Today is Friday. (Not that I needed to tell you that because you probably already figured that out on your own.) The reason why I mention what day of the week it is is because across this great nation of ours on numerous college campuses, college students will probably be playing the drinking game “Power Hour” this evening. Some may even be so brave as to take the “Power Hour” outdoors and play it while tailgating on Saturday. For those that didn’t go to college or are unfamiliar with the game, here is how it works.

• Grab a 6-pack of beer
• Get a shot glass
• Drink a shot of beer every minute
• Lather, rinse repeat for an hour

If you are using 1 oz. shot glasses, that works out to be 60 oz of beer in an hour or the equivalent of a 6-pack. If you chose to use a 1.5 oz shot glass, it works out to be seven and a half beers in an hour. Either way, rather than just shotgunning six beers within an hour, the Power Hour makes it a little more fun and social. However there are some inherent pitfalls to playing the game (outside of the obvious binge drinking aspect) most notably someone has to keep track of the time. The most common way is to designate someone to be the time keeper and they have to keep an eye on the clock and alert everyone playing that another minute is upon them and to do a shot.

I have personally seen this done by a person blowing a whistle or trying to shout above the noise of the crowd. By the end of the hour, the time keeper’s voice is hoarse or completely gone or you are tired of hearing the whistle blow you are getting flashbacks to running grass drills in Pop Warner football. Thankfully there is a better way for those of you playing Power Hour to not only get everyone involved but eliminates the need to designate someone the time keeper and provides a soundtrack for your game. It is Ali Spagnola’s Power Hour Album. Take a look at this 30 second promo.

Ali Spagnola’s Power Hour Album is 60 songs and all are 60 seconds long. So when playing Power Hour, just hit play on the album and when the music changes, you take your shot. No more watching the clock. No more blowing whistles or noise makers. And no more yelling and screaming to alert everyone to take another shot.

The song you heard in that short promo is actually the first song that starts off the album and it really sets the tone for the remaining hour. There are a number of ways to get a hold of the Power Hour Album but probably the best and easiest way is to get the Shot Glass USB combo. What it is is a plastic shot glass attached to a lanyard that has a 1 GB USB flash drive on the bottom. The entire 60 song playlist is preloaded on the USB stick and comes along with other goodies like a bonus track, a promotional poster and in addition to MP3s, the USB comes loaded with AAC versions of all the songs as well. The USB stick is 1 GB of memory so you’ll also have about 600 MB of memory space unused that you can save photos or even your term papers on there. Simply remove the USB drive and insert it into your computer and the playlist should start playing automatically depending o your computer’s settings. If you want to play Power Hour while tailgating, all the songs are in an easily downloadable format that you can pull into your iTunes library or transfer over to your MP3 player.

(Disclaimer: We did receive a sample Power Hour Album Shot Glass USB for free. The fact this sample was provided to us in no way influenced our opinion of the product nor did it impact our ability to test and review the product fairly and objectively.)

We popped the USB into our computer and let it play for the entire hour. Although we do no claim to be music critics we liked the nice mix of musical tastes and genres as it shifted from song to song, minute by minute. Some of the songs’ lyrics are outright hilarious and I found myself listening to “It Sounds Like a Good Idea (But it’s not)” a few times. I also enjoyed “Drinking with a Helmet”, “Text Someone That’s Not Here” and “If You’re Wasted and You Know It” quite a bit. After all, the songs are short, upbeat and all are about drinking. You can see and hear all 60 songs in one easy to navigate menu HERE.

After listening to the Power Hour Album by Ali Spagnola we can say with confidence that is it “Tailgate Approved”. Just take the USB stick and drag the entire album into your iPod and create a Power Hour playlist and you are done. Bring your iPod tailgating and you can let everyone play Power Hour without having to designate or draw straws for who will be the dreaded time keeper.

There are a number of ways to get The Power Hour Album including but limited to the Shot Glass USB, on CD and via digital download on Amazon, Rhapsody and Napster.

For more information on Ali Spagnola please visit alispagnola.com. You can also connect with Ali Spagnola via Twitter (@alispagnola) and on Facebook. If you want to hear all the songs on the Power Hour Album or to hear other music by Ali Spagnola, visit her YouTube Channel as well.