Country
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Women artists lead this week’s crop of stellar new songs, including Hailey Whitters‘ somber examination of grief and friendship, as well as Sierra Hull’s shimmering new bluegrass offering and Lanie Gardner’s raw, rock-fueled new track.
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of several top new country, bluegrass and Americana tracks of the week.
Hailey Whitters, “Casseroles”
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ACM Award winner Whitters, known for her charming, sunny songs such as “Everything She Ain’t,” returns with her first new music since 2023. This time, she offers a somber ballad reflecting on how the pain, loss and realities of a life irrevocably shifted by the passing of a loved one don’t pause for those navigating grief. In the song’s later verses, the song veers more introspective, as Whitters ponders the caliber of friend she has been to those going through grief–a friend whose concern is fleeting, or one who keeps showing up with long-term support. Whitters is known for her own wisdom-filled songwriting prowess, but on this elegantly-instrumented ballad, written by Hillary Lindsey, James Slater and Tom Douglas, Whitters gives a reminder that her nimble voice is a potent emotional translator.
Sierra Hull, “Boom”
Multi-IBMA Award winner Hull is set to release her first album in five years (and first independently-released project) on March 7, with A Tip Toe High Wire. The lead single from that project is a slab of sparkling mandolin, steady acoustic guitar, syncopated rhythms and high-flying harmonies. Written by Hull and Adam Wright, “Boom” has been part of Hull’s live shows for a couple of years. Hull wraps her conversational, angelic vocal around lyrics of moving past mistakes and regrets to embrace new eras of hope and love. “Promises break like little figurines,” she sings knowingly, but reminds listeners that it takes is a heart-shifting moment to turn heartbreak to love.
Lanie Gardner, “Buzzkill”
Gardner has seen her musical profile ascend thanks to her breakthrough cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” and having a song included on the blockbuster Twisters: The Album. She follows it with this funky, bold takedown of a certified “mean girl,” turning this defiant blast of wisdom into a communal rallying cry. Gardner’s voice is at once searing and sultry, and she stands from a crowded pack of country music newcomers by infusing her music with seething rock fusions.
Emily Ann Roberts, “Easy Does It”
On her previous debut album, Can’t Hide Country, Roberts cemented her current status as one of country music’s most engaging, neo-traditional voices. She follows that project with this new song, one in which her butter-soft voice in a single breath encapsulates both the sting of painful memories and the emotional exhale of relief at a current romantic situation. “I thought doors were meant to slam/hate and love went hand in hand,” she sings, reflecting on an emotionally-battering relationship, juxtaposing that past toxic experience with her present easygoing, faith-restoring love. Roberts wrote this song with Jason Haag and Autumn Buysse.
The Droptines, “Old Tricks”
Texas band The Droptines formed in 2019 and has since been growing their audience in a time-tested, one-show-at-a-time fashion, becoming an in-demand live act. The group’s unfiltered alt-country sound continues on “Old Tricks,” written by The Droptines frontman and lyricist Conner Authur. “I try to change, but I’m a stray after all,” he sings, musing about brief romantic flings and jilted lovers that war with an un-dimming desires. The Droptines released their self-titled project last year, and keep building their reputation as a must-hear group.
Willow Avalon, “The Actor”
Avalon’s vivid songwriting and signature vocal warble have commanded attention with her previously released songs such as “Gettin’ Rich and Goin’ Broke.” Here, she pours her distinct drawl over a tale of rueful reflection over romantic mistakes on this song from her newly released project Southern Bell Raisin’ Hell. “I was a fool and he was an actor,” she sings over robust guitars. The song teems with regrets over a ex-lover, but Avalon sings it with a grit that seems to suggest someone who’s learned the lessons and moved on with defiant confidence.
