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More than three months after the video for Jason Aldean‘s “Try That in a Small Town” was pulled from CMT and labeled by some detractors as being pro-gun, pro-violence and akin to a “modern lynching song,” the country star spoke to Audacy’s Coop’s Rockin’ Country Saturday Night show about the controversy surrounding the song.
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“If you’ve got common sense, you can look at the video and see, I’m not sayin’ anything that’s not true,” said Aldean about the video for the song that features lyrics challenging those who would “carjack an old lady at a red light,” “cuss out a cop” or “pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store.” The visual found Aldean performing the song in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, TN, the site of the 1927 lynching and hanging of 18-year-old Henry Choate over allegations that he sexually assaulted a white girl, as well as the spot of a 1946 race riot in which two Black men were killed.
“In the video I’m showin’ you what happened — I didn’t do it, I didn’t create it — it just happened, and I saw it, and I’m not cool with it,” Aldean said of the clip, which features images of an American flag burning, protesters clashing with police, looters breaking a display case and thieves robbing a convenience store; the video was later seemingly edited to remove images of a Black Lives Matter protest following the backlash.
Aldean has continued to say he’s confused about why the song — which in the new interview he again noted was released in May — became contentious months later, noting that he thought a line about a handgun was going to be the thing that critics pounced on. “The biggest issue, I think, people had when we released the song was that it mentioned ‘having a gun that my grandfather gave me,’” he said of the song whose chorus warns, “Well, try that in a small town/ See how far you make it down the road/ Around here, we take care of our own/ You cross that line, it won’t take long/ For you to find out, I recommend you don’t/ Try that in a small town.”
“I mentioned a gun, that’s a no, no right now and I just remember thinking, ‘Man, you guys haven’t even seen the video yet,’” he added. Aldean has repeatedly denied that the song, and video, are pro-violence, telling Coop that, “between mainstream media and social media, things kind of take on a life of their own. They start making the song and the video into something that it’s not. It’s fine, we just live in a world that does that right now, and I’m not gonna go out and explain myself every time somebody gives their own opinion of what my song or video means.”
Shortly after the song’s release, CNN spoke to Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones — who earlier this year was expelled, then re-instated to the House after leading a gun control protest on the House floor following a school mass shooting in which three children and three adults were killed — who condemned what he called a “heinous vile racist song that is really about harkening back to days past.”
Jones said he thought it was “no accident” that the video was filmed at the Courthouse, dubbing the track as an attempt to normalize “racist, violence, vigilantism and white nationalism,” while “glorifying” a vision of the South that he said the state is trying to move forward from.”
“Try That” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the last week of July, then fell to No. 21 a week later, marking one of the biggest drops from the top in the chart’s history.
Aldean said country music is “blue-collar music, it’s for the every man out there, and that was always my thing — it’s like, I feel like this.” Conservative media outlets including Fox News have been focusing on what they have said is a drastic uptick in violent crime during the Biden administration and, without getting specific, Aldean seemed to co-sign that view, saying, “I got eyes, I can see what’s goin’ on. I feel like I’ve got common sense and I can see that right is right and wrong is wrong.”
The New York Times reported this week that murders in the U.S. dropped just over 6% in 2022 compared to 2021, with preliminary figures from the F.B.I. indicating that the decline has accelerated this year; the F.B.I. also said that violent crime was down slightly in 2022 over 2021.
Aldean — who in the past has courted controversy by wearing a t-shirt featuring a confederate flag and dressing in blackface as Lil Wayne for Halloween — has repeatedly denied that the song had any ill intent.
In the Coop interview, he said he doesn’t care “which side of the political fence you want to stand on,” and that he stepped up because he felt like nobody — especially in the music and entertainment industry — was saying anything about the “wrong” things he was observing. “It’s very uncommon for someone to say something for fear of losing a job or losing some money… losing friends or whatever,” he said. “It just kind of reaches a breaking point to where you’re like ‘somebody needs to say something, and if nobody’s gonna do it, then I’ll be the guy.’”
Listen to the interview (“Try That in a Small Town” talk begins around 6:30 mark) below.
