Hi, how’s it going? You’re coming back to the UK soon and we’re super excited. The last time you were here was for BST Hyde Park, which was such a special evening – can you talk me through what that performance meant to you and then to be returning to the UK at The Roundhouse?

Yes, ok the UK never disappoints, I mean I’ve had unreal experiences every time I’ve gone over there, so the last time I got to fly over with my daughter for the first time – the first time taking her abroad, which was incredible. She got to be backstage and running around where Elton John had been the night before – I mean it was Hyde Park, get out of here! We haven’t been able to play The Otherside album really for you guys, so we got to do it in this really organic and authentic way. I was a little nervous, just because there’s Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and The Eagles and everyone coming on. I’m trusting that people will want to hear this intimate thing. It was just amazing, how it always is, everyone, even in that big of a crowd, were really listening. I could hear my voice flying over across this whole crowd and people were just taking it in.

That must be really strange, because the album was released during the pandemic and then you’re finally being able to see audience’s reactions – it’s almost like the album is having two separate lives. 

Oh, it has been so weird. You kind of have to do two things at once at all times, so we planned this Otherside tour, which we got to do some of last year, after Hyde Park, in the US. It was incredible, I put so much thought into this tour and how it would work. It was very small, but with these big emotional moments. I created exactly what I wanted and I’m really proud of that. It was very intentional to sculpt something that has this arc to it – it was very hard and very rewarding. I’m so thrilled to now be coming to The Roundhouse and to bring that show to everyone. It’s so funny though, because I’m here working on the next album. You have to celebrate it, because then you get to enjoy the next one.

Talking about bringing your daughter over, I can imagine now you’re approaching your next project slightly differently to your last, as a mother?

I think at the beginnings of it, you’re just so overwhelmed, because you don’t have any sleep and we were also navigating the pandemic. Any time it’s a very uncertain kind of thing, hiding in a cocoon, but also the world is still moving and you’re navigating ‘who am I?’ There’s so much to parenting that we don’t warn people nearly enough and it’s not really a good set up. At the beginning, it sucked so much of my energy into her that I felt very pragmatic about where I would be spending energy outside of her. I didn’t want to spend energy on things I didn’t want to do. If someone has an idea that’s great, I’m down to go with it, but also I just really want to write what I want to write and I’ve always done that but it’s got a little more cutthroat. I think it evolved, now that she’s grown and I find myself in these moments where I want to leave her things and ideas and questions, maybe some answers will help but also to let her know that I ask the same questions too. It’s wild. 

Well I feel even during the pandemic, there was a lot more introspection around who we are as people, so it’s almost doublefold then experiencing motherhood for the first time.

Yeah, I think it landed where it was really relatable at least to go out and think well if I’m going to go on tour, I want it to be exactly what I want, I want people to have the space to feel these things, where when you’re in survival mode – and a lot of parenting is in survival mode – you have the space to drop that and stop being protective and just feel it, cry and laugh and scream and do what you want to do. That resonated, because I think everyone was going through it, and I was going through it as a parent, so yeah 100%. I think also with how it went in the US last year, things are not going back to running smoothly – buses are breaking down, or not available, when you get into places, a lot of the staff are no longer there so it’s harder to run these events. You’re appreciative of when things do go right and when things do go wrong you let it roll off your back and you go into it, knowing you want to do this enough, where when things are going wild, I’m still following my little North Star. Having that extra commitment, I think saved me in some of those moments. I’m happening to life, as much as it is happening to me. 

Obviously, we don’t have the details yet, but everyone is excited for whatever we hear next from you. Do you have any idea yet what that is going to look like? How much do you think we can expect change to have happened?

Lots of change. I love change, I think it reminds you of who you really are. I fully embrace it, and I think if what you do after all this that has happened to us – parenting and the pandemic – if you are sounding exactly the same, even dressing the same – it feels weird. It doesn’t make sense, I mean it literally doesn’t fit. You just have to be different. It’s still me, it’s still my voice and still my songs and songwriting, but I was so excited for this show that we’re bringing to The Roundhouse. I’m so proud of what we made and so, I’m making this next album purposely, to make this tour a really incredible thing that I want to do, it’s all tied into a full, real experience. Not to scare anyone, but of course it’s different. 

I mean, I’m excited about it – from Untamed to The Otherside, there was a great deal of change, but it was a beautiful, organic thing and then I think that will probably be a thing for the next thing that happens. Finally, what does this continuing relationship with the UK mean to you – it’s been a beautiful, mutual love affair to behold. 

