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Producer and longtime Warner Music Nashville executive Scott Hendricks will be leaving the company at the end of the month. He joined Warner Nashville in 2007 and currently serves as executive vp of A&R/ creative advisor. Hendricks will transition back to being an independent producer and will continue his work with Warner Nashville artists Blake […]
Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues, and promoters of 2023. That coverage included analysis of the new wave of genre diverse artists crashing stadium stages, and in turn, our charts. This week, we are breaking down the year’s biggest tours, genre by genre. Today, we continue with country. Country music […]
Google released its list of the biggest trending searches of 2023 and when it comes to music, Jason Aldean‘s controversial “Try That in a Small Town” led the list of search inquiries for songs, with Aldean also hitting No. 1 as the top trending musician.
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In a year when Taylor Swift and Beyoncé were perpetually in the news thanks to their massive tours and the live concert films, the high placement for Aldean was not totally surprising given the weeks of attention he got for “Small Town,” which was pulled from CMT and labeled by some detractors as being pro-gun, pro-violence and akin to a “modern lynching song” after the release of the track’s video.
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. Aldean rejected detractors’ claims about the song whose video featured 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.
Right behind Aldean was buzzy rapper Ice Spice, followed by “Rich Men North of Richmond” country singer Oliver Anthony, Peso Pluma, Joe Jonas, Sam Smith, The 1975’s Matty Healy, Kellie Pickler, Kim Petras and Sexxy Red.
Google’s data shows the top trending searches in the U.S., referring to trending queries as searches that had a major spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2023 versus 2022, which is why despite being a near-ubiquitous search term who has a consistently high search interest, TIME‘s Person of the Year Swift (and Beyoncé) didn’t top the ranking for musicians; click here for Gizmodo‘s explanation.
The year’s most buzzed-about movies, Barbie and Oppenheimer (combined as Barbenheimer by fans) came out on top, followed by the controversial anti-trafficking movie Sound of Freedom and Oscar-winner Everything Everywhere All At Once, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Creed III, John Wick: Chapter 4, Five Nights at Freddy’s and Cocaine Bear. The No. 1 trending actor was Jeremy Renner, who suffered serious injuries in a snowplow incident in January.
Jamie Foxx, who was sidelined most of this year after an unexplained “medical complication” in April, was just behind Renner, followed by disgraced That 70’s Show actor Danny Masterson, comedian Matt Rife, Pedro Pascal, Jonathan Majors, Sophie Turner, Russell Brand, Ke Huy Quan and Josh Hutcherson.
The trending people list had Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin at No. 1 following his scary on-field cardiac incident during a Cincinnati Bengals game in January, followed by Renner and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, likely due to his romance with Taylor Swift; Kelce was also among the top five most-searched athletes.
The TV tally featured mostly Netflix projects, including its originals Ginny & Georgia, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, Wednesday, That 90’s Show, Kaleidoscope, Beef and The Fall of the House of Usher. Other shows that got in the mix included Daisy Jones & the Six (No. 4) and The Weeknd’s one-and-done HBO series The Idol (No. 9).
Late Friends star Matthew Perry was No. 1 on searches for celebrity deaths, followed by Tina Turner, Jerry Springer, Jimmy Buffett and Sinead O’Connor, with Lisa Marie Presley coming in at No. 8. The news headlines that we searched the most were those related to the war between Israel and Hamas, followed by the sinking of the Titanic tourist submarine, Hurricanes Hilary, Idalia and Lee, as well as a mass shootings in Maine and Nashville, the Maui wildfire, the Idaho college campus murder trail and the Canadian wildfires.
Lee Thomas Miller, a writer on hit country songs including “In Color” (Jamey Johnson) and “You’re Gonna Miss This,” (Trace Adkins) has signed a publishing deal with SMACKSongs. Over three decades, Miller has become one of country music’s most prolific songwriters, as well as one of the songwriting industry’s biggest champions. He has earned 13 […]
His hometown — Willacoochee, Ga. — sounds a whole lot like “Chattahoochee,” so it’s not entirely surprising that indie artist RVSHVD’s current single, “Small Town Talk,” employs many of the same values that inhabit an Alan Jackson song.
