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Country Music Showdown: Spencer Crandall vs. Julia Cole
In this edition of Country Music Showdown, we sit down with rising country stars Spencer Crandall and Julia Cole, who are both preparing for musical releases. Julia Cole joins us from Las Vegas as she’s recently released her debut album, which has reached 50 million streams. Meanwhile, Spencer Crandall joins us from Nashville after just releasing a new song as well as hitting 100 million total streams.
In the introductory questions, we learn about the artists’ “desert island songs,” with Cole picking Whitney Houston and Crandall settling on Taylor Swift for her wide discography and style. When asked which song they would give someone to get them hooked on an artist, Cole chose “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” and “Noise” from Kenny Chesney while Crandall picked “There Goes My Life.” When asked about Luke Bryan, however, the artists managed to agree on “Do I,” with Crandall also selecting an honorable mention of “Country Girl (Shake It For Me).” For the last artist, Kelsea Ballerini, Cole chose “Love Me Like You Mean It” from Ballerini’s first studio album. “It was one of the first songs to put females back in radio,” she said. “It fit in the bro-country world… but it was given a chance.”
The first round, “Trivia,” began with no points on either side as neither artist knew which country singer starred alongside Kevin Bacon in the 1990 film “Tremors.” However, after a hint, Crandall was able to correctly name Reba. The two country artists were nearly tied as the round continued, with Cole earning two consecutive points for the reality show on which Kelly Pickler got her start, American idol, and Garth Brooks’ real first name, Troyal. However, it was Spencer who finished out the round strong with two consecutive points of his own for the famous singer who wrote “Better Man” for Little Big Town, Taylor Swift, and the name of Miranda Lambert’s debut single title, “Me and Charlie Talking.”
The second round, “Name the Song, Tell the Artist” was back and forth, with Cole and Crandall alternating who earned a point. Julia started the round by guessing that The Chicks were behind “There’s Your Trouble,” but Crandall quickly countered with the Brothers Osborne for “Stay A Little Longer.” Cole and Crandall then continued to match one another with one point to each country artist as the round concluded, making the scores just about even.
In the final round, “Finish the Lyric,” it was a tight race as both artists earned the first point together as they sang the lyrics at the same time. Cole earned the next two points by finishing the lyrics to “10,000 Hours” and “Wide Open Spaces,” but Crandall made a comeback as he easily sang along to “Kinfolks” by Sam Hunt. In his victory, he remembered going to a Sam Hunt concert while underage and laughed as he remembered another concert-goer informing security and kicking him out of the concert, where he was forced to wait outside for his friends to finish their night.
In the end, it was Cole who managed to scrape by with the win by half a point, but both artists managed to put up a good fight in this installment of Country Music Showdown.
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