Country
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The Tennessee Titans don’t appear on the NFL’s Sunday Night Football schedule for the entire 2024 season, though Nashville will still be well represented on the NBC telecast.
Not only is Middle Tennessee resident Carrie Underwood the voice and onscreen talent for the theme song, but the music for that high-profile opening — which has its season debut on Sept. 8 — is produced by Nashville’s Chris DeStefano (Chase Rice, Chris Young) using Music City musicians at the Soultrain Sound Studios (formerly Scruggs Sound) in the Berry Hill neighborhood.
It makes sense that the piece gets cut in Nashville — “Underwood, obviously, is one of the biggest determining factors,” SNF creative director Tripp Dixon says — though the recording’s origination in Music City is not particularly well known.
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NBC has, in fact, produced the theme in Nashville for well over a decade. It was already being cut at Starstruck on Music Row when Dixon began working on the theme in 2012, the last year that Faith Hill sang the iconic piece.
And DeStefano has become a key contributor as “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night,” adapted from Joan Jett‘s “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” undergoes an annual evolution within a narrow stylistic window. Its role is to energize home viewers for the last football game of the weekend; thus, a panoply of options is unavailable for the production. It’s a safe bet, for example, that SNF will never open with a slow jam.
“We really want to push that energy without going too far over the top,” DeStefano says.
“But,” he adds, “sometimes we need to go over the top.”
DeStefano landed the job initially because of his success as a songwriter. He’s penned several Underwood hits, including “Good Girl,” “Something in the Water” and “Somethin’ Bad,” a Miranda Lambert duet that emerged as the SNF theme for two years, beginning in 2016, after it was rewritten as “Oh, Sunday Night.” DeStefano was tapped to co-produce with Mark Bright (Underwood, Rascal Flatts), who had already been on the job for several years.
For one year, in 2018, NBC used “Game On” for the open before returning to “Waiting All Day.” Along the way, DeStefano became the sole producer, in part because of his multitude of skills. Co-writers have, for years, marveled at his ability to play multiple instruments and swiftly maneuver plug-in technology to create demos on the fly during sessions. As a one-man shop, he’s able to assist the NBC team in finding a new musical framework each year, develop the demo on his own, then oversee the production when the network executives descend on Nashville for the recordings each summer. It’s a foundational role in the ultimate SNF product.
“A lot of this process does start with the music,” Dixon says. ” ‘Waiting All Day’ has kind of been the bedrock of this piece since the beginning, but I think each one of these successive new arrangements has, in turn, influenced what we do visually. It starts with that musical discussion.”
Those first discussions, DeStefano says, took place last December, when the playoffs were still in flux and Nashvillians were grousing about the Titans’ decline. By January, he was already creating a core demo for the 2024 theme, playing — or programming — all the instruments and recording vocals that would later provide a guide for Underwood, who jointly approves the final creative direction of the package with NBC Sports.
This year, his production experience came into play as he suggested restructuring the theme. It has traditionally started with two verses after a short intro, but DeStefano suggested leading with the chorus, allowing some new dynamic changes. That move alters the peak energy points in the 90-second production, changing the placement of some of the strongest action onscreen.
In the end, artists who’ve played on numerous country hits — such as drummers Nir Z and Miles McPherson, guitarist Rob McNelley and bassist Tim Marks — have been tapped to turn DeStefano’s demos into the master SNF recording. DeStefano still plays a part or two, particularly any tweaks that are necessary in postproduction.
The actual recording session requires plenty of preparation. Underwood invariably gets the basic vocal performance — the “generic,” as the team calls it internally — in a short number of takes. But the generic is only a fail-safe. Sections of the theme are rewritten to reflect the teams or players who will take the field each week, and NBC preps a volume of potential options to cover every scenario. They might, for example, throw in a reference to quarterback Dak Prescott for a Dallas Cowboys game, but they also record one or more backup options in case he’s injured when game day arrives.
Complicating the process, the NFL uses flex scheduling beginning in October, meaning the Sunday-night game could change in 14 of the season’s 18 weeks. They compile options to cover every scenario, and Underwood sings through them all in one massive session.
“I actually couldn’t even tell you how many iterations of the matchups there are,” DeStefano says. “There’s a lot. It’s like three typed pages, so there’s quite a bit, but it goes so fast, just because we get into the zone. Carrie’s in the zone, and everybody’s locked in. We just crush it.”
As a result, they avoid any need for a midseason overdub — even if the game gets changed during a flex week and features two teams whose biggest stars are out for the season.
In every one of those versions, it’s the Nashville music team’s job to get the viewers excited.
“It’s got to still make people turn their heads,” DeStefano says. “If they’re at a bar and it’s loud, there’s still got to be that element of ‘Oh, wait. What’s happening? I got to watch this.’”
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The final nominees for the 58th annual CMA Awards were revealed Monday morning (Sept. 9), and this year’s nominations highlighted both established hitmakers, touring kingpins and those who have made initial surges in the genre over the past year, including Post Malone, The Red Clay Strays, Shaboozey and Zach Top.
Morgan Wallen leads this year’s nominees with seven nominations, followed by Cody Johnson and Chris Stapleton (five nominations each), while Post Malone and Lainey Wilson garnered four nominations apiece. Earning a trio of nominations each are Louis Bell, Luke Combs, Charlie Handsome, Hoskins, Jelly Roll, Megan Moroney and Kacey Musgraves.
This year, vying for the coveted entertainer of the year trophy are Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Stapleton, Wallen and reigning CMA entertainer of the year winner Wilson. Those nominated for album of the year are Musgraves (Deeper Well), Combs (Fathers & Sons), Stapleton (Higher), Johnson (Leather) and Jelly Roll (Whitsitt Chapel).
The eligibility period for the 2024 show is eligibility period is July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024. According to CMA rules, “singles, albums, music videos and qualified music products for the annual show must have been released or reached peak national prominence during the eligibility period.” The finalists were determined by eligible voting CMA members comprised of professionals within the country music industry
“The 58th Annual CMA Awards,” broadcasts live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena Wednesday, Nov. 20 (8:00 – 11:00 PM/EST) on ABC and next day on Hulu.
Below, we look at some of the largest snubs and surprises from Monday’s nominations.
Snub: Beyonce
Morgan Wallen is the leading nominee for the 2024 CMA Awards, as determined by eligible voting members of the Country Music Association. He received seven nods. Cody Johnson and Chris Stapleton follow with five nods each, while Post Malone and Lainey Wilson each nabbed four. Louis Bell, Luke Combs, Charlie Handsome, Hoskins, Jelly Roll, Megan Moroney and Kacey Musgraves each secured three nominations.