Olivia Wolf, “The Veil”
Northern California native Olivia Wolf transcends the boundaries between temporal and the ethereal, blending incisive, observant lyricism with elements of bluegrass, folk and country. Wolf’s debut album Silver Rounds released today (Jan. 17), featuring tracks including the somber song “The Veil,” which Wolf wrote with Sean McConnell. Backed by sparse guitar, she ponders the fast-arriving sense of loss on lyrics such as “I won’t be here tomorrow/ But this midnight is ours.” Her voice is imbued with an earthy elegance as the song slowly builds around her, frothing into dramatic tension before concluding with a feeling of stoic resignation as she sings, “It’s heavy sometimes seeing behind the veil.” This album marks Wolf as an astute singer-songwriter well worth listening to.
Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney have long had a very sweet mutual admiration society. But when the “Take Her Home” country star appeared on The Tonight Show on Thursday night (Jan. 16), he revealed that the early stages of their friendship famously got off to a rocky start.
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Chesney recalled the oft-repeated story about how when Swift was 17 she was booked to open a tour for him that was sponsored by a beer company. “They came to us right before the tour started and said, ‘We can’t have a minor on the tour,’” Chesney recalled. “Which made sense. But I had to call Taylor personally and tell her she couldn’t go on tour with me, which now seems absurd, right?”
Chesney said he made the difficult call and told Swift he felt terrible about the bait-and-switch because he knew she was going to lose money from the scotched gig. “I gave her a specific amount of money… it was quite a bit of money, because I wanted to make it up to her,” said Chesney.
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Later, both singers were nominated for CMAs entertainer of the year. “Well, she won,” explained Chesney, a four-time winner of the award, of Swift’s first of two CMA top honors in 2009. “So, backstage, I went up to her and gave her a big hug. I said ‘congratulations, but gimme my money back.’”
The question came after Fallon mentioned that Swift gave Chesney a shout-out in her TIME magazine Person of the Year essay in 2023, noting that she got kicked off his tour when she was 17, at a time when she thought the outing was “going to change my career… I was so excited.”
She confirmed then that the generous country star sent her a card and a check for her 18th birthday, “for more money that I’d ever seen in my life. I was able to pay my band bonuses. I was able to pay for my tour buses. I was able to fuel my dreams.” Chesney was one of the first to congratulate Swift her her Person of the Year honor, writing on Instagram at the time, “Taylor, I knew looking in your eyes that first time on stage with us, you had ‘it.’ It’s been awesome watching you shine!”
During the chat, Chesney also shared a funny pic from his summer tour with Megan Moroney, when the “Am I Okay?” singer surprised the headliner by going to his tour bus and put on one of his signature tank tops and whit cowboy hats before taking the stage dressed as him. “It just goes to show you that not only is Megan a great songwriter, she’s got a really good personality,” he said.
Chesney also talked about his long friendship with Jimmy Buffett, his tribute to the “Cheeseburger in Paradise” singer at last year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony alongside James Taylor and and longtime Coral Reefer Band member Mac McAnally. “That was a tough night. It really was,” Chesney said. “Jimmy taught a lot of us how to paint pictures with words. For that reason I’ve always looked up to Jimmy Buffett.”
The singer who just announced an upcoming residency gig at the immersive Sphere in Las Vegas, told Fallon that he signed up for the run despite never seeing a show at the eye-popping, state-of-the-art venue. But when he went to check it out, he said, “it’s like we’re all just… the band, the audience, is all in a completely different state of consciousness. And I looked at my crew and my team and I went, ‘There’s no way we’re not not doing this!’”
The only downside he said, is that because all the mind-bending visuals are shot in super hi-def 36K, all the visuals and footage Chesney has used over the years during his stadium shows were not gonna cut it. “Which is good, because it just makes it really new and fresh,” he promised of the show that he’s already in rehearsals for.
Chesney’s Sphere residency will kick off on May 24.
Watch Chesney on The Tonight Show below..
The class of new country artists with debut projects coming in the first six months of 2025 looks a little different. Thankfully.
