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Ashley Gorley rises to No. 1 on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 Songwriters chart (dated March 25), leading as the top songwriter in the United States for the first time thanks to 12 writing credits on the latest Billboard Hot 100, including 10 by Morgan Wallen.
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All 10 songs by Wallen are on his new LP, One Thing at a Time, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (dated March 18) with 501,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate. The sum marks the biggest week of 2023 for any album, in terms of units earned, and the largest week for any country album since Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) opened with 604,500 units in November 2021. One Thing at a Time spends a second week at No. 1 on the latest list (259,000 units).
Leading Gorley’s Hot 100 entries is the set’s single “Last Night,” which ranks at No. 2 after hitting No. 1 a week earlier. It earned Gorley his first leader on the chart as a songwriter.
Here’s a recap of Gorley’s songwriting credits on the March 25 Hot 100:
Rank, Artist Billing, Title
No. 2, Morgan Wallen, “Last Night”
No. 10, Morgan Wallen, “You Proof”
No. 17, Morgan Wallen, “Thinkin’ Bout Me”
No. 20, Morgan Wallen, “One Thing at a Time”
No. 29, Morgan Wallen, “Everything I Love”
No. 51, Morgan Wallen feat. ERNEST, “Cowgirls”
No. 52, Carly Pearce, “What He Didn’t Do”
No. 61, Morgan Wallen, “Whiskey Friends”
No. 76, Morgan Wallen, “Tennessee Fan”
No. 81, Morgan Wallen, “Me + All Your Reasons”
No. 87, Brett Young, “You Didn’t”
No. 96, Morgan Wallen, “180 (Lifestyle)”
Gorley has been one of the most in-demand country music songwriters since the mid-2000s. He’s written or co-written 96 Hot 100 entries, dating to his first, Carrie Underwood’s “Don’t Forget to Remember Me,” in 2006.
His country chart achievements are even more impressive. Gorley has written or co-written 51 No. 1 hits on Country Airplay and 15 No. 1s on Hot Country Songs.
Gorley has also spent 32 weeks at No. 1 on the Country Songwriters chart, the second-most after Zach Bryan (38 weeks).
On the Hot 100 Producers chart, Joey Moi tallies a 23rd week at No. 1, thanks to 29 production credits on the Hot 100 – with all but one via songs by Wallen. Only Dan Nigro has spent more weeks at No. 1 (27). As previously reported, Moi concurrently becomes the first artist to spend 100 weeks at No. 1 on the Country Producers chart.
Billboard launched its Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, as well as genre-specific rankings for country, rock & alternative, R&B/hip-hop, R&B, rap, Latin, Christian, gospel and dance/electronic, in June 2019. (Alternative and hard rock joined in 2020, along with seasonal holiday rankings in 2022). The charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Hot 100. The genre-based songwriter and producer charts follow the same methodology based on corresponding “Hot”-named genre charts. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).
The full Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, in addition to the full genre rankings, can be found on Billboard.com.
Milwaukee’s beloved Summerfest festival will celebrate its 55th anniversary this summer with the usual jam-packed lineup of 100 artists taking the stage over three weekends in June and July, including headliners Eric Church (with Elle King), the Zac Brown Band (with Marcus King) and James Taylor & His All-Star Band (with Sheryl Crow) on the first weekend (June 22-24).
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The second weekend (June 29-July 1) will feature headliners Dave Matthews Band, Odesza (with a Bonobo DJ set) and another artists to be announced and, on the final weekend (July 6-8) Zach Bryan and Imagine Dragons (with AJR).
“Celebrating 55 years of live music is a true testament to this festival. Together with the City of Milwaukee, we look forward to hosting music fans from across the globe at Summerfest and delivering a world-class lineup with hundreds of artists during our nine-day run” said Milwaukee World Festival Inc. CEO Don Smiley in a statement.
Other acts on the bill include: The Avett Brothers, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Bleachers, Three 6 Mafia, Brett Eldredge, Sofi Tukker, Gryffin, Fitz and the Tantrums, NLE Choppa, Cheap Trick, Lyle Lovett, Tegan and Sara, Santa Fe Klan, Earth, Wind & Fire, Noah Kahan, Ava Max, Lord Huron, Yung Gravy, Vance Joy, Cypress Hill, The Pretty Reckless, Sean Paul, Coi Leray, Brett Young, Spin Doctors, Jesus Jones, Japanese Breakfast, Lauren Daigle, Tyler Hubbard, Yellowcard, Smokey Robinson, Fleet Foxes, The War on Drugs, Yungblud, Styx, Grupo Niche, Tesla, Dinosaur Jr., Jenny Lewis, Scotty McCreery and many more.
Tickets for Summerfest are on sale now here, with single-day general admission starting at just $26.
Check out the full 2023 Summerfest lineup below.
The song is from his new 36-track album, One Thing at a Time. Released March 3, the set launches as Wallen’s second No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, with the largest streaming week ever for a country album, as well as the biggest week by equivalent album units for any album, among all genres, in 2023.
If you need a guide to follow along with Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night,” find the lyrics below.
Last night we let the liquor talkI can’t remember everything we said but we said it allYou told me that you wish I was somebody you never metBut baby, baby, somethin’s tellin’ me this ain’t over yetNo way it was our last night
I kiss your lipsMake you grip the sheets with your fingertipsLast bottle of Jack, we split a fifthJust talkin’ ’bout life goin’ sip for sipYeah, you, you know you love to fightAnd I say shit I don’t meanBut I’m still gon’ wake up wantin’ you and me
I know that last night we let the liquor talkI can’t remember everything we said but we said it allYou told me that you wish I was somebody you never metBut baby, baby somethin’s tellin’ me this ain’t over yetNo way it was our last night (last night)No way it was our last night (last night)
No way it was the last night that we break upI see your tail lights in the dustYou call your mama, I call your bluffIn the middle of the night, pull it right back upYeah, my, my friends say let her goYour friends say what the hellI wouldn’t trade your kind of love for nothin’ else
Oh baby, last night we let the liquor talkI can’t remember everything we said but we said it allYou told me that you wish I was somebody you never metBut baby, baby, somethin’s tellin’ me this ain’t over yet
No way it was our last night, we said we’d had enoughI can’t remember everything we said but we said too muchI know you packed your shit and slammed the door right before you leftBut baby, baby, somethin’s tellin’ me this ain’t over yetNo way it was our last night (last night)No way it was our last night (last night)
I know you said this time you really weren’t coming back againBut baby, baby, somethin’s tellin’ me this ain’t over yetNo way it was our last night (last night)No way it was our last night (last night)
Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Ashley Gorley, Jacob Kasher, John Byron, Ryan Vojtesak
A conversation between six-time Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves and Academy Award-winning actress/entrepreneur Reese Witherspoon led to the globally focused country music competition series My Kind of Country, which premieres Friday (March 24) via Apple TV+, in partnership with the Witherspoon-founded media company Hello Sunshine.
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“We were talking about, ‘Why is country music so closed off? Why are there not more global influences and people who have a different perspective?’” Nashville native Witherspoon told Billboard via phone. “Kacey really illuminated it for me — it’s been a closed-door business for a long time. So this idea [is] to start a country music competition series and make it very international, because the reach of Apple is global. An important piece of this is highlighting voices that have not been heard. At Hello Sunshine, we have a spotlight that we would like to shine on people who have not had the opportunity to have their work highlighted.”
Witherspoon and Musgraves serve as executive producers on the eight-part series, which airs a new episode each Friday. Also serving as executive producers are Hello Sunshine’s Sara Rea and Lauren Newstadter, and Sandbox Entertainment’s Jason Owen (Musgraves is a Sandbox client), Izzie Pick Ibarra and Done+Dusted’s Katy Mullan.
The series’ dozen contestants hail from across the globe, including five artists from South Africa, two from India, one from Mexico and four from the United States.
“It’s been really cool for me to be part of this because since day one it’s been really important for me to keep reaching out globally, to try to find the people that connect with my music across the world,” said Musgraves, who is one of the few country artists to have toured Japan. “The easier thing to do would be to stay in America and play shows, but I want to build audiences around the world. I have been so moved and floored by being able to tour in places so far away from my home and see that my stories have connected with people there. Being part of this show is another angle of that for me. It just shows that no matter where you come from, when it’s brought back to the heart of the matter in the songs, we have the same emotions and the same human connection.”
Indeed, the show is intent on highlighting diversity and inclusion — not just with the contestants, but through the three artists who serve as scouts, mentors and judges: Jimmie Allen is a Grammy nominee and a 2021 CMA new artist of the year winner with three No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay chart hits; Mickey Guyton, who broke through with songs “Black Like Me” and “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” and was the first Black female solo artist to earn a Grammy nomination in a country category; and Orville Peck is a gay country artist who has collaborated with Shania Twain and is known for his fringed masks and retro-tinged brand of country music. Each handpicked four contestants to become part of their teams.
“It was cool to hear country music during different parts of the world, sometimes in different languages,” Allen told Billboard via Zoom, “and being part of choosing artists. I remember being on Zoom with show producers and going through and listening to so many artists that were really good.”
The dozen selected contestants traveled to Nashville, and throughout the eight episodes, viewers watch as they hone their skills and confidence, as the scouts narrow down the competition via weekly eliminations, culminating in a finale performance in front of Musgraves, Witherspoon and the mentors/scouts, with one ultimate winner.
Allen’s artists are Ale Aguirre, who hails from Chihuahua, Mexico, and blends bilingual lyrics with elements of Norteño and banda. Dhruv Visvanath, from New Delhi, wrote the score to two independent films. North Carolina’s Camille Parker launched her career in R&B and pop music before pursuing a career in country music. Johannesburg’s Justin Serrao blends elements of alternative rock and country.
Guyton’s artists are two singer/songwriters from Nashville: Ashlie Amber and Chuck Adams, as well as South African sibling duo The Betsies (Zel and Landi Degenaar) and South African singer/songwriter Wandile.
Peck’s artists are Cape Town’s The Congo Cowboys (Julie Sigauque, Simon Attwell and Chris Bakalanga), who perform in both English and Lingala, the official language of the Democratic Republic of Congo; nonbinary bluegrass-influenced singer/songwriter Ismay Hellman of Petaluma, Calif.; Alisha Pais of Goa, India, and former South Africa Idols contestant Micaela Kleinsmith of Cape Town.
For all three scouts, their contestants have already moved them musically and emotionally.
“I feel like we’re all very nurturing people and to be around these amazing, incredible artists, it’s such a fulfilling thing to get to do,” Guyton told Billboard via Zoom. “The coolest part is you’re seeing how many people love country music globally.”
