Hillbilly Bone- Album



Hillbilly Bone is the first extended play, and seventh studio release overall, by American country music singer/songwriter Blake Shelton. It was released on March 2, 2010 via Warner Music Group Nashville, his first album under its Reprise label. Its only single is the title track, a duet with Trace Adkins which was released to radio in November 2009. This song reached Number One on the U.S. Billboard country singles charts in April 2010.

Contents
The album's title track, which features a guest vocal from Trace Adkins, was released in October 2009 as the lead off single. One month prior to the EP's release, this song reached the country Top 10 and in March is became his sixth Number One. The track "Kiss My Country Ass" was co-written and previously released by Rhett Akins. Shelton wrote the song "Delilah" about his girlfriend Miranda Lambert's pet dog. Shelton told Country Weekly magazine that this project is part of an experiment to release three extended plays a year so that he can offer his fans more material per year "for a bargain price."

Critical Reception
Jessica Phillips of Country Weekly, Thom Jurek of Allmusic and Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine all have the EP three stars out of five. Phillips wrote that it "finds Blake Shelton coming into his own when it comes to song selection." She also called "Delilah" the strongest written track on it. Jurek called its material "formula contemporary country" and said that the label's decision to release multiple EP's instead of an album was "risky." Jonathan Keefe criticized the "compressed" production and the lyrics of "Hillbilly Bone" and "Kiss My Country Ass", but commended the recording for having a common theme among its songs.