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The red brick church, the tire marks he left on Main Street, his first broken heart and his grandmother’s grave marker all provide this relatable sense of RVSHVD’s upbringing, which is quite similar to the childhood that many country fans experience across America. In a very real way, “Small Town Talk” exists mostly because RVSHVD doesn’t tend to talk that easily about what he’s doing or where he’s from. He just kind of lives it.
“My dad will sit there and tell me the same story,” he notes, drawing an obvious contrast. “Even random people in the grocery store, if there’s somebody standing there, he’ll walk up — he don’t even know the guy — and he’s like, ‘This meat’s high, ain’t it?’ He don’t even know the guy! My mom, she ain’t going to say more than three words. That must be where I get it from.”
RVSHVD’s reserved nature was on full display in April 2021 when he took part in a writing retreat specifically designed to generate songs that fit him at The Penthouse, the home base for his manager, Jonnie Forster, located near the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. Four or five different rooms were set up with at least one “track guy” and one topliner, with each of those rooms aiming for a song in the morning and another in the evening across two or three days. It all started with a get-acquainted session, where RVSHVD shared a little about his personal history, his goals, his tastes and his philosophy. Still, the introduction wasn’t all that detailed.
“I think I remember Jonnie making some jokes about, you know, ‘Good luck trying to get a lot out of him, because he’s usually a man of few words,’ ” says singer-songwriter Josh Logan.
That’s apparently pretty accurate — it’s similar to the understanding that singer-songwriter Willie Jones, who shares Forster as a manager, has of him. “RVSHVD is like that,” Jones says, “simple, low-key, real chill, laid-back, really grounded and really thoughtful.”
Logan, Jones and Jason Afable all ended up in a room together that first morning, and as they sought a direction to write for RVSHVD, they fixated on that “man of few words” description. They batted around some ideas, then found themselves wondering what more they could learn about RVSHVD if, as an old adage suggests, the walls could talk. That became its own train of thought, and as they started chasing down what that could mean, Forster popped into the room for a bit. They told him where they were headed, and somehow the phrase “Small Town Talk” showed itself.
“Jonnie was a big part of that title,” says Logan. “I don’t remember if someone just threw out the title, or he really kind of got us going or encouraged us down that road.”
But it was enough to work from. Afable developed a bittersweet, arpeggiated chord progression on electric guitar, and they began building a hook that flipped the gossipy implication of “small-town talk” into a confident portrait of a man’s roots speaking for his character. The opening lines — “The way I was raised up/I don’t really say a lot” — came directly from the day’s conversation and set up the storyline that followed.
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The phrasing in that verse was conversational, leaning into a fluid, hip-hop vibe near the end of the stanza, then lifted into a chorus melody that emphasized repeated three-beat phrases: “small-town talk,” “grade school walls,” “right from wrong,” for starters. The chorus’ images and its melodic components were classically country, forming a contrast with the flowy, hip-hop lead-in. It hinted at an artistic range that also showed itself in the span from the verse’s lower melodies to the chorus’ higher notes.
“A lot of singers got maybe one sweet spot,” Logan notes. “But for RVSHVD, I feel like his low tone is so rich and deep, and I just love that tone. But then also he has that upper range that just soars. So when he hits that, it just makes our job easier because we can really utilize a different range, and we have [fewer] rules.”
The second verse painted an image of a broken-hearted young man who narrowly escaped tragedy, recounting an 18-year-old who drank a fifth of his dad’s Jack Daniel’s after his girlfriend broke his heart, jumped into his dad’s Cadillac and left tire marks on the road. The story wasn’t exactly RVSHVD’s — he changed the road to Main Street, his first overindulgence in alcohol was actually with Wild Irish Rose, and the tire marks he left were from playing with the gear shift in his mom’s car around age 10. But the narrative still hit close to home.
