Based on a True Story...

This article is about the album by Blake Shelton. For other uses, see Based on a True Story (disambiguation).
Based on a True Story…
Studio album by Blake Shelton
Released March 26, 2013 (2013-03-26)
Recorded 2013
Genre Country
Length 43:53
Label Warner Bros. Nashville
Producer Scott Hendricks
Blake Shelton chronology
Cheers, It's Christmas
(2012)		 Based on a True Story…
(2013)		 Bringing Back the Sunshine (2014)
Singles from Based on a True Story…
  1. "Sure Be Cool If You Did"
    Released: January 7, 2013
  2. "Boys 'Round Here"
    Released: March 26, 2013
  3. "Mine Would Be You"
    Released: July 22, 2013
  4. "Doin' What She Likes"
    Released: January 6, 2014
  5. "My Eyes"
    Released: April 14, 2014

Based on a True Story… is the eighth studio album by American country music artist Blake Shelton.[1] It was released on March 26, 2013 via Warner Bros. Records and debuted at #3 with a career best for Shelton at nearly 200,000 sold.[2][3][4] The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA on September 30, 2013,[5] and it became the ninth best-selling album of 2013 in the US.[6]

Content

"Grandaddy's Gun" was previously recorded by Rhett Akins on the 2010 album Michael Waddell's Bone Collector: The Brotherhood Album and by Staind singer Aaron Lewis on his 2012 debut country album, The Road. Lewis's version was released as a single to country radio in 2013 and peaked at number 46 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic(64/100)[7]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Billboard79/100[9]
Country WeeklyC+[10]
Entertainment WeeklyB-[11]
Got Country Online[12]
Los Angeles Times[13]
The Oakland Press[14]
Roughstock[15]
Taste of Country[16]
USA Today[17]
Country Universe[18]

Based on a True Story… received mixed to positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, a website which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 from reviews by mainstream critics, it currently holds a rating of 64 based on 5 reviews.[7] Joseph Hudak of Country Weekly thought that some of the songs "feel rushed, as if The Voice coach hurriedly picked songs to record in Nashville before he had to catch his flight back to L.A." He praised "I Still Got a Finger", "Ten Times Crazier", "Mine Would Be You", and "Granddaddy's Gun" as the strongest tracks on the album, saying of those songs that "Blake excels and the avowed smart aleck is found with his heart on his denim sleeve."[10] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine found that "the very sense that more is more is essential to the appeal of Based on a True Story...: every song is bigger, brighter, bolder than the next, super-sized country for a super-sized time" and this is not good because "there's just a little bit too much of the schtick; individually the cuts work fine but they overwhelm not only the gentler moments...cancel[ing] each other out over the long run."[8] Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe gave a mixed review to the album, when she alluded that "Much of it is perfectly acceptable. All of it is executed competently", yet Rodman called the lone highlight the "dusty story song" of "Granddaddy's Gun".[19] In addition, Rodman noted that the album "doesn't offer enough personal touches to distinguish it from a lot of other tales coming out of Nashville."[19] At Entertainment Weekly, Melissa Maerz signaled that Shelton is "just not a gravitas kind of guy, and the outdated production only makes it harder to take his songs seriously, especially with the talk-box-style guitar effects and the ill-advised use of AutoTune."[11]