Of 13 acts readying their first album or EP for a major label or indie of significance, three are projects by solo females and three belong to vocal duos. Those subsets include Kat Luna, a singer with Cuban-American roots; and two multi-racial duos: Neon Union and 2 Lane Summer.
That development comes at a time when country labels are recognizing the nation’s changing consumer base, which practically requires a universe of artists that better resembles those shifts.
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That doesn’t mean that the genre’s history is being overlooked: John Morgan, Tucker Wetmore and Bryce Leatherwood continue to work the kind of musical vein that country listeners expect. Luna, Neon Union and 2 Lane fit within those historic boundaries, too, while owning their own sonic brand.
“The country market is a lot of male country singers,” says 2 Lane’s Chris Ray, “so we were like, ‘Let’s just come together. Let’s do something that’s bigger than our solo careers.’”
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Release schedules can change, but here’s a look at 13 acts expected to launch a first album or EP between Jan. 1 and June 30, and how they’re staking out unique territories:
• 2 Lane Summer (Quartz Hill) – Illinois-bred Joe Hanson and Mississippian Chris Ray were both chasing solo careers when they found harmony. Big harmony. Their combined voices are bold and beautiful, evident in their Jan. 10 release “Eyes That Ain’t Yours (Wedding Version).” An EP is in progress, possibly for spring.
• Bayker Blankenship (Lone Star/Santa Anna) – His 2024 indie breakout “Maxed Out” garnered 60 million streams on Spotify alone in 2024, and Blankenship’s label is teaming with Sony Music Nashville on a spring EP release, his first with major-label assistance. The Tennessean’s lonesome tone and somnolent phrasing make him easily relatable.
• Mackenzie Carpenter (Valory) – A co-writer on Lily Rose’s “Villain” and Megan Moroney’s “I’m Not Pretty,” Carpenter owns a cutting tone that allows her to sound country without seeming backwoods. The Georgian’s 13-track Hey Country Queen, due March 7, frames small-town scenarios with subtly engaging melodies, delivered with a fierce confidence.
• Carter Faith (Capitol Nashville) – Faith wears her heart on her breath, exuding fragility with a smoky resonance. She’s played the Grand Ole Opry a dozen times, collaborated with Alison Krauss, opened for Willie Nelson and issued a well-received 2024 EP, The Aftermath. A full album is currently in the works.
• Zach John King (Sony Music Nashville) – King might be the first artist to cite George Jones and Switchfoot among his influences, and those threads are both faintly evident in his just-released “Slow Down.” After issuing a series of singles and EPs independently, King’s first major-label EP likely arrives in March.
• Bryce Leatherwood (Mercury Nashville) – Leatherwood’s understanding of country music was formed first by a Conway Twitty compilation during his youth, and a tinge of that influence comes through in his adult approach to a song. A former Blake Shelton apprentice on The Voice, Leatherwood’s first album blooms in the spring.
• Kat Luna (Sony Music Nashville) – Her original Nashville recordings came as one-half of Latin country duo Kat & Alex, but Luna – to quote a subsequent solo outing – is not “That Girl” anymore. The Miami product owns powerful pipes, and she’s got a spring EP on the way to showcase them.
• Vincent Mason (Interscope/MCA Nashville) – Heartbreak and loneliness come in multiple gears, and the Roswell, Ga., native leans on ballads and midtempos with a languid vocal style that conveys emptiness without throwing in the towel. His first headlining tour is around the corner, as is more music – perhaps a debut album.
• John Morgan (Night Train/Broken Bow) – Currently in circulation with the Jason Aldean collaboration “Friends Like That,” Morgan likely unleashes his first album in the first quarter. Whether he’s crafting a country ballad or riding a ‘90s-rock pulse, Morgan’s work is consistently melodic, designed to hook a listener in a heartbeat.