Wallen hasn’t won at the CMAs since he was crowned new artist of the year four years ago. Less than three months after that breakthrough moment, he was caught on video using a racial slur, an incident which almost certainly cost him some major awards.
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Stapleton received his eighth nod for entertainer of the year, an award he has yet to win. (He has amassed more nods without a win in that category than any other artist in CMA history.) Also nominated are Combs (his fifth nod in the category), Wallen (his third), Wilson (her second) and Jelly Roll (his first).
The eligibility period for the 2024 CMA Awards is July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. That means such high-profile albums as Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene, Wilson’s Whirlwind and Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion won’t be eligible until next year.
All five albums for album of the year reached the top five on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. The biggest surprise among them is Jelly Roll’s Whitsitt Chapel, which was released on June 2, 2023, nearly a month before the close of last year’s eligibility period. CMA explains “It is eligible because the majority of its consumption occurred in the [current] eligibility period,” a rule that was introduced last year and is now in its second year.
Starting Over is Stapleton’s fifth consecutive studio album to be nominated for album of the year – his entire solo discography to date. Fathers & Sons is Combs’ fourth consecutive album to receive a nomination in that category.
Beyoncé is conspicuous by her absence on the ballot. CMA voters seemed to agree with the superstar’s statement on Instagram back in March in which she confirmed the imminent release of Cowboy Carter: “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.” In that same Instagram post, Beyonce said: “This album has been over five years in the making. It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t.” That comment was widely seen as a reference to Beyoncé’s appearance with The Chicks (then Dixie Chicks) at the CMA Awards in November 2016, where they performed “Daddy Lessons,” a song from Bey’s Lemonade album.
Both of the top two Songs of the Summer on Billboard’s recently published all-genre seasonal recap – “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone featuring Wallen and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – are nominated for single of the year. (The No. 2 Song of the Summer for 2023, Luke Combs’ “Fast Car,” won the CMA award for single of the year last year.)
“I Had Some Help” and Johnson’s “Dirt Cheap” are each nominated for single, song and music video of the year. Stapleton’s “White Horse” is nominated for the first two of those awards, but it wasn’t nominated for music video of the year.
The nominees for new artist of the year are Moroney, Shaboozey, Nate Smith, Mitchell Tenpenny, Zach Top and Bailey Zimmerman. Moroney was also nominated in the category last year. Zimmerman was nominated two years ago. (CMA rules allow artists to be nominated in this category twice).
Shaboozey is the fifth Black artist to be nominated in this category (or the horizon award, as the award was known from its inception in 1981 through 2007). Music legend Ray Charles was nominated in 1985 when he made a country market breakthrough, followed by Darius Rucker (2009) and Jimmie Allen and Mickey Guyton (both 2021). Rucker and Allen both won.
Miranda Lambert failed to receive a nod for female vocalist of the year, breaking a 17-year streak of nominations in that category. Carly Pearce broke a three-year string of nods in that category. Midland wasn’t nominated for vocal group of the year, breaking a six-year streak. (The Red Clay Strays took that spot.) Carrie Underwood wasn’t nominated for entertainer of the year, breaking a five-year streak of nods in that category. (Jelly Roll took that spot.)
Musgraves got her CMA mojo back. She’s up for female vocalist of the year for the first time in five years. She’s also up for album of the year after failing to get a nod in that category for her previous album, Star-Crossed.
The nominations in two key categories – male vocalist of the year and vocal duo of the year – were exactly the same as last year.
Winners of the 58th Annual CMA Awards will be determined in a final round of voting by eligible voting CMA members. The third and final ballot will be emailed to CMA professional members on Tuesday, Oct. 1. Voting for the CMA Awards final ballot ends Tuesday, Oct. 29 (6:00 p.m. CT).
CMA Broadcast Awards winners will be determined by a final round of judging this month. Entries are judged by a panel of broadcast professionals, representing all market sizes and regions. The winners will be revealed in October and recipients will be honored at the CMA Awards.
The 58th Annual CMA Awards is set to broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 20 (8:00–11:00 p.m. ET) on ABC and next day on Hulu. The CMA has yet to announce the show’s host. Luke Bryan has hosted the last three years, the last two in tandem with Peyton Manning
The 58th Annual CMA Awards is a production of the Country Music Association. Robert Deaton is the executive producer, Alan Carter is the director and Jon Macks is the head writer.
Tickets go on sale on Friday Sept. 13th starting at 10:00 a.m. CT through Ticketmaster.
Here’s a full list of nominations for the 58th annual CMA Awards.
Entertainer of the year
Luke Combs
Jelly Roll
Chris Stapleton
Morgan Wallen
Lainey Wilson
Single of the year
Award goes to artist(s), producer(s) and mix engineer(s)
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Shaboozey; Producers: Sean Cook, Nevin Sastry; Mix Engineer: Raul Lopez
“Dirt Cheap” – Cody Johnson; Producer: Trent Willmon; Mix Engineer: Jack Clarke
“I Had Some Help” – Post Malone (Feat. Morgan Wallen); Producers: Louis Bell, Charlie Handsome, Hoskins; Mix Engineer: Ryan Gore
“Watermelon Moonshine” – Lainey Wilson; Producer: Jay Joyce; Mix Engineers: Jason Hall, Jay Joyce
“White Horse” – Chris Stapleton; Producers: Dave Cobb, Chris Stapleton, Morgane Stapleton; Mix Engineer: Vance Powell
Album of the year
Award goes to artist, producer(s) and mix engineer(s)
Deeper Well – Kacey Musgraves; Producers: Ian Fitchuk, Kacey Musgraves, Daniel Tashian; Mix Engineers: Shawn Everett, Konrad Snyder
Fathers & Sons – Luke Combs; Producers: Luke Combs, Chip Matthews, Jonathan Singleton; Mix Engineer: Chip Matthews
Higher – Chris Stapleton; Producers: Dave Cobb, Chris Stapleton, Morgane Stapleton; Mix Engineer: Vance Powell
Leather – Cody Johnson; Producer: Trent Willmon; Mix Engineer: Jack Clarke
Whitsitt Chapel – Jelly Roll; Producers: Andrew Baylis, Brock Berryhill, Zach Crowell, Jesse Frasure, David Garcia, Kevin “Thrasher” Gruft, Austin Nivarel, David Ray Stevens; Mix Engineers: Jeff Braun, Jim Cooley
Song of the year
Award goes to songwriter(s)
“Burn It Down”; Songwriters: Hillary Lindsey, Parker McCollum, Lori McKenna, Liz Rose
“Dirt Cheap”; Songwriter: Josh Phillips
“I Had Some Help”; Songwriters: Louis Bell, Ashley Gorley, Charlie Handsome, Hoskins, Austin Post, Ernest Keith Smith, Morgan Wallen, Chandler Paul Walters
“The Painter”; Songwriters: Benjy Davis, Kat Higgins, Ryan Larkins
“White Horse”; Songwriters: Chris Stapleton, Dan Wilson
Female vocalist of the year
Kelsea Ballerini
Ashley McBryde
Megan Moroney
Kacey Musgraves
Lainey Wilson
Male vocalist of the year
Luke Combs
Jelly Roll
Cody Johnson
Chris Stapleton
Morgan Wallen
Vocal group of the year
Lady A
Little Big Town
Old Dominion
The Red Clay Strays
Zac Brown Band
Vocal duo of the year
Brooks & Dunn
Brothers Osborne
Dan + Shay
Maddie & Tae
The War and Treaty
Musical event of the year
Award goes to artists and producer(s)
“Cowboys Cry Too” – Kelsea Ballerini (with Noah Kahan); Producers: Kelsea Ballerini, Alysa Vanderheym
“I Had Some Help” – Post Malone (Feat. Morgan Wallen); Producers: Louis Bell, Charlie Handsome, Hoskins
“I Remember Everything” – Zach Bryan (ft. Kacey Musgraves); Producer: Zach Bryan
“Man Made a Bar” – Morgan Wallen (feat. Eric Church); Producer: Joey Moi
“you look like you love me” – Ella Langley (feat. Riley Green); Producer: Will Bundy
Musician of the year
Tom Bukovac – Guitar
Jenee Fleenor – Fiddle
Paul Franklin – Steel Guitar
Rob McNelley – Guitar
Charlie Worsham – Guitar
Music video of the year
Award goes to artist(s) and director(s)
“Dirt Cheap” – Cody Johnson; Director: Dustin Haney
“I Had Some Help” – Post Malone (Feat. Morgan Wallen); Director: Chris Villa
“I’m Not Pretty” – Megan Moroney; Directors: Jeff Johnson, Megan Moroney
“The Painter” – Cody Johnson; Director: Dustin Haney
“Wildflowers and Wild Horses” – Lainey Wilson; Director: Patrick Tracy
New artist of the year
Megan Moroney
Shaboozey
Nate Smith
Mitchell Tenpenny
Zach Top
Bailey Zimmerman
Weekly national
“American Country Countdown” (Kix Brooks) – Cumulus/Westwood One
“Country Gold with Terri Clark” (Terri Clark) – Westwood One
“Crook & Chase Countdown” (Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase) – Jim Owens Entertainment
“Highway Hot 30 with Buzz Brainard” (Buzz Brainard) – SiriusXM
“Honky Tonkin’ with Tracy Lawrence” (Tracy Lawrence and Patrick Thomas) – Silverfish Media
Daily national
“The Bobby Bones Show” (Bobby Bones, Amy Brown, “Lunchbox” Dan Chappell, Eddie Garcia, Morgan Huelsman, “SZN Raymundo” Ray Slater, “Mike D” Rodriguez, Abby Anderson, “Kick Off Kevin” O’Connell, and Stephen “Scuba Steve” Spradlin) – iHeartMedia
“Michael J On Air” (Michael J. Stuehler) – iHeartMedia
“Nights with Elaina” (Elaina Smith) – Westwood One / Cumulus Media
“PickleJar Up All Night with Patrick Thomas” (Patrick Thomas) – PickleJar / Cumulus Media
“Steve Harmon Show” (Steve Harmon) – Westwood One / Cumulus Media
Major market
“The Andie Summers Show” (Andie Summers, Jeff Kurkjian, Donnie Black, and Shannon Boyle) – WXTU, Philadelphia, Pa.
“Chris Carr & Company” (Chris Carr, Kia Becht, and Sam Sansevere) – KEEY, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
“Frito & Katy” (Tucker “Frito” Young and Katy Dempsey) – KCYY, San Antonio, Texas
“The Morning Wolfpack with Matt McAllister” (Matt McAllister, Gabe Mercer, and “Captain Ron” Koons) – KKWF, Seattle, Wash.
“The Most Fun Afternoons With Scotty Kay” (Scotty Kay) – WUSN, Chicago, Ill.
Large market
“Dale Carter Morning Show” (Dale Carter) – KFKF, Kansas City, Mo.
“Heather Froglear” (Heather Froglear) – KFRG, Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.
“Jesse & Anna” (Jesse Tack and Anna Marie) – WUBE, Cincinnati, Ohio
“Mike & Amanda” (Mike Wheless and Amanda Daughtry) – WQDR, Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
“On-Air with Anthony” (Anthony Donatelli) – KFRG, Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.
Medium market
“Brent Michaels” (Brent Michaels) – KUZZ, Bakersfield, Calif.
“Joey & Nancy” (Joey Tack, Nancy Barger, and Karly Duggan) – WIVK, Knoxville, Tenn.
“New Country Mornings with Nancy and Woody” (Nancy Wilson and Aaron “Woody” Woods) – WHKO, Dayton, Ohio
“Scott and Sarah in the Morning” (Scott Wynn and Sarah Kay) – WQMX, Akron, Ohio
“Steve & Gina In The Morning” (Steve Lundy and Gina Melton) – KXKT, Omaha-Council Bluffs, Neb.-Iowa
Small market
“Dan Austin Show” (Dan Austin) – WQHK, Fort Wayne, Ind.
“Dave and Jenn” (Dave Roberts and Jenn Seay) – WTCR, Huntington-Ashland, W. Va.
“The Eddie Foxx Show” (Eddie Foxx and Amanda Foxx) – WKSF, Asheville, N.C.
“Hilley & Hart” (Kevin Hilley and Erin Hart) – KATI, Columbia, Mo.
“Officer Don & DeAnn” (“Officer Don” Evans and DeAnn Stephens) – WBUL, Lexington-Fayette, Ky.
Major market
KCYY – San Antonio, Texas
KKBQ – Houston, Texas
KYGO – Denver, Colo.
WXTU – Philadelphia, Pa.
WYCD – Detroit, Mich.