Conversely, Jerry Shriver of USA Today affirmed that the album comes from a place where Shelton's comments about the industry, which he noted that the effort "puts that very legitimate argument into a fuller and highly entertaining context", and found that "the music will always be about blue-jeaned babes in the full moonlight, dirt roads, [and] small towns".[17] Roughstock's Matt Bjorke praised the album as "a strong, current record with a couple of moments that demand repeated attention."[15] Gary Graff of The Oakland Press evoked how Shelton "make[s] it clear that despite the mass-media notoriety Shelton still considers himself a proud country boy — declaring his beer-drinkin', tobacco-chewin' 'redneck' loyalties" on the album.[14] Taste of Country's Billy Dukes alluded to how this "isn’t an album that impresses with a single listen" because it has "sizzle, and not in that ironic 'bow-chicka-wow-wow' sort of way that’s occasionally implied with this singer’s sense of humor", and Dukes noted that "The emotion is easy to overlook on a single pass, but second or third listens find a collection of songs that really stick to the soul."[16] Got Country Online's Phyllis Hunter found that it was "obvious that [the songs] were carefully chosen to give a personal glimpse into what is a very public life", which she heaped praise on the album by stating "Kudos, Mr. Shelton, kudos…", and affirmed that Shelton has "done all of these songwriters quite proud."[12] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times told that "With its easy rhymes and hummable choruses, the album doesn't ask the listener to work any harder than Shelton himself is prepared to work", which Wood evoked that "if Shelton's investment in his material here seems about as minimal as possible, it's a testament to his considerable charm", and this allowed Wood to perceive that it "never feels like a con."[13] Wood concluded with noting that with respect to Shelton's music "it's not the journey that matters, but the destination."[13]

Commercial performance

The album debuted at No.1 on the Top Country Albums chart and No. 3 on the Billboard 200, selling 199,000 copies for the week.[20] The album became the ninth best-selling album of 2013 in the United States, with 1,109,000 copies sold for the year.[6] As of March 2015, the album has sold a total of 1.46 million copies in the United States.[21]

Track listing

No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Boys 'Round Here" (featuring Pistol Annies and Friends)Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson, Craig Wiseman 4:48
2. "Sure Be Cool If You Did"  Rodney Clawson, Jimmy Robbins, Chris Tompkins 3:35
3. "Do You Remember"  Michael Dulaney, William Gray, Ian Kirkpatrick 3:29
4. "Small Town Big Time"  Clint Lagerberg, Wiseman 3:50
5. "Country on the Radio"  Clawson, Tompkins, Wiseman 3:52
6. "My Eyes" (featuring Gwen Sebastian)Andrew Dorff, Tommy Lee James, Josh Osborne 3:10
7. "Doin' What She Likes"  Wade Kirby, Phil O'Donnell 3:42
8. "I Still Got a Finger"  Gary Hannan, Wiseman 3:38
9. "Mine Would Be You"  Jessi Alexander, Connie Harrington, Deric Ruttan 3:59
10. "Lay Low"  Dean Dillon, Tim Nichols, David Turnbull 3:13
11. "Ten Times Crazier"  Akins, Marv Green, Ben Hayslip 3:03
12. "Granddaddy's Gun"  Akins, Davidson, Bobby Pinson 3:34
Total length:
 43:53

Personnel

Charts and certifications

Album

Chart (2013) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[22] 38
Australian Country Albums (ARIA)[23] 3
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[24] 3
US Billboard 200[25] 3
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[26] 1
US Top Current Albums (Billboard)[27] 3

Year-end charts

Chart (2013) Position
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[28] 50
US Billboard 200[29] 17
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[30] 4
Chart (2014) Position
US Billboard 200[31] 39
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[32] 9

Singles

Year Single Peak chart positions
US Country US Country Airplay US CAN Country
[33]		 CAN
2013 "Sure Be Cool If You Did" 1 1 24 1 32
"Boys 'Round Here" 2 1 12 1 12
"Mine Would Be You" 2 1 28 1 35
2014 "Doin' What She Likes" 3 1 35 1 35
"My Eyes" 4 1 39 1 39

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Canada (Music Canada)[34] Platinum 80,000^
United States (RIAA)[5] Platinum 1,460,000[21]

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Preceded by
Same Trailer Different Park by Kacey Musgraves
Wheelhouse by Brad Paisley
True Believers by Darius Rucker
Platinum by Miranda Lambert		 Top Country Albums number-one album
April 13, 2013
May 4–11, 2013
June 15–22, 2013
August 2, 2014 		Succeeded by
Pioneer by The Band Perry
Life on a Rock by Kenny Chesney
Here's to the Good Times by Florida Georgia Line
Just as I Am by Brantley Gilbert