• Ty Myers (RECORDS Nashville/Columbia) – Raised on a central Texas cattle ranch, Myers wraps a little blues-rock and a fair amount of red-dirt alternative texture around a commercial vocal tone and Black Crowes phrasing. His first album – The Select, featuring already-released “Ends of the Earth” – is set for Jan. 24 release.
• Neon Union (Red Street) – Miami native Leo Brooks and North Carolina-bred Andrew Millsaps met in Nashville and quickly discovered they shared an appreciation for edgy, spirited, party-time country. The duo’s first album, Good Years, arrives Jan. 31, with shades of Montgomery Gentry and Brooks & Dunn influencing its grinding, upbeat sound.
• Pitney Meyer (Curb) – Longtime Curb solo act Mo Pitney paired with bluegrass vet John Meyer for a concert at Nashville’s Station Inn, and the blend was so inspiring they started a duo. They cut their first album – Cherokee Pioneer, due April 18 – in three days, with rippling acoustic rhythms and aptly lonesome harmonies.
• Tucker Wetmore (Back Blocks/EMI Nashville) – With “Wind Up Missin’ You” in the Hot Country Songs top 10 and two RIAA-certified platinum singles in his favor, Wetmore’s first full-length album is due this spring. His ultra-country vocals are tempered by a mix of sharpened steel guitar and reverberant classic rock beats.
Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has long threaded country music into his work, both as part of the Fab Four, and his decades of solo work.
During his tenure with the Beatles, Starr sang lead on the Fab Four’s cover of the Buck Owens classic “Act Naturally.” Later, as a solo artist, Starr decamped to Nashville to record his 1970 country album Beaucoups of Blues, crafted with Nashville session musician Pete Drake.
Now, more than five decades after that project, the 84-year-old Starr continues his country inclinations, crafting his recently-released new country album Look Up with legendary producer/musician T Bone Burnett, the former Bob Dylan band member known for his production work on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Walk the Line soundtracks, as well as his work with a range of artists, including Robert Plant, Elton John and Brandi Carlile.
Starr celebrated the release of Look Up with two concerts at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, on Tuesday (Jan. 14) and Wednesday (Jan. 15). Each show featured Starr welcoming a star-studded lineup of his fellow music luminaries, including Sheryl Crow, Jack White, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, The War and Treaty, Jamey Johnson, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Mickey Guyton, Sarah Jarosz and Larkin Poe. Burnett hosted the show, welcoming artists throughout the evening, as some performances featured artists in collaboration with Starr, while other performances featured the evening’s guest offering solo performances.
Together, they spearheaded a night of music that highlighted Starr’s long-forged country connections and the wealth of musical talent Nashville encompasses beyond the country commercial mainstream, incorporating songs from Starr’s Look Up, but also several country-tinged Beatles songs along the way.
“I feel blessed tonight, with all these great players coming out,” Starr told the audience.
Noting the work of artists including Strings, Tuttle and Jarosz, Burnett commented at one point, “Some of the most exciting stuff in music is happening in bluegrass.”
Backing the artists was an ace band of revered musicians that included Mike Rojas, Daniel Tashian, David Mansfield, Dennis Crouch, Paul Franklin and Jim Keltner. White joined Starr to open the show with a rendition of “Matchbox,” and later returned to the stage to perform an intricate, blazing version of “Don’t Pass Me By.”
Tuttle called taking part in Starr’s Look Up album “the honor of a lifetime, working with Ringo and T Bone.” The Grammy winner then played what she called “the first Beatles song I ever heard,” offering a rendition of “Octopus’s Garden,” from The Beatles’ Abbey Road album. Elsewhere in the evening, Crowell and Jarosz performed rollicking version of “Act Naturally.”
Elsewhere, Strings offered a blistering performance of “Honey Don’t,” Guyton gave a powerful, elegant vocal showcase on “You Don’t Know Me at All,” Johnson dipped into grizzled blues-rock territory on “Have You Seen My Baby,” and Larkin Poe teamed with Starr for “Thankful” and also offered a sultry version of “I Wanna Be Your Man.”