“Camille’s first performance, she sang ‘Space Cowboy’ by Kacey Musgraves, but the way she performed it, her vocal tone and delivery, it just hit me and she made the song her own,” Allen said.
Peck, who also hails from South Africa, noted watching fellow South Africa artist Kleinsmith progress in confidence was heartening.
“Coming into the competition, she was insecure about many things and had imposter syndrome,” Peck told Billboard via Zoom. “She is so incredibly talented and just getting to watch someone find themselves and their confidence in such a short amount of time that we did this show was really special for me to watch.”
Guyton recalled witnessing Adams’ vulnerability on the show.
“You never get to hear artists go through mental health struggles, but Chuck was very vocal about those things and it was beautifully honest,” she said. “Then he performed and you hear the pain and angst and this beautiful person. You just don’t often get to see that vulnerable side of people, especially on a show like this.”
“We cried a lot,” Allen added, sharing how he related to Adams’s story. “With Chuck, you know, I got diagnosed with bipolar [disorder] when I was 13, and I’ve had my moments where for two or three months I wanted to die, but I fought and stayed alive. So when you have those moments of him being open and then hearing his song, I knew if it was hitting me and inspiring me, all the people that see it are going to be inspired.”
Musgraves sees My Kind of Country as another essential step in the evolving progress of opening country music’s doors to a more diverse range of life stories and perspectives.
“Progress is progress, but there’s a long way to go,” Musgraves says. “Country music is woven with so many different stories and styles. And it’s not just about inclusivity in terms of color or gender. I want to see inclusivity when it comes to song matter and production style—that the songs that are able to be popular on country radio aren’t sung by the same kind of person about the same kind of thing. There are a lot of factors that could still be improved on.”
Witherspoon anticipates additional seasons of My Kind of Country, saying, “I sure hope so, because I do think country music is due for a disruption. We need to talk about why it’s been a closed-door business for so long. I think it’s the voice of the working people, whether that means you live in India, Africa, China, Japan…I think storytelling is storytelling, and we are here to promote great storytellers.”
Joey Moi is on a tear. The veteran producer/songwriter/engineer is fresh off the release of Morgan Wallen’s historic new LP One Thing at a Time, for which he produced all 36 of its tracks, and now, thanks to the success of the album, he becomes the first person to spend 100 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Producers chart (dated March 25).
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The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (dated March 18) with 501,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening week, according to Luminate. Not only is that the largest week of 2023 for any album (in terms of units earned), but it’s the largest week for any country album since Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) opened with 604,500 units in November 2021.
The set has also been a streaming juggernaut, as its 36-song tracklist tallied 498.28 million on-demand official U.S. streams in its first week, making it the fifth-largest streaming week ever for an album, after the opening weeks of Drake’s Scorpion (745.92 million in 2018) and Certified Lover Boy (743.67 million; 2021), Swift’s Midnights (549.26 million; 2022) and Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss (513.56 million; 2022).
One Thing at a Time‘s second-week numbers (259,000 units) were enough to help it fend off TWICE and Miley Cyrus to tally a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The last country album to log its first two weeks at No. 1? Wallen’s own Dangerous: The Double Album in 2021, which Moi also produced.
Singer-songwriter ERNEST, who’s credited as a co-songwriter on One Thing at a Time and is featured on the set’s “Cowgirls,” credits Moi as the through line on the whole album.
“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 told Billboard in a recent interview. ”My sound is a little more traditional, like [an] Opry band. [Fellow collaborator] 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.”
Moi reaches the 100-week milestone on Country Producers thanks to 33 production credits on the latest Hot Country Songs chart (dated March 25) – with all but one from One Thing at a Time. (See full recap at the bottom of this story.)
Billboard launched its Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, as well as genre-specific rankings for country, rock & alternative, R&B/hip-hop, R&B, rap, Latin, Christian, gospel and dance/electronic, in June 2019. (Alternative and hard rock joined in 2020, along with seasonal holiday rankings in 2022.) Only two artists have reached the 100-week milestone on a producers chart: Tainy (119 total weeks at No. 1 on Latin Producers), and, now, Moi on Country Producers. Kirk Franklin recently became the first artist to score 100 weeks at No. 1 on a songwriters chart (gospel).
Moi has been a consistent hitmaker on Billboard’s charts since the early 2000s. He notched his first charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2003, with Nickelback’s “Someday,” which climbed all the way to No. 7. He returned to the top 10 with the group’s “Photograph” (No. 2 in 2005), “Far Away” (No. 8; 2006), “Rockstar” (No. 6; 2007) and “Gotta Be Somebody” (No. 10; 2008).
It wasn’t until 2013 that Moi returned to the Hot 100’s top 10 via his work on Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise,” featuring Nelly, a No. 4-peaking hit that also spent 24 weeks on top of Hot Country Songs (a record at the time) and three weeks atop Country Airplay. He’s scored eight additional top 10s on the Hot 100, all since 2020, thanks to his work with Wallen.
Last week, nearly 20 years after “Someday” debuted, Moi achieved his first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 as a producer, when Wallen’s “Last Night” reached the summit. It became the first shared Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs No. 1 country song on the Hot 100 by an unaccompanied male solo artist since Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a Rainy Night” in 1981.
“It’s kind of mind-blowing,” Moi tells Billboard of his success. “You’re lucky if this happens once in your life, or at all in your life.”
