Musical Stylings and Critical Reception
McBride & the Ride's sound was defined by close, three-part vocal harmonies. Between their vocal styles and the "crisp, gentle rockers" that the MCA albums contained, McBride & the Ride was compared to other rock-influenced country vocal bands such as Alabama and Southern Pacific. In his book The Encyclopedia of Country Music, writer Paul Kingsbury describes McBride & the Ride as having "found success with a series of middle-of-the-road singles with tight harmonies."
Ronnie Dunn, with whom McBride collaborated when he wrote songs for Brooks & Dunn, said that he was a fan of the band before McBride joined the duo's road band. In an interview with CMT, Dunn said, "They're amazingly tight as a group. I first heard them on the radio in the early '90s, shortly after their first single. I liked Terry's singing style. It had a familiar Texas twang." Dunn has also said that he enjoys writing with McBride, because both of them are Texas natives with a similar upbringing and musical influences.
The band's albums have received mixed reception from music critics. Entertainment Weekly reviewer Alanna Nash criticized the first two albums for lacking strong material outside of "Sacred Ground" (a ballad in which the male narrator tries to convince another man not to commit adultery on the narrator's wife), but gave Hurry Sundown a B rating, saying it was "filled with catchy hooks, tight hillbilly harmonies, soulful songs, and a collective personality." Allmusic critic Jason Ankeny gave four-and-a-half stars out of five for both the second and third albums, noting of Hurry Sundown that it "continue to hone the group's close-harmony style." Amarillo Sky received a three-star review from Allmusic critic Robert L. Doerschuk, who considered it "tight, seamless, a bit impersonal", while About.com critic Matt Bjorke said it was a "wonderful collection of songs".
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