Throughout the evening, the artists feted Starr for not only his musical acumen and lasting musical influence, but also for his signature devotion to crafting music that uplifts.
“I needed this,” Crow said at one point, adding, “I can’t think of anybody who emanates love and peace like Ringo — and it’s not a brand, he really does…he believes in it.”
Starr’s two Ryman Auditorium shows were taped for the upcoming television special Ringo & Friends at the Ryman, which will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ this spring.
The show concluded, appropriately, with an all-star singalong of The Beatles’ classics “Yellow Submarine” and “With a Little Help From My Friends,” which saw additional artists join Starr onstage, including rock and country music trailblazer Brenda Lee (the Beatles once opened for Lee back in the 1960s, prior to the Fab Four’s breakthrough).
Here, Billboard highlights five top moments from Ringo Starr’s Wednesday evening show.
Jack White Brings Electrifying Performances to Ryman Stage
The latest No. 1 on the Top Gabb Music Songs chart is a fitting one: Jelly Roll’s “Run It,” from the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 soundtrack, debuts atop the December 2024 ranking as the most-played song on Gabb Wireless phones that month.
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Billboard has partnered with Gabb Wireless, a phone company for kids and teens, to present a monthly chart tracking on-demand streams via its Gabb Music platform. Gabb Music offers a vast catalog of songs, all of which are selected by the Gabb team to include only kid- and teen-appropriate content. Gabb Music streams are not currently factored into any other Billboard charts.
“Run It” is the first song to debut at No. 1 on Top Gabb Music Songs, coming in the tally’s third iteration; Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” led the inaugural list, while KSI’s “Thick of It,” featuring Trippie Redd, paced November 2024, having risen two spots from its No. 3 rank on the October 2024 chart.
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Jelly Roll’s coronation comes after the song was released Nov. 21, a month ahead of Sonic the Hedgehog 3’s Dec. 20 theatrical release.
The song reigns over previous No. 1 “Thick of It,” which falls to No. 2, while ROSE and Bruno Mars’ duet “APT.” leaps to a new best of No. 3, a month after debuting at No. 24 on the November 2024 chart. “APT.” is currently the top-charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 that’s also on the December 2024 Top Gabb Music Songs ranking; it appears at No. 5 on the most recent Hot 100 dated Jan. 18.
Inaugural leader Boone’s “Beautiful Things” drops two positions to No. 4 on Top Gabb Music Songs, while Luke Combs’ “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” again rounds out the top five.
After “Run It,” the latest list’s next-highest debut belongs is another tune from a film soundtrack: Ariana Grande’s “Popular,” from Wicked, which bows at No. 7. It’s joined on the 25-position survey by fellow Wicked tracks “Defying Gravity,” by Cynthia Erivo and featuring Grande (No. 11), and the Grande/Erivo collaboration “What Is This Feeling?” (No. 17).
The top non-movie-related debut? Billie Eilish’s “Wildflower,” which starts at No. 20.
See the full top 25 below.
