mins | 270 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenny Aronoff | Drums |
| 2 | Adam Ayan | Mastering |
| 3 | Jeff Balding | Mixing |
| 4 | Casey Beathard | Composer |
| 5 | Pat Buchanan | Guitar (Electric) |
| 6 | Lisa Cochran | Vocals (Background) |
| 7 | Eric Darken | Percussion |
| 8 | Allen Ditto | Mixing Assistant |
| 9 | Eric Durrance | Composer |
| 10 | Larry Franklin | Fiddle |
| 11 | Paul Franklin | Dobro, Guitar (Steel), Lap Steel Guitar |
| 12 | Mike "Frog" Griffith | Production Coordination |
| 13 | David Grissom | Guitar (Electric) |
| 14 | Erik Hellerman | Engineer |
| 15 | Wes Hightower | Composer, Vocals (Background) |
| 16 | Brett James | Composer |
| 17 | Kirk "Jelly Roll" Johnson | Harmonica |
| 18 | Jennifer Kemp | Stylist |
| 19 | B. James Lowry | Guitar (Acoustic) |
| 20 | Brent Mason | Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric) |
| 21 | Astrid Herbold May | Art Direction, Design |
| 22 | Jake Owen | Composer, Main Personnel, Primary Artist |
| 23 | Randy Owen | Main Personnel, Primary Artist |
| 24 | Lowell Reynolds | Assistant, Mixing Assistant |
| 25 | Leslie Richter | Assistant |
| 26 | Jimmy Ritchey | Audio Production, Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Baritone), Guitar (Electric), Mandolin, Producer |
| 27 | John Wesley Ryles | Vocals (Background) |
| 28 | Clarke Schleicher | Mixing |
| 29 | Glenn Worf | Bass |
| 30 | Jonathan Yudkin | Cello, Composer, String Arrangements, Strings, Viola, Violin |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |