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On Friday morning (Nov. 8), the Recording Academy unveiled their nominations for the 2025 Grammys — and Shaboozey, one of 2024’s biggest breakout stars, snagged five nods to add to his record-breaking year.
Shaboozey’s five nominations are across several genre fields, including three nods (best country song, best country solo performance and song of the year) for “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” his historic, 16-week Billboard Hot 100-topping smash. The Virginia-bred star also earned a nod for best new artist, while “Spaghettii,” his genre-fusing collaboration with Beyoncé and Linda Martell, reaped a bid for best melodic rap performance. A David Guetta-helmed remix of “A Bar Song” also received a nomination for best remixed recording, though that category only honors the remixer, not the artist behind the original track.
Over the course of 2024, Shaboozey has soared to staggering heights with his Americana-steeped, hip-hop-infused take on outlaw country. With “A Bar Song,” he became the first Black male artist to top the Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts at the same time. “A Bar Song,” which cheekily interpolates J-Kwon‘s 2004 single “Tipsy,” has spent a whopping 16 weeks at the Hot 100’s apex, just three weeks shy of tying Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus‘ “Old Town Road” as the longest-running Hot 100 chart-topper of all time. In addition to “A Bar Song,” Shaboozey also earned two 2024 Hot 100 hits alongside Beyoncé: “Spaghettii” (No. 31, with Linda Martell) and “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’” (No. 61). Early in its run, “A Bar Song” usurped Queen Bey’s “Texas Hold ’Em” atop Hot Country Songs, making the collaborators the first Black artists to earn back-to-back No. 1s in the chart’s nearly 70-year history.
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With a boatload of Grammy nominations to cap off a life-changing year, Shaboozey — who’s currently in Lexington, Ky., assisting Jelly Roll on his Beautifully Broken tour — took a few minutes to speak with Billboard about his latest honors, how he’s celebrating and how this all impacts his approach to making music going forward.
Where were you when you first saw the nominations?
I was on the tour bus. I’m on the road with Jelly Roll right now. I was supposed to be playing basketball with him, but I think he was sleeping on another bus.
Who did you call first?
I probably FaceTimed Mike Trotter Jr. [from The War and Treaty] because he texted me first. He was congratulating me as a friend and mentor, he’s always been the best. Then I called my manager. I tried to call Jelly, but, like I said, I think he was sleeping. Then I called my mom and my brother. And then Abas [Pauti], my other manager. And then Teddy Swims called me! He was crying. I feel like he definitely got snubbed [for more nominations]. He’s just got one of the greatest voices, such a classic, timeless voice. Honestly, if he got nominated [more], it would’ve been the “Teddy Swims Appreciation Show”! [Laughs].
What do you normally do to celebrate with family and friends?
The last time I actually went to my house was probably in March, a couple of days before Cowboy Carter came out. It’s funny because I was at Tommy Richman’s birthday party. The [Cowboy Carter] announcement hadn’t even come out and I was just hanging. I haven’t really gotten the opportunity to slow down and celebrate. My mom has a birthday coming up early next year, so we’ll probably do a big birthday party for her.
Were there any surprises for you looking at the nominations?
I mean, The Beatles AI song. I was like, “OK… We’re doing this?” [Laughs] I felt like [record of the year] would have been a cool one to grab, but I’m super grateful for the six I did get. And that’s not even counting the ones we kind of have our name attached to, like Beyoncé’s [Cowboy Carter] record. It’s a big year for both of us, honestly.
You’re nominated across the general field, country and rap – what does it mean to see your name and work welcomed across genre lines?
It’s bittersweet for sure. There’s a tremendous amount of talent in the country space and there are so many well-written songs that I felt also deserved that look. Country music is not yearning for talent. The beautiful thing about country music — especially some of the people who have been doing it for such a long time – is that so many people could have been out in that category. I heard a song by Sam Barber and Avery Anna that’s so beautiful, Zach Bryan put out an amazing record, Zach Top too. I wish there was a way to showcase everybody, but that’s the nature of awards shows.
