Must be the mark of a music major …

Every now and then, I hear something in a song, sometimes vocal, sometimes otherwise, and it sets my brain to thinking about the theory behind it … this, is one of those times.

What I refer to is a line in a new song by country singer Alan Jackson

… "you’ve got a safety problem with that Dominant chord with the augmented 5th, see how dangerously high it raises you up?"

I’ve pondered and perused, and even referred to my most basic theory books to determine what this chord is …

… if I build it in C major, it’s written as G, B, D# … with a D# being an enharmonic equivalent to Eb, it could be written differently, as Eb, G, B.

Using Noteworthy Composer, I wrote out and listened to the chords. none of them are extremely displeasant, and in fact, the alteration on the D adds an interesting flavor to the chord … what I cannot determine is

a) how would it resolve if left as a Dominant chord (#5-5 suspension to the Dominant chord, perhaps? … is that possible?) and

b) how would it be notated if written using the enharmonic equivalent? (Parallel Augmented III in first inversion?)

I may have to puzzle on this one for a whlie … wish I had Mr. G, KBF and DS to bounce this off of …