Country

The wise philosopher Amy Grant has previously noted that the holidays amplify life’s changes more than any other window of time.
Most families have seasonal rituals — pulling out the same ornaments, baking the same foods and singing the same songs — so the advent of a new baby, a death, a wedding or a divorce are likely to become more extreme during that window and remind people of life’s uncertainties.

With that backdrop, Justin Moore’s new nonseasonal single, “Time’s Ticking,” arrived at an appropriate time, going to country radio via PlayMPE on Oct. 25.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

“It’s pretty simple,” Moore says of the song’s message. “Live life to the fullest, and try to take advantage of every moment you have, whether it be with your family or with your career. Make the most out of every single day.”

That message has quite a track record in country music. Cody Johnson’s “ ’Til You Can’t,” Kenny Chesney’s “Don’t Blink,” Ty Herndon’s “Living in a Moment” and, of course, Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” are just a few of the titles that encourage the listener to experience the present as it passes.

Trending on Billboard

“When you’re in the daily grind,” Moore says, “you can kind of lose sight of that at times. It’s good to have the opportunity to be reminded of it.”

Co-writer/producer Jeremy Stover (“Til My Last Day,” “You’re Like Coming Home”) appears, according to two of his co-writers, to have brought the title when “Time’s Ticking” was written at his Florida Panhandle property on Feb. 24, 2023.

“My kids are getting a little older,” Stover says, “and just thinking on some of the moments I’ve missed, but also some of the ones I’ve been there for — you know, the ones I’ve been there for have been really, really valuable, and I appreciate a lot. That’s a big part of where that comes from.”

Moore spent about a week writing for his This Is My Dirt album, and the day before he arrived in Florida, Stover prepped a few ideas with Randy Montana (“Beer Never Broke My Heart,” “Pretty Heart”) and Will Bundy (“Friends Like That,” “Half of Me”). Moore willingly addressed mortality in previous hits “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” and “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home,” so when Stover suggested “Time’s Ticking,” no one batted an eye at the subject matter.

“Nobody has a better pulse on Justin Moore than Jeremy Stover,” Bundy notes. “They’ve worked together from day one, so he knows exactly the ins and outs of what Justin is going to love.”

Bundy started working with a brisk train beat, putting an energetic spin on a potentially difficult topic, and they developed the chorus’ lyrical framework, opening with “Call your mama, kiss your babies” and closing with the title. They mapped out the melody a bit, too, and instead of giving the chorus a typical lift, they kept it generally in the same range as the verses.

“Sometimes we call them the anti-chorus,” Montana notes. “So many of those choruses, you go up a third or a fifth in your scale. Some people even go an octave, depending on the singer, but man, there’s something so smooth about a song that kind of just stays in that spot.”

As predicted, Moore happily rolled up his sleeves on it the next day. They decided a funeral procession would reasonably lead the protagonist’s mind toward his own finality, and they dropped a “long, black Cadillac” right in the first two lines. They debated whether a hearse was the right image to start a song, but the debate didn’t last too long.

“When you’re writing a song, if you can leave a mark early, I think it’s better,” Moore explains, “so people kind of instantly have an understanding of where you’re going.”

It didn’t hurt that Bundy tagged the intro with a spry instrumental signature as he built the track, offsetting the potential for “Time’s Ticking” to take a morbid direction.

“I always love to find that sig lick early,” Bundy says. “That’s the first melody you hear of a song, and we know how short people’s attention span is these days. If that doesn’t catch your ear pretty quick, you’re sort of cooked before you get going.”

They crafted “Time’s Ticking” with surprising simplicity. In verse one, the guy honors the motorcade by pulling into a Kwik Sak parking lot. In the chorus, he has a stark attitude adjustment, reminding himself to appreciate every second he’s given. In verse two, he drives back onto the road with his new outlook.

That’s all the action that occurs in the entire three-and-a-half minutes.

“The song is actually longer than what happens in the song in real time,” Montana observes. “I think that’s super cool.”

His co-writers also credit Stover with a quirky stand-out lyric: “Spinner bait a good honey hole.” It might sound a little suggestive to some listeners who don’t know anglers’ lingo — a “honey hole” is a secret fishing hot spot. And “spinner bait” is a noun that’s purposely misused as a verb. The phrase begs the listener to lean in a little and figure out the specifics.

“It sounds a hair left-footed, but I love that,” Montana says. “That’s the part that sticks with me after I listen to it.”

Once Bundy built out the demo, Moore nailed the final vocal for “Time’s Ticking” in the kitchen, and he joined Stover and co-producer Scott Borchetta at a later date for a tracking session at The Castle in Franklin, Tenn. Moore’s road band handled the parts with Danny Rader augmenting on acoustic guitar and banjo. Bundy’s sig lick was rerecorded with two guitars delivering the riff, and Tucker Wilson’s drum part was heavily filtered in the first verse.

“It added that kind of lo-fi, boxy sound,” Stover says.

Steel guitarist Mike Johnson ladled a spiritual twang onto the cut during an overdub session at Blackbird Studio, perpetuating the players’ overall musical mission.

“It’s more of a happy feel,” Stover says. “It’s a positive song. It’s not a punch to the face to say, ‘Hey, wake up, time’s a-tickin’.’ It’s more like a peck on the shoulder.”

Dierks Bentley made a guest appearance on the album version, though conflicts in his own release schedule nixed any possibility of him participating in a single. So Valory serviced radio with a mix that relies on all of Moore’s original solo vocal.

The make-the-most-of-it message of “Time’s Ticking” ends up applying to Moore’s career as much as to his fans’ lives.

“You never know when the last [single] you’re going to have is the last one you’re going to have,” he says.

“So I’m trying to put out music that will stand the test of time, and I believe this song has that opportunity.”