Murphy's Ford Drops My Bar First (Video)

In a time when country music almost never sounds like country music, it's refreshing to hear a song with rhythm, twang, and quintessential country feeling.

My Bar First from rising stars Murphy's Ford hits every not perfectly -- not just the musical ones, but the cultural ones as well. Sure, big city people can and do love country music, but it's the places with populations that don't exceed the triple digits that most often embody the heart and soul of country songs--towns with one grocery store, a single barber shop, a church with a steeple that makes it the tallest building in town, and, of course, the bar. Having grown up in such a place in southern Illinois, this song immediately struck a chord with this reviewer, and the video release is so real you can almost smell the cigarettes and spilled beer.

With My Bar First, Murphy's Ford zeroes in on that universally relatable feeling of avoiding a place after a breakup because you know the ex will be there making it awkward. That's never more true than when you both live in the same small town, and the options for going out are limited. But never mind what we think about it. Here's the video so you can take a listen for yourself:

Oh, and the girl they're singing about? If you think she looks familiar, she should. You've seen her before at Critical Blast when we reported from Wizard World St. Louis earlier this year. We caught her cosplaying Poison Ivy! (Video)