In addition to his production work, Moi is a partner and president of A&R at Big Loud Management, which he founded in 2011 with Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer/partner Craig Wiseman, CEO/partner Seth England and Kevin “Chief” Zaruk. The label, which also features Lauren Alaina, ERNEST, HARDY and Jake Owen on its roster, was named Billboard’s No. 1 Hot Country Songs Label in 2021 and 2022, largely thanks to Wallen, while Wallen’s “Wasted on You” and “You Proof” finished 2022 as the Nos. 1 and 2 year-end Hot Country Songs titles of the year.
Shortly after the March 3 release of One Thing at a Time, Moi spoke with Billboard about his historic milestone on Country Producers, his latest project with Wallen and how he ventured from producing rock music in Canada to spearheading the year’s biggest country album in Nashville.
(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.)
Taking a look at the recent chart listings, you’ve produced a No. 1 song on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart (Wallen’s “Thought You Should Know”), a No. 1 song on the Hot 100 (Wallen’s “Last Night”), the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 (One Thing at a Time) and now you’ve spent 100 weeks as the No. 1 country producer in the U.S. How does it feel to reach these milestones and see yourself at No. 1 in all these areas?
I feel like I have a lot of cool friends that have got us to this place. You never really think anything like that is going to happen, and you don’t even really realize it’s happening. I’m an introverted studio rat, and I just keep my head down and keep working and keep feeding the company songs. You lift your head up and all of a sudden you’re doing an interview for Billboard over some crazy numbers.
You grew up in Canada and primarily worked with rock artists at the beginning of your career (Nickelback, Theory of a Deadman). How did you get involved in the country space and Nashville community?
Growing up, I remember when CMT first came to Canada, and I thought it was amazing. I would sit in front of my television with CMT on and I would try and play along with my stupid little nylon string guitar that I had at the time and try and learn the songs, and I just kind of fell in love with country music and became a fan. Fast-forward two years through college, I started making some rock music with [Chad Kroeger] of Nickelback, who’s a great songwriter and was also a great country fan. We would always bond over country songs and rock songs and stuff. We would listen to everything: rock songs, metal songs, pop songs, country songs. We were living that à la carte music life even back then before all the DSPs came out.
Then the top 40 chart kind of changed. All of a sudden the Dr. Luke and Max Martin era took over [the pop] chart, and guitars and drums and guys who sang with gravelly voices weren’t as relevant anymore.
Then you started seeing those rock flavors happen in country music. I remember me and one of my dear friends, Dallas Smith, who is a Canadian country artist now and was originally in a band called Default, which was an early project that I had worked on—we decided to come to Nashville for some songwriting, because he was going to pivot out of rock and roll and go country. My first trip was to come down here with Dallas and try and convert this rock guy into a country singer.
I came down here and did some co-writes. I met my current business partners here the first day I got into town and we wrote songs for a week down here with all these great songwriters. I ended up coming back, and I just fell in love with the place. It felt like country was moving more into that [rock hybrid], more energetic, contemporary production and style. It really felt like the right move for me to make.
I fell in love with the city. I fell in love with a bunch of people here, and picked up my whole life in Vancouver and moved it down to Nashville and I haven’t looked back. It was a pretty easy transition. I was able to take all of my rock chops and continue using them here.
Your first big country hits were Jake Owen’s “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” and then Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise,” both of which were No. 1 Country Airplay hits. “Cruise” even reached the top five of the Hot 100. How did those happen?
[“Barefoot Blue Jean Night”] was my very first country single that I ever got to produce. There’s a roundabout way it was introduced to me. Jake Owen asked [songwriter Rodney Clawson] to produce some music and Rodney said, “Well, why don’t we bring Joey in because he’s a producer and I’m a songwriter, so it’ll be a great combination and we’ll cut some songs?” We went in and one of my very first record productions was with Rodney on a Jake Owen song. And Jake, being the guy he is, was down to take a risk with a long-haired rock guy who had been working in Canada for 15 years. We cut four songs and then, in the 11th hour, “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” showed up in a demo form.
It ended up being Jake’s biggest single, and it happened to be my very first entry into country music down here. And that sort of opened the door to everything else that’s happened — that kind of put me on the map. Florida Georgia Line showed up after that, and we could always point to “Barefoot Blue Jean Night,” for validation.
You must’ve felt destined to be in the country space after seeing those early songs do so well, no?
Yeah, and whether I liked it or not, there was definitely a lot of opportunity that came from that. The Jake songs turned into another Jake record, and the FGL songs turned into finishing that record and a record after that, and then it just started snowballing. Now I’m sitting here in the building of our own record company and publishing company and management company. The snowball keeps snowballing.
How did you first meet Morgan Wallen?
I believe it came from an agent friend of ours, Kevin Neal, who was originally involved with Florida Georgia Line. Kevin was like, “Hey, you got to meet this kid. He’s a really good singer and he’s got some songwriting chops, you guys might be inspired by his voice.”
By that time, we had already started [Big Loud], and Morgan came into my studio here on Music Row and sat down on a couple stools with his original guitar player, Sergio [Sanchez], and they played three or four songs that Morgan and his friends had written. But then he played an Eric Church cover, of “Talladega,” and he sang it absolutely perfectly. Hearing him sing his own songs is one thing, but [“Talladega”] is a smash song and he sang every lick, note-for-note, and it was perfect. He didn’t even know how good he was at that time.
