Hi Jackson, how are you doing today?

Not too bad!

It’s been three months since the release of Greenbroke, how have you found navigating its release and sharing this project with the world?

It’s a lot and it’s a lot of go go go, a lot of things happening at once. It feels good to let it go. I held this for a while, even the first five have been out for a while, so it felt really good to let it go.

Have there been any responses from fans that have surprised you with the direction they interpreted the songs?

Yeah, there’s a couple of them where people have taken them in a direction that I hadn’t intended, like ‘that’s not what it’s about but I like it.’ ‘Love You Anymore’ had a couple of interesting ones, ‘Trailer Park’ people are always intrigued by, but they’re also kind of stumped, like ‘what’s the deal?’ There’s a couple where people are on the same wavelength but a different page.

You obviously worked with Luke Dick on this project and he’s such a legend in the industry. Can you talk about the first interactions that you had with him and how he came to be a part of the project?

Yeah, so Luke writes for the same publishing company that I do – Little Louder – and I went over to his house one day and we just kind of hung out and got to know each other. It took us about two or three times of writing to where we actually got something, but the first time we just really hit it off and we started writing demos together. I remember one of the first ones was ‘Don’t Come Lookin” and I just kind of liked where that was headed. I mean I lived off Luke Dick demos for a while and some of them weren’t even songs I wrote, they were just songs where I liked what he was doing and how he was doing them. There’s really no one else in town that I’ve worked with that are producing the kinds of sounds that he is.

Well there’s such a specific sound of this record, it’s completely timeless and a very ‘outlaw country’ vibe, a sound that I think a lot have people have moved away from and you needed a very specific producer to kind of draw that out.

I haven’t heard a lot of those sounds in a really long time and it was really awesome to get to work with him. I just saw him yesterday and it’s always a privilege to work with him.

You’ve talked a bit about some of the songs that weren’t yours that you lived with, but I know you wrote every song on the record, so was that something that was very important to you in leading out and introducing yourself?

Oh yeah, I mean before I got signed, I had put out three records by myself that I wrote all by myself, so when I got to town and they were like ‘hey, we want to put you in a room with some other people, I thought absolutely no, we don’t do that.’ I did it a couple of times and then I got it. It was really important to me, I didn’t want to cut something that I hadn’t had a hand on.

Well you do want to be able to stand behind every song on the tracklist. I know before Nashville you had spent some time in Maryland and California, can you talk about how that journey has shaped the kind of music you’re putting out?

Well, there’s a good music scene in Maryland, there’s a lot of blues and country and there’s a circuit of like 15 of us who’d bop around, especially in the Baltimore scene – there’s a lot of hip hop and alternative in Baltimore. My drummer and I have been making music together since we were 14 and he’s done it for a decade in Baltimore, the first of my stuff he and I did together, so home was very influential to me. There’s so much great stuff there, and great venues now – the Merriweather, Ram’s Head… It was always around, at least to me, it was always there.

Landing in Nashville then, was it a big learning curve getting into the town and the industry?

It was really interesting because I didn’t move down here and then go and play all those writer’s rounds and get noticed, I had been noticed from out of state, so I came in and I was already writing with, off the bat, with Casey Beathard, Luke Dick… really top of the line writers. So, immediately, it was like ‘let’s get in there and after it,’ automatically I felt like the stakes were raised. In the beginning, I was trying to be a sponge and learn as much as I could, I was having to learn a whole new set of skills, aside from my own.

Leading onto the record, how did the idea of ‘Greenbroke’ take place and what did it mean to you?

Greenbroke didn’t really shape up until I started writing for the second half of the record, it was ‘Love You Anymore,’ ‘Don’t Take Much,’ ‘Fearless’ and ‘Don’t Come Lookin” – I didn’t really have a title for the record yet, but I was back home and I think I had just had my wisdom teeth yanked out. I was sitting in my chair, staring out at the screen door and it took me a couple of weeks to flush out. I had the rough outline and I took it to Jeff Hyde and asked him to help me tweak it and it just kind of came to life.

Do you find that happens often – leading with the melody rather than the lyrics?

