Country
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Since his debut in 2000, Craig Morgan has become a multi-hyphenate entertainer. The military veteran and singer-songwriter scored the four-week Hot Country Songs No. 1 “That’s What I Love About Sunday” in 2005 (and notched six other top hits on the same chart), while also becoming an author and television personality.
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But now, Morgan is teaming up with several of his musical buddies — including Luke Combs, Blake Shelton, Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson — to reimagine some of his most renowned hits (along with a pair of new tracks) on the upcoming, six-song project Enlisted. The set will be released Oct. 20 on Broken Bow Records, Billboard can reveal.
The project originated with “Raise the Bar,” a new song Morgan wrote with Billy Dean, featuring vocals from Luke Combs. “I wasn’t thinking about doing a whole duet project at the time; I just wanted Luke on the song because I thought it was a great one for the two of us to do together,” Morgan tells Billboard.
After Combs laid down his vocal tracks on the song, the idea of an entire collaborative project quickly followed, and Morgan co-produced the album with writer-producer Phil O’Donnell.
“My management was telling me I should get someone to sing ‘Redneck Yacht Club,’ because it is such a fan favorite,” Morgan says, “and I thought, ‘Well, we just did this collaboration with Luke, so it makes sense to do a duets project.’”
Blake Shelton, who appeared in the original music video for Morgan’s “Redneck Yacht Club” smash in 2005, joins for a Jimmy Buffett-esque, tropical take on the song.
“Craig and I have been friends for many years,” Shelton says in a statement. “I’m a fan of his music and admire him as a human. After all of these years, I still don’t understand why he still feels the need to wear that toupee, but I’m thrilled he asked me to sing with him on ‘Redneck Yacht Club.’”
Morgan also teams with Trace Adkins on another new song, “That Ain’t Gonna Be Me,” which Morgan wrote with Wade Kirby, Trent Willmon and Phil O’Donnell. Gary LeVox, known for his work as part of trio Rascal Flatts, sings a soulful revamp of “That’s What I Love About Sunday.”
“I love R&B and I wanted to do something different with every one of these songs,” Morgan says. “I told everyone the same thing — sing as little or as much as you want. Have fun with it. And I love Gary’s singing, the soulfulness and the almost religious sound he delivers. It was easy — the hardest part with Gary was trying to find out which parts to use my vocal on, because he just sang all of it so well!”
The two current leading nominees at this year’s CMA awards — Lainey Wilson and Jelly Roll—also join Morgan on the album. Wilson’s honey-twang vocals melt over the lyrics of “International Harvester.”
“It’s an absolute honor to be a part of this record,” Wilson says in a statement. “I remember the first time I ever heard ‘International Harvester’ and the feeling I got knowing that there was music being written that felt like it was made just for me. I come from a family of farmers, so it’s really a full circle moment to be on this track alongside my good friend Craig.”
A year ago, Morgan joined Jelly Roll onstage at the Grand Ole Opry to perform Morgan’s “Almost Home.” Now, they upgrade that performance to an official, emotionally charged recorded duet of the song. The song’s tale of a homeless man dreaming of being nearly home resonated with Jelly Roll.
The “Need a Favor” singer previously told Billboard, “I had got released from jail and it would end up being the last time I was ever in jail, which I am super proud of. And I came here because Craig Morgan had ‘Almost Home,’ and I would listen to it in my jail cell. My cell mates and I used to compare [that song’s story] to jail. You know, like in this horrible circumstance, but kind of mentally, you can always be almost home.’”
“I love the guy to death. Love his enthusiasm, his energy, his sense of gratitude,” Morgan says of Jelly Roll. “I feel like he truly is representative of how someone can be at their lowest point in their life and they can change that through faith, hope and kindness and that’s what he’s done. When he came in the studio — and this is a guy that has 50 people around him all the time — he drove up to the studio by himself, sang, hung out with us and it was awesome.”
The album’s title ties in with the recent news that Morgan enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves on the Grand Ole Opry stage. Morgan also hopes that the project’s fresh recordings expand the influence of these songs to new fans of the genre.
“After COVID, there was this resurgence of the 2000s kind of music, so there were new fans hearing the music,” Morgan says. “With this, we wanted to maintain the sense of who Craig Morgan is with older fans, but at the same time, give them something new and create something for the new fans of the format now.”
