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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 […]
Ahead of Dolly Parton‘s upcoming book Behind The Seams, which releases Oct. 17 and delves into decades worth of Parton’s iconic fashions from rhinestoned dresses to fringed jumpsuits, the 10-time Grammy winner discussed the pros and cons of her glamorous image in an interview with The Guardian.
Parton said that though many people failed to take her seriously over the years due to her famous image, she refused to change for anyone and kept her focus on her work. “Actually,” she says, “my look came from a very serious place. That’s how I thought I looked best. Sometimes that’s worked for me, sometimes it can work against you. It took me probably years longer to be taken serious, but I wasn’t willing to change it, and I figured if I had the talent, it’d show up sooner or later.”
Since releasing her debut country single, “Dumb Blonde,” in 1967, Parton has earned two No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits (“Islands in the Stream” and “9 to 5”) as well as 25 No. 1 Hot Country Songs hits. She’s been inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry, Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and earned the Country Music Association’s top honor, entertainer of the year, in 1978.
Parton added, especially as a woman in the 1960s and 1970s music industry, she was regularly dismissed by industry executives — but she didn’t back down.
“I would just say, ‘I think I have something that we can all make some money off of, and get over the fact that I’m a girl here, because my mind is on something else.’ I always knew how to maneuver in a crowd of men,” she said, noting that she grew with numerous brothers and uncles. “I never slept with anybody to get ahead, because to me it wouldn’t be worth it. That don’t usually work in the long haul either.”
She also noted that she did face sexual harassment along the way. “Oh, I did, but I always knew how to put a man in his place without making him feel bad. If sometimes that don’t work, I’m also strong as a boy – I know how to push you off and get the hell away from you.” Asked whether she’s had to push back against harassment both in her personal life and in her career, she said, “Both. And that’s a very uncomfortable situation. I was always able to get away before [a serious assault] would happen, but I feel sorry because some women are not able and some men are that aggressive.”
Parton’s story of modeling her image after the “town tramp,” as she says — a woman who wore high heels, red lipstick and low-cut tops — is well-known. Parton told The Guardian that her father and grandfather strongly disagreed with her choices, and at times, her grandfather physically punished her for it.
“I was willing to pay for it,” Parton said. “I’m very sensitive, I didn’t like being disciplined – it hurt my feelings so bad to be scolded or whipped or whatever. But sometimes there’s just that part of you that’s willing, if you want something bad enough, to go for it.”
The wide-ranging interview also finds Parton discussing her reason for deciding early in her career to not delve too deeply into political situations.
“Because you’re going to lose half your audience,” she said. “Even within my own family, especially the last few years since Trump and Biden, all that, it’s like we can’t even go to a family dinner any more. Especially if people are drinking – they get in a damn fight at the table. Don’t get so trapped where if you’re a Republican, you got to be this way, if you’re Democrat, you got to be that way. You’re not allowed to think nothing else. Well, how crippling is that? I’ve got as many Democrats as I do Republicans as fans, and I’m not going to insult any of them because I care about all of them. I ain’t that good a Christian to think that I am so good that I can judge people. That’s God’s job, not mine. So as far as politics, I hate politics. Hate politics.”
Parton also recently announced a four-part radio series, What Would Dolly Do?, set to air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Apple Music 1, beginning Oct. 25. The first episode features Parton with co-host Kelleigh Bannen, and finds Parton discussing her iconic image and career, as well as her book Behind the Seams.
Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” spent six weeks atop Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. But the track wasn’t recorded anywhere near Nashville — it was crafted alongside producer Ryan Hadlock, over 2,000 miles away at Bear Creek, the rustic barn-turned-studio that Hadlock’s parents had built in 1977 just outside of Seattle, not far from the birthplace of grunge. The genre-fluid song didn’t just top the country chart — it peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, too.
“Even the term ‘country music’ is almost becoming passé in some ways because in working with Zach, in a lot of ways, he doesn’t really consider himself a straight-up country musician,” says Hadlock, who also produced Bryan’s “From Austin.” “He’s a singer-songwriter who happens to be from Oklahoma, has an accent and sings about the world he’s in… I think he will be doing amazing things for a really long time.”
Within Nashville, too, a similar genre-mashing ethos has bubbled up on hits such as Morgan Wallen’s muted, acoustic-based chart juggernaut “Last Night,” which spent 16 nonconsecutive weeks atop the Hot 100 in 2023. “He has one of those magical voices that allows him to span multiple formats, really,” says producer Joey Moi, who has worked with Wallen since his debut album. “He can sing a traditional country song, or over a hip-hop, contemporary production or a contemporary country production, and it still sounds like a Morgan Wallen song.”