Blake Shelton‘s Back to the Honky Tonk Tour will return in 2024, when it launches in Feb. 22 at the GIANT Center in Hershey, Penn.
The 17-show trek will include stops in the United States and Canada, including shows at Moody Center in Austin, Texas; Little Caesars Arena in Detroit; and three shows in Canada, slated for Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Edmonton, Alberta; and Calgary, Alberta, before wrapping March 29 in Wichita, Kan.
Joining Shelton on the 17-show trek in the United States and Canada are Dustin Lynch and Emily Ann Roberts. Lynch recently issued his latest album, Killed the Cowboy, and his current radio single, “Stars Like Confetti,” is currently in the top 10 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart. Roberts, known for her time competing on NBC’s The Voice, recently released the album Can’t Hide Country, which includes not only her song “Walkin’ Shoes,” but “Still Searching,” a collaboration with Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs.
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The tour’s first run began earlier this year, and featured Carly Pearce and Jackson Dean as openers.
Tickets for all markets, with the exception of Glendale, Ariz., will be available through an exclusive fan presale launching Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 10 a.m. local time and running through Thursday, Oct. 26, at 10 p.m. local time. General onsale will begin Friday, Oct. 27, at 10 a.m. local time. Tickets for Glendale will be available via an exclusive fan presale beginning Tuesday, Oct. 31, at 10 a.m. local time through Thursday, Nov. 2, at 10 p.m. local time. The general onsale for Glendale will start on Friday, Nov. 3, at 10 a.m. local time.
See the full lineup of dates for Shelton’s Back to the Honky Tonk Tour, presented by Kubota, below:
Feb. 22: Hershey, PA @ GIANT Center
Feb. 23: Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
Feb. 24: Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum
Feb. 29: Lafayette, LA @ CAJUNDOME
March 1: Austin, TX @ Moody Center
March 2: Bossier City, LA @ Brookshire Grocery Arena
March 7: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CAN @ SaskTel Centre
March 8: Edmonton, Alberta, CAN @ Rogers Place
March 9: Calgary, Alberta, CAN @ Scotiabank Saddledome
March 14: Spokane, WA @ Spokane Arena
March 15: Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
March 16: Portland, OR @ Moda Center
March 21: Fresno, CA @ Save Mart Center
March 22: Palm Springs, CA @ Acrisure Arena
March 23: Glendale, AZ @ Desert Diamond Arena
March 27: Moline, IL @ Vibrant Arena at The MARK
March 29: Wichita, KS @ INTRUST Bank Arena
When the digital age began, one of the attractions was the promise of an easier life — information more readily available, machines doing math problems, the possibility of shorter work weeks and lives of leisure.
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Instead, of course, the world is simply more complicated. Employers expect higher output, easy information creates distraction, and the combination of multiple phone numbers, email addresses and social media accounts means a constant barrage of spam and misinformation. It’s easy to understand why a big chunk of the population would prefer to turn back the clock in one or more aspects of life. And that’s a sentiment at the heart of Tyler Hubbard’s newest single, “Back Then Right Now.”
“I think there’s an undertone of a life lived less complicated, more simple,” he says. “And I do think the music, you know, it’s not over-thought. It’s just smooth and easy, and easy to listen to and, hopefully, kind of takes you there sonically.”
The day went fairly smoothly when Hubbard wrote the song in April with David Garcia (“Meant To Be,” “Ghost Story”), Jessie Jo Dillon (“Memory Lane,” “Break Up in the End”) and Geoff Warburton (“But I Got a Beer in My Hand,” “Best Thing Since Backroads”) at Garcia’s studio. Warburton arrived about a half-hour early to work on musical ideas, and they landed on one built mostly around two simple chords.“His guitar collection, they’re some of my favorites to play, but he handed me a new one that was in a strange tuning,” remembers Warburton. “I was excited because that’ll make me play something that’s not difficult, and then he was playing something on the Telecaster, I think. It just lined up perfectly with what I was playing.”
Once the whole group was assembled, they picked that musical foundation over a couple of others, then fished for a lyrical theme or story that would match the tone. Dillon brought up “Back Then Right Now,” a title she had logged in her phone after a trip to East Tennessee, where her uncle was frustrated by his new-model truck.