See the full track list for Enlisted below:
1. “Raise The Bar” featuring Luke Combs
2. “Almost Home” featuring Jelly Roll
3. “Redneck Yacht Club” featuring Blake Shelton
4. “That’s What I Love About Sunday” featuring Gary LeVox
5. “International Harvester” featuring Lainey Wilson
6. “That Ain’t Gonna Be Me” featuring Trace Adkins
In this week’s best new country roundup, Megan Moroney and Mackenzie Carpenter combine their musical talents, trio Lady A returns with a heartfelt new ballad, while Emily Ann Roberts teams with Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs for a sterling track from her new project.
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Megan Moroney feat. Mackenzie Carpenter, “Nothin’ Crazy”
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These two strong female singer-songwriters mesh their talents on this quirky tale of a woman enamored with a new lover. While she tells her potential suitor that she’s playing it cool, little does he know that she’s secretly got a Pinterest board filled with wedding ideas. She’s imagining him popping the question and she’s already picking out baby names — ya know, nothing too out there.
Moroney’s debut album Lucky is filled with clever turns of phrases and well thought-out songcraft, and the trio of new songs she adds to her deluxe version of the album (including this one) further her reputation as one of country music’s fastest-growing new artists.
Sam Barber, “Til I Return”
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Barber’s emotionally tactile brand of music has steadily been garnering attention, thanks to songs including “Straight and Narrow.” “I’d be an awful company man/ He’s gettin’ rich while I get callused hands,” Barber sings on his new melancholy, fiddle-spiked track, oscillating between eviscerating greedy corporations and championing wanderlust and blue-collar work. Still, the song leans more toward personal than political, and is included on Barber’s debut EP, Million Eyes.
Lady A, “Love You Back”
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This mandolin-inflected ballad oozes regret and wistfulness as they work to eschew the past, realizing the detrimental impact focusing on the best memories of a long-dissolved relationship has on the present. The honey-voiced Scott and soulful singer Kelley trade off lead vocals, infusing the song with the hope of creating a new set of memories. “Love You Back” was written by James McNair, Lindsay Rimes and Emily Weisband.
Emily Ann Roberts, “Still Searching”
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The teardrop twang in Tennessee native Roberts’s plangent voice is reminiscent of Lee Ann Womack on this elegantly brooding track about searching for love. This gorgeous ballad brims with aching fiddle and is slathered in steel guitar, while her collaborators — Country Music Hall of Fame members Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs — are no slouches, either. The song is found on Roberts’s new project, Can’t Hide Country, which offers an amalgam of retro-country, bluegrass and folk leanings and contemporary songwriting.
Wyatt Flores, “West of Tulsa”
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Oklahoma native Flores is one in a surge of new artists making unvarnished singer-songwriter fare, counter-culture to the polished, pop-informed country music mainstream.
“Maybe she’s just here because I sang some f–king song,” Flores sings, his grainy and soulful voice conveying the highs, lows and insecurities of chasing love on the road. He wrote this gem with Nashville mainstay writers Billy Montana and Chris Gelbuda.
Bailey Zimmerman scores his third career-launching leader on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “Religiously” surges from No. 4 to No. 1 on the list dated Sept. 30. In the Sept. 15-21 tracking week, the single increased by 16% to 28.4 million impressions, according to Luminate. The track — which the 23-year-old from Louisville, Ill., wrote […]
Dolly Parton rolled out the latest song from her upcoming all-star debut rock record Rockstar (Nov. 17) on Friday (Sept. 22), a moving cover of the 1993 4 Non Blondes song “What’s Up?” And because the country legend was determined to make her first foray legit, she collaborated on the song with former Non Blondes singer Linda Perry.
The superstar songwriter/producer (Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Adele) also appears in the just-released video for the song, which was filmed at a Nashville elementary school on the hottest day of the year. “First of all, I love Linda Perry. Second of all, I love this song written by Linda,” Parton said in a statement about the song that perennially asks a question with no clear answer about the state of the world today.
“Third of all, I love being a part of this video to try to make people think about what’s going on in this world today,” Parton, 77, added. “Shout out to the little children that helped with the video! If our children don’t make it, then what will? Again, I ask ‘What’s Up?’ Enjoy.”
The visual for the poignant take on the tune finds Parton singing the song on a stage — with Perry gently strumming an acoustic guitar — as children from Nashville’s Eakin Elementary school sit at her feet. Parton has long supported childhood literacy through her Imagination Library project, which has distributed more than 200 million books since 1995.
“How is one supposed to react when the greatest and most prolific songwriter in the world wants to cover a song YOU wrote?,” Perry said in a statement. “Her version of ‘What’s Up?’ is so good. Her spin on it made me feel like it was her song. No surprise there. Being on set making the video was a comfortable easy experience. The vibe on set was chill and Dolly and I got to catch up and laugh a lot. I could go on and on, obviously I’m a fan!”
The Perry track is the latest preview of the anticipated 30-song collection (21 covers, 9 originals), following last month’s Paul McCartney/Ringo Starr-assisted cover of the Beatles’ “Let It Be,” originals “World on Fire” and “Bygones” (featuring Judas Priest’s Rob Halford), as well as covers of Queen’s “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions”) and Heart’s “Magic Man.”
Among the rock world luminaries joining Parton on the album are: Sting (“Every Breath You Take”), former Journey singer Steve Perry (“Open Arms”), John Fogerty (“Long as I Can See the Light”), Joan Jett (“I Hate Myself For Loving You”), goddaughter Miley Cyrus (“Wrecking Ball”), Debbie Harry (“Heart of Glass”) and Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo (“Heartbreaker”), among many others.
Watch Parton and Perry’s What’s Up? video below.
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With her latest string of albums, including her intensely vulnerable and current CMA album of the year-nominated Rolling Up the Welcome Mat EP, singer-songwriter and five-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper Kelsea Ballerini has steadily been leveling up, both creatively and professionally.
This week, Ballerini not only made her debut performance on the VMAs, but also appeared on the cover of TIME, and stepped up in the touring space, selling out her very first headlining arena show, set for Nov. 2 in her hometown of Knoxville, Tenn. at the Thompson-Boling Arena. The show will crown a year that has seen Ballerini headline a slate of theaters on her HEARTFIRST Tour, perform songs from Rolling Up the Welcome Mat on Saturday Night Live, offer a powerful, statement-making performance on the CMT Music Awards, release a short film around her EP, and play the inaugural People’s Choice Country Awards, which she is set to perform later this month.
And Ballerini’s latest standout touring moment earns Sandbox Entertainment Group’s head of global touring Leslie Cohea the title of Billboard‘s Executive of the Week.
Here, Cohea discusses Ballerini’s upcoming hometown arena show, how touring has shifted since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and country music’s ascendance in international touring.
This week, Kelsea Ballerini sold out the first headlining arena tour date of her career in Knoxville. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
Last year, I put a plan together for Kelsea’s then-upcoming 2023 headlining tour. She had not done a headline tour since before the pandemic and I knew that it had to be thoughtful and impactful for her fans. We decided to play all the right rooms, not skipping any steps, only announcing around 15 shows for the HEARTFIRST tour. Once those sold out, she announced the next 15 shows. With her EP coming out and having the huge success it did, the next shows sold out immediately. Her momentum kept building and building and any show we put on sale sold out. That’s when Kelsea and I talked about having one last massive play to cap off such a successful year. She is absolutely going to play arenas in the future, but I wanted to have one big moment to really show the growth of Kelsea as a touring artist.
The obvious choice was Knoxville since it is her hometown, and she has always wanted to play Thompson-Boling Arena. I had the idea for the show to be over the University of Tennessee homecoming weekend and call it Kelsea’s “homecoming” as well. It’s only right that her first sellout show is in Knoxville. When we announced the show last week, I knew we had a short window to sell tickets being that the show is on Nov. 2. I really wanted this show to stand out as a special event and get people excited. I think everything we did to market the announce really helped drive that. AEG are incredible partners to us, and they helped us build this Knoxville campaign from scratch and continue to bring opportunities that are going to make this show massive for Kelsea and her fans. Amy Buck is a brilliant marketer. It was really special to see it sell out minutes after going on sale. This is by far Kelsea’s biggest show to date, doubling — almost tripling — the capacities she has played this year.
How will this show be different in terms of production, lighting, etc., since this will be scaling up in venue size?