Large market
WIRK – West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Fla.
WMIL – Milwaukee-Racine, Wis.
WQDR – Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
WSIX – Nashville, Tenn.
WWKA – Orlando, Fla.
Medium market
KXKT – Omaha-Council Bluffs, Neb.-Iowa
WBEE – Rochester, N.Y.
WIVK – Knoxville, Tenn.
WLFP – Memphis, Tenn.
WUSY – Chattanooga, Tenn.
Small market
WCOW – La Crosse, Wis.
WKML – Fayetteville, N.C.
WKXC – Augusta, Ga.
WXFL – Florence-Muscle Shoals, Ala.
WYCT – Pensacola, Fla.
Dierks Bentley held court at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, calling the 20,000-seat venue “the biggest honky tonk on Lower Broadway.” He should know—he’s played many of Nashville’s tiny clubs early in his career, perhaps most notably the iconic bluegrass room The Station Inn, cultivating his mix of country, rock and bluegrass-tinged music, before breaking through with his 2003 debut single “What Was I Thinkin’.”
His comparison with Lower Broadway’s ever-growing slate of honky-tonks (including his own Whiskey Row, which opened in 2018) was apt, as the evening was filled with many of the hallmarks of any number of club-sized venues dotting downtown Nashville, including guest artists dropping by, ‘90s cover songs aplenty and even some karaoke moments.
Two decades into his career, Bentley has earned 18 Billboard Country Airplay No. 1s and 15 Grammy nominations. Veering along country music’s sonic sweep of sounds, encompassing rock, ‘90s and 2000s country and rock, and bluegrass, Bentley offered hits including “I Hold On,” “A Lot of Leavin’ Left to Do,” “5150,” “What Was I Thinkin’,” “Black,” and “Livin’.”
“My hope for the show is that you find a moment where you feel like you’re living,” Bentley told the crowd.
He’s also forged a concert style that blends hits, a genuine onstage ebullience that easily outpaces many of today’s newcomers, and intentional audience engagement (such as bringing one fan onstage for a beer-chugging challenge and offering another fan a karaoke moment). Bentley’s crack band, including Charlie Worsham, Ben Helson, Tim Sergent, Steve Misamore, and Cassady Feasby, provide a perfect foil for Bentley, not only musically, but they easily match his often goofball humor, such as their humorous, hockey-themed band intro video and when Bentley repeatedly jumped in front of bandmate Worsham during Worsham’s take on Garth Brooks’ “Callin’ Baton Rouge.”
The wide range of music in Bentley’s show–gobs of ’90s country covers, Bentley’s own two decades of 2000s hits and music from many of today’s buzziest newcomers–chronicled the evolution of country music’s soundscape.
Opening for Bentley was Bluegrass/Americana newcomer Bella White, who offered up songs from her album Among Other Things, including songs about fizzled relationships (“Break My Heart”) and dirtbag men (“Marilyn”), as well as a sterling version of Lucinda Williams’ “Concrete and Barbed Wire.,” which drew devoted applause from the concert’s early arrivals.
Meanwhile, fellow opener Chase Rice offered up a set filled with personal meaning for the singer-songwriter. The acoustic guitar he played was one his father had given him when Rice first started learning music. Noting that his father died two years after he was given the guitar, he honored his father’s memory by performing one of the first songs he played for his dad, John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Rice was first known as a songwriter, contributing to the Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise,” before he notched his own pop-country hits including “Ready Set Roll” and “Eyes on You.” He included all of those in his Bridgestone set, but best highlighting his talents were his newer songs, such as “Haw River,” that will be on his new album Goin’ Down Singin’ (out Sept. 20), showcasing his more roots-leaning, rawer sound and matured songwriting.
In his own set, Bentley welcomed The Red Clay Strays lead singer Brandon Coleman, as well as country singer-songwriter Zach Top.
Here, we look at 5 top moments:
Dierks Bentley’s Decade-Old Hit Still Resonates
Waylon Wyatt recently had a pretty good excuse for missing school: the 17-year old was on the road with Dwight Yoakam. “Just last week, I couldn’t make it to school on Thursday and Friday, because I was opening for Dwight. You know how crazy that seems?” the high school senior asks.
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But Wyatt (whose full name is Waylon Wyatt Potter) is getting used to crazy moments since he began writing songs two years ago, influenced by alt-country artists such as Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan. The Hackett, Arkansas native has broken through thanks to songs including “Everything Under the Sun” (a song he says was inspired by “watching sunsets over a lake in my hometown”) and “Arkansas Diamond,” which lie at the intersection of folk, country and rock. “Arkansas Diamond” has earned more than 24 million Spotify streams, while “Everything Under the Sun” has reached over 12 million streams on the platform.
Today (Sept. 6), he and fellow newcomer (and “Maxed Out” singer) Bayker Blankenship have teamed up for the churning, heartland rock of “Jailbreak.”
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“I found him on social media after he covered a song of mine, ‘Arkansas Diamond,’ and we reached out to each other,” Wyatt tells Billboard over Zoom. “We became friends and now we have a song we created and recorded together. It’s pretty wild.”
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In August 2023, Wyatt signed a deal with Music Soup and Darkroom Records. Darkroom’s roster includes nine-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish, “Feel It” performer D4vd and DJ/music producer John Summit, with Wyatt becoming the label’s first country/Americana artist. “I found that more unique about [signing with Darkroom Records] was they don’t have [a country/Americana artist], so maybe I could give it to them,” he says.
He is quick to credit Darkroom’s unconventional method of reaching out to him during several other labels also expressing interest. “I worked for my dad’s construction business and in one of my TikTok videos, I was wearing the company’s hat. Darkroom DM’d me, but also called my dad’s business, got ahold of his secretary, and then scheduled a Zoom meeting,” Wyatt recalls. “It all kind of kicked off from there.”
In addition to artists such as Bryan and Childers, Wyatt counts some of his biggest influences as pioneering country artists popular way before he was born, including Waylon Jennings, Don Williams and Hank Williams, Sr. “I actually prefer [the music of] Hank Williams, Sr. over Hank Williams Jr. — I might get hate off that, I don’t know,” he says.
Though he sounds surefooted in his blend of rugged acoustic country/rock, Wyatt says he’s dabbled in different sounds.
“I’ve wanted to do all kinds of singing since I was 12 or so. I had my little rap phase where I was big on Eminem — the first song I probably ever learned by him was ‘Lose Yourself,’” he explains. “I actually wrote some raps, too; I wouldn’t say they were the best, but it was trial and error. But just all these years of finding myself musically, it’s been great.”
