"Holler Back" is a song written by Stokes Nielson and Tim James, and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

band

The Lost Trailers The Lost Trailers are an American country music band. Established in 2000, the band originally comprised Ryder Lee (lead vocals, keyboards), Manny Medina (guitar), Andrew Nielson (bass guitar), Stokes Nielson (vocals, lead guitar), and Jeff Potter ...

. The song is the band's fourth chart single on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

charts, and their first Top 40 hit on that chart. It was released in February 2008 as the title track and lead-off single to their album '' Holler Back'', released in August 2008 on BNA Records.

Content

"Holler Back" is an up-tempo in which the narrator describes his feeling out of place in an urban setting. In the first verse, he mentions a friend who tells him to "holler back when

e gets E, or e, is the fifth Letter (alphabet), letter and the second vowel#Written vowels, vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worl ...

back home", although the narrator says that the only "holler back" that he knows is "that holler back in the woods". This line refers to the

Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...

word "holler", a slang term for a hollow or valley. In the second verse, he describes a woman named Mary Jo who lives in the hollow.

Critical reception

Jim Malec of The 9513 gave the song a "thumbs down" rating, as he thought that it "poke fun" at

Gwen Stefani Gwen Renée Stefani (; born October 3, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer and actress. She is a co-founder, lead vocalist, and the primary songwriter of the band No Doubt, whose singles include "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs ...

's " Hollaback Girl", but since "Holler Back" was released three years after Stefani's song, he called it "an opportunity lost to very poor timing". He also called "Holler Back" "an incredibly tight track with a

John Rich John Rich (born January 7, 1974) is an American country music singer-songwriter. From 1992 to 1998, he was a member of the country music band Lonestar, in which he played bass guitar and alternated with Richie McDonald as lead vocalist. After d ...

-worthy hook... which showcases guitarist Stokes Nielson's spot-on... under-appreciated songwriting talent."

Music video

The song's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was directed by Tyson Wisbrock, and it was filmed at Calder Plaza in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

, during a concert. The main performance footage, however, was filmed in front of ''La Grande Vitesse'', a sculpture by Alexander Calder, in Lansing, MI.

Chart performance

The song debuted at number 60 on the

chart dated February 23, 2008, and fell from the chart the week after. However, it re-entered at number 48 on the chart dated March 15, 2008 and later entered Top Ten on the country charts dated for August 23, 2008. After thirty-one weeks on the chart, it reached a peak of number 9.

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control 2008 singles 2008 songs The Lost Trailers songs BNA Records singles Song recordings produced by Brett Beavers Songs written by Tim James (country music songwriter)