“He was like, ‘I could use a little back then right now,’ ” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s such a great song title.’ And so I wrote it down, and that day we wrote it, that was the first title anyone said.”They tackled the chorus first, planting the title in the first line and at the end, and giving it a compact, rolling melody in between.
“A lot of times if you get too rangy — if the hills are too big and the valleys are too low — sometimes it’s harder to sing or harder to remember,” notes Hubbard.
Once they got the chorus started, they began periodically hopping to the verses. Hubbard turned the title’s “back then” to a recurring “back when,” setting up pieces of the past that have changed: photos are for posting, a Walmart has replaced a fishing spot, and the stick shift has all but disappeared.
“Some of that ‘back then,’ we could probably stand to learn something from that,” Garcia says. “Turns out that if you slow down a little bit, you might enjoy this gift we have of life a little bit more.”
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Accordingly, they balanced out some of the surface nostalgia with points of deeper meaning. One of the places where they struggled with that was the chorus’ setup line. Hubbard eventually pulled out “makin’ life count,” a sort of stealth reminder to live in the moment.
“Dave is really good at music stuff, lyrics as well, but he’s a really good leader of ‘You know, that might not feel right,’” notes Warburton. “He was saying a couple of times, ‘That line’s not right, that line’s not right, still not right.’ And then we just kept throwing out lines. I think Tyler had that line, and that really sort of tied it in a bow for us.”
Well, almost. They decided it needed a bridge, though staying with the song’s simple theme, they kept the same chord progression and made the section short, reemphasizing how life was lived in the moment in more innocent times.
“We were more interested in the melody doing something than we were in giving more information,” Dillon recalls. “We kind of felt like we had said what we wanted to say already, and so it kind of became about wanting to change the mood a little bit melodically.”
Garcia finished the demo overnight, keeping that smooth foundation, and Hubbard used it to introduce “Back Then Right Now” to his co-producer, Jordan M. Schmidt (Mitchell Tenpenny, Ingrid Andress). The demo was strong enough that when they tracked it at Sound Stage, they played it once for the musicians and let them decide what enhancements might work.
“They did a great job — you gain a couple of new things that were really cool that weren’t there before versus just settling with where it was,” says Garcia. “When we heard the final, I was stoked, man. It just sounded so good.”
One key upgrade came in the verses. Jonny Fung inserted pulsing eighth notes on electric guitar, creating extra motion and tying into the “back then” title by approximating a sound familiar on such ’80s throwback titles as The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” Mike + The Mechanics’ “All I Need Is a Miracle” or Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere.” Schmidt stacked at least two — maybe more — threads of that part to get a chunky sound.
“We probably threw about 50 guitars on there,” Schmidt exaggerates. “I don’t really know, but it’s never just one.”
Garcia’s demo had used a 16-second intro — long by 2023 standards — and the final version kept that format, but slipped the title in over the top to introduce the hook up front. That was also a step toward ’80s sensibilities, when Exile’s “I Can’t Get Close Enough,” Don Williams’ “Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good” and Ronnie Milsap’s “Stranger in My House” all employed intros that exceeded 20 seconds.
“Sometimes I feel like the intro can really help set the mood,” says Schmidt. “Why does every song’s vocal need to start at six seconds and the chorus needs to hit by 36 seconds? That’s when it kind of gets a little too mathematical. I understand there’s a game to play. But at the end of the day, a great song is a great song. You know, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ [with a two-minute intro] was a hit. Maybe you’ve heard of ‘Hotel California’ [with a one-minute-plus intro]?”
Drummer Nir Z made the short bridge even more meaningful, dropping into a halftime feel for a couple of bars before returning to the original rhythm, as if the song was stuck in the past for a bit before kicking itself back into the now. Fung played a guitar solo, though Schmidt had second thoughts and asked him to try something else later; Fung overdubbed a Dobro solo at home. Hubbard made a minor change in the lyric, too, revising a reference to “asphalt” in the opening line to “blacktop,” creating an internal rhyme with “back” and “black.”
Hubbard had several contenders for his next single, but EMI Nashville ultimately went with “Back Then Right Now,” shipping it to radio on Sept. 7 via PlayMPE. It ranks at No. 38 after five weeks on the Country Airplay chart dated Oct. 21.