You and Beyoncé are now one step closer to potentially being the fifth and sixth Black artists to win a country Grammy. How do you begin to wrap your head around that?
It’s insane, especially to be doing it with someone like Beyoncé who’s such a legacy artist. It feels like I’m on the right track to do the same. I can finally cross this off my bucket list. I can say that I’m Grammy-nominated for the rest of my life. I really believe this is only the beginning.
I’ve learned so much just from doing the tour and doing these shows. Now, with more resources from the label, I feel like I can really get out there and start making music without pressure. A lot of people work to get a No. 1 song. Being able to knock that out at this point in my career, I can start focusing on making the music that really matters to me. Not to say the music I have done doesn’t matter, but I can really get into my artist bag. It’s gonna be really fun.
As you dig deeper into that “artist bag,” what does that look like for you?
Being able to collaborate more, the phone book just gets a little bigger as far as writers, producers and session players you can work with. And the time you can take. My whole project was mostly recorded in producers’ rooms. Some of it was done in Nashville, but most of it was done in my producer’s house in Van Nuys [California] – not the most scenic country landscape! Because of budget restrictions, we didn’t want to make something that would kill our pockets. Now, I have the opportunity to be like, “Do I want to go out to Montana for a couple of weeks? Or Nashville? Or Electric Lady?” Those things seem like more of a possibility, whereas before they were kind of just a dream or afterthought.
Have you gotten a chance to speak with your “Tipsy” co-writers and co-producers?
I talk to them every day. Sean Cook, one of my new producers, did most of the songs on my last project, Cowboys Live Forever, and Nevin [Sastry] did most of the stuff on the one before that, Lady Wrangler. They were the two producers on “A Bar Song,” so it was cool that I was able to connect one of my earliest friends with one of my recent collaborators and they hit it off so well. We all got this together. For them both to believe in me and see past the immediate gain and exposure and remain loyal and put in hours – and I’m really particular, so I be over-tweaking. For me, [I continue working on] albums for a while after they’re supposed to be turned in. Sometimes, producers can suffer from producer fatigue – but in those moments, we made “A Bar Song.”
I hope people learn from that. Don’t stop being creative, don’t stop believing in your ideas, and have people around you who are going to help and encourage you to explore your ideas and not kill them.
“A Bar Song” is two weeks away from tying the all-time record for most weeks atop the Hot 100. Are you guys gunning for it or just letting the song do what it does?
This is kind of crazy how much the song carried on its own. We don’t even do anything and it’s like, “Hey, you’re aiming for a 17th week now!” [Laughs] Some people will do a couple of different remixes or they’ll do the instrumental and the a cappella and all these different versions. We reached out to a lot of people trying to do a remix early on, but we couldn’t find something that made sense. For “A Bar Song” to still be doing what it’s doing is insane.
Other than “A Bar Song,” what song would you most want to perform at the Grammy telecast?
There’s the “Good News” record we’ve been teasing, that would be a cool one to perform at the Grammys – especially if it performs the way we expect it to and if it really resonates with people. But everybody wants to get tipsy right now! I got asked to come out at the World Series, and I had just did the Boston Celtics. We’re doing CMAs too. We’ve been telling people that we want to showcase and highlight other songs as well, and everyone’s been very receptive.
What do these Grammy nominations mean to the Shaboozey who first moved out to LA a decade ago to pursue music?
It’s just amazing. A dream come true. The Grammys are the pinnacle of music. It’s something you watch from the outside. There are songs about the Grammys, people talk about them all the time. I’m pretty sure I’ve been mentioning going to the Grammys or winning a Grammy since I was 17 years old. To now have another thing ticked off my bucket list is a blessing. The most exciting part about all this is being able to listen to your music and be like, “Damn, I’m not capping anymore. I really got that Grammy that I talked about in that song I made in 2014!” Manifestation, man. Now I can really talk my sh–!
It’s cool to see that there’s still hope out there for new artists. A lot of the nominated artists, we see those names every year. It’s cool to have new names there. I want to make sure this isn’t the last time my name is there.
How many shots are you taking to celebrate these nominations?