It can go one way or the other, cos I’ll play for hours and in those hours things will come to me. It takes a bit of time for that sort of stuff. I think as soon as I started writing Greenbroke, I knew it needed to be the title of the record – it had never been written before, and I thought it could be so cool. I took the song to the studio with my band in Baltimore, and my guitarist came up with this kick ass solo and I thought ‘that’s it.’

So what’s up for the rest of the year?

So for the rest of the year, I’m writing a good bit when I can and the rest of the time, I’m pretty much on the road until the week before Christmas. This year, I’m just playing every show that I can.

I’m excited for you – good luck with the rest of the year!

Thank you.

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Following six consecutive No. 1 singles, Brett Young has just released his highly-anticipated new single “Lady” off an upcoming project via BMLG Records. A love letter to his daughter Presley and wife Taylor, he wrote the song with Ross Copperman and Jon Nite shortly before Presley’s birth in October 2019. Listen to the track here and watch the lyric video here. The track had already earned a lot of attention on Young’s recent ‘The Chapters’ tour, where it was introduced into the encore part of his set. It was a track that fans instantly gravitated toward due to its gorgeous melody and engaging lyrics – a relatable track for parents about what they want their children to grow up to be.

Of the track, Young states “‘Lady’ is easily one of the most special songs I’ve ever written… I always knew I would want to write songs for my children, but didn’t realize the inspiration would come so quickly before my daughter was even born. It’s a message to Presley about her mom and it became a pretty obvious choice for my first single in a new chapter of music. It’s so meaningful to Taylor and I, and I hope it resonates in a similar way for anyone who listens.”

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Yesterday, Thomas Rhett celebrated his 30th birthday and at the same time the multi-platinum entertainer released new single “Be A Light” via The Valory Music Co., a never-before-heard song with the help of fellow country music stars Reba McEntire, Hillary Scott, Chris Tomlin and Keith Urban. Having “comfortably grown into his role as a star with something to say” (Billboard), Thomas Rhett co-wrote the timeless message, sure to empower fans at this difficult time, alongside Josh Miller, Josh Thompson and Matt Dragstrem. Listen to the song’s poignant lyrics and boundless message of encouragement https://BM.lnk.to/BeALightLink

“I wrote ‘Be A Light’ last year as a way to process negativity and sadness I was seeing in the world,” explains Thomas Rhett. “Now, as I sit in my home with my family on my 30th Birthday, we are in the middle of a world-wide pandemic affecting every single human on earth, all while our town of Nashville is still healing from devastating tornadoes that destroyed so much of our city less than one month ago. But, among the wreckage, I see us come together in ways I never dreamed possible. I knew in my heart this was the time to share this message with the world and our community. The voices who join me on this track are some of the brightest lights I know. I hope this song serves as a reminder that we are all in this together.”

Additionally, Thomas Rhett and the song’s collaborators will donate all proceeds from “Be A Light” to the MusiCares® COVID-19 Relief Fund. The Recording Academy® and its affiliated charitable foundation MusiCares® have established the COVID-19 Relief Fund to help people in the music industry affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and subsequent cancellation of multiple music events. From hotel and bar gigs to major music festivals, COVID-19 is deeply impacting live music events, and the creative community behind it all. Administered through MusiCares, the COVID-19 Fund will be used to directly support those in the music community with the greatest need. If you wish to support our efforts to assist music people in need, visit:

https://www.grammy.com/MusiCares/CoronavirusReliefFund.

About Thomas Rhett: 5X ACM Awards nominee Thomas Rhett’s GRAMMY®-nominated fourth studio album CENTER POINT ROAD is a return to his roots and connects fans to his past, weaving together autobiographical stories with familiar sounds that have propelled his meteoric career. CENTER POINT ROAD has spawned two No. 1 hits, PLATINUM lead single, “Look What God Gave Her” which was first introduced on SNL and “Remember You Young,” while his current single “Beer Can’t Fix” ft. Jon Pardi has entered the Top 10 at Country radio, following a slew of RIAA-certified PLATINUM and GOLD chart-toppers, bringing Thomas Rhett’s No. 1 tally at Country radio to 14. Thomas Rhett earned his second CMA Triple Play award for penning three No. 1 songs within a 12-month period this year and was named Country radio’s most played artist of 2018, adding to his collection of trophies from the Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music, Billboard Music Awards, CMT Music Awards and more. Later this year, he will kick off his headlining THE CENTER POINT ROAD TOUR. For more information on new music and upcoming tour dates, visit ThomasRhett.com.