“At the end of the day, this feels unique right now for the format, but also familiar and nostalgic,” Hubbard reasons. “It’s sort of like a good second cousin to ‘Dancin’ in the Country.’ I just felt like it was a good follow-up to that.”
Nothing says Thanksgiving like and Dolly Parton. The music legend is set to headline The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Kickoff Halftime Show on Nov. 23, when the Dallas Cowboys take on the Washington Commanders at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Wow! […]
Maren Morris has filed for divorce from husband Ryan Hurd after five years of marriage, according to documents obtained by Billboard.
In an Oct. 2 complaint in Tennessee state court, lawyers for the singer-songwriter, 33, said that she and Hurd, 36, were “unable to live together successfully as husband and wife,” and were “experiencing irreconcilable differences in their marriage.”
The filing said that the couple had signed a prenuptial agreement, which will govern how their assets are divided. The pair, who share a 3-year old son, will submit a “permanent parenting plan” to be approved by a judge, according to the court documents; Morris also asked for child support.
Billboard has reached out to Morris and Hurd for comment.
The two began dating in 2015 and wed on March 24, 2018, in Nashville. They welcomed son Hayes, on March 23, 2020.
Prior to their split, Morris and Hurd had collaborated on songs including their 2021 duet “Chasing After You,” which reached No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. The pair — who met in Nashville’s songwriting circles — also co-wrote “Circles Around This Town” and “The Furthest Thing” from Morris’ 2022 album Humble Quest, and “All My Favorite People,” a track featuring Brothers Osborne from her 2019 album GIRL, as well as “Pass It On” from Hurd’s 2021 album Pelago.
Hurd spoke out in support of Morris when she and Jason Aldean’s wife, Brittany Aldean, verbally sparred last year after “The Bones” singer called Brittany out over her statements regarding gender-affirming care.
“Scoring quick points by picking on trans kids isn’t something that is brave at all,” Hurd stated on social media at the time. “And I’m proud of Maren for sticking up for them. … Shut up and sing only applies to those who you disagree with.”
Hurd also supported Morris in September when she revealed her intentions to leave the country music industry behind and issued the two-song project, The Bridge. He said on social media at the time: “She deserves to be celebrated, not just tolerated.”
The cover art for Cody Johnson’s album, Leather, out Nov. 3 on COJO Music/Warner Music Nashville, features a closeup of the singer’s tattooed hands, work-worn and slightly bloodied, holding tightly to a strip of leather.
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A former bull rider, the Texan is better known nowadays for his energetic showmanship, and his nine-week Billboard Hot Country Songs No. 1 “’Til You Can’t.” But when the 2023 CMA male vocalist of the year nominee is not making music, Johnson is riding, roping and training horses and raising cattle — as he was the day the album cover was shot.
“I was working at the ranch that day, so I told my photographer Chris Douglas to come over,” Johnson tells Billboard. “That’s blood and hair in that picture from castrating bulls and giving them shots that day. We didn’t stage any of that. We got started at 5:00 a.m. and worked all day and he ended up getting some incredible photos while we were working.”
Chris Douglas
The cover image conveys a sense of work ethic, grit, and an uncompromising sense of self, all of which are apparent on this 12-song project, the follow-up to 2021’s Human: The Double Album. As with his previous albums, Johnson’s mission wasn’t to simply find the best songs, but to record songs that reveal nuances of his own artistry.
“People appreciate authenticity, whether it’s me being a cowboy and singing something that reminds people of ‘90s country stuff they grew up on, or someone like the Zach Bryans and guys that are more like what probably is considered Americana, or Jelly Roll, who is completely the opposite of me, musically,” Johnson says. “But authenticity is the common thread.”
Aiding Johnson in keeping it real are his producer Trent Willmon, Durango Artist Management’s Scott Gunter and WMN co-chair/co-president Cris Lacy. “They filter through thousands songs before they come up with enough to bring to me,” Johnson says. “They come out on the road for three or four days at a time. We get up, have coffee and breakfast and we start listening all the way up until showtime.”