Top Gabb Music Songs, December 2024
“Run It,” Jelly Roll (debut)
“Thick of It,” KSI feat. Trippie Redd (-1)
“APT.,” ROSE & Bruno Mars (+21)
“Beautiful Things,” Benson Boone (-1)
“Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma,” Luke Combs (=)
“Face 2 Face,” Juice WRLD (+2)
“Popular,” Ariana Grande (debut)
“Deja Vu,” Olivia Rodrigo (+1)
“Please Please Please,” Sabrina Carpenter (+3)
“Slow It Down,” Benson Boone (-7)
“Defying Gravity,” Ariana Grande feat. Cynthia Erivo (debut)
“Stargazing,” Myles Smith (+6)
“Golden Hour,” JVKE (re-entry)
“God’s Plan,” Drake (-10)
“Butterfly Effect,” Travis Scott (-9)
“Love Somebody,” Morgan Wallen (+1)
“What Is This Feeling,” Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo (debut)
“Too Sweet,” Hozier (+5)
“Stressed Out,” Twenty One Pilots (+3)
“Wildflower,” Billie Eilish (debut)
“Let You Down,” NF (-14)
“Bones,” Imagine Dragons (-12)
“Enemy,” Imagine Dragons (-2)
“Eyes Closed,” Imagine Dragons (-4)
“Jealousy, Jealousy,” Olivia Rodrigo (debut)
DROPS FROM NOVEMBER 2024: NF, “Hope”; NF, “Motto”; Maddox Batson, “X’s”; Mariah Carey, “All I Want for Christmas Is You”; 24KGoldn feat. Iann Dior, “Mood”; Justin Bieber, “Ghost”; Imagine Dragons, “Radioactive”
Kenny Chesney will become the first country artist to have a residency at Sphere when he brings his show to the Las Vegas venue starting May 22 for a 12-date run. Chesney announced the news on Today this morning.
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“I’m always looking for ways to deepen the way No Shoes Nation experiences this music,” said Chesney in a statement. “Over the years, they have shown me through their own response to these songs how passionate they are about what they mean, how these songs are part of their lives. When people give you that much heart, I want to give them even more.
The 17,600-seat Sphere’s one-of-a-kind immersive experience played into Chesney’s decision. “When we started talking about all of the possibilities playing Sphere offered, I was all in. Just the idea of 4D technology and the impossibly dialed in sound raises the experience for No Shoes Nation, literally immersing them in music, visuals, sound and being together. To me, this is going to be a whole new way of rocking the fans, and I can’t wait.”
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Kenny Chesney Live At The Sphere
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Chesney, whose Sphere run will be promoted by his long-time promoter The Messina Group, is the only country artist to hit $1 billion in grosses reported to Boxscore. His 2022 Here and Now Tour, which brought in $135 million, landed at No. 9 on Billboard’s all-genre 2022 Year-End Top 40 tours chart, making Chesney the first country artist to reach the Top 10. Last year, his tour grossed $159.5 million, according to Billboard’s 2024 year-end chart. He’s come quite a long way since his first-ever Billboard Boxscore report entry, for a Sept. 23, 1995 concert at Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, which brought in $135,000.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday (Jan. 31) starting at 10 a.m. PT via KennyChesney.com. The run is presented by Chesney’s Blue Chair Bay Rum.
Since opening in September 2023 with a 40-show run by U2, Sphere has hosted a number of acts, including Phish, Dead & Co. and Anyma. The Eagles are currently in a residency that started in September.
Chesney will appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon tonight.
Zach Bryan has turned his focus to the world of film, recruiting actor Matthew McConaughey to help tease a new project called Motorbreath. Bryan’s new announcement came about in a pair of posts shared to Instagram on Wednesday morning (Jan. 15). In the first, he shared a clip of a new track ostensibly titled “Birdie”. […]
Wilkommen, bienvenue, howdy partner! Country star Orville Peck is set to make his Broadway debut as the Emcee in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. On Wednesday (Jan. 15), Cabaret announced that the “Dead of Night” singer would take over the iconic role from Adam Lambert starting on March 31, where he will be joined […]
Since opening in Las Vegas in September 2023, the 360-foot-plus tall venue the Sphere has become an instant iconic Vegas structure. Artists including U2, the Eagles and Dead & Company have played the 18,600-capacity venue, which has become known for its immersive live entertainment video and audio experience, including a wraparound interior LED screen, its LED exterior and 4D effects.
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Now, some music fans are speculating that eight-time entertainer of the year winner (four times each for CMAs and ACMs) and mainstay stadium headliner Kenny Chesney is the next artist slated to play the Sphere.