I feel that too, it’s so wonderful. I’m always so excited to get back over there. I mean, literally, because we haven’t had a chance to tour the UK. Hyde Park was in London, but it breaks my heart that we can’t do the full tour, because the pandemic threw a wrench in everything. If it were financially possible, and all those things, I would be doing it. The plus side is that this new thing is coming and then the first thing, I’m planning on figuring out how to come back to the UK. I don’t know what it is, but it seems we love the same things and we’re asking the same questions, or something. It feels like we’re all in tune and it’s so wonderful, except I hope that anyone who sees the shows feels it too. I’m always excited to be there, and it feels like I get to give people the show that’s been perfected and laying the groundwork for when we’ll be back soon with this other new gift that we have for everyone. I appreciate that everybody’s gone through something and we’ve remained connected, but it will be so good to see everyone more often. 

Well it’s always a pleasure to chat to you, and we can’t wait for the show.

The post INTERVIEW: Cam on The Roundhouse, New Music and the UK appeared first on off the record.

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20. Cam – The Otherside

This year, Cam made her long-awaited and majestic return to the scene with The Otherside. A pop-tinged country record with a weighty agenda, with masterfully crafted songwriting including cuts from Sam Smith and Harry Styles.

Stand-out Tracks: ‘Forgetting You When I’m Alone’ / ‘Like A Movie’

19. Maddie & Tae – The Way It Feels

One of the surprisingly highest contenders on our list of most-listened to albums of the year. Frankly, in a year of mundanity and low spirits, Maddie & Tae brought a deliciously, frothy country-pop album filled with some really mature and thoughtful songwriting.

Stand-out Tracks: ‘Drunk or Lonely’ / ‘Water In His Wineglass’

18. HARDY – A Rock

This record has surely elevated HARDY’s career to another level. Infusing heavy-hitting rock sounds and a Southern country twang, HARDY’s debut record is a stellar pointer of things to come that embraces his more personal stories.

Stand-out Tracks: ‘A ROCK’ / ‘BOYFRIEND’

17. The Secret Sisters – Saturn Returns

The Secret Sisters collaborated with Brandi Carlile on their record Saturn Returns that offers a majestic, celestial-tinged sound and thoughtfully-crafted songwriting.

Stand-out Tracks: ‘Silver’

16. Brandy Clark – Your Life is a Record

Throughout Brandy Clark’s career she has always placed strong and thoughtful songwriting at the centre of her craft. On Your Life is a Record, she takes this a step further on her deeply introspective record that looks at the entirety of a relationship – the highs and lows and heartbreak, with a poignant and gritty analysis.

Stand-out Tracks: ‘Your Life is a Record’ / ‘I’ll Be The Sad Song’

15. Hailey Whitters – The Dream

Hailey Whitters made a huge impression with her debut record The Dream that featured whimsical, intensely thoughtful songwriting with an unusual, stunning vocal tone.This is record to stand the test of time.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘All The Cool Girls’ / ‘Red, Wine & Blue’

14. Russell Dickerson – Southern Symphony

Russell Dickerson’s sophomore record offers a layer of maturity, delving a layer deeper than his debut record. The record also reveals yet more layers to his astonishing vocal – just listen to ‘Honey’ for proof.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘Southern Symphony’

13. The Chicks – Gaslighter

The Chicks returned this year with their first record in over a decade and it was worth the wait. This is perhaps the most painfully intimate and personal record we have ever heard, the harmonies as tight as ever and the songwriting transcendent.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘Tights On My Boat’ / ‘Hope It’s Something Good’

12. Brothers Osborne – Skeletons

In a year without live music, Brothers Osborne released the most bombastic and energetic record, who’s energy leaps off the vinyl grooves. It’s simply built for a live performance, showing the duo pivot and build yet again on their previous material.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘Dead Man’s Curve’ / ‘All Night’

11. Gabe Lee – Honky Tonk Hell

A quietly understated record, Lee’s album meanders with quiet conviction, filled with songwriting that paints a vivid and compelling picture and story. Lee’s vocal is gritty and bold, with stunning instrumentation and he’ll sure as hell be one to watch in the coming years.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘Imogene’

10. Carly Pearce – Carly Pearce

Carly Pearce’s self-titled record showcases her range to full effect from the more heavily pop-overlaid ‘Call Me’ to the heavy vocals on country track ‘Dashboard Jesus’ – the scope of Pearce is laid out here and it’s immense.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘I Hope You’re Happy Now’ / ‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’

9. Tenille Townes – The Lemonade Stand

Tenille Townes debut record brims with a quiet confidence and understated intensity, passion and extraordinarily slick production – this is a flawless project from start to finish. Townes is only just getting started and this record is a powerful opener.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘The Most Beautiful Things’

8. Ruthie Collins –  Cold Comfort

Ignore Ruthie Collins at your detriment – Cold Comfort is one of the most stunning, layered and complex albums we have heard in a while. Exquisite songwriting that paints a vivid and nostalgic picture, it’s phenomenally poised. 