He followed his breakthrough songs in July with the seven-song, acoustic-driven EP Til The Sun Goes Down, a project he wrote and recorded on his own (the project was released via Music Soup/Darkroom). The lo-fi effort features his gritty voice backed by only an acoustic guitar, with songs including “Back to Then,” “Arkansas Diamond,” “Phoning Heaven” and “Riches to Rags.”
“There was no overproduction or anything on these songs,” Wyatt says. “I didn’t imagine it being a bigger body of work, but as I progressed through ’em, I was like, ‘All these songs that I wrote so far, they could run together.’ They’re all based out of the same stuff. All of them are very relatable pieces of work.”
Wyatt’s hometown of Hackett has just 800 people, making for a close-knit community, including his schoolmates, who are proud of his career breakthrough. “A lot of them don’t know how to process it because I’ve grown up with them and it’s a small school. My hometown is small, so I know pretty much every face around here. But they’ve been so supportive,” he says.
Wyatt, who is booked by Wasserman, is set to perform during AmericanaFest this year, before making his Stagecoach Festival debut in 2025. But he’s also balancing music with completing his senior year of high school. “My parents never did go to college or anything,” he says, “but they are big on [my] finishing the school year out.”
Ahead, he says he would love to release another project, one that “would probably include a little more production than just guitar. And more fiddle, because I love hearing fiddle.”
Last spring, while working with Post Malone on his upcoming country album, the hired studio songwriters took a break. Malone started noodling on guitar. “He’d be playing, like, old B-sides, Toby Keith songs, that nobody knew,” recalls Chase McGill, a Nashville veteran who has written songs for Morgan Wallen, Kenny Chesney and many others. “But he knew everything.”
When Malone’s F-1 Trillion came out in late August, the pop and hip-hop star had an advantage that previous country crossover hopefuls have lacked. He plunged into the country-music business, and into Nashville, working with respected local songwriters (like McGill, Taylor Phillips and James McNair), gigging at key local clubs (Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and the Bluebird Cafe), collaborating with veterans (he performed with Dwight Yoakam on SiriusXM) and recording duets with other stars (Hank Williams Jr., Dolly Parton, Blake Shelton, Luke Combs and Wallen are on the album).
“That’s the difference when somebody brushes up against the genre vs. someone who immersed themselves into the genre,” says Randy Chase, programming executive vp for Summit Media, the Birmingham, Ala., broadcaster that owns nine country stations. “When people try to cross into country from other genres, a lot of times it’s on their terms, and they want to put their foot into the pool. He went all in, even with the risk that it could hurt him down the road.” Adds Tom Poleman, chief programming officer for top broadcast chain iHeartMedia: “He understands country music. It’s not like he’s just trying to learn how to be a country artist overnight.”
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Post’s duet with Wallen, “I Had Some Help,” debuted at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs and the Hot 100 in late May, scoring 76.4 million streams and, earlier this week, topped Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart.
Adding “I Had Some Help” to heavy rotation was “a no-brainer,” says Steve Stewart, Cox Media Group’s director of country content. “Morgan continues to be one of the hottest artists on the planet, so that immediately gave us the green light.” Similarly, Summit’s country stations played “I Had Some Help” twice an hour throughout its debut day, then once an hour the next day and repeatedly through the weekend. “I heard the song about two weeks before it came out,” adds Summit’s Chase. “I said, ‘This is a country record that is also going to go pop.’”
Last week, F-1 Trillion landed atop the Billboard 200, Post’s first No. 1 since his pop album Hollywood’s Bleeding in 2019. (The new album also hit No. 1 on Top Country Albums in its debut week.) “There are legitimately 15-plus songs that could be radio singles,” says Scott Donato, program director and operations manager for WGTY, a country station in York, Penn. “It reminds me of late-’90s, early-2000s country. He’s been able to capture every corner of the format.”
Before Post Malone became famous as a hip-hop artist with 2015’s “White Iverson,” he performed at a Dallas-area Italian restaurant where he worked during high school, and later covered songs by Hank Williams and Bob Dylan in videos he posted online. He became an established star who could fill U.S. arenas, then began transitioning to country around 2018.
The marketing teams at Big Loud Records and major label Mercury/Republic Records, already working together on Wallen’s releases, soon began brainstorming Post Malone marketing plans from the conference room at Big Loud headquarters in Nashville. (The two labels are teaming up on radio promotion – Big Loud for country, Mercury for Top 40 and other formats.) “Post ingratiated himself within the creative community — opened up to writers, collaborators and session musicians — that were the throughline of this campaign,” says Patch Culbertson, executive vp and general manager of Big Loud, adding that his company helped make introductions to Parton, Shelton, Williams and others. “They had a great vision from the beginning.”
Big Loud execs persuaded Mercury’s team to start the album’s campaign earlier than planned, so it could set up a splashy CMA Fest appearance, in which Post and Shelton performed “Pour Me a Drink.” “He got the hit on TV, which is a whole different demo from what he was used to serving,” says Candice Watkins, Big Loud’s senior vp of marketing. “He got to meet the industry.”
In April, Post performed at the Stagecoach Festival, where Jordan Pettit, the Grand Ole Opry’s director of artist relations and programming, was in attendance. Pettis later spoke to Alex Coslov, executive vp of Mercury Records, and “there was immediate interest on their behalf to pursue his Opry debut as part of their launch plan,” Pettit recalls.
Post performed at the Opry for the first time in mid-August. “It began to take on the feel that this was not just a pop artist leaning into country music for a moment in time,” Pettit says. Coslov added to Billboard: “Our core strategy was built around showcasing the authenticity of Post’s entry into country music by highlighting his time in Nashville.”
Several country programmers say Post is the type of artist who will be able to toggle between genres, depending on his musical impulses, and may not be absent from Top 40 and hip-hop radio playlists for long after F-1 Trillion. (His first three albums combined for 11 billion to 12 billion on-demand streams apiece, according to Luminate, but he dipped on 2022’s Twelve Carat Toothache, with just 1.88 billion streams.) “This is a guy who went, ‘This is my art, here it is,’” says Tim Roberts, vp of programming and format captain for radio chain Audacy. “Could he make a whole pop album next year? Absolutely.” Post’s tour begins this Sunday in Salt Lake City, and “it really is all country-based,” according to Big Loud’s Watkins, although she expects pop hits, too.