About MusiCares^®: A friend and ally of the music community, MusiCares^® was established by the Recording Academy to safeguard the health and well-being of all music people. A four-star charity and safety net in times of need, MusiCares^® offers confidential preventive, recovery, and emergency programs to address financial, medical, and personal health issues. Through the generosity of our donors and volunteer professionals, our dedicated team works across the country to ensure the music community has the resources and support it needs.

For more information, visit www.musicares.org, “like” MusiCares^® on Facebook, and follow @MusiCares on Twitter and Instagram.

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With a debut album like Every Little Thing already under her belt, Pearce was faced with a huge task to recreate and also progress the sound and success of this project in her sophomore album. She more than accomplished it. This album is a masterstroke – a reminder that country music is alive, well and thriving, that album craft itself is not dead and of course, that women should be celebrated and have a place on country radio. 

Opening with the first single from her new album, ‘Closer To You,’ Pearce draws a hard delineation between the state she was in for Every Little Thing and now – celebrating her love for now-husband, Michael Ray. The song is one that translates masterfully live (as we saw at last year’s C2C Festival),  celebrating love in an easy-breezy fashion, but does not permeate the depths of emotion that the later tracks do. Instead, the song dances out the toxins of Every Little Thing and positions the record’s compelling prose – an act of reconciliation with her previous heartbreak and a love letter to her husband. Such a mindset is imbued into the second teasing, playful and flirty track ‘Call Me,’ co-written with the male contingent of Little Big Town – ‘for a good time call me / Baby you won’t be sorry / Lay your hands and your kisses on me’. These two songs as a pair are definitely the grooviest, most ‘fun’ songs on the album – setting the parameters for the beginning of her relationship, and the album. 

‘I Hope You’re Happy Now’ follows this pair, reconciling Pearce with her previous heartbreak. This duet with Lee Brice acts as a homage to the country duets of the past – Dolly and Kenny, Tim and Faith – and the result is flawless and devastating in equal measure. Both Pearce and Brice pour their souls into the track, in this immensely relatable song about the two sides of heartbreak. It was a masterstroke to put Pearce in the driving seat for this one, singing about her sorrow for breaking her former lover’s heart (breaking the usual stereotype of it being the man).  ‘I hope you found what you were looking for / I hope your heart ain’t hurting anymore.’ The lyricism of the track, accompanied by lapsteel and pedal steel, has Busbee’s master touch all over it. To those who say country music doesn’t exist anymore, point them to this track.

Transitioning into the driving guitar on ‘Dashboard Jesus,’ Pearce again hammers home her love for a genre that has always been founded on real life, work, family and religion. Reminiscent of the ethos of Faith Hill’s ‘Wild One,’ the song is all about leaving home and needing only a ‘Dashboard Jesus’ for accompaniment – a song that feels immensely personal and a real insight into the mind of the artist. ‘Every body says she’s dreaming, crazy for believing / But all you really need is fifty dimes and a Dashboard Jesus.’ 

Vocally, Pearce is her strongest on next track ‘Halfway Home,’ where her range is simply phenomenal, and shows just how far she has come even since her debut. It is another song about the other side of love, having to come clean on a relationship that just isn’t right. The emotion imbued in the track is overpowering and it will surely create a devastating live ‘moment.’ 

These tracks, as a trio, appear as a reminiscence on her past love, before notching up the pace of the record for ‘Heart’s Going Out of Its Mind’ and ‘Finish Your Sentences’ (duet with Michael Ray.  The former is a groovy, modern-country tune, ‘boy, whatever you’re selling I’m buying it, / I’m losing it a little but I’m liking it… if I look a little crazy that’s fine, my heart’s going out of its mind.’ The track is love-fuelled and fun, with more depth, vocal creativity and clever songwriting than is obvious at first listen, whilst ‘Finish Your Sentences’ with Michael Ray is a more mature, quieter ballad. The track really brings out the best in Ray too; his vocal’s depth in the lower registers is stunning, particularly when coupled with the range of Pearce’s voice that soars here. Like a marriage, the track brings together the best of both Pearce and Ray’s music and the result is flawless.

‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’ is arguably the stand-out moment on the album – though you’d be hard-pressed to find just one. In terms of Pearce’s legacy, personally this track supersedes ‘Every Little Thing’ in its emotional complexity and the depths Pearce clearly tapped into on recording. The track deals with living in the moment, embracing your current state – though the track can read as two ways, for those who need a reminder that life won’t always be this tough, and a reminder to embrace the good times when they happen. The song describes wanting to get out of her hometown, but then wanting to return – the magic is in Pearce’s pure tone of her vocal, and the gorgeous songwriting with Hemby and Ellis ‘I had big wings, but didn’t have a sky,’ with Pearce’s voice teetering on the brink of breaking under the weight of the emotion she handles in the track.

Sultrier track, ‘Lighting in a Bottle’ leads with a groovier, more stripped-back track, singing again about the beginning of a relationship, and Pearce’s vocal trips easily over the track. The genius here is in the constantly changing, yet consistently lazily groovy tempo, and the cadence of changes to the layers of instrumentation, rising in waves, before Pearce flawlessly sings acapella at the culmination of the track. Similarly, ‘Love Has No Heart’ pauses in the choruses, allowing Pearce’s vocals to swell, whilst the verses, at points, move with a loose, staccato tempo.  

Pearce revives so many themes that are the legacy of country music in ‘Woman Down’ that feels astute and ‘of the moment,’ accompanied by an easy lapsteel. ‘Woman down, down on her luck, there goes the man, there goes the plan, there goes the truck‘ inverting them in an image of empowered, independent women. The track feels anthemic – ‘You can’t keep a woman down… Who you going to bet on when the sky is falling?’ The theme feels like new territory for Pearce, yet within the context of the record, is the missing piece in the compelling prose of this record that is continued in the positioning of ‘You Kissed Me First.’ The track feels sassy and fun, ‘If I wake up in your T-shirt, just remember you kissed me first,’ a reminder to a lover of who is in control (supposedly) of the relationship.

Rounding out the album, ‘Greener Grass’ is imbued with nostalgia, looking back to the positive sides of relationships. ‘It cuts me to the bone, knowing I can’t go back to greener grass.’ Busbee’s production feels nostalgic, infused with 90s-country production and hints of a more mystical sound. The track is a reminder of Pearce’s headspace whilst writing ‘Every Little Thing,’ yet is rife with nostalgia, signposting this reconciliation with her previous heartbreak and her current happiness.

Busbee’s imprint is everywhere in the album – in the care to which he handles ‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’ to the ratcheted up tempo and popped production on ‘Heart’s Going Out of Its Mind’ – and there is no more fitting legacy to his craftsmanship than this record. Pearce has created a record that will both satisfy and please her previous fans, and also create a new legion of fans. This album is so utterly compelling, both in the way that Pearce has paid homage to the legacy of country music in the themes, content and framework of songwriting and also in the phrasing of the record, as an insight into Pearce’s journey since Every Little Thing. I have not listened to an album in a while where every track is so enthralling in its own right, but when placed within the context of the record creates a different kind of prose entirely. The result is flawlessly captivating and deserving of every commendation that is bound to come its way.

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Editor’s Picks

It Won’t Always Be Like This

I Hope You’re Happy Now

Halfway Home

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Follow Carly on Instagram / Twitter / Facebook

The post Carly Pearce Delivers Beyond Expectation With Sophomore Album appeared first on off the record.

Album Cover Art Courtesy of Big Machine Records

Massive tour dates, a history-making debut and notable accolades have continued to propel CARLY PEARCE as a mainstay talent, but with new music on the horizon, she is set for an even bolder 2020.

She’s unveiled more details surrounding her self-titled sophomore album ahead of its Valentine’s Day 2020 release via Big Machine Records. Available for pre-order now, fans who pre-order digitally will instantly receive  “Closer To You,” Top-30-and-rising duet with Lee Brice “I Hope You’re Happy Now” and “It Won’t Always Be Like This.”

American Songwriter touts the nostalgic sentiments written alongside Sam Ellis and Natalie Hemby as a “heartfelt tribute.” Late longtime collaborator busbee produced the 13-track project and contributed songwriting credits.