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘Wish You Were Here’

7. Gone West – Canyons

2020 was very on brand when Gone West announced that their debut album was also going to be their only record. We were so excited about this whimsical, light-touched and joyful debut and wanted more of this California country sound.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘I’m Never Getting Over You’

6. Kip Moore – Wild World

Kip Moore’s signature gritty sound was imbued throughout this record that delved a layer deeper and darker into Moore’s psyche, revealing his fears, regrets and deepest desires in a profoundly more mature record.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘South’ 

5. Ingrid Andress – Lady Like

Andress has had an extraordinary year, with Grammy and CMA nominations under her belt, alongside a huge spotlight on her debut record Lady Like. Rightly so, having earned her stripes with huge pop cuts, Andress’ pop-country sound or as she deems it ’emo country’ puts into words the deepest parts of the human psyche and their attitude to love and loss.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘More Hearts Than Mine’ / ‘Anything But Love’

4. Brett Eldredge – Sunday Drive

Do not let 2020 slip you by without hearing Brett Eldredge’s Sunday Drive that probes into the meaning of love and life and everything in between. It’s deeply soulful and offers a signpost of where Eldredge’s new sound may go – into newly powerful and profound territory

Stand-Out Track: ‘Sunday Drive’

3. Caylee Hammack – If It Wasn’t For You

Hammack is a tour de force and her debut record showcases her extraordinary, powerful vocal that brims with personality. She lays her life and her relationship history bare on this record that is both incredibly personal and universal. This is a special piece of work.

Stand-Out Track: ‘Forged In The Fire’ / ‘Small Town Hypocrite’

2. Ashley McBryde – Never Will

McBryde had big shoes to follow following her debut record Girl Going Nowhere that was a sensation. Never Will does just that, layering her delightfully vulnerable vocal with laces of rock production. It’s clever and shrewd, creating stories upon stories, artfully weaving the entire project together seamlessly.

Stand-Out Track: ‘Voodoo Doll’

1. Chris Stapleton – Starting Over

Included on Obama’s favourite music of the year – the man has taste. Stapleton releases a flawless record once again, intricate songwriting and his signature vocal – a combination that will never get old.

Stand-Out Tracks: ‘You Should Probably Leave’

The post The 20 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2020 appeared first on off the record.

It has been nearly 5 years since Cam’s phenomenal debut record Untamed, and so her sophomore record The Otherside has doubtless been one of the most anticipated releases of 2020. For this record, without losing any of her signature sound, Cam has layered up on production, expanded her pool of co-writers and dug deep to put out her most authentic music yet. Her richly textured vocal soars over the entirety of the project, weaving itself through the more pop heavy ‘Classic’ to the heart wrenching bars of ‘Forgetting You.’  The record celebrates individuality, healing, celebrates the beauty in pain and heartbreak and above all human resilience – it’s been a long road to The Otherside but it was worth the wait.

The record opens with plucky ‘Redwood Tree,’ a meditative and pensive track about the tree back at her parents’ home. ‘Don’t know what you have when you’re young / But you’ll know what you had when it’s gone.’ The track brings back the personal storytelling touch that made Cam such an instant fan favourite on tracks like ‘Village.’ ‘The Otherside,’  by contrast – one of the few external cuts on the record – beckons in a new side to Cam’s production replete with a dance-track tinge. This is one of the most poppy and effervescent tracks we have heard from Cam and it is simply joyful. Seamlessly, the record moves straight into ‘Classic,’ a swinging track about the ‘classic’ people in life. Co-written with Jack Antonoff (long-time collaborator with Taylor Swift), like ‘The Otherside,’ the track shows a new, more playful side to Cam that is captivating. 

Cam still has the ability to capture the pain of heartbreak like no other. ‘Forgetting You’ is one of those moments, about moving on from heartbreak but not being able to forget someone when you’re alone. Cam’s vocal has the ability to capture emotion in every lyric, so in ‘What Goodbye Means’ she sings of yearning for a relationship to not be over and she breathes raw emotion into every word. ‘Like A Movie’ offers the flip side of the coin, about knowing when ‘it’s right‘ when it’s ‘like a movie‘ ‘like a soundtrack that brings you right back.’ The final verse replete with strings add to the drama of this powerful, bittersweet track.