The songs that made the cut on Leather are odes to the Lone Star State (“That’s Texas”) and country music (“Long Live Country Music,” with iconic ‘90s country duo Brooks & Dunn), arena rockers (“People in the Back,” “Double Down”), love (“The Painter”) and redemption (“Whiskey Bent” with Jelly Roll).
But it’s the title track, written by Johnson’s WMN labelmate Ian Munsick with Rivers Rutherford and Jeremy Spillman, that marks the heart of the album. Lyrically, the song employs the essential material working cowboys have long depended on for saddles and boots, as an apt metaphor for a cowboy himself. Munsick played Johnson the song while the two were touring together.
“My jaw dropped,” Johnson recalls. “Everything about a cowboy has to do with leather, so lines about it taking ‘Years of work and dirt and hurt to make him,’ or ‘He’ll start out stiff and rough, but give him time and he’ll soften up/ And that just makes him twice as tough’… It is so well-written. It also has this cool yodel thing; I almost took that out, but Trent said, ‘You have to do that. That’s cowboy.’”
A deluxe version of the album (featuring another 12 songs) is on the way next year. And yes, Johnson says the deluxe project will feature more collaborations. “Those are the ones I can’t mention,” he says with a laugh. He was more forthcoming about some of the songs that make up Leather, offering his first in-depth look at some of the songs from the album.
“The Painter”
Leather’s first single, the heartfelt, romantic “The Painter,” which has risen to No. 28 on the Country Airplay chart, was written by Kat Higgins, Benjy Davis and Ryan Larkins.
“I think it’s the first song I’ve ever recorded where I sing it in my talking voice,” Johnson says. “I intentionally tried to stay out of the way of the song, so the listener could paint their own image, and have their own interpretation of it. But for me, obviously, it’s about my wife [Brandi]. Without her, my world wouldn’t be what it is. We’ve been together for 15 years, so we’ve had some real highs, had some real lows. We’ve been through a lot together. She has stuck with me through thick and thin, and I think she deserves for me to be able to say this song is for her.”
“Whiskey Bent” (feat. Jelly Roll)
“I hated the title,” Johnson says of first being introduced to “Whiskey Bent,” written by Adam James, Mikey Reaves and Rocky Block. “They told me the title and I said, ‘I hate it already because it sounds like an old cliché; I’m not singing that song. But then I heard the lyrics about trying to put a life and a love back together—especially the hook, ‘I’m still trying to straighten out what whiskey bent.’”
Originally, “Need a Favor” hitmaker Jelly Roll was slated to perform another track on the album, “Jesus Loves You” — until they got into the studio to record the song.
“He asked me what else I was working on and I played him ‘Whiskey Bent.’ He just started crying and was like, ‘Bro, I ain’t never heard a song like that. If I’m gonna be on a song, can it be that one?’ I gave him the entire second verse. It didn’t take him long to learn the song and he did incredibly.”
Though Jelly Roll and Johnson outwardly seem like opposites, Johnson says they both related deeply to the song’s message of redemption. “I think we’ve both lived that song in our own ways. People look at me as this clean-cut, wholesome guy, but I’m no different than anybody else,” Johnson continues. “I’ve got demons in my closet and things in my past that are hard to deal with, that I go to therapy sometimes to deal with. I’ve lived a very fast-paced, lot-of-pressure kind of life and I’ve made mistakes. I haven’t started doing regular sessions; I need to talk in the moment. I’m slowly but surely softening up, just like the song ‘Leather.’ I know it takes time to open up and not be so hard-edged on that. But just recognizing it is the hard part.”
“Watching My Old Flame”
“It’s a great play on words,” Johnson says of this Kat Higgins/Wynn Varble/Clint Daniels composition. “Usually when I hear a song, I don’t want to know who the writers are on it, because a lot of times you get surprised. But here, I know Clint personally and he pitched me the song and it was very personal for him because it was about his divorce. He explained, ‘We knew we were going to divorce but we were still living together while we sorted it out and she was seeing somebody else.’ I went, ‘Wow.’ He was literally watching his old flame go out.”