The only female Country artist on Forbes 30 Under 30, Carly joins her “I Hope You’re Happy Now” co-writer Luke Combs on the list – “proof positive that the future will be new, exciting and profoundly different.” She is a loyal advocate of Country music’s legacy and future, celebrating 70+ invitations to perform at the Grand Ole Opry and a partnership with the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum on Unbroken Circle: Exploring Country Music History with Carly Pearce.

CARLY PEARCE TRACK LIST: 

1. “Closer To You” |Hillary Lindsey, Gordie Sampson, Troy Verges
2. “Call Me” |busbee, Emily Shackelton, Phillip Sweet, Jimi Westbrook
3. “I Hope You’re Happy Now (Carly Pearce and Lee Brice)” |Carly Pearce, Luke Combs, Randy Montana, Jonathan Singleton
4. “Dashboard Jesus” |Victoria Banks, Sara Haze, Emily Shackelton
5. “Halfway Home” |Carly Pearce, Jimmy Robbins, Laura Veltz
6. “Heart’s Going Out Of Its Mind” |Carly Pearce, Joe Ginsberg, Laura Veltz
7. “Finish Your Sentences (Carly Pearce and Michael Ray)” |Kelsea Ballerini, Jesse Frasure, Ashley Gorley, Thomas Rhett
8. “It Won’t Always Be Like This” |Carly Pearce, Sam Ellis, Natalie Hemby
9. “Lightning In A Bottle” |Hannah Ellis, Anna Vaus
10. “Love Has No Heart” |Sara Haze, Shane McAnally, Trevor Rosen
11. “Woman Down” |Shane McAnally, Jimmy Robbins, Laura Veltz
12. “You Kissed Me First” |Josh Kear, Hillary Lindsey, Gordie Sampson
13. “Greener Grass” |Hillary Lindsey, Jonny Price, Ben West

Lighting a fire with her debut album EVERY LITTLE THING, the No. 1 PLATINUM-certified title track designated Carly as the highest charting solo female debut since July 2015 and one of only three women to accomplish this feat the last decade.  Her blockbuster ballad steered a chart-topping trifecta on SiriusXM’s The Highway while ABC Radio deemed Carly “Country’s ‘it’ girl” as she hit the road with Blake Shelton, Rascal Flatts, Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean ensued for “Country’s ‘it’ girl” (ABC Radio). Carly won the 2018 CMT Music Awards Breakthrough Video of the Year and a Radio Disney Music Award for The Freshest! – Radio Disney Country Best New Artist, plus garnered nominations from the ACM Awards, CMA Awards and iHeartRadio Music Awards.

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Lady Antebellum’s eighth studio album ‘Ocean’ was one of the most hotly anticipated albums of 2019. Their seventh album ‘Heart Break’ took the direction of the band’s sound in a wholly new direction, and so fans and critics alike were curious to see the sonic tone that this project would take. As Charles Kelley said, this album truly does take the band back to their ‘Need You Now’ roots, but also the album tests the borders of the country genre while still having the taste of ‘American Honey’. While the trio have never shied away from life’s ups and downs, there is a greater sense of vulnerability to this record in tracks such as ‘Let It Be Love’ and the albums title track ‘Ocean.’ The entire record shows a huge amount of thought into the craft of the project as a journey and story for the listener – creating a masterpiece to listen to.

We first heard ‘What If I Never Get Over You’ at this year’s C2C festival in London, and back then the audience was captivated by the track even before its release. It is a perfect opener for the album and is well-positioned as a possible sequel to their debut pop cross over hit ‘Need You Now’. While it seems that they’re opening the album with an unfinished journey, it acts as a great segue to the hopeless romantic stories yet to come on the album. Dave’s bright rhythmic guitar truly drives the bold opener, while Charles and Hillary’s smooth harmonies candidly show that the band are back with a punch, veering into new territory while still retaining all the elements that made Lady Antebellum successful in the first place.

The next track takes a turn into sentimental, with Hilary taking the lead to sing about looking through some old ‘Pictures’ of a love that lasted as long as a camera flash. It’s the first time that the band have experimented with a Thomas-Rhett kind of funk, since 2013’s Downtown, and there’s no complaint from us. The song’s instrumentation masks a rose-coloured tint across the sad stories behind the smiling pictures and while the song sounds like a chilled summer hit, the lyrics speak of a love that ‘was sad, it was tragic, we sure looked happy in pictures’. This is nostalgic sentiment at its finest. 