Kelsea has empowered her entire team to up the ante on production for this show. We had a great HEARTFIRST tour production, but it was simply not scaled for arenas. Building out the production for this Homecoming show is where Kelsea, her touring team and I get to have a little fun. We are adding more lights, sound and video while creating a few special surprises along the way. Every fan will leave this show fully understanding why Kelsea Ballerini is a superstar.
Looking ahead to 2024, how do you foresee her touring growing and evolving?
Kelsea continues to grow and evolve in all areas, including writing, recording and touring. The connection she has built with her fans is truly mesmerizing and it’s something that has become so powerful at her live shows. They feel connected to her more than they ever have, especially after the release of Rolling Up The Welcome Mat. And based on what we just witnessed with the sell out at Thompson-Boling Arena, there is absolutely an arena tour in Kelsea’s future.
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Earlier this year, Kelsea also made headlines after she was hit by a bracelet while on stage, part of a strange trend of fans throwing things at artists on stage. Is there anything that the team has changed to help keep things safe on tour?
Every artist and their team want to create the safest environment possible. Since the bracelet incident, tour security works directly with the venue to make sure we have all eyes watching the people closest to the stage. I also think the fans attending are holding other fans accountable. An artist is vulnerable enough on stage, disrupting a show by launching something at the artist ruins the moment for every person on, in front of, and behind the stage.
How has touring changed overall since the pandemic?
The thing I have noticed lately is the volume of shows in every size room in every market. Right now, there are so many tours going back out and making up for the lost time and revenue. This is how we at Sandbox really came up with the “less is more” idea to only announce 15 shows for Kelsea. We want fans to feel the urgency to buy the tickets as soon as they go on sale. We are seeing people waiting to buy closer to the show. They don’t want to make the commitment too soon.
Kelsea just made her debut VMAs performance and was on the cover of TIME. How has the Sandbox team overall worked toward her increased recognition in the mainstream, while still staying very connected within the country music genre?
Two words: Jason Owen. Jason is our fearless leader at Sandbox, but he empowers all of us to lead, to innovate and to push boundaries. Our digital team at Sandbox always has their fingers on the pulse of what’s connecting in the marketplace. Their knowledge and insight into how we communicate with fans is unmatched. And CAA has played a very integral role in helping us elevate Kelsea’s stature across touring and film and television. Rick Roskin and his team are incredibly powerful partners.
Country music is having a moment not only in terms of success on the all-genre Hot 100 chart, but in terms of international touring. To what factors do you attribute this moment?
There are a lot of factors that contribute to this, from streaming to labels pushing more for international exposure and touring becoming a more common experience for country artists all over Europe and the U.K. It was hard to convince an arena-level artist years ago to go play clubs across the U.K. in order to help grow their international fan base. It had to feel like going backwards almost. In the last 10 years, the next generation of country artists really started investing in growing their touring careers abroad. They could do it alongside their touring career in the states as well. C2C and other newer country festivals have also really helped shine a light on country music and have allowed the ability to get exposure in places like London and Dublin.
Last Week’s Top Executive: Sony Latin Iberia COO María Fernández
On Sept. 24, 1988, Dan Seals’ “Addicted” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. It became the eighth of his 11 career leaders on the list.
Cheryl Wheeler wrote the song following a conversation with her sister, who was deciding whether or not to stay in a relationship. “‘Addicted’ came really fast to me,” Wheeler has said. “I’d just hung up the phone with the person the song is about, after she’d said, ‘I feel like I’m addicted to a real bad thing.’ Chordally (is that a word?), it has a lot more going on than most of my stuff.”
Wheeler first released “Addicted” on her 1987 LP Half a Book. In addition to Seals, Blake Shelton also recorded the ballad, for the iTunes deluxe edition of his 2011 album Red River Blue. Wheeler added a second Hot Country Songs top 10 as a writer via Suzy Bogguss’ version of “Aces” (No. 9, 1992), while Garth Brooks reworked her song “If It Were Up to Me” in 1999.
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Seals’ “Addicted” was released as the first of three singles from his LP Rage On, his third of three top 10s on the Top Country Albums chart. Second single “Big Wheels in the Moonlight” topped Hot Country Songs for a week and “They Rage On” hit No. 5.