“When I first recorded the demo for it, I was getting choked up, and my wife, Angel, she was there with me,” remembers RVSHVD. “I’m tearing up, and I keep looking at her over in the chair, trying to make sure she don’t see me.”
The initial demo relied on the electric guitar part and drum with some other programmed parts thrown in. Afable produced several versions of it, though they had a hard time getting it right. RVSHVD, at some point, seemed to lose faith in it, so Forster suggested that Jones cut it. The song, he sensed, was too good to let go. Jones agreed on the song quality, though the opening lines didn’t really suit him.
“I talk a lot,” Jones says with a laugh.
He changed the street name and substituted Shreveport for Georgia to personalize it, but it never felt quite right.
“It was cool, but I felt like I was lying,” he admits. “Then he came back around, RVSHVD, like, ‘I want to do a version.’ I was like, ‘Do it and do it well.’ They changed the production, and I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s what I like to hear.’ ”
For that last go-around, Afable reached out to a multigenre Los Angeles production team, Dream Addix (aka singer-songwriters Michael Ferrucci and Chris Valenzuela, both of whom participated in the original retreat at The Penthouse), and they were able to meld just enough classic country pieces, such as fiddle and baritone guitars, to capture the song’s small-town essence and still feel contemporary. RVSHVD recut the vocals, and — since he had lived with “Small Town Talk” long enough —he had a different physical reaction to the song.
“It wasn’t tears no more,” he says, “but it was still chills on that.”
RVSHVD shot a video to “Small Town Talk” in his hometown, performing on the same football field where he used to play bass drum in the marching band and receiving a key to the city. The video and the song itself, released Nov. 3, shine a light on the same sort of small-town ethics at the center of country’s lexicon. RVSHVD knows it firsthand, and he expects the rest of his first album will create an even fuller picture of that heritage.
“Hopefully,” he says, “it’ll come out next year.”
12/11/2023
This year’s picks for top 10 tracks include music from Lainey Wilson, Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Jelly Roll, Tyler Childers and more.
12/11/2023
Something unusual happened at the 2023 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards: A song written over three decades ago won the award for song of the year.
While Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” first became a pop hit in 1988 — when it reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the song experienced a renaissance over the past year thanks to country singer Luke Combs’ faithful cover. Combs released his rendition to pop radio in April and country radio in June, helping it became a juggernaut that ultimately reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 and spent five weeks atop the Country Airplay chart.
“The success of ‘Fast Car’ is mind-blowing. But should it be?” asks Combs’ manager, Chris Kappy. He calls Combs’ connection to the song (the artist has said that it reminds him of his father) and his ability to deliver it to a new generation of fans “the perfect chemistry to create this moment.”
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The fact that Combs scored one of the biggest hits of his career with a cover is illustrative of the unconventional success stories that defined country music in 2023 — all of which helped propel the genre to one of its most prominent years in Billboard chart history. Jason Aldean’s politically charged “Try That in a Small Town”; outlier Oliver Anthony’s out-of-nowhere hit, “Rich Men North of Richmond”; and Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves’ somber duet, “I Remember Everything” all ruled the Hot 100. Along with Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night,” which spent 16 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1, 2023 marked just the second time in Hot 100 history that four country songs reached the chart’s summit in a calendar year. And for the first time since the chart launched in 1958, country hits occupied the top three spots (“Small Town” at No. 1, “Last Night” at No. 2 and “Fast Car” at No. 3) in a single week on the Hot 100.
Yet in the same way that a decades-old single winning the song of the year CMA Award (a feat that also made Chapman the first Black songwriter to win that honor) marked an uncommon achievement, the biggest wins of country’s huge year all contained atypical wrinkles in their narratives. The success of “Try That in a Small Town” — and in particular, the song’s accompanying music video — was mired in controversy. Footage of Black Lives Matter protests was seemingly edited out of the original clip, while critics noted the performance itself was filmed in front of the site of a 1927 lynching. CMT ultimately pulled the video from its rotation — a move that led many to view the clip on YouTube and stream the song, some out of curiosity alone, which helped push it to No. 1 on the all-genre Hot 100.