“Long Live Country Music” (feat. Brooks & Dunn)
In 2022, Johnson took home two trophies at the CMT Music Awards, including digital-first performance of the year and male video of the year (for “’Til You Can’t”). It was his male video of the year award acceptance speech that led to this Brooks & Dunn collaboration (Johnson previously teamed with B&D’s Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks on the duo’s Reboot album).
“At the end of the speech, I said, ‘Long live country music,’ and that night Trent called me about writing a song with that title.” Willmon wrote the tune with Phil O’Donnell and Wade Kirby and then played it for Johnson. “It ended up being a perfect fit for me. I reached out to Ronnie and said, ‘Would you and Kix be cool with doing this? We have a country music anthem here and if anybody can fly the flag of ‘Long Live Country Music,’ it’s Brooks & Dunn.’ We recorded this the same day I recorded with Jelly Roll. We also did a track with Randy Houser that day, and I think he might be holding onto that song.”
“Jesus Loves You”
“I think this song will raise some eyebrows, but you don’t get to sing about anger very often,” Johnson says. Rage and restraint drive this story song about divine second chances, written by HARDY, Michael Holman and Chase McGill. The general sonic tone, content and the use of a choir feels similar to HARDY’s hit Lainey Wilson collaboration “Wait in the Truck.” “It’s about a guy whose home is broken into, and he basically tells the person who broke into their home that he’s lucky he wasn’t killed while trying to break in. He’s basically saying, ‘God must’ve been looking out for you, but if you try that again, it’s over for you,’” Johnson says.
“Make Me a Mop”
As many country artists have done before him, Johnson closes the album with this spiritual-minded track, written by Jessi Alexander, Connie Harrington and Allen Shamblin.
“I think it’s highly ironic that there’s a song called ‘Jesus Loves You’ and it’s nowhere near a gospel song, and then there’s a gospel song, but it’s called ‘Make Me a Mop.’ But I got four lines into this song and just started weeping,” Johnson says, noting the lyric, “Make me a spoon, smooth on the edges/ When my words want to reach for a knife.”
He added, “This song was kind of my first step toward saying, ‘I do need to be more malleable and loosen the reins a bit, and let God shape me, my family and career and address those things in my past that I’ve never forgiven myself for. When I recorded this, for me it was a prayer, not a song.”
On Sept. 23, “Straight and Narrow” singer Sam Barber stepped into the six-foot circle of hardwood positioned at the heart of the Grand Ole Opry stage, a circle salvaged from the Opry’s former Ryman Auditorium home, to make his debut performance at the historic institution.
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“I was definitely nervous for that show,” Missouri native Barber, 20, told Billboard over Zoom. “But as soon as I stepped in the circle and everything, it kind of all hit me and it was a pretty crazy feeling.”
Making an Opry debut — and thus, entering into a nearly century-long lineage of Opry performers — is a vaunted milestone for any artist, but perhaps even more so for Barber, given that his first official headlining concert came a scant three months earlier. That’s when he played a sold-out show at Nashville venue The Basement, bolstered by the breakthrough success of his solo-penned “Straight and Narrow,” an acoustic guitar-based song layered with lyrics about soldiering on despite several setbacks.
Barber earned his first Billboard chart entry when “Straight and Narrow” debuted at No. 24 on the Hot Rock Songs chart and No. 38 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in April. The song currently sits at No. 41 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
Barber was studying civil engineering at State Technical College in Linn, Missouri, when he began releasing music, including 2021’s “Run Away High,” “As Time Passes” and “Drowning.” Notably, Barber had written “Straight and Narrow” long before it became a breakthrough: It was the first song Barber wrote when he was 16 years old.
“I was just trying to write something that sounded good to me, but I think it’s found its own kind of purpose and people have their own takes on it,” Barber says. “It’s a song about whatever you’re going through, to keep going pretty well in the end.”
Though he says his earliest releases were slap-dash affairs — “just audio from my phone, using voice memos” — he sought a higher-quality, still direct approach to recording “Straight and Narrow.” “It wasn’t a studio; I just recorded it with a mic in a bedroom,” he explains. “It was still a simple recording — there were no changes made or anything, but I wanted people to hear it.”