“Addicted” became Seals’ eighth of nine straight No. 1 singles in 1985-89, a streak that started with his first leader, “Meet Me in Montana,” with Marie Osmond.
Born in McCamey, Texas, on Feb. 8, 1948, Seals was first known as half the duo England Dan & John Ford Coley. The pair notched four top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100, with 1976’s “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” its strongest showing (No. 2). Meanwhile, Seals & Crofts, comprised of Seals’ older brother Jim Seals and Dash Crofts, tallied three Hot 100 top 10s, starting with “Summer Breeze” in 1972.
Dan Seals was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2008. Following treatments, including a stem cell transplant, he passed in 2009 at age 61.
Queer country artist Adam Mac took to TikTok on Thursday (Sept. 21) to reveal that he removed himself from his upcoming headlining slot at Kentucky’s Tobacco Festival due to questions surrounding his sexuality. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “The last 24 hours have been a bit […]
He is one of the most sought after artists in the agency world and now he finally has major a booking team behind him.
Oliver Anthony has signed with UTA for exclusive worldwide representation in all areas.
“We’re honored to represent such an authentic artist, and excited to put together a global strategy to bring Oliver Anthony and his music to the people,” shared UTA co-head of Nashville Jeffrey Hasson and music agent Curt Motley in a statement to Billboard. Some of UTA’s other clients include Brittney Spencer, Megan Moroney, Parmalee, Elvie Shane, Ian Munsick and Jamey Johnson, who has performed recently with Anthony.
The “Rich Men North of Richmond” singer’s profile skyrocketed in August after a performance video went viral, generating more than 69 million views on Youtube and leading to a historic No. 1 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. With that song, Anthony became the first artist ever to top the chart without having appeared on it previously.
“Rich Men North of Richmond” is also the first song by a solo male to debut at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts simultaneously. The Farmville, Virginia, native’s other songs — such as “Ain’t Gotta Dollar,” “90 Some Chevy” and “I Want to Go Home” — have also earned solid streaming numbers.
A quick bidding war followed, with music executives from all around the country to try to sign the hot new phenom. One label head told Billboard at the time, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before.” Rapper Gucci Mane even posted on Instagram that he wanted to sign Anthony to his label and needed help finding him. Anthony, who sings of populist ideals that have grown him a grassroots following, seemed largely nonplussed by the newfound attention. He told social media followers he was determined not to make any rash decisions and that he had turned down record deals worth upwards of $8 million.
Meanwhile, Anthony has continued to perform for his new fanbase with a number of regional shows that have grown from the Eagle Creek Golf Club and Grill in Moyock, N.C., on Aug. 19, to Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge’s annual block party in Nashville last weekend on Sept. 17, where he notably performed with a full band for the first time. While in Nashville, Anthony apparently made his new agreement with UTA — marking his first major deal since breaking out.
Coming up, Anthony is slated to perform two sets at the upcoming Louder Than Life Festival, which opens Thursday (Sept. 21) and runs through Sept. 24 at the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky. And then he has a sold out show at Smokies Stadium in Sevier County, Tenn., scheduled for Sept. 28.
Earlier this month, Anthony canceled a Sept. 27 concert at Cotton Eyed Joe in Knoxville, Tenn., due to a disagreement over ticket prices, which were listed at $99 and $199 for a meet and greet. Anthony posted to social media discouraging his fans from buying the tickets, explaining that he didn’t agree to those prices. Anthony explained his friend had been acting as his booking agent and he booked the show without asking what the ticket prices were. (The venue later responded, saying the high prices were the only way it could cover Anthony’s $120,000 booking fee.) Anthony continued to say his shows “never cost more than $40, ideally no more than $25,” pointing out that two of his four recent shows were “completely free.”
When Anthony’s co-manager Draven Riffe spoke with Billboard in August, he said the artist is “very passionate about bringing other unknown, unheard musicians up and helping them get their music out as well” — and that help also means providing jobs for those in Anthony’s community where he can. “We’re doing all the booking ourselves,” Riffe said, adding the Anthony is booked through the end of the year. “We’re trying to keep everything in-house as much as we can… If we could have a hand in helping get a person a job they’ll love then we want to do that rather than contracting it out to something that we don’t even know where the money is going.”
Additional reporting by Jessica Nicholson.