In late August, independent artist Anthony broke through with one of the year’s most unexpected hits, the polarizing “Rich Men North of Richmond.” The song — with lyrics centering on greedy politicians, inflation, rising taxes and welfare abuse — was uploaded to YouTube out of the blue. And a little more than 10 days later, it debuted atop the Hot 100, making him the first artist to enter at No. 1 without any prior Billboard chart history. The video has been viewed over 98 million times on YouTube.
“Rich Men North of Richmond” stayed atop the Hot 100 for two weeks, during which time it became a lightning rod of controversy for political pundits on both the right and left. “The most special thing about it being on the chart at all is that it made it [there] without some big, corporate schmucky schmuck somewhere pumping a bunch of money into making it get there,” Anthony recently told Billboard. “It actually got to the top of the [Hot 100] because people genuinely wanted to listen to it and support it.”
As Country’s Radio Coach owner/CEO John Shomby says, “Now he’s going on a 40-plus-city tour next year. That tells you a lot.”
Then there’s the alternative, genre-fluid Bryan, who prior to signing with Warner Music in 2021 built a fan base with his independent releases and constant touring, and has a history of shucking industry expectations. He capped 2022 with a live album titled All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster and throughout his breakout 2023 has largely avoided press. In September, he and Musgraves each earned their first Hot 100 No. 1 with “I Remember Everything” off his self-titled album. The duet became the first song to simultaneously debut atop the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts — proving Bryan’s wide appeal.
A surplus of country artists have experienced similar crossover success, with hits that have both topped country charts and entered the upper echelon of the Hot 100. Jelly Roll’s “Need a Favor” hit No. 13 on the Hot 100, Bailey Zimmerman’s “Rock and A Hard Place” entered the chart’s top 10, and Lainey Wilson’s “Watermelon Moonshine” reached No. 21 — and all three songs were Country Airplay No. 1s. Meanwhile, a few Hot 100 first-timers included rising stars like Hailey Whitters and Warren Zeiders along with Americana stalwart Tyler Childers.
“This year has shown us that the genre is not as painted into a corner as it was years ago,” says Shomby, who credits a younger generation of programmers moving into decision-making roles at radio stations as a driving factor in the span of country music sounds dominating charts in 2023. “The bigger companies, it’s going to take a little while, but some of these smaller organizations, you can see it already, with people taking chances on songs like the Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves duet, or Tyler Childers or the Post Malone song [titled “Pickup Man,” off HARDY’s HIXTAPE and featuring the late Joe Diffie, which debuted on Country Airplay in November]. They look at it as, ‘It sounds good, so I’m going to play it.’
“I come from the generation where we couldn’t care less whether it was rock or pop or country,” Shomby adds. “Then we started putting people into lanes. Thankfully, it’s starting to open up a little more. I’m not saying we’re there, but it’s the beginning of it.”
This story originally appeared in the Dec. 9, 2023, issue of Billboard.
The Country Music Association has announced the nominees for the 2023 CMA Touring Awards, spotlighting those behind-the-scenes members who keep country music’s touring industry going.
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Final-round voting for the 2023 CMA Touring Awards opens Wednesday, Dec. 13 and closes Thursday, Dec. 28. This year’s CMA Touring Awards will again be hosted by Keith Urban and will take place Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, in Nashville.
Ron Baird, industry veteran and former head of Creative Arts Agency’s (CAA) Nashville office, will be posthumously honored with the CMA Touring Lifetime Achievement Award. The award honors an individual who has positively impacted and contributed to the growth of touring throughout the years.
“Honoring our touring community is something I look forward to every year,” said Sarah Trahern, CMA chief executive officer, in a statement. “Each time I attend a show, hear a new tour being announced, or see footage from an unforgettable night, I am reminded again of the importance, dedication and resilience of our touring community. I am also especially excited to add five additional categories this year, including a Crew of the Year honor. They are the road warriors that keep Country Music alive all over the world, and I can’t wait to celebrate them on February 12!”