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He estimates he had 200,000 total monthly Spotify listeners by the time he released “Straight and Narrow” in late 2022 — though that number has quickly improved, with Barber (who is managed by Outlaw Foundry’s Jerrin Uecker and Colton Kramer) now boasting over 4 million monthly Spotify listeners.
Last month, Barber followed “Straight and Narrow” with his eight-song debut EP, Million Eyes, released through Lockeland Springs with Atlantic Records. He’s booked by Wasserman Music, and is in talks with music publishers. Barber has a slate of club shows through the end of the year, as well as shows supporting 49 Winchester. In 2024, he will perform at the Stagecoach Festival.
“I just want to play live as much as I can,” Barber says. “I love playing live. It’s the best part of it, just meeting fans and taking music as far as I can.”
Billboard caught up with Barber, our October Rookie of the Month, to discuss songwriting, his influences, and his Million Eyes EP.
When did you become interested in music?
I was into sports growing up. My dad is a mechanic, and my mom is a nurse, but they don’t do music. My great-grandfather had a guitar, and it was in my parents’ room. When I was 15 or 16, I just thought it’d be cool to learn it. I never actually met him, but from stories I heard and pictures I’ve seen, he used to play in bars and stuff. I started watching YouTube videos, learning to play, and went from there. I did a lot of Zach Bryan covers, and then mostly just started trying to write my own music.
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On your Million Eyes project, you worked with producer Eddie Spear, who has worked with Zach and Brandi Carlile. How did the two of you connect?
I knew of him, and he ended up messaging me on Instagram and asked if I would want to work with him. He’s one of my favorite people ever. He’s helped drive a lot of my ideas and make them something more than I could have made it, personally.
“All That I Have” is another standout on Million Eyes. When did you write that?
I wrote that one quite a while back. I was just picking around on my guitar and I had that intro part. It was a pretty quick write. In the song, the guy doesn’t have a lot — his guitar is pretty much all he has. He’s in love with this girl and their love is enough for each other.
What’s your favorite song on Million Eyes?
Definitely “Save Me.” I started writing it in high school and kind of forgot about it for a long time. I ended up looking through my songbook and found it again. It was half-done, so a month or two before we released the EP, I finished it. I kept the first half pretty much the same. I just try to write things that connect with more people than myself.
Who are some of the artists and writers you look up to?
Tyler Childers is huge. When he was 18, he put out Bottles and Bibles, and that’s my favorite album ever. I’ve definitely tried to be kind of in that lane. But of course, I listen to a lot of Zach Bryan and Chris Stapleton — those are probably my main three. But I also listen to a lot of indie artists. I’m a big fan of Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners; they are just good dudes. But then, I’m also a big fan of Kings of Leon.
You’ve written most of these songs yourself. Do you prefer writing by yourself to co-writing?
I really enjoy writing by myself. I think the songs come out much better. I think it’s hard to make a really emotional song when it’s two or three brains going into one song. I think it creates more of a bland song; it’s hard to be on the same emotional page as someone at the same time like that. But also, I have to be in a certain headspace to write. I can’t just say, “Tomorrow, I’m going to sit down and write a song.” I can’t really do that — I have to be like, “Okay, I’m feeling like this, like I need to write about it.”
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On Million Eyes, you include a cover of U.K. duo Dani and Lizzy’s “Dancing in the Sky.” What do you think of other artists covering your songs?
I love hearing people’s renditions of anything. I like when people twist things around and make it their own.
You said that performing is your favorite part of pursuing this career. Do you have a favorite story of a fan interaction?
One guy drove 17 hours to meet me. I ended up talking to him for a while and he got my signature tattooed on his arm. That was pretty awesome.
Who was the first artist you saw in concert?
Chris Stapleton. My parents took me when I was a kid.
You’ve mentioned Zach and Tyler, and, of course, more roots-oriented music has had a big moment this year on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. What are your thoughts on releasing music at this time?
I think I’m in the most perfect time I could be for what I’m doing. People are just going to all these streaming apps and listening to whatever they want. It’s becoming a thing, just acoustic guitars and voices. I think a lot more kids are picking up guitars and finding out, “I’m not that bad at this,” and it’s bringing a whole new aspect to music in general. I think it’s only for the better, and we’re just finding so many young and great artists out of this whole time period.