So far, Post’s pop-to-country transition has far surpassed similar moves by Sheryl Crow, Jessica Simpson, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, or even Beyoncé, whose Cowboy Carter album was a culture-dominating hit earlier this year, but did not stick to country radio formats. “The Beyoncé songs weren’t great country songs; they were great Beyoncé songs,” says Nate Deaton, general manager of online country station KRTY.com in San Jose. “The Sheryl Crow country record was really good, but it didn’t have any hits on it — it didn’t have ‘Pour Me a Drink.’ It didn’t have one of those songs that was a standout runaway smash.’”
Deaton calls Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker’s debut country album, 2008’s Learn to Live, a more apt comparison: “He did the exact same thing that Post Malone did. He went to Nashville and ingratiated himself with Nashville songwriters. Darius got on a bus and went to all these radio stations, even though he was a big star.” For Post Malone, Deaton adds, “It would not surprise me at all to see an ongoing country career, a la Darius.”
The devil, or demons, have been referenced in a string of current and recent singles, including Jelly Roll’s “Halfway to Hell” and “I Am Not Okay,” Tyler Braden’s “Devil I Know,” Ashley McBryde’s “The Devil You Know” and Jackson Dean’s “Heavens to Betsy.” Mitchell Tenpenny’s “Demon or Ghost,” recorded with metal band Underoath, was released Aug. 9; Lee DeWyze issued “Devil in the Details” on Aug. 2; Stephen Wilson Jr.’s “The Devil” is the opening track on his debut project, Son of Dad; and Lainey Wilson’s just-released Whirlwind slips in “Devil Don’t Go There.”
A new Jon Pardi single – “Friday Night Heartbreaker,” released today (Sept. 6) – casts a stunning woman as a Medusa-like “hell raiser” and a “devil in disguise.”
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It’s not like it’s an entirely new subject — The Louvin Brothers’ “Satan Is Real” ranks among classic country’s deepest discussions of the dark angel and his role in humanity — but the current volume of devil themes, and the weight of the songs they appear in, seems significant.
“We see more people confessing what they’re really feeling and being a little more open and honest,” says songwriter Ashley Gorley, who co-wrote “I Am Not Okay,” which references “the devil on my back and voices in my head.” “I think the devil is real, so I think it’s showing up in people’s writing.”
One obvious source for the topic lies in the pandemic. When COVID-19 forced creatives off the stage and into their houses, they had plenty of time for self-examination, questioning who they were, why they had made certain life choices and the meaning of the world around them.
“It’s very easy to look at the past few years and recall moments of dark, and I think that with the darkness comes the imagery,” DeWyze notes. “As far as the devil being in music now, it’s almost like it represents those things, whether it be the faith and redemption or the existential struggle, or, you know, a physical being literally at your door.”
Historically, the devil has represented temptation in country music. Marty Robbins’ “Devil Woman,” Alan Jackson’s “Between the Devil and Me,” Joe Nichols’ “Brokenheartsville” (in which “the devil drives a Coupe de Ville”) and Terri Gibbs’ “Somebody’s Knockin’ ” (depicting him with “blue eyes and blue jeans”) all place Satan in the equation as its characters grapple with sexual tension and betrayal.
“The devil is always, I hate saying it, but an interesting character to me,” confesses Academy of Country Music songwriter of the year Jessie Jo Dillon, who co-wrote “Halfway to Hell” and “Friday Night Heartbreaker.”
“It’s like this tempter or temptress always.”
The ultimate temptation comes when the devil persuades a victim to sell their soul for a short-term outcome. That’s at work in the movie Damn Yankees when a Washington Senators fan plots to bring down the New York baseball team. It’s at the heart of the legend behind blues icon Robert Johnson. And it’s the storyline in the The Charlie Daniels Band’sLuciferian country tale, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
“It personifies the duality of dark and light, and the feeling of struggling with those demons,” Jelly Roll notes.
“My favorite devil song by far is ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia,’” Pardi adds, “because the guy won. He won the fight.”
Beyond that song’s surface entertainment, though, is a much deeper concept that hints at the never-changing struggle between right and wrong. Cheaters and criminals, in general, earn their reputations by stealing short-term gain while ignoring potential long-term consequences. It’s a battle that plays out daily in politics, in finance, in barroom pickup lines and even in artistic decisions.
“My favorite songwriter ever, Bobby Braddock, told me, ‘Mitchell, are you writing music for a lunchtime or a lifetime?’ ” Tenpenny recalls. “I think there’s a lot of lunchtime music right now, and we need that lifetime music again. Can we make a quick buck to this? Yes, but it’s going to kill so many souls, and that’s where the devil gets involved, in my opinion, and why we keep using him as a metaphor.”
Musical trends in country have made it easier to chase the devil thematically. HARDY, Jelly Roll and Tenpenny are among the artists who have employed hard rock in varying degrees within country. Acts in that format have often toyed with Satanic imagery in songs, stage wear and graphics, and the infusion of power chords and death screams into country practically requires the devil to tag along.
“As far as the look and aesthetics, the devil and demons have always been in the rock’n’roll scene,” Tenpenny maintains. “T-shirts and metal, skeletons, skulls, that kind of thing has always been a part of it. I think that that definitely has an influence.”
But another musical development that may have paved the way for Satan’s ascent in country might well be Eric Church. Particularly notable is his track “Devil Devil” from The Outsiders, with a spoken-word “Princess of Darkness” prelude that links Music Row to hell: “The devil walks among us, folks, and Nashville is his bride.” Church even employed a 40-foot inflatable devil on his 2015 tour, nicknaming the blow-up doll “Lucy Fur.”
Church’s road guitarist Driver Williams co-wrote Dean’s “Heavens to Betsy,” alluding to demons in the opening verse and expressing surprise in the chorus that St. Peter would “ever let a sinner like me in” to heaven. That latter phrase is a direct homage to Church’s debut album, Sinners Like Me.
“Eric has a theme of good versus evil that kind of goes throughout his writing,” Williams observes. “I just can’t help it if that rubs off on me in the writing room a little bit just because I do look up to him so much as a songwriter.
“You look at all the major superstars right now, from Luke [Combs] to Morgan [Wallen] to Thomas Rhett, their idol is Eric — Jelly Roll, too. So I definitely see Eric’s handiwork rubbing off on all of these major superstars that are having moments right now.”
Satan, it turns out, may contribute to artists’ successes when he appears because he offers so much possibility for the protagonist.