I remember Seth and I gave each other a look across the room like, “Holy crap, this kid is amazing.” At that moment we knew we had to somehow get Morgan as a part of the family and start making music with him. It started with a publishing deal just to get him in here writing songs. I think one of his first writes was the song “Chasin’ You,” which ended up being a No. 1 Country Airplay hit, and the rest is obviously history.
Getting Eric Church on the new album for “Man Made a Bar” must’ve been a full-circle moment for all of you.
He’s obviously one of Morgan’s favorite artists. And for me, I was a somewhat big Church fan — I think he’s awesome. I love the records that him and [producer] Jay Joyce make. I just love their approach to everything, how they live in that alternative-but-mainstream space. He was just a blast, we sat around for probably three or four hours to shoot the shit, talking about golf or talking about anything. Morgan and I were just laughing, looking across the room at each other, just giggling. Can’t believe the whole thing’s happening.
You’ve worked on all three of Morgan’s studio albums now: If I Know Me, Dangerous: The Double Album, and now One Thing at a Time. This new album has already outperformed the first two. How was it different in the studio this time around compared to the previous two albums?
In the beginning of an artist’s career, you have a lot of obligations. [Morgan] was touring aggressively at the time and developing his career, so from Wednesday all the way through to Monday, he was gone. I would literally have Morgan for two days a week to come in and sing and get his opinion on the music. And then when we’re finishing songs and closing up mixes, we’re usually doing it remote. I’m sending him songs and he’s got to approve it on his phone or get some headphones or find a stereo somewhere. We were just so remote.
For Dangerous, we did a lot better with the calendar and he was able to be a lot more present. He was there for the majority of the songs we cut, but there was still a lot of obligations where he had to go take off. He was still touring and playing shows, and then he’d sneak back in and we’d allocate a couple of days here and there for him to come sing and knock it out. We were still doing a remote process because it was in the middle of COVID, so we still we had our challenges.
This is the very first record that Morgan was able to sit beside me in the room from the very first beat to the very last beat, for every single vocal take, for every single part recorded, for every hour of me mixing every song. It was really cool to have him sit with me the whole time, and for us be able to develop a real shorthand communication as to what we thought about the songs, and have him weigh in on creative ideas and the directions. It’s just so much easier. It’s really stressful when you’re shifting the direction of the song by yourself and the artist isn’t there, and you’re like, “Okay, well, I hope he likes this.” But we didn’t have to do that this time. It just made it a lot more fun.
How do you wrap your head around releasing 36 songs on an album and how do you keep the quality up with every one?
My saying is, there’s only one way to eat an elephant, and that’s one bite at a time. It can get overwhelming with the amount of work you have to do, but I’ve got a pretty meticulous Excel spreadsheet where I can mark my progress and keep myself and my anxiety levels low. It allows us to create freely and have fun. But as long as you just have enough days to get it done, it’s not that bad. You just have to stay methodical and make sure you get your tasks done for the day, and eventually you’ll get to the end of it.
Once you get about a third of the way through, you do start to get overwhelmed at the amount of work you have to get done. And then once you get to that 50% point, you’re like, all right, we’ve got this many days left and it’s only taken us this much time to get here, and I’ve got Morgan for this much time. You start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
One of Morgan’s great abilities is he’s a prolific songwriter and he’s got a great group of very passionate collaborators that always spend a lot of time writing with him in mind, and would kickstart some ideas and bring them in. And then outside of that, you’ve got everybody in town who’s on the peripheral still writing, trying to get a song on the record. We had a lot of music coming our way.
It feels almost like a reversed approach. Many artists will release an album, and then release a deluxe version a few weeks later with a whole slew of new tracks to keep the momentum going. But for this album, it seems like you took a “here’s everything we’ve got” approach, and released it all at once.
Yes. And again, if it didn’t all show up upfront, we would probably choose the other method of like, “Here’s the first chunk and then here’s the next chunk and here’s the chunk after.” Usually, with the staggered release [approach], there are still songs coming in, or they’re still cutting songs and they’re adding to it. There’s a whole bunch of different circumstances which lead to artists doing that. It could be influenced by their touring schedule and how that aligns with their cycle. There’s a million ways it can happen, and a million different things that can affect why you release a certain way.
But just the sheer fact that Morgan is such a good writer and he’s got such a good camp of people around him that he collaborates with, we cut 42 [songs] and we peeled six songs off that are still great songs.
A lot of the beats on the album sound like they were influenced by hip-hop, like “180 (Lifestyle),” “I Wrote the Book,” “Cowgirls”).
You have to be careful and kind of selective as to what topic you’re saying over top of those [beats]. Thankfully, Morgan has got one of those universal voices where country is his main format, but he can sing on a trap beat like that and make that beat sound like a Morgan Wallen song. And he can sing on a real super-dry country-ass track, and that sounds like a Morgan Wallen song, too. I mean, we’ve got some old rock flavors on there as well, but his voice still brings that into his project. His voice is truly the glue to all those genre flavors that we add in there.
We’ve attempted that with some different voices before and landed flat on our face because some people are just only a country singer and that’s it. Or they’re just a pop singer and that’s it — they’re not multilingual, you know what I mean?
At this point, Morgan seems to be in a commercial league of his own, especially in the country space. His streaming totals are comparable to Taylor Swift and Drake. What is it about him and his music that you think resonates with people and makes him a pillar of the music industry right now?