That’s because on Wednesday (Jan. 15), the Sphere posted a video on its social media pages showing the iconic venue lit up with a video that showed ocean waters receding to show a weathered blue chair nestled on an idyllic island beach, and later, an acoustic guitar and a cowboy hat. The social media post from the Sphere was accompanied by a side-eyes emoji.
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“I was waiting for Kenny Chesney to appear in his “old blue chair,” one person commented on the Sphere’s Instagram post. Added another, “Kenny!!! This is going to be a good show.”
A rep for Chesney declined to respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.
The image of an old blue chair has long been associated with East Tennessee native Chesney, who has made island imagery an essential part of his brand. More than two decades ago, Chesney recorded the song “Old Blue Chair” as the concluding song on his 2004 album When the Sun Goes Down. The following year, he released the album Be As You Are (Songs From an Old Blue Chair). The album’s cover featured Chesney seated on a beach, leaning back on an old, weathered blue chair. Chesney also launched his line of Blue Chair Bay rum in 2013. In 2014, he also recorded the song “Christmas in Blue Chair Bay.” Throughout the past several years, numerous promotional videos and photos have featured Chesney and his signature “old blue chair.”
Additionally, Chesney is set to make an unknown announcement on Thursday, Jan. 16, during a visit to TODAY during the 8 a.m. hour. That same day, he will appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“I have always been one to let the music do the talking,” Chesney said in a recent press statement announcing his upcoming television appearances. “This year is going to be unlike any other. This is one time when I probably do need to get out and explain exactly what we’re up to. But for now, I can say this: I am incredibly ramped up about what we’re in the middle of making happen for 2025. It’s one of those things where you can’t just throw it out there – so I am really glad we’re getting to spend some time at TODAY, then The Tonight Show.”
See Sphere’s post below:
When new artist Max McNown flies into his falsetto voice in the middle of his first radio release, “Better Me for You (Brown Eyes),” he conveys a sense of strength through vulnerability, as if he’s been doing it for years.
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But sounds, like looks, can be deceiving. McNown had never written a song that mined that part of his register before, and it forced him to woodshed when it connected quickly with his fan base.
“’Better Me for You’ is probably the greatest problem child of any of my songs I’ve ever written,” McNown says. “I mean, it was written so early in my career. I had never taken vocal lessons before – I still have only taken a couple – but when it was written, I couldn’t even sing that song all the way through without messing up.”
Not that that mattered in the song’s creation. McNown rode with it as the melody gravitated naturally in that falsetto direction when he wrote “Better Me For You” with Ava Suppelsa, Trent Dabbs and producer-writer Jamie Kenney last May. McNown’s willingness to take on the discomfort moved the song forward.
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“That was the moment that got me really excited,” Dabbs remembers.
“Better Me for You” was personal for McNown when they crafted it. He was living in Oregon at the time and had started a long-distance relationship that was still fairly new. His co-writers asked him about his life to get the creative juices flowing at the start of the appointment, and as he spoke of his girlfriend in glowing, almost reverent tones, they launched into a bright midtempo groove on acoustic guitars. McNown pulled out a short phrase with a descending melody – “I didn’t know you’d have brown eyes” – that he’d already written about her. It became the opening line of the chorus; it also ends up being the only physical description of the woman that appears in the entire song. The rest of the text frames her as strong, spiritually-grounded and “deeper than a coal mine.”
“He’s not a superficial guy,” Kenney notes. “He’s a deep soul, and he’s a kind, caring and thoughtful person. So I think we always end up writing those kind of songs. And I think it’s not an accident that we don’t end up leaning on trite euphemisms.”
McNown noted that his girlfriend had inspired him to become a better person, an idea that morphed into the payoff line at the end of the chorus: “I gotta find a better me for you.” Knowing where they were headed, the writers turned their attention to the opening verse, the first-person singer remembering a period dominated by alcohol and romantic conquests.
“If you need to be a better person for someone, what does that look like previously, before them?” Suppelsa asks rhetorically. “Those verses [are] painting the darker side of before this girl. You need to have that chorus there to make that change.”