“You immediately become the hero in the story,” DeWyze says, “when the devil is placed in it.”
Ultimately, the devil is having his moment because the world seems so tough. The pandemic may be behind us, but years of political turmoil and cultural negativity that predated COVID-19 still drag down the national conversation. That most certainly plays in the background as the devil takes the spotlight.
“Country music looks at that and it tries to give a positive at the end,” Pardi suggests. “We may be singing about darker times, but there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel in country music.”
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For anyone out there who still thinks Post Malone‘s boot scoot into country is just a lark, check out “I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Boom Boom).” The western swinging tune is the first new single from county icon Dwight Yoakam in nine years and, of course, he has country music’s current brightest light on it.
“I don’t know how we lost our way/ I don’t know where these two hearts both went astray,” Malone croons over the song’s shuffling guitars and pedal steel arrangement. The two men trade vocals on the country waltz’s catchy chorus, singing, “Bang, bang, boom, boom/ There’s nothing left here now but sadness/ Bang, bang, boom, boom/ And the emptiness of all that’s gone/ Bang, bang, boom, boom/ No sounds but just sorrow and madness/ And bang, bang, boom, boom/ It’s how a broken heart beats on.” The song will appear on Yoakam’s upcoming album, Brighter Days (Nov. 15), the follow-up to 2016’s Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars…
According to a release on Friday (Sept. 6) announcing Yoakam’s album, the singer intentionally wrote “I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye” as a duet with Malone for the LP that features 12 new songs written or co-written by Yoakam; the collection also features two covers, the Carter Family’s staple “Keeping on the Sunny Side” and Cake’s “Bound Away.” Malone is the only guest vocalist on the album that features the originals “Wide Open Heart,” “I’ll Pay the Price,” “California Sky,” “If Only,” “Time Between” and “Every Night,” among others.
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Malone sounds perfectly comfortable alongside his old pal Yoakam, who he’s collaborated with and covered several times over the past few years. Back in 2018, Posty popped up on Yoakam’s Bakersfield Beat SiriusXM channel when they teamed up on the host’s 1993 single “A Thousand Miles From Nowhere,” as well as a cover of Merle Haggard’s “The Bottle Let Me Down,” and earlier this year at the Stagecoach Festival Malone dueted with Dwight on the country icon’s “Little Ways.” In July, Posty jumped on stage at Yoakam’s show at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles to duet on a number of songs, including “Little Things” again, as well as Yoakam’s signature tune “Guitars and Cadillacs,” “Fast As You” and “It Won’t Hurt.”
According to a recent TMZ TikTok, the pair were spotted riding horses on the streets of Hollywood while wearing glittering Western suits during what appeared to be the video shoot for the new song’s video.
Malone is currently riding high with his debut full-length solo album, F-1 Trillion, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and the Top Country Albums chart, as well as topping the Top Streaming Albums and Top Album Sales charts. The collection features Malone singing duets with a galaxy of country stars, including Hank Williams Jr., Tim McGraw, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley, Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll, Luke Combs, Chris Stapleton, HARDY and Morgan Wallen.
Listen to Malone and Yoakam on “I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Boom Boom)” below.
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Jason Aldean defended wife Brittany Aldean’s stance on gender-affirming care for transgender youth and his thoughts on Donald Trump during an on The Tucker Carlson Show Sept. 4.
The former Fox News host brought up Brittany’s previous comments calling gender-affirming care for transgender youth “genital mutilation” in a social media post in 2022, which garnered backlash from artists including Maren Morris and Cassadee Pope.
“My wife is very outspoken and she’s very firm in her beliefs,” Aldean said, noting that the couple share a 5- and 6-year-old, and that he also has a 21- and 17-year-old. “We were talking about it earlier, you’re trying to make things normal to me that aren’t normal. And, I think when she said that, it’s just like there’s a certain — I feel there are people that are going to take offense to everything these days, no matter what you say. [Brittany] said that and people jumped all over that, but I mean, I agree with her.
“If you want to be trans or do those kinds of things, if you’re an adult and can make those decisions and you’re old enough to have the mentality to know what you’re doing and know what that looks like for the rest of your life, that’s one thing,” he continued. “If you’re, as a kid, your parents are already instilling that in you and, like, all this stuff and allowing you to do those things before you are of age … you can’t even vote until you’re 18. Why should you be able to do that? Or [you can’t] drink a beer until you’re 21, but you can change your … it’s just weird to me. I think if somebody wants to do that and they’re old enough to make that decision, hey, it doesn’t affect my life, whatever. But you can’t try to make that normal to everybody.”
Aldean later added, “I got to send my kid to school and we’re talking about, like, the transgender stuff and like, ‘What do I do if he comes home and is, like, ‘Man, there’s a girl in my class that’s a boy.’ That’s hard to explain to a 5- or 6-year-old. I don’t want to have to explain those kinds of things to a 5-year-old who doesn’t get it … it’s those kinds of things that made me kind of step up [politically] a little bit more.”
The Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health do not recommend gender-affirming surgery for anyone under 18, and medical experts who provide this type of care previously told Billboard that underage patients are not allowed to make such life-changing decisions by themselves.
“Prior to any gender-affirming medical or surgical intervention, all minors must have an intake with a knowledgeable mental health provider internal to our system,” Dr. Joshua D. Safer told Billboard in 2022, after Brittany made her initial statements. “Once deemed ready for a medical/surgical intervention, the processes we have for adults are then brought into play.”
Elsewhere during the chat with Carlson, the country artist discussed the upcoming election, as well as his friendship with Trump.
“I love Trump, man,” Aldean said, and recounted how he got to know the twice-impeached former president. “I did think it was cool that here’s this guy that is really not a politician, and at the time you had, all the A-list stars were going, ‘Oh, Trump’s running for president.’ They were all excited, almost kind of like it was a joke a little bit. And then, he won, and I don’t think anybody thought he would win. And for the next eight years, it’s been nothing but trying to just, like, slander this guy and just all the stuff you watch him deal with in the media.”
The musician also shared how he had been invited to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence, where they played golf and generally “hit it off.” Added Aldean, “I kept in touch with him over the past few years, and try to see him when I can.”
The country artist, who sat next to Trump during the Republican National Convention, said that he “had no intentions of getting political — it just kind of happened.” He noted that having young children inspired him and his wife to pay more attention to politics. “My thing is, I don’t vote for the person,” he shared. “Like, as much as people may say that’s a lie or whatever, for me it’s like, ‘Which of these groups is going to take the country in a direction that I feel like it should be taken for my family, my kids and their future and those kind of things and to me, that’s what I base it on. I feel like personally, for me, that’s him.”