He’s very honest. He’s very particular about what he says and how he says it. He’s just truly authentic, and I think we’re just in that era of authenticity where people really gravitate towards that. He comes across as kind of a normal small-town dude, and he makes sure that what he is saying is honest and that the fans can relate to what he’s saying. I could be wrong, but that’s my scientific theory on the whole situation.
Joey Moi’s Production Credits on the Latest March 25-Dated Hot Country Songs ChartRank, Artist Billing, Title (co-producers in addition to Joey Moi)No. 1, Morgan Wallen, “Last Night”No. 2, Morgan Wallen, “Thought You Should Know”No. 3, Morgan Wallen, “You Proof” (Charlie Handsome)No. 5, Morgan Wallen, “One Thing at a Time”No. 6, Morgan Wallen, “Thinkin’ Bout Me” (Charlie Handsome)No. 9, Morgan Wallen, “Everything I Love”No. 11, Morgan Wallen, “Ain’t That Some”No. 12, Morgan Wallen, “I Wrote the Book” (Jacob Durrett, Cameron Montgomery)No. 14, Morgan Wallen feat. Erich Church, “Man Made a Bar”No. 15, HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson, “Wait in the Truck” (HARDY, Derek Wells, Jordan M. Schmidt)No. 16, Morgan Wallen, ”’98 Braves”No. 17, Morgan Wallen, “Sunrise”No. 19, Morgan Wallen feat. ERNEST, “Cowgirls” (Jacob Durrett)No. 22, Morgan Wallen, “Whiskey Friends”No. 24, Morgan Wallen, “Devil Don’t Know”No. 26, Morgan Wallen, “Born With a Beer in My Hand”No. 27, Morgan Wallen, “Dying Man”No. 29, Morgan Wallen, “Tennessee Numbers”No. 30, Morgan Wallen, “Neon Star (Country Boy Lullaby)” (Jacob Durrett)No. 31, Morgan Wallen, “Tennessee Fan”No. 33, Morgan Wallen, “Hope That’s True”No. 34, Morgan Wallen, “Keith Whitley”No. 35, Morgan Wallen, “Me + All Your Reasons”No. 36, Morgan Wallen, “I Deserve a Drink”No. 38, Morgan Wallen feat. HARDY, “In the Bible”No. 39, Morgan Wallen, “Single Than She Was”No. 40, Morgan Wallen, “180 (Lifestyle)” (Jacob Durrett)No. 41, Morgan Wallen, “F150-50”No. 42, Morgan Wallen, “Wine Into Water”No. 43, Morgan Wallen, “Days That End in Why”No. 45, Morgan Wallen, “Good Girl Gone Missin’” (Charlie Handsome)No. 47, Morgan Wallen, “Last Drive Down Main”No. 48, Morgan Wallen, “Me to Me”No. 49, Morgan Wallen, “Outlook”
Dolly Parton is adding to her book collection, with the upcoming Oct. 17 release Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, an in-depth look at the country icon’s lifelong passion for style.
Parton collaborated on the book with author/journalist Holly George-Warren, with curation by Rebecca Seaver, Parton’s director of archive services. George-Warren has authored more than a dozen books, including the Janis Joplin biography, Janis: Her Life and Music.
“I am happy, proud and excited to present my book Behind the Seams to the public,” Parton said in a statement. “It is my hope that you will enjoy a look at my life in costume and hair and get to know some of the great people who have helped shape my life and my look. Enjoy!”
Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones offers a look at Parton’s private costume archive, with photographs highlighting many of her most iconic looks, beginning with the 1960s (Parton released her debut album, Hello, I’m Dolly, in 1967) and chronicling her style through present-day. The book spotlights her famous wigs, towering heels and sparkly stage clothes — including the bunny suit she wore on the cover of Playboy, attire worn at the storied Studio 54, and costumes from many of her film and television roles.
In true Parton style, the book is also filled with stories and plenty of humor, as she also discusses fashion that had an impact on her childhood and career, such as the clothes her mother would sew out of feed sacks (including her famous “Coat of Many Colors”). The book is the second in a trilogy that started with Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, which Parton wrote with esteemed author/journalist Robert K. Oermann.
Last year, Parton also teamed with author James Patterson on the fiction book Run Rose Run.
It’s like audio caffeine.
Repeated listens to Kassi Ashton’s new single, “Drive You out of My Mind,” can create the same effect as too much coffee: elevating heart rates, rhythmically overstimulating the brain and infusing a general sense of urgency, all in the best way. It’s a relentless piece of work, an intense ball of focused energy.
“It is,” Ashton agrees, “a speeding ticket waiting to happen.”
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It’s also the result of a concentrated period in which the singer-songwriter tried to satisfy MCA Nashville/Interscope executives by writing an obvious single. Her recordings to that point were cohesive and agreeable, but she still needed to crack the commercial code. They gave her two and a half months.“Panic ensues,” remembers Ashton. “I wrote six or seven days a week for 10 weeks trying to write singles, and I remember writing this one and going, ‘This is it. There’s no way that this is not.’ I remember being so excited and giddy because you feel released from the tension and the nerves trying to write to a specific spot.”
“Drive You out of My Mind” was composed across two appointments, the first taking place at the home studio of songwriter-producer Todd Clark, a New Zealand-born creative whose résumé spans both pop music (Dua Lipa, Gavin DeGraw) and country (Little Big Town, Tucker Beathard). Ashton arrived at that first session with a major piece of the musical foundation solved.
