Colby Acuff Shines A Spotlight On The Average American In Beautiful New Concept Album, “Enjoy The Ride”

In a vibrant independent country scene that gets more crowded with talent by the day, it’s becoming harder than ever to truly rise above the crowd. We’ve seen everything from stars seemingly born overnight through TikTok while simultaneously watching seasoned veterans finally get their time to shine. There are dozens of names you can list among the best in the business in today’s scene. But for my money, one of the very best (and underrated) of today’s crop of talent […] The post Colby Acuff Shines A Spotlight On The Average American In Beautiful New Concept Album, “Enjoy The Ride” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

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Colby Acuff Shines A Spotlight On The Average American In Beautiful New Concept Album, “Enjoy The Ride”

In a vibrant independent country scene that gets more crowded with talent by the day, it’s becoming harder than ever to truly rise above the crowd. We’ve seen everything from stars seemingly born overnight through TikTok while simultaneously watching seasoned veterans finally get their time to shine. There are dozens of names you can list among the best in the business in today’s scene. But for my money, one of the very best (and underrated) of today’s crop of talent is none other than Colby Acuff, who released his most ambitious project to date today, Enjoy the Ride.

Marking his sixth studio album since his debut in 2020, Acuff had the seemingly impossible task of following up 2023’s Western White Pines, the beautiful ode to his home state of Idaho, and 2024’s American Son, arguably his best work to date which provided a peek behind the curtain of the “If I Were the Devil” singer’s current fears.

With the release of Enjoy the Ride, however, Acuff isn’t just shooting to one-up himself. He’s shooting to provide one of the most unique and rich album listening experiences with 11 songs comprised solely from interviewing 40 separate people off the street and having a conversation with them.

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In his Instagram caption announcing the album, he noted he completed the interviews with his producer, Eddie Spear, before sitting down to write the songs afterward:

“I recorded 40 interviews with strangers while on a road trip with my producer, and then went in and wrote a record with all of their perspectives, pains and principles sewed throughout it. Being a human is hard, but you’re not alone. Life is beautiful, Enjoy the Ride”

In a video attached to the album announcement, he would dive deeper into his perspective on making an album like this. Noting the response many had to American Son, the 28-year-old singer/songwriter wanted to give listeners a record that truly reflected their lived experiences:

“After we made ‘American Son,’ I set out on a writing journey where I really wanted to write songs that every single song gave people a ton of agency. And I wanted to write songs truly just for you, the listener. And I wanted to make a record for you, the listener. And I found that the best way I knew how to do it with 100% to make sure I knew it was for you, was I needed to go out and talk to people.”

He’d also add in an interview with us here at Whiskey Riff that he wanted to boil down the essence to the 40 people he and Spear interviewed into the various stories created throughout the tracks on Enjoy the Ride.

“Instead of getting 10 or 11 songs that were specific to these individual people we interviewed, I realized I had to write 10 or 11 songs about everyone. And then I made it a concept record, and it tells a full story through about a man and a woman, and all of the tropes that people deal with every day are embedded in these two characters.”

What results is one of the most moving albums in recent memory. The collection of 11 songs present on Enjoy the Ride would have still combined into a rich listening experience on its own. However, when you take into account the fact that this was record was born from honest, sometimes difficult interviews from average Americans like you and I simply strikes a different chord entirely.

If it wasn’t already apparent upon the release of American Son last year, Acuff isn’t making music for the money, for the fame or for the glamour. He’s making it to personally resonate with you and make you take a look at the world around you. And it’s his relentlessness in creating a vast world chalked full of relatable characters going through their own personal battles.

Simply put, Colby Acuff is writing for you to be seen here on Enjoy the Ride. Whether you’re a young man trying to figure out your place in the world, a hardheaded woman who’s content being a little numb to everything, an Average American family trying to grapple with the changing American dream or simply someone looking to find some beauty in the mundane, this album is for you.

Beyond the relatability found throughout the wide range of different characters present, Acuff does a brilliant job depicting all the highs and lows that come with everyday life with the production choices and tonal choices throughout the LP. Starting the record off with the mid-tempo “Trail Less Traveled,” a brilliant opener that serves as a thesis statement for the record, the “When I See You Again” singer expertly plots the record out with standouts consisting of the highs of life present on the twangy title track and “Love Was Just a Feeling” and the lows on “Most Lonesome Sound” and “Cost of Life.”

Ultimately, Enjoy the Ride is one of those albums that simply make you want to go out into the world and live life to its fullest. It serves as a reminder of how just connected we are to the folks around us, even in a time when the world seems so hopelessly divided. While some albums go out to shock you either musically or lyrically, Enjoy the Ride exists solely to be a record that will simultaneously comfort you and make you feel seen.

In a time where albums sometimes feel like a dime a dozen in terms of overall impact and quality, Acuff delivers what can only be described as timeless.