The Hot Country Knights promised a '90s sound and they delivered. The group of "newcomers" even zapped T-R-O-U-B-L-E era Travis Tritt forward in a time machine for "Pick Her Up," their debut single.

"Pick Her Up" isn't a spot-on '90s remake or a contemporary artist doing his best impression of what the '90s represented in country music. Brett and Jim Beavers and Dierks Bentley wrote a song that would easily slide into any playlist from the era, which is to say that it sounds a little off by today's standards, but when you look at the sixsome, you get a sense that they don't mind.

It's a song about picking up a country girl, set to a hot fiddle and guitar lick and four-on-the-floor cadence. It's what you'd hear had "Am I the Only One" been released 15 to 20 years earlier.

Hot Country Knights is Bentley and his road band's side project, signed to Capitol Records to begin 2020. A new album is expected, and likely a tour, too. For several years the group cut their teeth opening Bentley's tour dates, never breaking character or deviating from their blushing humor and pre-boyband country sound. There's something vaguely sexual about the whole thing, but it adds to the popular modern characterization of '90s country music. Big hair, bawdy outfits, fun (if a little shallow) lyrics, and pre-Me Too sensibilities — it works because they are characters, and because we know Bentley to be the exact opposite in 2020.

Don't overthink Hot Country Knights. Enjoy the laughs, the robust and high octane country music, and — if you're old enough — memories of a time when you could be a little bawdy and crass without a shunning on social media. Nobody is hoping for a Grammy here — but if "Pick Her Up" dominates radio airplay this summer, it wouldn't be an awful thing.

Did You Know?: Hot Country Knights are Douglas Douglason, Trevor Travis, Marty Ray Roburn, Terotej Dvoraczekynski, Barry Van Ricky and Monte Montgomery.

See the Most Essential '90s Songs: 

Hot Country Knights (Feat. Travis Tritt)'s "Pick Her Up" Lyrics:

So you finally got the nerve / To ask that little girl / You’ve been digging on if she wants to go out / She said yes / Now you’re wanting to impress / But you ain’t got no Casanova know-how / You ain’t gotta read a book to get her on the hook / She’s a country baby through and through / If you wanna do write on a Saturday night / This is all you gotta do.

Chorus:
Pick her up in a pickup truck / Take her out to a honky-tonk / Turn an ice cold longneck up / Dance around to an old jukebox / If you really wanna rock the world / Of a pretty little country girl / Just remember when you pick her up / Pick her up in a pickup truck.

Ain’t that right Travis

Yeah buddy she ain’t got no use for a BMW or wine from a 100 dollar bottle / She’d rather mess around on the outskirts of town, shotgunning in a muddy Silverado / If you’re going to have a chance at closing time romance, flip the switch on a neon heart / Don’t forget the first step, before you get to two-step, knowing right where to start.

Repeat chorus

She wants to party and paint the town / Kick up her boots to a country sound / Come on buddy don’t let us down.

Repeat chorus

25

More From 94.9 KYSS FM