“I had almost the entire chorus melody,” Ashton says. “I think I had some sparse words about neon lights, you know, generic filler things. But I find sometimes the chorus melodies can be difficult for me. So when I had a whole melody, I was just so stoked.”
Songwriter Travis Wood, who has landed cuts with Jordan Davis and Jake Owen, contributed a title that fit the propulsive nature of her melody, though it took a bit to get there.
“We probably spent, Kassi and I, the first half of the day arguing about what to write,” recalls Wood. “Kassi and I are a little bit in opposition with each other creatively. But we also get along really well at the same time, so we were able to be very honest with each other about what we didn’t want to do. She’s a bit of a bulldozer. And I might be guilty of that sometimes.”
Wood had been carrying the title “Drive You out of My Mind” for two or three years, but he felt as if its word play — a twist on a common phrase, “You’re driving me out of my mind” — was out of step in many co-writes. It suited all three writers on this occasion, and they attacked the chorus first.
Clark placed it in a minor key and developed a descending chord progression. But where most repeating progressions in modern country use a four-chord pattern, this one covered six. Thus, when the chorus ran through that sequence twice, the section took a while to reach its finale.
“Part of the reason why the chorus is probably so long is because that chord progression is a long progression,” Clark says. “You felt like one round of the chorus wasn’t going to be enough.”
That also meant the verses would have to stay comparatively short. Spurred by her co-writers to name an uptempo country song by a female that influenced her in the last 10 years, Ashton mentioned the Miranda Lambert single “Mama’s Broken Heart.” They referenced it in the first verse and ended up creating a melodic structure with a similar vibe: a bouncy verse melody that contrasts with the straight-ahead flow of the chorus.
The text of “Drive” would include numerous images of a physical escape route experienced while trying to outrun a memory: a cloud of dust, “Chevy wild horses,” a ghost town, flashing blue lights and a “needle hittin’ 90.”
Ashton and Wood clashed particularly over the hook’s setup line, in which she contemplates what might happen if “this heart forgets to break.” They decided to keep it in place and readdress it in the second writing session. Wood ultimately agreed on their return that it was the right line.
“That’s the last line before the hook,” he says. “That’s generally the line that you spend the most time debating with any co-writer.”
Clark mapped out the demo, fitting it with indie-sounding guitars, then handing it off to producer Luke Laird (Kacey Musgraves, Sam Hunt). He cut the first master version of “Drive” on Feb. 26, 2021, at Nashville’s Sound Emporium, employing drummer Jerry Roe to insert some humanity into its tenacious percussion track alongside the rock guitar tones.
“It almost has like this disco feel,” says Laird, “but how do you do that and keep it not sounding just like an electronic drum track but bring the live thing? We were just, the whole time, trying to marry the two parts.”
Ashton was surprised when the label bypassed “Drive,” picking “Boys in Pickup Trucks” as her first radio-targeted single in 2021. But as she launched her radio promotion tour, programmers’ ears typically perked up when she played “Drive” acoustically. Their feedback validated her belief in it, and she had Clark take another crack at producing it. He called on guitarist Derek Wells to downplay the indie feel and imprint a hint of western sound with slide guitar parts. And Ashton, having grown more familiar with it, rerecorded her lead vocal, emphasizing different words and finding the most ideal places to breathe in those persistent choruses. She broke each chorus into smaller sections to accomplish that.
“She definitely leveled it up,” Clark says. “There’s just a different energy to it because it’s a lot of words. It’s a lot of fast singing, and you’re looking for moments in those vocals where you can put some juice into all the words. I think it definitely got better.”
The label “freaked out,” she says, over the most recent version and released it to country radio via PlayMPE on Feb. 23. Its caffeine-level energy, coupled with its inherent bite, gives “Drive” a lot of potential. “It’s got kind of that minory thing, but then it’s uptempo,” says Laird. “It’s kind of like when songs have a sad lyric, but it’s fun music. I like that juxtaposition. This song… it’s not sad, but it has that minor-y thing against the super-uptempo, which I think is just always a cool combo.”
Ashton believes “Drive You out of My Mind,” which she performed for Country Radio Seminar during a March 14 label showcase at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, will connect her with the audience more authentically than any of her previous releases.
“It’s not a new me,” she notes. “It’s the me that was under a bunch of shit that I had to dig up. It’s the me [from] where I started a long time ago, before I let trends or opinions [interfere]. And so that makes me really excited because that also makes it feel timeless.”
In the HBO Original documentary Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed, the multiple Grammy-winning artist strips down the recording process, but also reveals struggles outside of the studio.
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“When I have a hard day I can’t just go home and have a drink. There’s no escape for me,” says Isbell, who has been sober for a decade, in this first look at the film’s trailer.
The film, directed by Sam Jones, largely chronicles Isbell recording his 2020 album Reunions with his band, The 400 Unit, and takes its name from a song on the critically acclaimed set. The documentary, which debuts on HBO and streamer HBO Max on April 7, also shows Isbell, like many of us, figuring out how to navigate demons the pandemic lockdown conjures up.
Also weighing in is Isbell’s wife and frequent collaborator Amanda Shires, an acclaimed artist in her own right. “Most people don’t go to work with their wife,” states Isbell, as Shires gives him feedback on how to approach some of his material and he pushes back. “You’re fighting with all these voices inside your head,” she declares.