For the next track ‘Crazy Love,’ the band mix in a strand of bluegrass. Dave’s musicianship shines through in this track, with tender use of banjo and mandolin in this happy, upbeat song that is bound to be a hit with country couples. The song speaks of growth and pays homage to the bands journey since the success of their hits such as ‘Run To You’ and ‘Our Kind Of Love’. Charles’ vulnerability in lyrics such as ‘You could see right through the boy and see a man’ cuts through the front porch instrumentation and adds depth to the more stripped-back song. 

Continuing with the funk, ‘You Can Do You,’ is a swampy, slide guitar-driven track that swaggers and is definitely the most fun song on the album. It doesn’t matter if you’re the ‘life of the party, wall flower’ or not even a country fan – this is definitely a song that will get you dancing ‘a little wilder’. It’s an enthralling sight to see of the band who are usually not known for party songs, however they pull it off more than well and we hope to hear this track when the band finally announce the album’s tour. 

Hilary’s fine vocals ring through on ‘What I’m Leaving For’,  and direct the spotlight to their families – a tenderly written song that speaks of the band’s love for their family. It’s a missing home lullaby and while the drums are brushed and the strings are gentle, the lyrics are heavy with destiny and gratefulness of how they all ‘picked the right stars, made the right wish’. 

Track six is another track played at C2C – ‘Be Patient with My love.’ This track has the most colourful instrumental palette out of all of the tracks on the album. The song brings out the hopeless in hopeless romantic. The band have always seemed to be able to balance moments of solo shine throughout their career and in this track we hear Charle’s exploration with elements of Mississippi gospel and disrobed pride as he sings ‘I’m comin’ back/Like holy redemption/I’m comin’ back to the man that I was’. After Charles’ song, we turn to Hilary’s spotlight and again revisit bluegrass in ‘Alright’. It’s a pop infused track with summer brightness and is a pick me up for anyone ‘running low on caffeine’. We don’t usually see such a boppy side to Hilary’s solos, following ‘It Ain’t Pretty’ and ‘Bartender’ which both depict heartbreak. Instead we hear for the first time a ‘shake it off’ carefree Hilary who has clearly grown with confidence. 

‘Let It Be Love’ adds a whole new level of exposure to the band as they address their egos and flaws. ‘I forget I’m just one drop in a big old sea’ rings echoes of ‘Hello World’ but is navigated by powerful, soulful piano, which lifts the track up. The band send a message of a love that has ‘power to rise up, the well that never drys up’ and is a spine-tingling ensemble.

‘On A Night Like This’ takes us to a neon bar-Billy Joel gospel. The moonlit song is accompanied by a country orchestra and lays sentiment on thick. It’s a great contrast to the previous songs on the album so far, and it adds some sparkle to a heavy and reflective album. It doesn’t quite have the same high school sweetheart notion as ‘Dancing away with My Heart’, but shows a maturity to fledged love.  

If you plan a road trip this summer be sure to add ‘Boots’ to your soundtrack. Led by Joplin-esque tambourine and harmonica, this toe-tapping tempo track is sure to get your boots stomping along to ‘these boots are walking out on you, they ain’t got no running left to do’. Having the widest mix in the album, the panning is literally oceans wide, and helps to support the image of the great unknown and travel. 

Over the years, Lady Antebellum have built a close relationship with fellow country group Little Big Town. ‘The Things That Wreck You’ showcases a new dark side to both artists. The hazy guitar glooms over ‘you’re a bird in flight, to a house of flames’ and digs deeper into themes of self sabotage and forces you to take off your rose coloured glasses. Dave’s distorted  reverb electric guitar helps cut through the darker haze of the track, and Little Big Town’s signature harmonies fit seamlessly with that always exhibited by Charles and Hilary.

The albums leading single and title track creates a circular ending to the works as the members accept ‘I’m not going to drown… youre an ocean beautiful and blue’ and gives the impression of walking into and owning the storm. It is undeniable that the band have travelled to undiscovered states in the country genre. While revisiting their roots, they have incorporated elements of funk and modern pop, all the while diving to seabed depths through honesty and experimentation. The result is a masterpiece of modern experimentation and Lady Antebellum’s signature, traditional country sound.