“As someone who spent years not only setting up all my own equipment at shows, but was also for a time a lighting guy and crew member for a band, I know the hard work that goes in to keeping shows on the road,” Urban added. “I’m honored to once again be asked to host the CMA Touring Awards and acknowledge and shower some love on all the hard workers behind the scenes that make it all happen.”
This year, the CMA Touring Awards have expanded, adding five categories. CMA members will have the opportunity to vote for Backline Technician, Stage Manager, Support Services Company, Unsung Hero and Crew of the Year. All balloting is tabulated by the professional services organization, Deloitte.
The CMA Touring Awards, originally called the SRO (Standing Room Only) Awards, were created by the CMA Board of Directors in 1990 to honor outstanding professional achievement within the touring industry. The first awards were presented at a black-tie gala hosted by K.T. Oslin and Roger Miller during CMA’s Entertainment Expo, also known as the Talent Buyers Entertainment Marketplace. Ten awards were presented at the first gala and the number swelled to 19 over the years before settling at the current 20. The SRO Awards were renamed the CMA Touring Awards in 2016.
See the full list of nominees below:
Crew of the year
“All American Road Show Tour” Crew – Chris Stapleton“The Outsiders Revival Tour” Crew – Eric Church“I Go Back Tour” Crew – Kenny Chesney“Country On Tour” Crew – Luke Bryan“2023 World Tour” Crew – Luke Combs“One Night At A Time World Tour” Crew – Morgan Wallen“No Bad Vibes Tour” Crew – Old Dominion“Home Team Tour 23” Crew – Thomas Rhett
Backline technician of the year
Jason Baskin – Zac Brown BandMelvin “Melvis” Fults – Kenny ChesneyCarlos Gutierrez – Dierks BentleyJason Herndon – Blake SheltonJoel “Tico” Jimenez – Thomas RhettJeremiah Langdon – Jelly RollChris Miller – Keith UrbanZach Rickard – Brothers Osborne
Business manager of the year
Renee Allen – Arnie Barn, Inc.David Boyer – Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy, Inc.Duane Clark – Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy, Inc.Catherine Morris – Farris, Self & Moore, LLCCaleb See – Curo Financial, LLCMichael Vaden – Vaden Group/Elliott DavisKris Wiatr – Wiatr & Associates, LLC
Coach/truck driver of the year
Ronnie Brown – Zac Brown BandJosh Easter – Morgan WallenRhett Evens – Thomas RhettCaleb Garrett – Luke BryanJustin Pullin – Old DominionErin Siegfried – Lainey WilsonChris Simms – Jelly RollWayne “Wayno” Sullivan – Blake Shelton/Keith Urban
FOH (front of house) engineer of the year
Brendan Hines – Jelly RollAaron Lain – Morgan WallenTodd Lewis – Luke CombsBen Rigby – Eric ChurchArpad Sayko – Chris StapletonTrey Smith – Thomas RhettIan Zorbaugh – Old Dominion
Lighting director of the year
Zac Coren – Morgan WallenPhilip Ealy – Kenny ChesneyKevin Lichty – Old DominionMac Mosier – Chris StapletonKevin Northrup – Luke CombsTaylor Price – Miranda LambertAustin Strain – Jelly RollAlec Takahashi – Thomas Rhett
Manager of the year
Narvel Blackstock – Starstruck EntertainmentVirginia Bunetta – G-Major ManagementMartha Earls – Neon CoastKerri Edwards – KP EntertainmentClint Higham – Morris Higham ManagementMarion Kraft – ShopKeeper ManagementMandelyn Monchick – Red Light ManagementJohn Peets – Q Prime South
Monitor engineer of the year
Bryan “Opie” Baxley – Kenny ChesneyMark Davis – Jelly RollLogan Hanna – Brothers OsborneAndy Hill – Zac Brown BandNathan Lowe – Eric ChurchJimmy Nicholson – Thomas RhettDean Studebaker – Old DominionScott Tatter – Dierks Bentley
Production manager of the year
Chris Alderman – Blake SheltonJohn Garriott – Chris StapletonMeesha Kosciolek – Eric ChurchErik Leighty – Miranda LambertChris Nathan – Jake OwenEarl Neal – Jason AldeanKevin Twist – Thomas RhettEd Wannebo – Kenny Chesney
Publicist of the year
Janet Buck – Essential Broadcast MediaPaul Freundlich – PFA MediaQuinn Kaemmer – Big Machine Label GroupTyne Parrish – The GreenRoom PRCarla Sacks – Sacks & Co.Jessie Schmidt – Schmidt Public RelationsWes Vause – Press On PublicityJennifer Vessio – 1220 Entertainment Publicity
Stage manager of the year
Sam “Sambo” Coats – Eric ChurchDonnie Floyd – Morgan WallenTodd Green – Chris StapletonMatt Hornbeck – Luke CombsJosh “Dude” Marcus – Jason AldeanTom Nisun – Kenny ChesneyRichard Rossey – Old DominionJustin Sumrall – Thomas Rhett
Support services company of the year
4 Wall EntertainmentClair GlobalDega CateringMaster Tour by EventricMoo TVRichards & Southern
Talent agent of the year
Meredith Jones – CAAJoey Lee – WMEJonathan Levine – Wasserman MusicDarin Murphy – CAAAdi Sharma – The Neal AgencyAaron Tannenbaum – WMEElisa Vazzana – UTAJay Williams – WME
Talent buyer/promoter of the year
Bradley Jordan – Peachtree EntertainmentPatrick McDill – Live Nation NashvilleLouis Messina – The Messina GroupRich Schaefer – AEG PresentsAaron Spalding – Live Nation NashvilleEd Warm – Joe’s ConcertsAdam Weiser – AEG Presents
Tour manager of the year
Matt Anderson – Old DominionJason Hecht – Chris StapletonLuke Holton – Brothers OsborneChuck Hull – Keith UrbanMeg Miller – Lainey WilsonEthan Strunk – Luke CombsChris Thacker – Dierks BentleyJon Townley – Thomas Rhett
Touring musician of the year
Rob Byus (Bass Guitar) – Blake SheltonPaul Franklin (Steel Guitar) – Chris Stapleton/Vince GillBen Helson (Guitar) – Dierks BentleyLee Hendricks (Bass Guitar) – Eric ChurchHarmoni Kelley (Bass Guitar) – Kenny ChesneyChris Kimmerer (Drums) – Thomas RhettDanny Mitchell (Piano) – Miranda LambertKurt Ozan (Guitar) – Luke Combs
Tour videographer/photographer of the year
Mason Allen – Old DominionAndy Barron – Chris StapletonZach Belcher – Dierks BentleyDavid Bergman – Luke CombsCeCe Dawson – Lainey WilsonTanner Gallagher – HARDYGrayson Gregory – Thomas RhettAndy Pollitt – Jelly Roll
Tour video director of the year
Josh Clark – Miranda LambertJay Cooper – Kenny ChesneyHouston Creswell – Dierks BentleyRon Etters – Chris StapletonNate Fountain – Zach Bryan/Blake SheltonChris Jones – Jelly RollRicky Krohne – Thomas RhettMichael Todd “M.T.” Stembridge – Eric Church
Venue of the year
Ascend Amphitheater – Nashville, TNBankNH Pavilion – Gilford, NHBridgestone Arena – Nashville, TNChoctaw Casino Resort – Durant, OKGrand Ole Opry House – Nashville, TNJoe’s on Weed Street – Chicago, ILPaycom Center – Oklahoma City, OKRed Rocks Amphitheatre – Morrison, CO
Unsung hero of the year
Dallas Bowsier – Eric ChurchJosh Castle – Dierks BentleyRJ Estrella – Luke CombsKayla Carter Greear – Luke BryanKelsey Maynard – Old DominionTodd Molle – Jake OwenMel Murphy – Live Nation NashvilleTyler Rhodes – Thomas Rhett
In this week’s collection of new country music, Chase Wright and Michael Ray offer up somber, reflective numbers, while bluegrass-rockers The Dead South bring a rollicking new track.
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This week’s crop of songs also showcases the top-shelf musical talents of several female artists. Meg McRee teams with award-winning songwriters Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey for a heartbreaking ballad. Additionally, Mae Estes and Laci Kaye Booth offer up intensely vulnerable tracks.
Chase Wright, “Who I Want to Be”
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Wright follows his breakthrough song “Why Should We” with this redemptive ballad, which Wright crafted with Josh Jenkins, Chris Lacorte and Andy Albert, with production from Ned Cameron. This pensive pop-country track, filled with understated piano and guitar, finds Wright reflective and regretful, ruminating over past transgressions while vowing to change his ways. “I’m tasting my own medicine, I’m swallowing my pride/ Thе moments I was weakest ain’t how I’ll bе defined,” he offers, delivering one of his strongest vocals to date.
Meg McRee feat. Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey, “The Moon”
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Newcomer McRee teams with Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member (and current Songwriters Hall of Fame nominee) Lindsey as well as three-time Grammy winner McKenna for this superb song about a “love” relationship with a web of strings attached. “For unconditional love, yours sure did come with a lot of conditions,” McRee deadpans here, as this trio of singer-songwriters trade harmonies over rippling, tender acoustic guitar. This understated ballad brings plenty of vulnerability and bite.
Mae Estes, “Town Left Me” (Acoustic)
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Singer-songwriter Estes deftly captures the disconnected, disappointing feeling of returning to a childhood hometown only to find that, like herself, that rural space has grown and shifted in the intervening years — as gravel lots become coffee shops, high school hangouts are paved over and once-close relationships fade into vague acquaintances. This acoustic version further accentuates Estes’ evocative vocal.
Michael Ray, “We Should Get a Drink Sometime”
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This time of year is rife with reflections and the urge for relational restoration. This older ballad, written by Thomas Rhett, Rhett Akins, Josh Kerr and Mike Busbee, centers on a chance encounter between two old flames, which kindles his desire to reconnect. Though he casually tosses off the request to get together “like old friends do,” it’s clear his feelings run closer to hoping for a revived romance than a simple platonic meetup. As always, Ray’s smoothly understated, country vocal delivers the song’s sentiments with ease.
Laci Kaye Booth, “Cigarettes”
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This Texas native is a clear-eyed truth purveyor, and she doesn’t hold back from chronicling the lessons she’s learned from years of heartbreak, both personally and professionally. The images of smoke and cigarettes become metaphors for moments of letdown, particularly as she details being touted as the “next big thing” in a fickle music industry that can be filled with smoke and mirrors. She later etches a heartbreaking scene of being released from her record label deal with the succinct line: “And the same champagne that they bought me/ I popped it when they dropped me.” A stunning song from a towering talent.
Colin Stough, “Sleep Tonight (Acoustic)”
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This former American Idol contestant offers up a pared back version of his song “Sleep Tonight,” which ponders the fear of death and leaving behind his loved ones too soon. “What if I leave here without a warning?/ Start dancing in the sky,” he muses. This version places the spotlight on Stough’s smooth-yet-textured vocal and further highlights country music’s current moment of turning from the “girl-truck-alcohol” paint-by-numbers songs of the past decade, toward more songs torn from personal revelation.
Written by Stough with Sean Thomas Rogers and Brian Congdon, the original version appeared on Stough’s six-track EP Promiseland.
The Dead South, “A Little Devil”
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This quartet’s fleet-fingered picking on cello, mandolin, banjo and acoustic guitar infuse heavy metal intensity into their unique bluegrass sound, led by singer/guitarist Nate Hilt’s warm, gritty voice. This group’s high-powered harmonies further escalate this tale of deception and wanting. “A Little Devil” will be included on the group’s upcoming album Chains & Stakes, out Feb. 9, 2024.
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