He also examines the creative process and, as he notes, “Once you write a song, your mind isn’t focused on creating, your mind is focused on re-creating. You can only create something once and if the tape’s not rolling, you’re just sh– out of luck.”
While focusing on the making of Reunions, the documentary also examines Isbell’s childhood in rural Alabama and his years with the Drive-By Truckers. In addition to Isbell and Shires, the film includes interviews with musicians Chad Gamble, Sadler Vaden, Jimbo Hart, Derry DeBorja and Patterson Hood; producer Dave Cobb; and manager Traci Thomas.
Jason Isbell
Courtesy of HBO Max
HBO Documentary Films made Running in association with Ringer Films, Duplass Brothers Productions and Beware Doll / GraySky. It is the latest installment of the Bill Simmons-created Music Box series, which focuses on pivotal moments in music.
The documentary’s release comes as Isbell and The 400 Unit prepare to release their latest album, Weathervanes, on June 9 via Southeastern Records/Thirty Tigers
Morgan Wallen notches a ninth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated March 25), holding as the top musical act in the United States thanks in large part to the second-week success of his new LP, One Thing at a Time.
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The 36-track album tallies a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with 259,000 equivalent album units earned March 10-16, according to Luminate, after opening with 501,000 units, the top weekly sum for a title this year. The set became Wallen’s second leader, following 2021’s 30-track Dangerous: The Double Album. The latter places at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 (43,000 units).
Contributing to Wallen’s Artist 100 rule are a whopping 28 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, the second-most ever in a single week. Last week, he sent a one-week record 36 songs onto the chart, with all entries in both weeks from One Thing at a Time. “Last Night” leads his 28 titles on the latest list at No. 2 after becoming his first No. 1 last week, followed in the top 10 by “Thought You Should Know” (No. 9) and “You Proof” (No. 10).
Wallen extends his record for the most weeks atop the Artist 100 among core country acts. Jason Aldean and Luke Combs follow with three weeks on top apiece. Taylor Swift leads all artists with 64 weeks spent at No. 1.
TWICE re-enters the Artist 100 at No. 2, thanks to the group’s new release Ready To Be. The set opens at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 153,000 units earned. It also starts at No. 1 on both Top Album Sales and World Albums.
Plus, Miley Cyrus jumps 8-3 on the Artist 100, reaching a new high since the chart’s 2014 launch, thanks to the opening week of her new album Endless Summer Vacation. The collection arrives at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 (119,000 units), while five of its tracks chart on the Hot 100: “Flowers” (No. 1 for a seventh week), “River” (No. 32), “Jaded” (No. 56), “Thousand Miles,” featuring Brandi Carlile (No. 68), and “Rose Colored Lenses” (No. 91).
The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
A week after Morgan Wallen broke the record for the most songs simultaneously charted on the Billboard Hot 100 – 36, on the survey dated March 18, marking the entirety of his new album, One Thing At a Time – he tallies 28 on the March 25 chart, the second-most ever in a single week.
Released March 3, the set launched as Wallen’s second No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, with the biggest week by equivalent album units for any album, among all genres, in 2023: 501,000 (through March 9), according to Luminate.
In its second week (March 10-16), the collection earned 259,000 units, down 48%, sparking its second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Wallen now boasts the two top weeks in terms of the most songs charted on the Hot 100 simultaneously. Below Wallen’s hauls of 36 and 28 entries, Drake totaled 27 on the July 14, 2018-dated chart and Taylor Swift logged 26 on the Nov. 27, 2021-dated list. As with Wallen a week earlier, Drake and Swift translated big Billboard 200 debuts into their hefty weeks on the Hot 100 in those frames: Drake thanks to Scorpion and Swift via Red (Taylor’s Version).
Most simultaneous entries on the #Hot100 in one week:36 songs, @MorganWallen, 3/18/202328, @MorganWallen, 3/25/202327, @Drake, 7/14/201826, @taylorswift13, 11/27/202125, @lilbaby4PF, 10/29/202224, @Drake, 7/21/1824, @Drake, 4/8/1723, #KanyeWest, 9/11/2122, @sanbenito,…— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) March 21, 2023
Here’s a recap of Wallen’s 28 tracks on the latest Hot 100, again, all from One Thing at a Time. “Last Night” repeats as his highest charting, a week after it became his first No. 1.
No. 2, “Last Night”
No. 9, “Thought You Should Know”
No. 10, “You Proof”
No. 17, “Thinkin’ Bout Me”
No. 20, “One Thing at a Time”
No. 29, “Everything I Love”
No. 31, “Ain’t That Some”
No. 33, “I Wrote the Book”
No. 41, “Man Made a Bar”
No. 48, “’98 Braves”
No. 49, “Sunrise”
No. 51, “Cowgirls” (feat. ERNEST)
No. 61, “Whiskey Friends”
No. 63, “Devil Don’t Know”
No. 67, “Born With a Beer in My Hand”
No. 70, “Dying Man”
No. 73, “Neon Star (Country Boy Lullaby)”
No. 74, “Tennessee Numbers”
No. 76, “Tennessee Fan”
No. 77, “Hope That’s True”
No. 80, “Keith Whitley”
No. 81, “Me + All Your Reasons”
No. 85, “I Deserve a Drink”
No. 88, “In the Bible” (feat. HARDY)
No. 90, “Single Than She Was”
No. 96, “180 (Lifestyle)”
No. 97, “F150-50”
No. 100, “Wine Into Water”