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Editor’s Pick Tracks: 

The Things That Wreck You (ft.Little Big Town) 

Crazy Love 

Boots 

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Follow Lady Antebellum on Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / Spotify

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How’s your trip been so far? I’ve seen you exploring all across London with the Churchill War Rooms. 

Yeah, I’ve been doing it all, yesterday I walked around for about eight hours around the city. Everywhere I wanted to go, when I looked on the map there were a bunch of parks in between, so I thought why wouldn’t I just walk there. I made it to Buckingham Palace.

Hopefully this will be the first of many UK trips, so you’ll have lots more time to explore…

I certainly hope so, I’m already having a blast.

The current single is ‘Leave Her Wild,’ inspired by the Atticus quote? 

Yeah so my wife, it’s always been her favourite quote. One of the writers I wrote it with, John, came into the studio and said ‘hey man, have you ever seen this thing, I see these girls posting it all the time,’ and I said, ‘oh yeah it’s Sabina’s favourite.’ He started talking, asking why it was her favourite. We started talking, she was in a relationship in the past that was super controlling and I had been in a relationship in the past that was also very controlling, and you get sucked into this thing where you love the person, but you aren’t yourself anymore. So we started talking about this idea of ‘If you’re going to love her, leave her wild. If you’re going to make her, make her smile.’ All these different things just started to fall out and it became this story live. Now it’s amazing when we play it live and telling the story of how it came to life, it’s not even relationship-wise – we’ll see little girls hop onto dads’ shoulders and sing along.

Well it’s one of those songs I think a lot of girls can relate to and read themselves into.

100%. It’s funny though because there’s also the other side to it. There’ll be guys that as soon as we start playing that, guys will hold the girl and they’ll go crazy because it’s their song and then there’s the girls that are really wild and guys are like ‘why are you inspiring this Tyler? Somebody needs to calm her down. Stop dancing.’ Those guys hate me.

Did you fathom the response that song would get? Did you have that gut feeling when you were in the room?

Yeah absolutely, we were all super excited. I’ve found I always leave thinking ‘oh damn that was really cool,’ but I’ll know within a day if it works. As you’re doing it you’re excited about it.

You grew up in California. Can you describe what it was like there? I know everyone knows about Hollywood and Disneyland, but it’s much more diverse than that? 

I tell that story all the time on stage, people say ‘if you’re from California, then why do you like country music?’ I’m like ‘have you ever been there?’ and they say they’ve been to Disneyland, LA where the traffic sucked. California, in general, though it’s a whole coast of a country, almost of a continent – it’s massive. Everything north of the Hollywood sign, even beach towns and even some of those are so agriculture-driven. They have wide open beautiful spaces. Where I grew up is just a hub of farming, surrounded by some big cities, but it’s just this tiny town. Even if I didn’t grow up there, my mom listened to country growing up my whole life. Somebody could be born and raised in New York City but if their parents listened to it growing up and they love country music and they want to play it then that’s all that matters.

You didn’t go straight to country music though, so how did you get back to knowing that that was where you wanted to be? 

I was in and out of different indie rock bands, just any type of music I could play with my friends really. We toured around a lot, and when the last one of those bands broke up I decided to go back to school and got my degree. I told myself as soon as I graduate that I would move to LA and become a solo artist. So I graduated and as soon as I got down there, I was writing all these songs and I met up with these producers and said this is kind of the direction I’m going. I didn’t even call it country, I just said this is the direction I’m going and these are the songs, it was just singer-songwriter stuff, a bunch of songs about where I grew up and the girl who broke my heart which sucked. They were like ‘you wanna do country?’ I thought I’ve always loved country and I’ve grown up listening to it, but it just wasn’t very clear. I’m not from Tennessee or Georgia, I don’t have an accent, I’m just singing songs about shit that happened to me. I’d always loved country music and wanted to do it, so I was like ‘shit well if I’m going to be a solo artist, I’m going to do country.’ In LA, especially, unless you have thousands and thousands of dollars, if you find a producer who believes in what you’re doing, you create a deal and you just work together. They just loved it and they had a passion for it and we just went. I opened up this book and I had all these songs, what I thought were country songs that I was writing from back in the day and throwing out ideas. We created all these songs, and we put out this single called ‘Radio’ forever ago and it did really well independently.