Sometimes shadows conceal the truth, but often they reveal it.
Several of country’s historic songs have placed the singer outside of a house where the actions occurring inside — usually conveyed through shadows — announce the hard truth that a relationship is over.
Jim Reeves’ 1957 recording “Two Shadows on Your Window” and Wynonna’s 1992 single “I Saw the Light” each find the singer spotting two silhouettes in one embrace, a sign that the protagonist is a permanent outsider. Toby Keith’s 1994 drive-by “Who’s That Man” agonizes over the guy living with his former family and sleeping with his ex-wife. Rhett Akins’ “That Ain’t My Truck” spies the other guy’s pickup in the driveway and the “shadow on her wall,” and knows he’s lost a competition.
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The title of Scotty McCreery’s new single, “Cab in a Solo,” doesn’t obviously announce that scenario — on paper, its meaning is likely confusing to all but the most ardent wine connoisseurs — but as its plot unwinds, McCreery’s character is outside of his now-former girlfriend’s house, watching a kiss play out in the shadows on her bedroom wall. When she turns off the light, it doesn’t take much imagination to know what he imagines.
“It’s not a smiling song,” he says. “But I’m happy to sing it, because it kind of takes me back to what I grew up listening to.”
What McCreery listened to in his youth was ’90s country, and “Cab in a Solo” was an attempt to emulate the sound of that era. He hosted a writing retreat at his home in the North Carolina mountains this year with songwriter Brent Anderson (“Lonely Tonight”) and songwriter-producer Frank Rogers (“Five More Minutes,” “I’m Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin’ Song)”).
The two guests did their homework ahead of the trip, trying to set up some ideas that would fit the bill. Rogers had a title that neither he nor Anderson loved — to this day, they don’t remember the original. But Anderson changed it, Rogers reshaped it, and it finally became “Cab in a Solo,” shorthand for “cabernet in a Solo cup.” Anderson got a laugh when he imagined the final hook: “Drinkin’ cab in a Solo/ Solo in the cab of my truck.”
“That’s the cool thing about co-writing,” says Anderson. “The point for me is to write something with somebody else that you wouldn’t write alone.”
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They paired it with an almost grinding signature guitar lick. Then they brought it up to McCreery in North Carolina after writing several other songs with a scenic view from his back deck on March . McCreery was in on “Cab” from the beginning, but it required that they map out the story a bit. That was one of the easiest parts of the exercise.
“We have to be in a truck, and you have to have wine,” Anderson quips. “Your path is kind of laid out inherently in the hook already.”
They landed on a guy who realizes during a break in a relationship that he wants to move forward. He buys a quality bottle of red and heads to her house to rekindle the romance. And of course, he discovers when he arrives that, based on the shadows in her bedroom, she’s already moved forward with someone else. Instead of writing it in linear fashion, they bounced among different stanzas — “Maybe a little bit of the ADHD/squirrel thing happened,” suggests McCreery — and they settled on a Silver Oak 1998 as the brand at hand. The outdoorsy name has a country vibe, though more importantly, it’s an expensive option (about $115, according to several websites) for a blue-collar guy. And it fit Rogers’ taste.
“At some point, I just threw out Silver Oak because I liked the wine,” he says. “It was a little deeper detail with that point, and if he’s going to make up for something, it’s not going to be [Trader Joe’s] Barefoot or Two Buck Chuck. It’s going to be something pretty good.”
Once the protagonist realizes his plans are dashed, the guy addresses his options in verse two: Does he take the bottle back for a refund? He ultimately decides to drink it right there at the curb while his ex is making out in the house. It’s a tragic story, though told with tongue in cheek and with a melody that would appeal to George Strait.
After they initially uncorked “Cab in a Solo,” the song tumbled out in a scant 90 minutes. Anderson whipped up a basic demo with a recording rig on the back deck around 1 a.m., and McCreery gave it a quality vocal. Its finish was rich, too.
“This was the song that I just kept coming back to when I was in my truck running errands or if I put my earbuds in before bed,” says McCreery.
