Here’s Why I’m Giving Oliver Anthony a Chance

Alex Ashton
8 min readAug 22, 2023

I’m highly critical of some of his lyrics, but so far he is spurning the advances of the rich men from north of Richmond trying to get a piece of him.

Silhouette of a man holding out his arms, one of which is holding an acoustic guitar against a sunset.
Photo by Keith Wako via Pexels

As a country music fan, I’ve been critical of two flash-in-the-pan controversial hits over the last month.

The first is Try That in a Small Town, as performed (but not written) by Jason Aldean. I wrote about that one extensively here and here and then followed this up with a story about five country singers actually from small towns, putting out far better work while being largely ignored by corporate radio.

The other is the current number one single, Rich Men North of Richmond, as performed and written by Oliver Anthony. I have not written about this one directly until now, but I did critically reference some of the lyrics in a piece on why we shouldn’t judge those who receive welfare benefits.

Despite my criticism and disagreement with some of the lyrics of the song, I’m willing to give Oliver Anthony a chance.

Here’s why.

First things first, the guy has an outstanding voice. When someone sent me the viral YouTube video of the song without…

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Alex Ashton
Alex Ashton

Written by Alex Ashton

History, culture, family, religion, data, and technology from a center-left, civil libertarian, middle-class perspective. Publisher: The Missing Middle.

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