As for whether Trump will win, Aldean said he hoped so, but he thought the business mogul — who was convicted of 34 charges of falsifying business records in May — was going to win in 2020 as well. “I’m obviously a supporter of Trump. Do I think he can be brash sometimes and say some things that he could probably have a bit better of a bedside manner? Sure,” he admitted. “At the end of the day, I don’t really care if he hurts your feelings or not, as long as, like, as a country we’re moving in the right direction, the economy is great, there’s jobs for people. … One of the reasons I’m a supporter of his, I just like the direction I feel like he would take us.”
Watch Aldean’s full interview with Carlson below:
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With apologies to Boy George, Meghan Patrick can be considered a charter member of a small new club of punctuation punks, the Comma Chameleons.
Her debut single, “Golden Child,” purposely omits a comma from the title, disguising a twist in the song’s hook, “Everything that glitters ain’t golden, child.”
Patrick’s not the first to use that punctuation mark to make a clever switch in a song’s meaning. Craig Campbell’s “Family Man” emphasizes the singer’s priorities by answering a question with the simple phrase “Family, man.” Kacey Musgraves’ “Space Cowboy” injects new meaning into an old Steve Miller Band expression: “You can have your space, cowboy.”
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Patrick accomplishes some wordplay by implying there’s a comma in the song’s hook, but leaving it out of the title isn’t only an attempt at creating surprise. It’s also a method of underscoring the parent album’s theme.
“The biggest reason why we didn’t put the comma in was because it’s the title track to the record, and the record is just Golden Child,” she says. “The whole record is connected. It’s sequential, it’s meant to be listened to top to bottom, in order. This song kind of ties it all together.”
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Patrick had the album title and concept before she had the title track, which arrived thanks to a suggestion by a co-writer.
After attending the CMT Music Awards on April 7 in Austin, Patrick flew back to Nashville for a next-day writing appointment. Operating on two or three hours of sleep, she showed up at the home studio of co-writer Aaron Eshuis (“One Bad Habit,” “This Is It”), where they were to collaborate with Joey Hyde (“Later On,” “Made For You”). Naturally, she told them about the album she was working on, already titled Golden Child, based on the opening line of “Blood From a Stone.” Eshuis decided the album needed a song named “Golden Child.”
“Aaron is kind of the quiet shaman,” Hyde says. “He doesn’t speak a whole lot. I mean, when we’re together, I take a lot of oxygen out of the room. So when he does say something, everybody really shuts up and listens.”
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Hyde came up with the hook, “Everything that glitters ain’t golden, child,” and Patrick decided the song should represent a letter to her younger self. That angle helped them write the first line or two, but then they turned their efforts toward the chorus, where she compiled some sage advice, a bit like “Humble and Kind” at a faster tempo.
“The thing about writing songs where you’re sort of trying to impart wisdom or give advice, in some ways, you don’t want to ever come across too preachy or too judgy,” Patrick says. “It’s more just ‘Hey, this is what I’ve learned. This is how it goes.’ ”
The clincher, developed by Patrick, was a warning to “wear your diamonds on the inside.”
“The moral of the story is that a lot of things that I thought were the diamonds — the things that I was wanting and striving for within the industry, the people I thought I needed to hang out with, or the things I thought I needed to do — they weren’t that great,” she says. “You can win all you want in this industry, but what you have on the inside — your character and how you treat people — that should be the most valuable thing about you.”
They made a point of crafting “Golden Child” as her own personal statement. “So many of those lyrics were just spoken by her in the room,” Eshuis says. “We just tried to make them rhyme.”
Hyde addressed it musically with a chord progression that invites the listener to lean forward. The opening seconds begin with a minor chord, infusing the piece with a darker texture. The chorus would start with a five chord — a brighter triad that still needs to resolve.
“We never fully give the big breath of relief at any point in this song,” Hyde says. “From a music standpoint, we keep the hooks coming at you so it’s familiar and comfortable, but we don’t let you get off the edge of the cliff.”
They closed shop after nailing the chorus and first verse, then reassembled the next day, April 9, determined to bring “Golden Child” to the finish line. Where the first verse had focused on the younger girl who was to receive the letter from her older self, the second verse highlighted several challenges she could expect to face, offering solutions for each.
Eshuis and Hyde were determined to build a demo that would provide a strong guide for the final production, though since they had produced some of her earlier material, they had an idea that the day’s recording might prove to be the master. “We didn’t know,” Hyde says, “but we knew.”
As they shifted into production, they adjusted the underlying rhythm for “Golden Child.” They had written it as a shuffle, but to toughen it up, they gave it more drive — “kind of a Tom Petty groove,” Eshuis says.After the guys laid down some acoustic guitar parts, Patrick tackled the vocal informally in the center of the studio.
“I do have a vocal booth, but we didn’t use it,” Eshuis says. “She was singing on a Telefunken U47 in the middle of my writing room, and all three of us had headphones on, just looking at each other while she’s singing, which is how I do almost all my vocals now. It just makes it easy for communication.”
She anticipated coming back at a later date to deliver a more suitable vocal when she was better rested, though it was so strong they later decided only to do a small amount of touch-up.
With her vocal in place, Hyde played drums and Eshuis took on the bass parts, establishing the foundation for the track. Leading into the final chorus, Eshuis filled in one instrumental hole with a bass lick played high on the neck, inspired by Craig Young’s work on Lady A’s “I Run To You.” Hyde threw on the electric guitar opening riff and a solo with a dirty tone.
They needed only one additional musician; Patrick had them send the track to fiddler Jenee Fleenor for extra country texture.
“There was just something about adding in that fiddle that gives you that great classic country feel,” Patrick says. “Jenee is just such a great, tasteful player. And also, if I’ve got a chance to put a spotlight on or empower another woman in the industry, I’m going to take it. So all in all, it was a great choice.”
Already established in Canada, Patrick created a Golden Child web series to better introduce herself to American country fans. River House released “Golden Child” to country radio through PlayMPE on Aug. 5, with a Sept. 9 add date. The label believed so strongly in the song that it sent it to broadcasters even before it went to digital service providers, marketing the Comma Chameleon entry with an exclamation mark.
“We did send it out for some testing to a few trusted friends and stuff at radio, and the response was really positive,” Patrick says. “But I have known and felt like this needed to be the single ever since I wrote it.”