Vulnerability is not Montgomery Gentry's specialty. Country music's toughest duo aim to be the good guy in 'I'll Keep the Kids,' but in the context of their personal lives, the divorce ballad tastes like sour grapes. 

We don't know the details of Eddie Montgomery's divorce, nor should we. But it did get ugly when the couple first separated, and this song amplifies that noise. Montgomery is aiming for something along the lines of 'Give It Away' by George Strait with 'I'll Keep the Kids,' but the lyric isn't nearly as good -- and Montgomery isn't nearly as convincing. It's coming from an angry place.

"Look at Dad's old Gibson, I see you wrote that down / Girl, that's below the belt, but it's all yours now / There's Grandma's diamond ring, she wore 50 some-odd years / She'll probably roll over in her grave, but I'll leave it here," he sings in the second verse of a conversation about who gets to keep what.

Credit the duo for flipping what one perceives as the normal conversation between husband and wife when a marriage crumbles. However, the song might be more believable performed by a woman.

"Take the bass boat and that tractor / All my guns and Earnhardt hats / Every nickle we had tucked away and 20 years I can't get back / Take the shirt right off my shoulders, hope it fits ol' what's his name / Take everything you think your world revolves around every day / Can't help but not see a couple little things, not there on your list / So if you don't care / I'll keep the kids," Montgomery adds during the second chorus.

For a few fathers in this situation, this song will feel like 'Amazing Grace.' That's a small sliver of the country music population, however. To the rest of us, Montgomery Gentry's 'I'll Keep the Kids' sounds like the unnecessary airing of dirty laundry.

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Listen to Montgomery Gentry, 'I'll Keep the Kids'

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