The second verse would begin with an abstract thought about “dipping toes in the water,” a reflection, McNown says, of a period when he worked at a coffee shop, dodging any sort of commitments. “[It’s] basically not being willing to give things my full heart,” he notes. “That’s symbolic in the relationship department, that’s symbolic in the career department, that’s symbolic in life in so many aspects. For a while, especially when you feel like you may have been wounded, you’re afraid to jump back in again.”
To round out the piece, they built a bridge that, like the chorus, starts with a descending melody. The differences are subtle enough that the first few listens, it doesn’t sound like a departure from the rest of the song. “It’s a sneaky bridge, for sure,” Suppelsa says.
McNown inserted a reference to the long-distance relationship – his cowriters feared it was new information that didn’t quite fit the text, but he insisted it fit him, and they deferred to his judgment. Within five lines, the bridge incorporates a hymnal, pledges undying devotion and solidifies a spiritual quality to the relationship that had been seeded earlier.
“It feels like one of those songs where, if he was playing at the Ryman [Auditorium] and he walked to the front of the stage and played the song, I would be sold,” Dabbs says. “I think that’s what you always look for in an artist. It’s kind of like, ‘All right, I get you. I get I get what you’re about.’”
When the song was finished, McNown remained at Kenney’s studio in Nashville’s Berry Hill neighborhood, and they worked through a rough demo of the song, stacking acoustic guitars and makeshift percussion to create a “blurry picture,” McNown says, “of what we wanted the song to sound like.” He added a scratch vocal with fragile falsetto, then returned to Oregon while the production evolved in Kenney’s hands back in Music City.
Kenney played some additional parts, then enlisted Todd Lombardo to overdub banjo and rubber-bridge acoustic guitar; Aaron Sterling for the core drums; and guitarist Jedd Hughes to add electric guitars. Kenney tucked both Dobro and a slide-guitar sample into the background, then worked to find a balance between the acoustics and electrics. It doesn’t sound as tough as he expected.
“I would go back and forth,” Kenney says. “I feel like the sweet spot was so minute. You think ‘power’ when you get to the chorus. You want to go, ‘Let’s punch them in the face with electrics.’ But I felt like it got less cool when I pushed those electrics.”
As Kenney worked on it, McNown moved to Nashville and resided in a room at the studio for six months, making it convenient to redo vocals. He ended up recutting them three times before he was entirely happy with the results. “The third time we recorded it,” McNown says, “I had already toured for 40, 50 shows, and I had built my vocal capabilities and my confidence, and I also knew the song like the back of my hand, and so I came back in and we got it right.”
“Ironically enough,” Kenney counters, “we ended up using pretty much the original, because it had a bit of a freshness to it.”
Kenney enhanced the falsetto parts in the chorus with different instruments – a mandolin in the first chorus, electric guitar in the second – trailing the vocal and creating a dreamy mood. “Anytime you have a melody like that that’s really hooky and singable, the more you can pile on and just accentuate it, the better,” Kenney says.
McNown introduced the song on TikTok, beginning with short performances that keyed on the opening line in the chorus. As the song grew, he inserted “Brown Eyes” into the title in parentheses.
“When you look at it on TikTok, I think people are looking for ‘Brown Eyes,’” Suppelsa says. “If that hadn’t been put in there in parentheses, it definitely would have been a harder search for people.”
Fugitive Recordings – in tandem with Magnolia Music Group’s promotion department, coming off its work on Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – released “Better Me For You (Brown Eyes)” to country radio via PlayMPE on Dec. 16.
“It’s gonna be heard by so many different people that have never heard of me,” McNown acknowledges. “So we need a song that is wide-reaching enough and catchy enough to kind of hook people in and make them fans within two minutes. You have to have a gripping hook and a gripping song, and ‘Better Me for You’ just felt like it fit the criteria.”