As more and more country tracks have risen to the upper reaches of the Hot 100 this past year, many of the standouts — not only “Something in the Orange” and “Last Night,” in addition to other tracks by Bryan and Wallen, but also Luke Combs’ rendition of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” (which reached No. 2), Bailey Zimmerman’s “Rock and a Hard Place” (which hit the top 10) and Jelly Roll’s rock and country-blending “Need a Favor” (which broke into the top 20) — demonstrate an instinct for crafting sounds that appeal beyond the genre.
A mix of newcomers and veterans, they include Hadlock; Wallen’s “Last Night” producers, Moi and Charlie Handsome; Zimmerman producer Austin Shawn; Combs’ “Fast Car” co-producers, Jonathan Singleton and Chip Matthews; and Jelly Roll producer Austin Nivarel.
Notably, many of these studio creatives have résumés that extend beyond country. Before working with Big Loud artists like Wallen and Florida Georgia Line, Moi produced Canadian rock band Nickelback. Hadlock has worked with names ranging from Foo Fighters to Brandi Carlile, while Handsome’s credits include Post Malone, Kanye West, Juice WRLD and Lil Wayne.
For Wallen and Bryan, scaled-back production proved essential to the genre-traversing success of their respective hits. “We purposefully kept it simple,” Moi says of “Last Night.” “There are a handful of parts going on, but it’s more about the negative space and making it about the story, the vocal and the instrumental that runs throughout. It lends itself to being accessible by more lanes as far as radio formats; it was tougher to define as just a country song, or just a pop song or [adult top 40] song. It kind of fit everywhere.”
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Moi says the song’s sparse production partially resulted from Wallen’s own creative inclinations. “My natural instinct is to build these larger-than-life productions, and Morgan is great about coming behind me and being like, ‘Take this out and that part out,’ making sure I’m not doing too much on certain things,” Moi says. “I’d say he has had his best opportunity on the last two records to really imprint upon every aspect of it, from the songwriting to demos to our approach to tracking in the studio and postproduction. You can hear his contemporary, youthful thoughts over all of it.”
Similarly, Hadlock notes the minimal production on “Something in the Orange,” which utilized vintage mics and gear. “Sometimes old equipment is better at capturing emotion, and part of it is having a good room; I think people don’t always realize how much an instrument the room is that people are playing in,” says Hadlock, whose goal was a recording that sounded like Bryan was “playing right in front of you,” that would make “people listen to it and say, ‘Wow, that’s an amazing live recording.’ ”
For Shawn, the freedom to experiment was key in landing the right feel for Zimmerman’s “Rock and a Hard Place.” He and Zimmerman produced the song a half-dozen different ways before landing on the approach they used for the final recording. “We produced an almost John Mayer-esque, real smooth-sounding [version], then the acoustic version and one that was a dark piano ballad, with strings and fiddle that sounded almost like you were listening to a country Goo Goo Dolls song,” Shawn says.
As he did with “Fall in Love,” Shawn incorporated a “three-minute-long sample of just wind” into “Rock and a Hard Place.” “It feels like you are in a desert, and I wanted to feel that open style — we added fiddle and pedal steel, just subtly to bring out the emotive aspect. We wanted this song to feel like you could play it on acoustic guitar, but at the same time, it can still fit into a country radio modern format.”
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Shawn, who co-wrote Zimmerman’s “Fall in Love,” recalls the no-barriers approach he and Zimmerman took early on in developing his sound. “We thought about the kinds of songs he would want to hear and made the music as fans, just encompassing everything we love… There’s no gimmicks with this kid. His gift is making the music that defines him and his lifestyle.”
Ultimately, producers who encourage such experimentation — whether Combs’ cover of a 1980s folk-pop classic, Bryan’s poetic blend of country, folk and rock or Wallen’s country-to-hip-hop range — have shaped songs that are resonating with a multitude of listeners.
“He has always wanted to stay in the country lane, but we all knew he had a sort of contemporary side,” Moi says of Wallen. “If we planted our roots and built our foundation in a good spot, [we knew] we’d have the opportunity to explore other genres, and I think we’re in a sweet spot for that right now.”
This story originally appeared in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Early in his emergence as a national country artist, Keith Urban assembled a string of singles that reveled in the moment.
“Days Go By,” “Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me,” “Somebody Like You,” “Raining on Sunday” and “You’re My Better Half” — some of them from the appropriately named album Be Here — celebrated living life in the present rather than wallowing in the past or stressing about the future. Mastering that is one of the biggest challenges of day-to-day existence in the device-encumbered 21st century. But it has always been a huge hurdle for creators, particularly when business — with its need to plan future marketing and account for past expenses — distracts from making art in the moment.