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Reba McEntire was so grief-stricken by the loss of her mum, she considered turning her back on music. Three years on, the country legend is back in the saddle, back in the swing of things.
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In an interview for Today With Hoda & Jenna, the 68-year-old artist recounted the pain of when her mom, Jacqueline Smith, died from cancer at the age of 93.
As the hosts walked viewers through some old family photos, McEntire recounted a chat with her sister Susie. “I said, ‘I just don’t think I’m going to do this anymore,” she remembers saying. “I always did it for Mama.”
Her sister’s response, “Oh, you’ll get it back.” She did. The pain, however, persists. To this day, McEntire is triggered if she sees photos of her mom. “I can’t talk if I see Mama.”
The matriarch gave music to the family, and always backed a young, admittedly naïve McEntire. “When I got started in the ’70s,” she says, “I thought back then when you got a record on the radio, you were rich.”
McEntire’s mom “was really encouraging for all of us kids,” which includes brother Pake and sister Alice, “in whatever we wanted to do. She taught us harmony. She encouraged us, we were The Singing McEntires when we were in high school, junior high.”
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Today, McEntire has a lot on her plate. She’s a high-profile coach on NBC’s The Voice, she’s got a new book and album out (both called Not That Fancy) and she’s an advocate on stretching, an activity she does each day with her partner Rex Linn.
The Country Music Hall of Famer returns with “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” the new song from her new album, a collection of stripped-back, acoustic songs, helmed by Grammy Award-winning producer, Dave Cobb.
Songwriters Olivia Rudeen and Matt Wynn pitched “Seven Minutes” to Reba, and the emotional response was palpable. ”When you find a song that really touches your heart and chokes you up, I’ve gotta sing it, I’ve gotta record it,” she remarks.
Watch a live performance of “Seven Minutes in Heaven” below.
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Chris Stapleton isn’t necessarily “starting over,” but the country superstar is postponing several dates of his ongoing All-American Road Show Tour. In a message posted to his official Instagram page Wednesday (Oct. 11), the “Tennessee Whiskey” singer revealed that “doctor’s orders” have forced him to reschedule the next three dates of his nationwide trek.
“To all my friends in Corpus Christi, Houston and Lafayette, I am very sorry to let you all know that I am unable to perform this weekend’s shows,” he wrote. “I have bronchitis and laryngitis, and on doctor’s orders am on vocal rest through the weekend in order to heal. I’m grateful for your patience and understanding, and hope to see you all in November.”
In the photo set’s caption, Stapleton clarified that “all tickets will be honored for the rescheduled dates.” The rescheduled dates are as follows: on Nov. 16, Stapleton will hit Lafayette, LA (originally Oct. 14), then make his way to Houston, TX, on Nov. 17 (originally Oct. 13), before finally gracing Corpus Christi, TX, on Nov. 17 (originally Oct. 12).
Chris Stapleton’s All-American Road Show Tour is the “You Should Probably Leave” singer’s first solo headlining concert tour. The trek has served as promotional support for his second, third, and fourth studio albums: 2017’s From A Room: Volume 1 and From A Room: Volume 2, and 2020’s Starting Over. Myriad opening acts have made their mark on the tour, including recent support acts such as Marcus King, Margo Price and The War and Treaty.
The eight-time Grammy winner is currently prepping the release of his forthcoming fifth studio album, Higher. He released the set’s lead single, “White Horse,” over the summer (Jul. 21), and the song has since reached No. 7 on Hot Country Songs and No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Chris Stapleton has earned 15 career entries on the Hot 100, including his sole top 10 hit, “Say Something” (with Justin Timberlake). Over on the Billboard 200, the “Scarecrow in the Garden” singer has collected four consecutive top 10 albums, including his sole No. 1 title, 2015’s Traveller (two weeks).
Check out Chris Stapleton’s statement below:
Congratulations are in order for Billy Ray Cyrus and singer-songwriter Firerose, who tied the knot on Tuesday (Oct. 10). The newlyweds shared a series of photos from their rustic wedding on Wednesday (Oct. 11), in which they are seen posing among a scenic grass landscape. “10/10/23 will always be the beautiful, joyous day that our […]