‘Changes’ – the second external cut on the record – is another stunning track about moving on and growing up from a surprising collaboration of Harry Styles, Lori McKenna, Tom Hull and Tyler Johnson. The result is a stunningly poignant track ripe with nostalgia – and yes that is Harry Style’s whistle in the interlude. Cam has jam-packed some heavy hitters on this record and the final external cut is no exception, ‘Happier For You’ is a Sam Smith co-write. With a blues-y tinge, the track narrates the misery at seeing her ex-lover marry someone else ‘my darling don’t worry, one day I’ll be happier.’ 

Sultrier track ‘Til There’s Nothing Left’ is one of the more heavily produced tracks on the record – a drama-fuelled track about laying everything on the table with a lover. Released months before the album release, like ‘Diane,’ both tracks perfectly capture Cam’s transition to a broader sonic landscape.

The Otherside rounds out with ‘Girl Like Me’ a co-write with Natalie Hemby that is perhaps her most personal and powerful track, reading like a beautiful letter to her daughter Lucy and is more akin to her first record ‘Untamed.’ ‘They’re going to give up on you / You’re going to give up on them.’ It’s a quieter track but is intensely powerful, displaying Cam’s sensitivity and is a perfect closing note to end her sophomore record.

‘The Otherside’ is a powerfully personal record and it defiantly moves Cam’s sound in a new, more experimental direction, whilst retaining the authenticity in her lyrics that made ‘Untamed’ such a hit. We’re already waiting to see what happens next, let’s hope we don’t have to wait as long till the next one.

Editor’s Picks

Changes

Like a Movie

Girl Like Me

The post REVIEW: Cam – The Otherside appeared first on off the record.

Hello! How are you doing? 

Good!

Album release day is finally here, how excited are you?

I’m so excited, people are like ‘did you question whether or not to put it out in the pandemic?’ and I’m like ‘no way!’ I don’t care what’s going on, it’s happening and it’s going out.

So much has changed for you since the last album, even despite the pandemic – motherhood, touring… – so do you think it would feel completely different anyway?

100%. I feel like I’m in a space in my thirties and being a mom where I just don’t have the ‘anxious give a f**ks’ that I had early on in my twenties. This is exactly what it’s supposed to be and this is what I want to say, it’s got something for everybody at different times. 

You’ve talked about it being the best music that you’ve ever put out and your favourite. Do you feel that this project is totally who you are?

Oh yeah, it’s definitely more about what I needed to say than it is guessing what I thought people wanted to hear, which I think is the only way I could do it. The thing that makes something meaningful for me in work is that it’s purposeful and healing for me, and hopefully then it’s purposeful and meaningful for everybody else too. 

I feel like it’s healing for you that usually translates at the end of the day… 

I’m not as excited about the reverse engineering at the end of the day. I don’t want to make the exact same record…

I don’t think people relate to it as much if you do do that. The more you overthink it the more that comes across.

Yeah and also you only have so much time here, so what are you doing?

You partnered with Jack Antonoff for ‘Classic.’ How did that come about and what did he bring to the project?

I was really happy because he has made records with a lot of people that I admire, like St Vincent, The Chicks and Taylor, so going up there to New York. We were at Electric Ladyland Studios – the Jimi Hendrix spot – and with someone new you’re nervous, wondering how it’s going to go and he was just so comfortable to be around that he can pull out anything, you’re not afraid to say the things that you throw out to make a song. He just sat there and just went all Simon and Garfunkel – Cecilia, that jangly-ness. It was so fun to throw out all these nostalgic lines, but deep down it’s really about those people, the classic people in your life, who are there despite the trends and the changes in the world. It was so fun to do and honestly I’m so happy – I’m definitely known for writing some more intense songs – and so grateful that I had this happy song. I was not about to put out a ‘Burning House’ right now, we’ve got enough heaviness right now.

Well you’ve got some heaviness in the record, ‘Forgetting You When I’m Alone’ is a weightier song. We’ve heard that song live a few times, but it’s changed up with the production, how did you arrive at that sound?