Urban and fellow composers Kix Brooks, David Lee Murphy, Casey Beathard and Rafe Van Hoy will face an intersection of past, present and future tonight (Oct. 11) when they’re officially inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. The event at the Music City Center is by definition a celebration that occurs in the moment, but it’s an achievement built on previous accomplishments, and the enshrinement creates a marker that will exist in a permanent future.
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Urban is likely as prepared for that clash of time stamps as is possible, given how often he has encouraged listeners to grab the moment as it arrives. He recognizes the importance of embracing the now as a steppingstone between the established past and the unknown future.
“I like feeling a part of a through line,” he says, “where I’ve come from, how I got to be where I am, but mostly, I’ve always looked forward.”
Finding the glory in a moment is frequently the task at hand in writing hits. Many fans, often when commuting to or from a job they dislike, look to find escape in recordings that help make their present moments better.
Songs that focus on the instant as it passes can certainly accomplish that, though material that draws on the past or imagines a future event can have value in the current moment, too. Figuring out what kind of song to create is frequently a decision best made by reading the room.
“I like those live-in-the-moment kind of things because I try to [live like] that,” Murphy says. “But I look back fondly on things that I’ve done. So I just kind of take them as they come.”
Murphy has indeed created some lasting songs in present tense: His own “Party Crowd,” the Kenny Chesney hit “Living in Fast Forward” and Jason Aldean’s “Big Green Tractor” all focus on events as they unfold. His 1996 hit “The Road You Leave Behind” leans on past childhood lessons to create a worthwhile present, and his Chesney duet, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” applies optimism to future uncertainty.
The other Hall of Fame entrants have similar mixes. Beathard’s “Don’t Blink,” made famous by Chesney, employs a centenarian character whose advice for successful living is to experience each moment while it’s here. The Eric Church co-write “Like a Wrecking Ball” anticipates a rockin’ bedroom in the very near future. And Beathard’s Jeff Bates hit, “The Love Song,” looks back to understand key relationships.
Brooks’ hit list as a writer includes The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s backward-glancing “Modern Day Romance,” Brooks & Dunn’sright-now declaration “Brand New Man” and a celebration of future possibilities, “Only in America.” But he was living in the present when he wrote it.
Brooks remembers that “Only in America” came together after he and songwriters Don Cook and Ronnie Rogers had spent the day four-wheeling. He describes it as “grown men getting corny, just going, ‘God, are we lucky to be born on this part of the planet?’ We complain about our world sometimes, but man, you know, we are blessed to just have been born here. No matter what your background is, the opportunity is there.”
Creating in the present is tricky — yoga and meditation are currently trendy in part because people find it so difficult to tune into what’s happening now. That’s one of the hurdles that makes the songwriting process — and any other creative endeavors — so challenging. Younger songwriters who are just sticking their toes in the water are prone to get distracted by imagining the song’s future as they create it. Veteran writers more often get hung up by their accumulated experience, measuring the current writing session against previous successes and failures.
The now, of course, is all that’s available. Getting rid of the years of clutter from the past is key to making the most of each fleeting moment as it passes.
“A friend of mine said I had beginner’s mind,” notes Urban. “And I think that’s probably what it is, where I truly walk into a studio to make a record, almost thinking, ‘How do I do this? What? How?’ Where I have no real feelings at all that I’ve ever done a record. And it’s not something I have to try to do. It’s just naturally how I feel. It’s a blank canvas, and it feels very fresh and brand new and exhilarating and anxiety-ridden and everything all at once.”
As simple as that sounds, time is a jumble. Even when writing in the present tense, most songs are informed by other time frames. As an example, the biggest hit for the late John Jarrard, who’ll be added to the Hall of Fame as a legacy entry, was arguably George Strait’s “Blue Clear Sky,” which centered on the instant when a single person recognizes their soul mate. But the present has power because it’s informed by past disappointments. And Jarrard quite often mixed time frames. The Collin Raye cut “My Kind of Girl” and Tracy Lawrence’s “Is That a Tear” paired verses grounded in the past with choruses firmly in the current moment, and his John Schneider cut, “What’s a Memory Like You (Doing in a Love Like This),” blends past and present in a troubling haze.
Van Hoy, meanwhile, earned his first hit with George Jones & Tammy Wynette’s“Golden Ring,” a story song that traces a series of present-tense events in the life cycle of a piece of jewelry. His most enduring song — “What’s Forever For,” recorded numerous times before Michael Martin Murphey cut the hit version — is obsessed with the future.
The Hall of Fame inductees have mostly come to terms with that issue. As they celebrate the present moment at the Oct. 11 ceremony, they have enough past experience to recognize the successful futures they created weren’t necessarily shaped by the songs they expected.
“You never know,” Van Hoy says, “which of those are going to connect and hang around.”
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