References

  1. ↑ Sciarretto, Amy (February 11, 2013). "Blake Shelton Announces New Album, ‘Based on a True Story…’". Taste of Country. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  2. ↑ http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/newsPage.cgi?news09342
  3. ↑ Dauphin, Chuck (February 11, 2013). "Blake Shelton's 'Based on a True Story...' to Be Told March 26". Billboard. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  4. ↑ Thompson, Gayle (February 11, 2013). "Blake Shelton, 'Based On a True Story ...' Album to Hit Stores in March". The Boot. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  5. 1 2 "American album certifications – Blake Shelton – Based on a True Story". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
  6. 1 2 Paul Grein (January 2, 2014). "The Top 10 Albums and Songs of 2013". Chart Watch (Yahoo).
  7. 1 2 Metacritic (March 26, 2013). "Critic Reviews for Based on a True Story...". CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  8. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (March 26, 2013). "Based on a True Story... - Blake Shelton : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  9. ↑ Dauphin, Chuck (March 26, 2013). "Blake Shelton, 'Based On A True Story...' Track-by-Track Review". Billboard. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  10. 1 2 Hudak, Joseph (March 26, 2013). "Based on a True Story... by Blake Shelton". Country Weekly. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  11. 1 2 Maerz, Melissa (March 27, 2013). "Based on a True Story Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  12. 1 2 Hunter, Phyllis (March 24, 2013). "ALBUM REVIEW: Blake Shelton - "Based on a True Story..."". Got Country Online. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  13. 1 2 3 Wood, Mikael (March 26, 2013). "Album review: Blake Shelton's 'Based on a True Story ...'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  14. 1 2 Graff, Gary (March 22, 2013). "Listening Room: Blake Shelton celebrates redneck loyalties in "Based on a True Story"". The Oakland Press. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  15. 1 2 Bjorke, Matt (March 21, 2013). "Album Review: Blake Shelton - Based on a True Story...". Roughstock. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  16. 1 2 Dukes, Billy (March 26, 2013). "Blake Shelton, ‘Based on a True Story …’ – Album Review". Taste of Country. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  17. 1 2 Shriver, Jerry (March 25, 2013). "Blake Shelton's 'Story' is the truth". USA Today. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  18. ↑ Gazdziak, Sam (April 8, 2013). "Album Review: Blake Shelton, Based On a True Story…". Country Universe. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  19. 1 2 Rodman, Sarah (March 25, 2013). "Blake Shelton, ‘Based on a True Story’". The Boston Globe. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  20. ↑ Brad Schmitt (April 4, 2013). "True Story: Blake Has Personal Best Album Sales Week". Country Weekly.
  21. 1 2 Keith Claufield (March 14, 2015). "Billboard 200 Chart Moves: 'Hozier' Has Sold a Half-Million". Billboard. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Australiancharts.com – Blake Shelton – Based On A True Story...". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  23. ↑ "ARIA Report" (PDF). ARIA Charts. April 8, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Blake Shelton – Chart history" Billboard Canadian Albums Chart for Blake Shelton. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  25. ↑ "Blake Shelton – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Blake Shelton. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  26. ↑ "Blake Shelton – Chart history" Billboard Top Country Albums for Blake Shelton. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  27. ↑ "Top Current Albums : Apr 13, 2013". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  28. ↑ "Canadian Albums: 2013 Year-End Charts". Billboard. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
  29. ↑ "Billboard 200 Albums: Year-End top-selling albums across all genres". Billboard.
  30. ↑ "Country Albums". Billboard.
  31. ↑ "Billboard 200 Albums: Year-End top-selling albums across all genres". Billboard.
  32. ↑ "Top Country Albums: 2014 Year-End Charts". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  33. ↑ "Blake Shelton Album & Song Chart History - Canada Country". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  34. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – Blake Shelton – Based on a True Story". Music Canada.
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