You know actually I think that song was the fastest to become something, it was probably similar times that it lived live and had the record pretty much done. I think there’s only a small difference at the end of the bridge to what we do live. Besides that, that song lives in a very specific way. I love it. Anything that’s regret and longing, everybody compares your current relationship, or your current job or whatever to your past lover or whatever it is, it’s so funny because the longer you hold on to this idea of someone… you get older but they never change because they’re just an idea, you’re not that person anymore, I just use you as a measurement. It’s really just me figuring out if I’m where I’m supposed to be with you, but it’s not helpful in the end you have to drop it and let go of this.

I remember at one point I ran into an ex’s sister, she was at a school that I was working at. I thought ‘oh my god, that guy, we broke up because of long distance but that was perfect, wasn’t that perfect,’ I created this whole idea. I reached out to him and he went ‘yeah, I’m engaged.’ I thought ‘oh you know what I was writing for the old you.’ I actually wasn’t really writing for you now.

Another song I loved from the record was ‘Changes.’ How did that song come to you?

There’s two songs on the album that I didn’t write, which is new for me. I heard the demo, it was Harry Styles, Lori McKenna, Tyler Johnson. Harry’s a good egg, small-town kid to me, not that I’m claiming to know everything about him, and Lori has this way of writing about hometowns and your relationship to them. It just struck a chord to me when I heard it, you’re just a little bit too big for your clothes, it doesn’t fit – that feeling – that’s what it meant to me when I heard it. I loved that and I was so tickled that I got to sing it – I don’t think he does that normally, let other artists sing his songs – and that’s his whistle still on it. 

Was that a very different experience then, opening yourself up to outside cuts?

It feels like a lot of pressure to sound like me, but I want them to be proud of it. It’s kind of heavy, I think I had to be really sure that I loved the songs, so I could take on that balancing act. The same thing with ‘The Otherside’ even though I wrote that with Tim, the fact that he was gone at the time, it was the final version – the same thing, I had to make it right for me but also for him and his family. I’ve been using the term ‘musical neighbours’ because I think that genres split people up, but the truth is that there’s something else that is the through-line and I think that Sam and Harry and Tim have these truths that they’re trying to say. They’re trying to say them in the most real way, they’re saying them how they’re supposed to say them. I feel like they are all my musical neighbours, so that made it a little easier, this is my story too.

Listening through to the record, there are so many stories for girls out there and it feels like a letter to your daughter of the things that you want to say to her. Was that a conscious thing when you were creating it?

I think even before I had a daughter, I always thought about ‘am I doing something that I would tell my daughter about?’ or have her be proud of or whatever, just for perspective. I think about her with ‘Girl Like Me’ – that song, I sat down with Natalie before I was pregnant, she came in and she had this idea and I thought what a great story. She said ‘it’s your song, it’s you, it’s your comeback song.’ It sunk in and we got to the chorus and she asked what the lyrics should be and I sang ‘They’re going to give up on you / You’re going to give up on them.’ I hadn’t heard someone say that life isn’t going to work out how Disney told you or even how your parents told you. Then when it sort of shatters for you for whatever reason, what are you going to do? Keep on living broken-hearted and disappointed and jaded, or are you going to find a way to not take it personally and fall back in love – for me with the music business? I had to fall back in love with doing this and acknowledge that it’s not going to be perfect, there are going to be messy bits, there’s going to be good people that do bad things, and good people that you trusted – all that kind of stuff, and it’s still going to be there, always. So am I going to not sail on my little boat? Nope. Onwards we go.

We can’t wait for this record to be out – thanks Cam!

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The post In Conversation With… Cam appeared first on off the record.

Artists join protests in Nashville against the recent police killing of George Floyd

Maren Morris passes Taylor Swift for Billboard record

The Bones has spent 12 weeks at the number one spot!

The Cadillac Three’s Neil Mason and wife Chelsea expecting 

Kip Moore to release short film about new album

Carrie Underwood celebrates 15 years since her American Idol win

Morgan Wallen arrested in Nashville

Kenny Foster is the first artist to play Destination Country’s June DC Sessions

Release Radar

Kip Moore’s Wild World Album – Kip has released his incredible new studio album. We review the record here.

Cam, ‘Redwood Tree’ – Cam seems to be moving yet further in the pop direction in new track, a beautifully written track, but we want more of the magic of ‘Burning House.’

Dolly Parton, ‘When Life Is Good Again’ – is there a voice more soothing than Dolly’s? It feels like she cures the world with her voice and melodies.

Jillian Jacqueline, ‘Wait for the Light’ – We’ve been ready for new JJ and now it’s here and it’s absolutely gorgeous. We’re addicted.

The post Your Country Music News Round-Up: 25th May – 1st June appeared first on off the record.