How far along did you decide to make the move to Nashville? 

I’d say 2 years after that first single came out, everything started happening so fast once that single came out. I started playing shows… I released the ‘Valerie’ EP just after I moved to Nashville.

It must feel so different doing that EP independently and then this one with Big Machine. Can you describe the difference in how it’s felt? 

Well doing the ‘Valerie’ EP, there wasn’t really any thought to it. It was ‘hey, I released a single’ and now I’m going to release more and more singles and songs that I wrote and love, and I’m just going to put them out into the world. This one was way more orchestrated, but for all the right reasons of course. We’re dropping a surprise new single tomorrow night.

‘The Difference’ felt like the tipping point for your career. How did that song come to you?

We had all these songs, ones that we loved and wanted to put out but we just weren’t sure we had the first single. The first single is so important, you only get one first single right. We went through all these pitching meetings and people were sending us songs, we had so many songs in the pile and I was writing more songs in the pile, but we just weren’t sure we had the one. We sat down for a five hour pitch meeting. Every thirty minutes a publisher comes in and they come in with a list of songs for us, and usually by the minute you pass or write it down to listen to later. Four hours in, my ears were numb. The song starts playing and I hear this cool, kind of swagger in it, super stripped down. The demo compared to what we did with it in the studio was very skeletal, very stripped. This voice of Devin singing it… He’s one of my favourite voices, and writers, he’s just incredible. I heard his voice on that demo and thought ‘this is dope,’ maybe a puppy head twerk because it’s from California – he grew up like twenty minutes from me. The chorus hit and the lyric hit and I thought ‘this is it, this is amazing.’

What’s up next for the rest of the year? 

Germany next week and then the Brantley Gilbert cruise, then three radio shows up to Christmas and then I’m done for the year. I mean stuff might pop up, but this summer was nuts. First Stagecoach, Faster Horses, Boots and Hearts in Canada, every county fair you can imagine… Those tiny random little county fairs are awesome.

_______________________________

Final Few

Beer or whiskey? Beer.

Give up songwriting or performing? Songwriting.

Record you couldn’t live without if you were stuck on a desert island? Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Complete the sentence…

Music is… therapy.

Country music is… real.

Tyler Rich is… fun as hell (laughs).

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Listen to the full interview on the podcast

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

Hotly-tipped newcomer Lauren Jenkins will release her debut album No Saint via Big Machine Records on March 15. To coincide with the release, Lauren will be in the UK to perform at C2C (Country To Country) Festival in London, March 8-10, with solo, acoustic spots announced so far on The Town Square and CMW Hub.

Listen to lead-off tracks from No Saint here: No Saint, Running Out Of Road,Maker’s Mark And You and Give Up The Ghost

Lauren also wrote, co-produced, and starred in an original short film titled Running Out of Road which will accompany the release of her album. The film sets Jenkins’s music and passion for storytelling against the backdrop of the American West and the first trailer recently premiered at Variety’s Music For Screens Summit. Watch here.

ABOUT LAUREN JENKINS: Big Machine recording artist Lauren Jenkins has been a touring artist since she was 15 years old. The Texas born, Carolina-raised singer-songwriter chose a life that would fit perfectly in the songs she writes: across countless smoky bars, fake IDs, and endless miles on the road, music has been her one constant companion. Lauren’s unfiltered lyrics and unmistakably authentic vocals blend traditional country roots with Americana influences; she’s equally at home with cheerful radio-friendly melodies one moment, and expressions of raw emotion the next. Named an Artist to Watch by the New York Times, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Pandora, and many more, she was also chosen as a member of the “Class of 2019” by influential radio DJ Bobby Bones. Lauren recently completed writing, co-producing, and starring in an original short film titled Running Out of Road that accompanies the release of her debut album, NO SAINT, due in March of 2019. The first single from that album, “Give Up the Ghost,” is available now.

The post #ForTheRecord: Lauren Jenkins’ Debut Album ‘No Saint’ Released March 15 appeared first on off the record.