JOSHUA KETCHMARK – NO STOPPING US
SEND ME YOUR EARS
“No Stopping Us has country radio hit written all over it.”- Send Me Your Ears
When I was young, I was inspired by the rockstars of the day on MTV. Back then I always thought that one day I’d be in a band that would be the second coming of Bon Jovi (Keep The Faith/These Days era) . As I got older I outgrew that idea. Its nice to know that idea in some small way hasn’t outgrown me.
THANK YOU Send Me Your Ears for this song review of ‘No Stopping Us’ I didn’t hear that influence until you brought my attention to it.
Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio, we’ve been listening to Joshua Ketchmark’s latest single, No Stopping Us. We’ve previously reviewed Joshua’s singles Death Trap and Tazewell County Line so we were excited to hear where he was going to take us next!
No Stopping Us fades in gently with a subtle organ before some gorgeous picked acoustic guitar joins the mix. Stereo rhythm guitars fill the sound as the song progresses and slowly builds with a kick drum. Already, we’re hooked.
We love Joshua’s vocals: a hint of Jon Bon Jovi and some nods to Bob Seger, his voice is perfect for this style of story-telling song. Death Trap was a song we felt would work well for sync licensing but No Stopping Us has country radio hit written all over it.
This positive sounding coming of age song is the perfect antidote to a bad day. Put it on full blast and drive down the highway back to your hometown without a care in the world.
We love the incidental electric guitar fills that have just the right amount of country twang in them and the train rhythm on the snare is a lovely touch and gives the song a real Country/ Americana feel. We particularly enjoyed the change-up in rhythm on the second verse – ever so slightly reminiscent of the rhythm in The Cars song, Drive.
Harmonies join the mix in the choruses and sit subtly in the background without dominating and contributing to the expertly arranged rise and fall within the track.
We love a song with a great dynamic soundscape and we particularly appreciated the rise and fall and the use of stops in this track. The song also has a false ending which then bursts back in powerfully with one more chorus. Great stuff!
Ideas from our ears
A little extra brightness and presence could be achieved with a singe-band compressor on the top 2 octaves with some make-up gain. A light compressor/limiter on the whole mix with maybe ~4dB of make-up gain would add to the warmth as well as raising the volume. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.
Final thoughts
Fans of Bon Jovi’s more country-leaning tracks will adore the latest single from Joshua Ketchmark. This is alt-country rock at its absolute best.