My new favorite song

Country music can be such a mixed bag. I like just enough to keep listening, but for the most part, I can divide the genre into two categories: female singers (plus Garth Brooks), who are good, and male singers (plus Chris Gaines), who are not.

Exceptions exist on a single-by-single basis. Blake Shelton's 2001 song "Ol' Red," for example, has a brilliant story: Lady and the Tramp meets The Shawshank Redemption, if pitched as a movie.

The great country song of 2005, in my opinion, is "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" by Trace Adkins. The lyrics can be found here. It's been a good year for this artist: he made a cameo in the series premiere of My Name is Earl as the guy talking about karma with Carson Daly, and now this. (Okay, I'll admit he's not having a Keith Urban year, crossing over onto the pop charts and dating Nicole Kidman, but he's doing better than Kenny Chesney, who got dumped by Renee Zellweger because he'd rather be secretly gay with Peyton Manning.)

If you're wondering, the Urban Dictionary defines badonkadonk as "an extremely curvaceous female behind." I'm not sure how the term found its way into country music, but I'm not complaining. This song is even more gangsta than Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman," and it reminds me of that great benchmark in culture clashing, Ginuwine's "Pony" video. Check out Trace's refrain:

Got it goin' on
Like Donkey Kong
And whoo-wee
Shut my mouth, slap your grandma

There outta be a law
Get the Sheriff on the phone
Lord have mercy, how's she even get them britches on
With that honky tonk badonkadonk

Okay, so it's not exactly John Lennon, or even Sir Mix-a-Lot. But it's some much needed fun on the country stations. I'm really tired of Toby Keith telling me how he's a better American than I am.