Rogers co-produced “Cab” with Derek Wells (HARDY, Maddie & Tae) and Aaron Eshuis (Ryan Hurd) at Nashville’s Blackbird Studios. Wells did a basic guitar part, knowing he would have overdub opportunities later, then spent the rest of the session in the control room with the production team. Steel guitarist Mike Johnson was given plenty of room to affect the texture, and drummer Evan Hutchings played snare on the rim during the verses, subtly re-creating the ’90s vibe amid some other modern textures. The arrangement was relatively spare compared with more contemporary productions, and the musicians were careful to make all the parts work together.
“When the tracks are less dense, everything has to match,” Wells says.
Later, Wells went to work on the signature lick. They had pitched the master recording higher than the demo, but in the new key, the original riff “didn’t have the gusto to it,” he says.
“We kind of overhauled it,” he adds. “It’s kind of stacked up and doubled, with some more lower octaves in some different positions, just to beef it up and make it feel like it was as impactful as it had been on the demo in the new key. I think there’s even a baritone [guitar] tucked in underneath it to make it feel really pronounced and strong.”
McCreery delivered the final vocal without complication under Rogers’ guidance, though they took one additional pass and experimented with some vocal ornaments at the end of a few lines that approximate Keith Whitley. “I haven’t really recorded a bunch of those songs where I can really do that kind of stuff,” says McCreery. “It was just me having fun with it, and it really turned into a signature part of the song.”
“They’re not easy at all,” Rogers says of those inflections. “I promise you, if I get to the point where I decide to do [“Cab”] on a writers night, I will not be doing that.”
With McCreery’s affinity for the song, its clever wordplay and the current interest in ’90s country, it was an obvious choice for a single. Triple Tigers released “Cab in a Solo” to country radio via PlayMPE on Aug. 18, and it floats at No. 41 on the Country Airplay chart dated Sept. 23. No one in the shadows took issue with the decision.
“It was a consensus,” says McCreery. “Doesn’t happen a bunch, but when we have consensus, don’t second-guess it.”
Ryan Hurd is defending his wife, fellow singer-songwriter Maren Morris, after the star released her two-song project The Bridge and announced her departure from country music.
The Bridge contains two songs, “The Tree” and “Get The Hell Out of Here,” both of which delve into the challenges Morris has faced within the country music genre. In a recent interview with The Los Angeles Times, Morris said of country music, “I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over. But it’s burning itself down without my help.”
On Instagram, Hurd supported Morris’s decision and music. “She deserves to be celebrated, not just tolerated,” he wrote in his message shared Wednesday (Sept. 20). “I love the response from people who don’t just love these two songs, they needed them. I knew it would strike a chord.”
Hurd also hit back against internet haters who have criticized Morris, her music and her support for greater diversity and inclusion of women, the LGBTQ community and people of color within the genre.
“Most people would just shut up and keep collecting the paycheck, because the wave of vitriol is real and it’s hard,” Hurd continued. “I’m so sick of watching my wife get the s–t kicked out of her by the internet. I’m sick of every talking head having some kind of stupid opinion about what she says. It’s the same every time, why are you surprised when she calls out something racist or homophobic, I’m sick of people getting rewarded for it.
“To me the Bridge is beautiful and so rock and roll. She deserves a little sunshine for the burden she has carried for every artist and fan that feels the same way,” he added. “I can’t wait for that first tour and to see all of the smiling and beautiful people who needed these songs and and also need HER. I can’t wait to make music that follows the same path, whatever that is.”
Hurd also had a message for the keyboard commentators. “Feel free to leave a comment below to express your hatred or love for whatever I said, they will be duly noted, filed, sorted, and discarded. Love you, MM. Keep on keepin’ on.”
In releasing The Bridge, Morris previously stated, “These two songs are incredibly key to my next step because they express a very righteously angry and liberating phase of my life these last couple of years, but also how my navigation is finally pointing towards the future, whatever that may be or sound like,” she said in a statement. “Honoring where I’ve been and what I’ve achieved in country music, but also freely moving forward.”
Morris — who posed for the cover of Billboard‘s Pride issue alongside drag stars — and Hurd have collaborated on occasion over the years, including the 2021 song “Chasing After You,” which reached No. 2 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart. The song and video also earned the couple CMA nominations for music video and musical event of the year.
Morris is set to perform at Joe’s on Weed Street in Chicago on Oct. 5, with proceeds from the show benefiting GLAAD, followed by performances in Washington and California later in the month.
See Hurd’s full message below: