Country
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A year ago, Country Radio Seminar (CRS) gave broadcasters a wakeup call.
With the 2023 edition of the conference, it should become clearer if the industry is facing a new day head on or if it simply hit the Snooze button.
Panelists in 2022 lamented a four-year decline in listenership, a drop that overlaps with a system in which singles often take over 40 weeks — sometimes as much as 60 weeks — to run their course. By contrast, labels are increasingly gearing their marketing plans to streaming platforms that expose wider arrays of music and target individuals’ playlists with greater specificity. On the final day last year, Country’s Radio Coach owner/CEO John Shomby gave a TED Talk-style presentation that chided broadcasters for a nagging sameness and called for a committee of radio and music business executives to figure out a reboot.
As Country Radio Broadcasters revs up CRS again March 13-15, that chat continues to echo in the agenda at the Omni Nashville Hotel. Shomby’s CRS Music Committee — which generated 60-70 respondents in its first hour, according to CRB executive director R.J. Curtis — has been segmented into four overlapping subcommittees that will likely make their first reports in an upcoming CRS360 webinar. Meanwhile, the CRS presentations include several topics that address the issues that have brought the format to a crossroads — “Radio & Records: Redefining the Relationship,” “Just Effing Do It: The Rewards of Taking Risks” and “Fred Jacobs’ Fred Talk: The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be.”
“CRS should be a reality-check moment,” Curtis says. “I don’t believe our purpose is to just shake each other’s hands and high-five and congratulate each other on another great year because not every year is great. We’re facing a lot of different challenges, and I think it’s important for us to own them and figure out how to solve them.”
Country music has a long history with radio. March 2022 marked 100 years since Fiddlin’ John Carson became the first hillbilly act to perform on-air, on WSB Atlanta, and Jan. 4 represented a century since country was introduced on the medium west of the Mississippi River, via The Radio Barn Dance on WBAP Dallas-Fort Worth. Still, the genre never had a full-time station until KDAV Lubbock, Texas, debuted in 1953.
Radio ultimately became the primary method of exposing the genre’s new music. It went largely unchallenged in that position until streaming took hold this century. The new medium operates differently — pressing a Skip button allows a streaming listener to skirt individual titles while still listening to the playlist, whereas skipping a song on the radio requires changing stations. To preserve listenership in this era, programmers generally relied on safe measures that had worked previously, cutting the size of playlists and/or hanging on to proven titles for longer periods of time. Those solutions tend to pay off in the short run, but over the long haul, they can discourage extended listening among the most passionate music fans.
“They’re just afraid of making a mistake,” says Shomby of programmers’ dilemma. “It’s like a football team that just hands the ball off to one guy and he runs up the middle, and then you hope that somebody opens up a hole. There’s no [taking chances] — there’s no throwing any long passes, you’re not doing any double reverses or anything like that. You just run left. And that’s kind of the way I feel like our industry is at this point.”
Actionable Insights Group head of research Billy Ray McKim was among the attendees who signed up for the CRS Music Committee last year after Shomby’s presentation.
“Plenty of people talked about it for days and weeks, and I continue to hear people refer back to it,” McKim says. “He managed to tie a bow on it.”
McKim is now overseeing the subcommittee studying the life cycle of songs, generally aiming to speed the march of singles through national radio charts and energize the format. The issue is complex.
“There was this idea that we would spend a year and find a finite solution and move on,” says McKim. “What’s become even more clear through this process is there isn’t a simple solution. So I think that this committee will continue to live and evolve.”
Changing aspects of the industry will get center stage through much of CRS. Digital streaming, for example, has a full day of convention programming. CRS also offers a panel on “expansive inclusion” and an examination of evolving demographics in “Okay Boomer! A Conversation With Gen Z.”
CRS will continue to offer some familiar elements. Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney will be the focus of keynote artist Q&As, the annual research panel presents insights from a 700-song auditorium test, and the closing New Faces of Country Music dinner will feature Jackson Dean, Priscilla Block, Jelly Roll, Nate Smith and Frank Ray.
That latter event will include recognition of a new wrinkle in the convention. The last of CRS’ founders, Charlie Monk, died Dec. 19, and this will be the first year he is not at the seminar in some form or fashion. New Faces is expected to honor his influence, which is particularly fitting this year. Monk’s ability to process the past and anticipate the future should provide some inspiration for the industry as it moves forward: the “Mayor of Music Row” counted classic singer Frank Sinatra as his favorite artist, but often said his favorite single was whatever was No. 1 that particular week.
“He didn’t get stuck in one particular era, and that’s very evident by the amount of people much, much younger than him that called him a mentor and a friend,” Curtis says. “He sought out younger leaders in our format. He benefited from their knowledge and their way of doing business, and I think it was really impressive.”
Country music’s relationship with radio predates even Monk’s arrival. Programmers’ goal during CRS will be to create some forward movement for a platform that is still regarded as a key means of exposure for even the newest generation of talent.
“I come across a lot of young artists, and they still have that dream to be heard on the radio,” says Shomby. “I mean, it doesn’t get them as excited to have a song playlisted on Spotify as it does to hear their song on their local radio station. So there’s still something there that creates a passion for the format.”
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Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated March 18) with 501,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending March 9, according to Luminate. It’s the largest week of 2023 for any album by units earned, the biggest since Taylor Swift’s Midnights debut with 1.578 million (week ending Oct. 27, 2022; chart dated Nov. 5, 2022) and the largest week for a country album since Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) opened with 604,500 (week ending Nov. 18, 2021; chart dated Nov. 27, 2021).
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A hefty 76% of One Thing at a Time’s debut-week total was powered by streaming activity. The set’s 36 tracks collectively generated 498.28 million on-demand official streams in the U.S. in the album’s first week – marking the fifth-largest streaming week ever for any album, and the biggest ever for a country album.
One Thing at a Time was released March 3 via Big Loud/Mercury/Republic Records and is the follow-up to Wallen’s chart-topping effort Dangerous: The Double Album, released in January 2021. The latter spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart and ranks at No. 6 on the latest list — its 110th nonconsecutive week in the top 10. It now solely has the second-most weeks in the top 10 in the list’s 67-year history, surpassing 109 weeks for the soundtrack to The Sound of Music. (The original cast recording of My Fair Lady holds the record for the most weeks in the top 10, with 173.)
One Thing at a Time was preceded by the release of nine songs from the album as far back as April of 2022. Four of those tunes topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart: “Don’t Think Jesus,” “Thought You Should Know,” “You Proof” and “Last Night,” the lattermost of which has reigned for four weeks running (through the most recently published March 11-dated ranking).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new March 18, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on March 14. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of One Thing at a Time’s 501,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 382,000 (equaling 498.28 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 36 tracks), album sales comprise 111,500 and TEA units comprise 7,500. The album’s sales were powered by its digital download option (87,500; available as both a clean and explicit edition) while its double-CD (explicit only) sold 24,000. On the final day of the tracking week, the digital album was also offered in two alternative cover variants in Wallen’s official webstore for a discounted price. The set was not commercially released in any other formats.
One Thing at a Time has the second-largest week of 2023 by traditional album sales for an album, after the debut frame of TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s The Name Chapter: Temptation (152,000; chart dated Feb. 11). One Thing at a Time has the largest sales week for a country album since Red (Taylor’s Version) sold 369,000 in its first week (Nov. 27, 2021, chart).
As noted above, One Thing at a Time captures the fifth-largest streaming week ever for an album. The four largest streaming weeks for albums, by total streams earned, were all also debut frames. Drake’s Scorpion leads the pack, as it collected 745.92 million clicks for its 25 tracks in the week ending July 5, 2018. Scorpion is followed by the opening weeks of Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (743.67 million for its 21 tracks, week ending Sept. 9, 2021), Taylor Swift’s Midnights (549.26 million for its 20 tracks across its standard and deluxe editions, week ending Oct. 27, 2022) and Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss (513.56 million for its 16 tracks, week ending Nov. 10, 2022).
Certainly, the fact that One Thing at a Time has 36 songs helps its first-week numbers — as streaming activity for the chart is measured by taking the number of streams generated by each song on an album and adding them up to one overall total. Had the album been shortened to a length comparable to Drake’s 25-track Scorpion, it still would have had a big streaming figure. The top 25 most-streamed songs on One Thing at a Time generated 397.93 million on-demand official streams — which would made it the 10th-largest streaming week ever, and still the biggest among all country albums. Had One Thing at a Time’s tracklist been even shorter — as short as Drake and 21 Savage’s 16-track Her Loss, it still would have had a robust, but not quite as eye-popping, streaming start. One Thing at a Time’s top 16 most-streamed tracks collectively generated 294.65 million on-demand official streams — which would have ranked the set among the top 20 biggest streaming weeks of all time, though still the second-largest streaming week for a country album (behind the debut of Swift’s Red [Taylor’s Version], with 303.23 million for its 30 tracks).
In the last 12 months, One Thing at a Time has the most songs on its streaming album of any No. 1 on the Billboard 200, save for the 44-track Encanto soundtrack — although most of those 44 tracks are score and instrumental cuts, and the vast majority of the album’s streaming activity has come from the set’s nine focus songs, including the ensemble smash “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” Including Encanto, in the last 12 months, the average tracklist length for the streaming edition of a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 has been 19. If we remove Encanto from the math, that average falls to 18. In the last 12 months, only four No. 1 albums have had fewer than 12 songs — and all were K-pop projects, powered largely by CD album sales, not streams.
A few last notes about Wallen… he is the first male artist with back-to-back country No. 1s on the Billboard 200 since 2019, when Thomas Rhett notched his second No. 1 in a row with Center Point Road, following Life Changes in 2017. Further, Wallen has the largest week for any country album by a male artist since the Billboard 200 began tracking by equivalent album units in December of 2014. In fact, only one country album has posted a bigger week in that span of time — Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version), with 604,500 units in its debut week in 2021. (Country albums are considered those that have hit or are eligible for Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.)
Notably, since the Billboard 200 began measuring by equivalent album units in December 2014 (transitioning from an album sales-only methodology to a blend of album sales, SEA and TEA), only nine acts have registered a half-million units in a week for an album (with some having done so with multiple albums). They are: Adele, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Harry Styles, Taylor Swift and Wallen.
As No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, SZA’s SOS holds in place with 82,000 equivalent album units earned (down 5%). The set previously spent 10 nonconsecutive weeks atop the list. Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito falls 1-3 in its second week with 60,000 units (down 36%).
Kali Uchis achieves her first top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 as Red Moon in Venus debuts at No. 4 with 55,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 28,000, SEA units comprise 27,000 (equaling 35.49 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The mostly-English-language project is the artist’s first album release since the breakthrough success of the mostly-Spanish-language single “Telepatía” in 2021 (from her last album, 2020’s Spanish-language Sin Miedo [Del Amor y Otros Demonios]). That track spent eight weeks at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs (her first leader there) and marked her first top 40-charting hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at No. 25 and spending 25 weeks on the list). Red Moon in Venus includes guest turns from Omar Apollo, Don Toliver and Summer Walker.
Six former No. 1s round out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200: Swift’s Midnights is stationary at No. 5 (48,000 equivalent album units earned, down 1%); Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album is a non-mover at No. 6 (46,000, down less than 1%); Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains is steady at No. 7 (40,000, down 4%); Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti rises 10-8 (39,000, up less than 1%); The Weeknd’s Starboy holds at No. 9 (35,000, down 13%) and Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss rises 11-10 (34,000, down 5%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Luke Combs banks his 15th No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “Going, Going, Gone” leads the list dated March 18. In the tracking week ending March 9, it gained by 1% to 33.5 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.
Combs co-authored the song with Ray Fulcher and James McNair and co-produced it with Chip Matthews and Jonathan Singleton.
On the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart (dated March 11), “Gone” ranked at No. 6, after hitting No. 5 in January. It drew 9.1 million official streams and sold 2,000 downloads in the United States Feb. 24-March 2.
“Gone” is from Combs’ River House/Columbia Nashville LP Growin’ Up, which launched at No. 1 on Top Country Albums, becoming his fourth leader, last July. On March 24, Combs will release his new 18-song set, Gettin’ Old.
“Gone” follows Combs’ “The Kind of Love We Make,” which rose to No. 2 on Country Airplay in September. Before that, the North Carolina native rattled off a record 14 consecutive career-opening No. 1 singles on Country Airplay, from “Hurricane,” which dominated for two frames starting in May 2017, through “Doin’ This,” which led for a week in May 2022.
‘Wild’ Ride
Corey Kent lands his first Country Airplay top 10 with his first entry on the chart, “Wild as Her.” It lifts 12-10 after increasing by 6% to 18.6 million in audience.
Born in Bixby, Okla., Kent competed on NBC’s The Voice in 2015 (as Corey Kent White). He signed with Sony Music Nashville’s RCA division last July.
Forever Young
In its 68th week on Country Airplay, Brett Young’s “You Didn’t” rises 13-12 for a new high (16.8 million, up 1%) and rewrites the record for the longest stay on the survey.
The song, which Young co-wrote, debuted at No. 60 on the chart dated Dec. 4, 2021, and passes Travis Denning’s “After a Few,” which spent 67 frames on the list. Denning’s lone No. 1 so far reached the summit in its 65th week in June 2020.
In third place, Michael Ray’s “Whiskey and Rain” spent 66 frames on Country Airplay, hitting No. 1 in January 2022 (also in its 65th frame, tying Denning’s record ascent to the top).
Notably, the 20 longest runs on Country Airplay have all occurred since 2020.
Tim McGraw returns with an introspective new song, “Standing Room Only.”
“I wanna live a life … like a dollar and the clock on the wall don’t own me,” McGraw sings on the new track, with a live-life-to-the-fullest message similar to that of his 2004 hit “Live Like You Were Dying.” The lyrics to “Standing Room Only” elevate forgiveness and human connection — or as the song goes, “Live a life so when I die/ There’s standing room only.”
“Standing Room Only” was written by Craig Wiseman, Tommy Cecil and Patrick Murphy, with production from Byron Gallimore and McGraw. Wiseman also co-wrote “Live Like You Were Dying,” which spent seven weeks atop Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart.
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McGraw recently talked about “Standing Room Only” on The Bobby Bones Show, saying, “Lyrically, there’s not a wasted line anywhere in this song. It’s such an impeccably written song, and then the melody I love. When you get into the studio to record, you’re scared to death that you are going to go in and screw up a song. ‘Humble and Kind,’ I had that song for a year before I recorded it, because when you hear [“Humble and Kind” songwriter] Lori McKenna sing with just an acoustic guitar, it just doesn’t get much better than that.”
McGraw added, “It’s rare to find a song that has this much lyrical content and this much meaning, it says so much, but still have this sort of high energy. It’s rare to find that combination of not quite a ballad, not quite an up-tempo, but still deep, lyrically.”
The song is the title track to McGraw’s upcoming 17th studio album, set to release on Big Machine Records.
“I’m finishing up the album now, all the final mixes,” he said during his visit to The Bobby Bones Show. “I cut around 30 [songs] probably. That’s hard, too, because I don’t take anything in unless I like it, so to cull them down to the ones that don’t make the record — I always leave stuff on the floor that I love.”
Watch his interview with Bobby Bones below:
In the first trailer for the upcoming Apple TV+ series My Kind of Country, executive producers Kacey Musgraves and Reese Witherspoon break down the reason they decided to hop into the reality singing competition lane.
“When we got together a long time ago we were talking about how country music should stop limiting people and start opening doors… it’s music brought over from all over the world,” Witherspoon says in the two-minute sneak peek that dropped on Friday morning (March 10). “The bluegrass, the folk, the gospel. There’s so many threads woven through country music,” Musgaves adds.
The series that will pit 12 contestants against each other in a bid to become the next country star will feature a diverse group of singers from around the world trying to impress ground-breaking country stars Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton and Orville Peck. Each scout has picked a diverse roster of up-and-coming acts who they think have that special something and invited them to Nashville to showcase their unique sound.
In keeping with that theme, each artist’s team is packed with acts that span the globe, with Allen’s featuring singers from Mexico, India, North Carolina and South Africa, while Guyton’s squad has two Nashville and South African performers and Peck’s players from India, South Africa and California.
The winner of the competition will receive what is described as a “life-changing” experience from Apple, which will include global exposure across the Apple TV+ and Apple Music platforms.
My Kind of Country will debut on March 24.
Check out the trailer below.
The People’s Choice Awards is expanding with the announcement of the first-ever People’s Choice Country Awards airing in September across NBC and Peacock, live from the Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville.
The two-hour telecast will give NBC a country awards show to compete with the CMA Awards, which have aired on ABC since 2006; the CMT Music Awards, which have aired on CBS since 2022; and the ACM Awards, which have streamed on Prime Video since 2022.
NBC aired the CMA Awards from 1968-71 and the ACM Awards from 1979-97 but hasn’t been in the country awards game for years.
“We’re excited to partner with the Grand Ole Opry to bring the year’s biggest celebration in country music to Nashville,” Cassandra Tryon, senior vice president, live events, NBCUniversal Television & Streaming, said in a statement. “Country fans are passionate about their music and there’s no better place to host this event than from country music’s biggest stage.”
As the show’s name implies, the winners will be chosen entirely by the fans, though several honorary awards will also be bestowed.
The People’s Choice Country Awards will extend to social platforms with All-Access Live bringing fans at home behind the scenes as well as interactively connecting country’s most popular stars with their biggest fans.
The telecast will be produced by Den of Thieves with Jesse Ignjatovic, Evan Prager and Barb Bialkowski serving as executive producers
The People’s Choice Awards aired on CBS from 1975-2017 and was highly rated for many years. E! acquired the show in 2017; it aired on that channel for the first time in 2018. NBC joined E! in airing the show in 2021.
The People’s Choice Awards has long included country categories and performances. At the most recent People’s Choice Awards, which aired Dec. 6, 2022, Shania Twain performed a four-song hit medley. Carrie Underwood was voted the country artist of 2022, beating Kelsea Ballerini, Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris, Thomas Rhett and Morgan Wallen.
The 2022 People’s Choice Awards bucked industry trends with year-over-year ratings growth on the broadcast network, and delivered 173 million total engagements across linear, digital and social platforms, according to an NBC statement.
This new project is an example of collaboration resulting from NBCUniversal’s equity investment in Opry Entertainment Group alongside Atairos, which was finalized last year.
The upcoming awards show is the latest in a series of moves from Ryman Hospitality Properties and Opry Entertainment Group. This week, OEG revealed a minority investment in country music lifestyle brand Whiskey Riff. In 2022, Ryman Hospitality Properties closed on its purchase of Block 21, a property that includes ACL Live at Moody Theater, the home venue of the television program Austin City Limits. 2020 saw the launch of Circle Network, a joint venture between OEG and Gray Television that featured Grand Ole Opry performances and more.
—Jessica Nicholson assisted in preparing this story
We won’t officially know until Sunday (March 12) how big Morgan Wallen’s new album, the super-sized One Thing at a Time, will debut on the Billboard 200, but we know the 36-track set is already a blockbuster.
As of Wednesday (March 8), the 36 tracks have accumulated 315 million on-demand streams, already the biggest week for any 2023 album, according to Luminate. In its first four days, OTAAT surpassed the 240 million tally hit by Wallen’s 2021 album, Dangerous: The Double Album, in its first full week.
The album, which features collaborations with Eric Church, HARDY and ERNEST, was culled from 42 songs to its final 36 tracks.
“The songs just kind of naturally came in,” Wallen previously told Billboard. One Thing at a Time producer Joey Moi added, “It seemed like the more we cut, the more songs would show up. So it just kept piling up.”
Moi also noted Wallen’s involvement in the studio has become deeper with each album release.
“The first record, in a budding career [from a] new artist is weird, you kind of get stripped of all your time to make the record, so we really panicked our way through that one,” Moi said. “He was on tour, and then we would cut the songs together in the studio, and then he’d go off on tour. I’d squirrel away and work on the music getting ready for him to come back. He’d sing like six songs in one day. It was that process. Second record, we were able to engineer the calendar a little better but he was still heavy in obligations [but] he was present for way more than the first record. This one I feel like we nailed the calendar, and he was there for every moment of it. It was amazing having him in the room the whole time with me.”
Upon the album’s March 3 release, we picked the top 10 tunes, but now we’re back to rank all 36 songs on the Moi-produced set, from the least to the greatest.
“Ain’t That Some”
One of the rap-influenced tracks on the set with trap beats and rapid-fire lyric delivery (or as rapid-fire as Wallen gets), the song recalls early Florida Georgia Line above all else and may be good for a hell-raising night but feels by the numbers. Listen here.
“F150-50”
Like many songs on the album, “F150-50” takes a clever idea—in this case, taking the popular Ford truck name and using it as the vehicle his ex leaves in, but also to say the chances are “F150-50” that she’s coming back. It’s fun, but ultimately, unlike the popular truck, goes nowhere. Listen here.
“180 (Lifestyle)”
One of the several rap-influenced tunes, the programmed drums and synths details how Wallen’s girl has done a complete 180 turnaround since coming into his world. She’s gone from a “Broadway city girl” to a “red dirt wild child” and she’s not mad about it. Listen here.
“Tennessee Fan”
In what some folks are wondering is an answer to Megan Moroney’s “Tennessee Orange”— though he switches the woman’s allegiance from Georgia to Alabama — Wallen converts a die-hard Alabama fan to a Tennessee Volunteer after just one night together in this story song. Listen here.
“Keith Whitley”
Country music is filled with song titles taken from artists’ names: Taylor Swift’s “Tim McGraw” and Eric Church’s “Springsteen” to name two. Here, Wallen throws in a number of Whitley song or album titles, including “I’m No Stranger to the Rain,” “Kentucky Bluebird” and even “Miami, My Amy” as he drinks over her memory and laments that “The things I love got a way of gettin’ gone too soon/kinda like good whiskey, Keith Whitley and you.” Listen here.
“’98 Braves”
For non-baseball fans, the ’98 Atlanta Braves mounted a comeback during the playoffs, but ultimately lost to the San Diego Padres. In this mid-tempo track, Wallen compares his relationship to the Braves and, similarly, coming up short despite giving it his best. Listen here.
“In the Bible” feat. HARDY
Nature is where many people feel closest to God and Wallen and HARDY are no different in this sweet, guitar-driven ode. “Can’t get no closer to the Man upstairs/Than way out there, where the river runs,” they sing. But they admit, they may be spending too much time on old barstools instead of reading “them words in red,” but somehow these country boys will survive. Listen here.
“Days That End In Why”
There are some lovely adjectival descriptions here from his “dead grass drive” to her “hand-me-down earrings,” that instantly paint a picture of what life was like before she left — and the sadness that has followed as the days blur into each other. “It’s been nights that start with whiskey/ and days that end in why,” with no answer forthcoming. Listen here.
“I Wrote The Book”
Wallen celebrates his southern and athletic bonafides in this gently chugging track, celebrating that he “wrote the book” when it comes to those his skills. However, when it comes to obeying the Bible and being an expert at following the rules therein, that’s “one book I didn’t write,” he ruefully admits. Listen here.
“Cowgirls” feat. ERNEST
There’s something about a cowgirl in this easy-going, heavily programmed track that features Wallen with one of his besties. They marvel at the “never gonna settle on down girls,” who may leave you sorry they left, but never sorry that they came into your life, even if it’s only for a short while. Listen here.
“Whiskey Friends”
In the time-honored country tradition, Wallen’s keeping company with “Jack and Jim” after he just “took a hook on my heartbreak chin.” He’s looking for a little consolation from his liquid “friends,” with the aid of Whitley and Jones on the jukebox on this catchy track. Listen here.
“Hope That’s True”
In this loping, steel-guitar driven track, she may have left him, but he’s not crying over her departure. She was high class while he was, by her account, white trash and never the twain shall meet. That’s just fine, as he sings, “when you say that I ain’t ever gonna find nobody just like you/Well, I hope that’s true.” Listen here.
“Tennessee Numbers”
Tailor-made for a cinematic video, this mid-tempo ballad shares the tale of how the protagonist’s ex used to have a photo of them together at her sister’s wedding as her screen saver, but now “It’s just some ocean waves.” He laments that he’ll never get the chance to apologize because he knows “she quit taking calls from Tennessee numbers.” Listen here.
“Man Made A Bar” feat. Eric Church
A lyrically clever tale of how God created the earth and man and woman, but it took a man to make a bar so men have a place to go when women break their hearts. Church sings harmony and then grabs a verse of his own on this twangy tune, but it feels like a little bit of a wasted opportunity that he’s not featured more prominently, especially given Wallen’s adoration of Church. Listen here.
“Money On Me”
If you’re looking for a good time, Wallen’s your man in this swirling song, but if you’re looking for “a soft place to land/arms you can trust,” he’s not the one. There’s something to be said for the self-awareness displayed in the lyrics. He’s pretty believable when he says, “honestly, I wouldn’t put my money on me.” Listen here.
“Thinkin’ Bout Me”
Via a hypnotizing melody, Wallen sings directly to a past lover who isn’t in the past as much as her new boyfriend may think. No matter where she and her new man go, Wallen’s ghost is there. “Do you hide your phone/did you change my name,” he asks, even wondering “when you’re up in his bed/am I up in your head making you crazy?” He knows the answer is yes. Listen here.
“Sunrise”
Unlike “Ain’t That Some,” where the rap intonations don’t work, they enhance the insinuating “Sunrise.” Handclaps and undulating synth programming bolster the strong lyrics. He broke up with her aw hile ago, but just like the sunrise, she “keeps coming up…at 8 a.m.,9 a.m./ all the way to 10 pm when my day ends.” Listen here.
“I Deserve A Drink”
In this guitar-drenched tale boasting unusual vocal inflections and one of the album’s catchier melodies, Wallen falls off the love wagon when his ex walks into the bar, “burnin’ hotter than a bourbon with no water.” He compares her to drink that he can’t resist: “You’re another shot that I shouldn’t knock bad, but damn, baby,” he sings, helpless to resist her spell. Listen here.
“Me To Me”
Wallen figures he’s just the perfect remedy to a woman who’s lost her way romantically in this fun ditty. He’s not promising he’s Mr. Right, but he might be Mr. Right Now as he declares, “You’ve been locked down for a while/You want some more wild and free/I don’t know who you’re waiting on but/kinda sounds like me to me.” Listen here.
“Had It”
Wallen cuts bait on a relationship that has turned sour in this acoustic guitar-based ballad. They are fighting more than loving and no matter how much they talk, they can’t find their way back to the good times. “I knew what I had when I had it, but, girl, I’ve had it,” a done Wallen sings. Listen here.
“Last Night”
Wallen’s latest No. 1 on Hot Country Songs—and the third already from the album— is a finger-snapping mid-tempo track with an undeniable synth line. “You call your mama/I call your bluff,” a cocky Wallen sings, confident that last night was definitely not their last night together, even though she left him staring at her taillights as she left in a blaze of anger. Listen here.
“Outlook”
The penultimate track is a highly autobiographical track that features Wallen’s sister singing harmony, as he revels in his changed outlook from his destructive ways to more upbeat now that he’s realized “someone’s up there/lookin’ down and lookin’ out for me.” Clearly written on a good day, Wallen feels nothing but gratitude as he’s emerged “on the flip side of crazy.” Listen here.
“Good Girl Gone Missin'”
With its gentle acoustic guitar intro, “Good Girl” is sobering, but catchy tale of Wallen blaming another failed relationship on “good whiskey/bad decisions.” Even though he knows better, it’s a “new story/same ending.” The listener benefits from the protagonist not learning from his mistakes with this well-rendered track. Listen here.
“You Proof”
The first No. 1 on Country Airplay from the album, “You Proof” relies on finger-snaps, a buzzy synth line and sharp production that draws in the listener as Wallen complains that the whiskey ain’t working as he drinks to forget his lost love. No matter how much he imbibes, can’t find something that’s “You proof.” Listen here.
“Me + All Your Reasons”
No one is harder on Wallen than Wallen and on this twangy tune, even he is sick of his actions. His girlfriend has left and he can’t blame her. Between the “Copenhagen, whiskey straight, and empty bottle, promise breakin’,” there was no room for her in his life. Now that she’s gone, he’s still not alone, since all the reasons she headed out still swirl around him. Listen here.
“Last Drive Down Main”
Wallen is the one leaving in this musically upbeat but lyrically down tune. He takes one last spin around town before he heads for the outskirts as looks into the future and sees his ex telling her friends she’s fine but dreaming of him and the memories they made. Listen here.
“Neon Star (Country Boy Lullaby)”
Grab your boots and get ready to do a slow two-step to this finger-snapping tune that would sound right at home on a Thomas Rhett album. His girl’s gone and he’s gone straight to the local watering hole to drown his sorrows. He’s “wishin’ on a neon star” hanging behind the bar that “there’s a u-turn in your car” and she’ll return home. “Neon Star (Country Boy Lullaby)”Listen here.
“Dying Man”
After pulling the listener down to the depths of his despair, Wallen closes the set on an optimistic tone, letting us know he’s found happiness and he’s no longer “bound to hit a wall before I ever hit the brakes.” Though he once thought just as “Codeine it got Elvis /Whiskey it got Hank,” he’d find a similar premature fate, he’s found a love that has brought him contentment and a reason to live. Maybe it’s coincidence that the song opens with a guitar intro nearly identical to “Born With A Beer In My Hand,” but it feels like Wallen is bringing the listener full circle. Listen here.
“Thought You Should Know”
This genial ode is Wallen’s second Hot Country Songs chart topper from One Thing At A Time, following “You Proof.” But the two songs couldn’t be more different. Written by Wallen with Nicolle Galyon and Miranda Lambert, this track, bolstered by the great Paul Franklin’s steel playing, is his end of a phone conversation with his mother while he’s on tour. Wallen’s eager to let her know that “all those prayers you thought you wasted on me/must’ve finally made their way through.” Listen here.
“Born With a Beer In My Hand”
Written by Wallen with buddy HARDY and Zach Abend, the album opener sets a tone that runs through much of the release: Wallen wrestling with his alcohol-fueled dark side. Here, as he catalogs how he comes from a long line of drinkers, he also paints a picture of someone trying to stay in the light no matter the temptation as he embraces sobriety, at least for a while: “I ain’t saying I swore it off for good/I’m just sayin’ I’m doing the best I can,” he sings in this mid-tempo swayer. Listen here.
“Wine Into Water”
In a song that could be part two of “Neon Star,” Wallen wraps his vocals around this woeful tale of regret as he waits on the porch for his love to return so he can apologize and they can sink into the bottle he’s brought. Country lyrics are known for their clever word play and this song is no exception as Wallen hopes to put their problems behind them “and turn this wine into water under the bridge.” Listen here.
“Single Than She Was”
Wallen is charmingly confident as he woos a woman in a bar who’s possibly been stood up by her beau, and by the time they say good night, he’s liking his odds that he may soon be the replacement: “I ain’t sayin’ her and her man’s got any plans on breakin’ up/But I tell you what/She’s a little more single than she was,” he boasts as the track progresses. Listen here.
“Everything I Love”
Wallen, who co-wrote the song, kicks it old school country on this chugging tune framed by solid slide guitar. Though the melody is ridiculously bouncy (think Kenny Rogers in the mid-‘80s), Wallen is shattered that he can’t go to any of his old haunts or enjoy his old lifestyle because everything reminds him of the gal who broke his heart. An interpolation of The Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider” includes several lyrical references to “one more silver dollar.” Listen here.
“One Thing at a Time”
Just try not to sing along to this toe-tapping tune that features one of the most infectious melodies that Wallen has ever recorded. It’s pure pop — so much so that it feels like it should be played back-to-back with Kelsea Ballerini’s similar earworm “Heartfirst.” But since it’s Wallen, there’s no joy, only the acknowledgement that if he’s going to have to give up his ex, he can’t relinquish his cigarettes and liquor, too. “If you ain’t gonna kiss me/Then I’ll take some whiskey,” he sings. Facing her loss sober is a bridge too far. Listen here.
“Don’t Think Jesus”
Written by Jessi Alexander, Mark Holman and Chase McGill, the introspective “Don’t Think Jesus” features Wallen’s strongest vocal delivery on the album as he slides from a growl to a falsetto, taking on the persona of a boy living life way too fast who realizes he’s moved far from Jesus’s teachings even when it comes to turning the other cheek: “World likes to rear back and throw a few stones / So boy wants to throw a few stones of his own / But Lord knows I ain’t perfect, and it ain’t my place / And I don’t think Jesus done it that way.” Listen here.
“Devil Don’t Know”
This ballad, written by Travis Denning, Jared Mullins and Ben Stennis, highlights what Wallen does best—wallow in love’s misery. “I’ve been tryin’ to drown these demons, but damn if they don’t swim,” he sings of the knowledge that the one he loves is with someone else sinks in. “Even the devil don’t know this kind of hell,” he sings convincingly. Listen here.
The Cadillac Three members Jaren Johnston and Neil Mason have teamed with Warner Records via a joint venture to launch the Nashville-based label War Buddha Records.
The first signing to the venture is Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Rett Madison, who recently wrapped a run of shows with St. Paul & The Broken Bones and is slated to play during SXSW 2023.
“As artists ourselves, we created War Buddha first and foremost as a home for artists,” Johnston said via a statement. “In partnering with our longtime friend Aaron Bay-Schuck, alongside Tom Corson and the stellar Warner Records team, we saw the opportunity to mix our dirt with Warner’s power to create a venture fostering both creative expression and commercial success.”
“We want the label to offer a platform for artists with unique perspectives who fit out, not in, and feel unafraid to tell their stories unapologetically,” Mason added. “Rett is the perfect first signing for the label: an artist with the incredible ability to capture life experiences in songs that make the listener feel they are in those moments with her. We’re so grateful to Aaron and Tom for the chance to build this label together.”
Nashville natives Johnston and Mason, along with their The Cadillac Three cohort Kelby Ray, have released albums via Big Machine Records including 2016’s Bury Me in My Boots, and a pair of 2020 projects, Country Fuzz and Tabasco and Sweet Tea. As songwriters, Johnston has written songs recorded by artists including Tim McGraw (“Southern Girl”), Keith Urban and Eric Church (the duet “Raise ‘Em Up”). Mason has written songs recorded by artists including Miranda Lambert (“Old Sh*t”), and Jake Owen (“Days of Gold”).
“For as long as I have known Jaren and Neil, they have never taken a conventional path,” said Bay-Schuck, co-chairman & CEO of Warner Records, via a statement. “They’ve been fearless in their pursuit of great art, never compromising any integrity or authenticity in their approach to their own artistry or collaborations as songwriters and producers for other artists. As we continue to build the Warner Records brand as one that is always a safe and encouraging place for artists who dare to be different, take risks, and have a point of view, it made total sense to partner with War Buddha on their mission to do the same. We are very excited to welcome Rett Madison as the first artist from this partnership and we can’t wait to see what other unique and amazing talent Jaren and Neil discover.”
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be joining the Warner Records family with War Buddha!” Madison said. “I’ve felt such genuine enthusiasm from Neil and Jaren in regards to my music and their total support of me sharing my most authentic, artistic voice feels refreshing. I can’t wait to see what we all build together.”
Opry Entertainment Group (OEG) has made a minority investment in country music lifestyle brand Whiskey Riff in an effort to draw a younger audience to its properties.
OEG, which counts the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, WSM Radio and the Blake Shelton-inspired Ole Red slate of restaurants/music venues among its portfolio, plans to use the alignment with Whiskey Riff to reach a younger demographic, attract new audiences to its brands, develop a stronger digital presence and further support emerging artists.
“They have created a really compelling brand, one that has built an incredibly loyal following,” says Mark Fioravanti, president and CEO of Ryman Hospitality Properties of Whiskey Riff. “They attract a younger demographic, and this gives us another way to connect our brands and the artists we support with younger fans.”
Fioravanti declined to comment on the specific percentage invested in Whiskey Riff or if OEG plans to increase its ownership stake in Whiskey Riff in the future.
Created by Steve Gazibara and Wes Langeler in 2015, Whiskey Riff has become a destination website for consumer country music news and content, as well as for outdoors and lifestyle content that resonates with the country music audience.
Across the Whiskey Riff brand umbrella as a whole, including Whiskey Riff social media accounts as well as @RIFFOutdoors, @WhiskeyRiffShop and @WhiskeyRiffRaff, the company says the sites have collectively drawn over 3.3 million social media followers. Over half of Whiskey Riff viewers are between the ages of 18-44.
Gazibara tells Billboard of launching Whiskey Riff, “I just thought, ‘If you are a college kid sitting in class, you don’t have a place to go to get a playlist, a podcast, a funny story, an outdoors thing, music stories and maybe a funny t-shirt if you want to get it for a concert.’”
“We share a certain segment of fans with Opry Entertainment, but we also have different fans in certain capacities,” Langeler adds. “The Opry does a great job of promoting rising artists that are independent and then they also bring on seasoned veterans, [Country Music] Hall of Fame members. I think we can really just help each other grow and continually bring new fans to each other.”
One element the Whiskey Riff co-founders insist won’t change is the site’s distinctive voice.
“The Opry knows we’re gonna have opinions,” Gazibara says. “They don’t have a say in the content, obviously, but of course you want to amplify their content that fits with our audience—and there is plenty of that from their end.”
Currently, OEG supports emerging artists in multiple ways, including Grand Ole Opry debut performances, as well as the “My Opry Debut” series, which runs on television network Circle, OEG’s joint venture with Gray Television. Additionally, new acts garner support through the Opry NextStage program, and performances at various Ole Red locations (Ole Red is set to add a Las Vegas location later this year).
OEG and Whiskey Riff are considering a range of collaborative options, including podcasts and cross-promotional retail/branding opportunities. “You might see some of their brand of products in our brick and mortar locations,” Fioravanti says. “We are just starting to have those discussions, but it’s an opportunity to collaborate with our retail capabilities.”
Gazibara and Langeler envision further amplifying Whiskey Riff’s lifestyle content, including food, hunting, fishing and other sports. Meanwhile, the Colorado-based Whiskey Riff will soon have a full-time Nashville presence; the site’s operations manager will relocate to Nashville, while the site’s Nashville-based assistant editor will move to a full-time role.
“They will have access to go backstage [at the Opry], talk to people, maybe get some fun, rapid-fire content before artists go onstage, or show the jam band-kind of thing that often happens backstage,” Langeler says. “We want to give fans an inside look at stuff they maybe wouldn’t have seen.
“The Opry is the greatest country music institution in the world,” Langeler adds. “I think we will be a machine going forward, pumping out content, giving fans that access and telling great stories. Country music is such a rich storytelling fabric and we will be able to help the Opry amplify that, and they will be able to help us to be able to tell these stories.”
In recent years, a trio of Big Loud-signed artists — ERNEST, HARDY, and Morgan Wallen — have become country music’s ultra-collaborative hitmaking machine, churning out an array of hits for themselves and other artists.
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Earlier this month, ERNEST, HARDY and Wallen were all honored during the Country Music Association’s Triple Play Awards, which honors songwriters who have written three No. 1 songs within a 12-month span. To date, Wallen has been a co-writer on several Jason Aldean-recorded songs, including “Make It Easy,” as well as Keith Urban’s “Brown Eyes Baby” and Corey Kent’s “Wild as Her.” HARDY has been a contributor to Wallen’s “Sand in My Boots,” Blake Shelton’s “God’s Country,” Michael Ray’s “Holy Water,” LOCASH’s “One Big Country Song” and Breland’s “Praise the Lord” (featuring Thomas Rhett). ERNEST’s Triple Play-earning contributions this year are Wallen’s “Wasted On You,” Sam Hunt’s “Breaking Up Was Easy in the ‘90s” and Kane Brown’s “One Mississippi.”
While Nashville is no stranger to hitmaking songwriter trios — such as the Peach Pickers (Ben Hayslip, Dallas Davidson and Rhett Akins) and the Love Junkies (Liz Rose, Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey) — it is additionally notable that over the past year, Wallen, HARDY and ERNEST have each issued albums representative of country music’s expansive soundscape. ERNEST’s March 2022 release Flower Shops (The Album) and subsequent deluxe album Flower Shops: Two Dozen Roses this February incorporated a throwback, traditional country sound, while this January saw HARDY issue his country/metal amalgam The Mockingbird & The Crow, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
This month, of course, the two sets are followed by Wallen’s juggernaut, 36-track project One Thing at a Time (Big Loud/Republic/Mercury)– which has already earned 315 million official on-demand U.S. streams in its first four days of release (March 3-6). It’s not only the biggest week of any album so far this year (and larger than its predecessor, 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album, which opened at 240 million in its first full week), it’s also already the biggest streaming week any country album has ever posted.
“Everybody just truly does such different things, and we all bring out the creativity in each other,” HARDY tells Billboard of the trio’s fruitful collaboration. “Ernest might say something that would sound like something I would never think of, and that would spark a lyrical direction maybe they wouldn’t think of. We do what we do, and bring out the best in the rest of the triangle.”
ERNEST notes a common thread that runs through each of their respective projects: the production work of Joey Moi (Florida Georgia Line, Nickelback).
“I think about how many country music acts Joey Moi has helped craft into a sound, and how different all of those sounds are,” ERNEST tells Billboard. ”My sound is a little more traditional, like [an] Opry band. HARDY’s got the rock stuff, and Morgan’s down to go the 808s route. But Joey is able to make it sound really f–king good every time.”
ERNEST first met Wallen in 2015 at a party thrown by Big Loud co-founder and hit songwriter Craig Wiseman. They followed each other on Instagram and discovered they had competed against each other on opposing high school baseball teams — Knoxville’s Gibbs High School (Wallen) against Nashville’s David Lipscomb High School (now Lipscomb Academy) (ERNEST).
“They beat us and went on to win State [in 2010] and then we beat them for State [in 2011],” ERNEST recalls. “So, technically we met in 2015, but we had been rivals before we were friends.”
HARDY and ERNEST met on a writers’ bus on a Florida Georgia Line tour around 2017, when ERNEST was a rapper still going by the name Snow. HARDY and Wallen also began writing together in 2017.
“He came to my little apartment in Green Hills [in Nashville] and we just started writing. Me, Morgan and Jameson Rodgers wrote a song and then ate Martin’s BBQ after,” HARDY recalls of his first writing session with Wallen.
The trio’s collaborative efforts were apparent even on Wallen’s 2018 debut Big Loud album If I Know Me. Wallen, HARDY and ERNEST co-wrote the title track, alongside co-writer Ryan Vojtesak. HARDY and Wallen each contributed to around half of the songs on that album. Wallen’s follow-up, 2021’s record-breaking Dangerous: The Double Album features more songs from the trio: they all contributed to “Somethin’ Country” and “This Bar,” as well as “More Than My Hometown,” which became a No. 1 hit on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart before the album’s release in 2020.
“I remember being very difficult that day,” HARDY recalls with a laugh of writing “More Than My Hometown.” “I had a vision for the song, and so did Morgan. I was just being very picky because I could feel that the song was going somewhere and we really dug into that lyric. We always make the joke that Ern accidentally went to Midtown and got really drunk before that song, so he wasn’t really much help — but he contributed as good as he could. I just remember we really dug into the lyrics hard that day. The leadup to the hook changed so many times and we finally settled on those [lyrics].”
The trio have also traded features on each other’s albums, with Wallen appearing on the track “Red” from HARDY’s The Mockingbird & The Crow, as well as on two tracks from HARDY’s Hixtape, Vol. 1: “Turn You Down” and “He Went to Jared,” which has become a fan-favorite in concert. Meanwhile, Smith co-wrote another song from Hixtape, Vol. 1, “Redneck Tendencies.”
Wallen also teamed with ERNEST for “Flower Shops,” the traditional-minded top 20 Country Airplay hit. Meanwhile, Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album features seven tracks cowritten by HARDY and 11 contributions from Smith (including two tracks, “Dangerous” and “Wonderin’ About The Wind,” written by Wallen and Smith).
ERNEST contributes to 11 songs to Wallen’s sprawling One Thing at a Time, while HARDY contributed writing to three tracks. HARDY and ERNEST also lend their voices to respective features: HARDY on “In The Bible” and ERNEST on “Cowgirls,” a track he also wrote with Rocky Block, Ashley Gorley, James Maddocks and Ryan Vojtesak.
“A few months after we wrote it, I sent it to Morgan,” ERNEST says. “When I was singing and freestyling it, I thought, ‘Morgan’s gonna sound sick on this.’ Then, I think, with like eight hours left on the clock before they had to turn the album in, I was at the No. 1 party for Jelly Roll’s ‘Son of a Sinner’ [ERNEST is a co-writer on the Country Airplay chart-topper] and Morgan called me to sing a verse on ‘Cowgirls.’ I was like, ‘I thought you’d never ask’ — so I had to get my award and then run to the studio to put my vocal on ‘Cowgirls.’”
A similar situation led to HARDY’s vocal on “In The Bible.”
“The day the record was supposed to be done, Morgan texted me to ask me to sing on it,” he explains. “[Wallen] said the record had to be done by midnight that night. I listened and it fit me perfectly. If it was something stupid, I wouldn’t have done it — and I won’t ever send him a song that doesn’t sound like him.”
The trio’s camaraderie extends far beyond the writing rooms and recording studios. HARDY and ERNEST will open on Wallen’s international One Night at a Time tour, kicking off later this month. In 2022, HARDY opened shows on Wallen’s The Dangerous Tour, while ERNEST filled in the opening slot for a few shows after a tour bus carrying HARDY was involved in an accident.
“If any of us are going through anything on a personal level, any of the other ones would be there for them in a heartbeat in real life — and you’d never even know about it on Instagram,” adds ERNEST. “We are blessed to have these careers with our friends and get to cheer each other on.”
“I talk to either Morgan, ERNEST or both almost every day,” HARDY says. “We’re buddies, even outside of music. We’re always sending memes. I Facetimed Morgan on the way to this [Country Music] Hall of Fame event I did yesterday and I just worked out with Ernest this morning.”
Given their ultra-prolific songwriting and solid camaraderie, HARDY says it’s not out of the question that he, Wallen and ERNEST could at some point add to country music’s storied canon of collaborative albums — such as Wanted! The Outlaws, the Trio albums from Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, the Parton/Tammy Wynette/Loretta Lynn album Honky Tonk Angels, or projects from The Highwaymen, Pistol Annies, The Notorious Cherry Bombs, Chicks With Hits and more.
“We’ve definitely talked about it,” HARDY confirms. “I think it would be awesome. I think it would do really well, and would set up a tour perfectly. I don’t think anybody in our little trio would be opposed to that. It would be fun.”