Oh man, we’ll see! When I see Jelly Roll tonight, it’s gonna be all love. We’ll get out there and have a great time. I be taking shots every day now, this whole tour has been one big party.
Shaboozey has a lot of reasons to dance on Friday (Nov. 8), with the 29-year-old breakout country star nabbing five nominations for the 2025 Grammys.
In addition to best new artist and best melodic rap performance for his “Spaghettii” duet with Beyoncé, Shaboozey’s smash hit single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was recognized for best country solo performance, best country song and, last but not least, song of the year. When his name was announced in the latter category Friday, the initially nervous-looking singer — as captured by his guitarist Stephen Musselman and reposted by Shaboozey on Instagram Stories — let out a huge cheer and jumped up from his seat, bursting with joy.
“Let’s go!!!!” he cheered while doing a happy dance as his friends applauded.
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Shaboozey also tweeted Friday, “GRAMMY NOMINATED BOOZEY!!!!!!!! I LOVE Y’ALL, THANK YOU @RecordingAcad !!!!” In another post on X, he simply wrote, “We did it!!!!”
The Virginia native’s nods are well-earned. After his star skyrocketed following Bey’s Cowboy Carter — for which he lent his talents to two tracks — Shaboozey quickly leveraged the opportunity into lasting success with “A Bar Song,” which has spent 16 weeks (so far) at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Earlier this week, the track tied for the second-longest reign in the chart’s history, bested only by Lil Nas X’s 19-week rule with “Old Town Road.”
“That’s the homie,” Shaboozey said of Lil Nas in his October Billboard cover story. “We haven’t had deep conversations, but I can tell what’s happening to me now is probably very similar to what he experienced.”
Shaboozey is just one of many artists who received good news Friday, with Beyoncé leading the way with 11 nominations, followed by Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone with seven nods apiece and Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift with six each. Shaboozey shares the best new artist category with Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Benson Boone, Doechii, Khruangbin, Raye and Teddy Swims.
The 2025 Grammys will take place Sunday, Feb. 2. See Shaboozey’s tweets below.
In 2024, pop artists made their love for country music known, and, today, Grammy voters made their love known for those efforts.
Pop and R&B stars dominated the country Grammy nominations, including Beyoncé, who was the only artist to receive a nod in all four country categories. (Bey is the leading artist across the board with a record 11 total nominations for her country-influenced Cowboy Carter album.)
Post Malone also earned two country nominations, while Noah Kahan received one. Genre-blending Shaboozey, whose “A Bar Song (“Tipsy”) became the first song to go top 10 (and ultimately top three) on all four of Billboard radio airplay charts — Country Airplay, Pop Airplay, Rhythmic Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay — received two.
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Even though country radio ignores her (and vice versa), country voters remain understandably infatuated with Kacey Musgraves — who earned three nominations, including for country album, solo performance and song. Jelly Roll, Morgan Wallen and Chris Stapleton are the only artists who primarily consider themselves country (and are embraced by country radio) to receive more than one country nomination.
It’s worth noting that this is the first time that two Black artists have been nominated in the best country solo country performance category since its formation in 2012 (it combined the previous genre-designated solo performances). In 2021, Mickey Guyton was the first Black artist nominated in the category. Other than Beyoncé and Shaboozey, voters in the country categories ignored a number of non-crossover Black artists who released lauded music this year, including Brittney Spencer, Guyton and Kane Brown.
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If it weren’t for Beyoncé and Shaboozey, country music would have been mostly locked out of the main four categories: album, record and song of the year and best new artist. Beyoncé is represented in album, record and song of the year, while Shaboozey is nominated for best new artist and song of the year.
This is an ongoing issue with the Grammy nominations and one that the Academy is working on by trying to up votership in the country community — but the numbers are just very rarely in country music’s favor to land slots in the all-genre categories.
For the last 10 years, and not including today’s nominations, only four country artists have received album of the year nominations (and that’s including more Americana-leaning artists, like Sturgill Simpson and Brandi Carlile) and there has only been one winner: Musgraves for Golden Hour in 2018. Only two country songs have received nominations for song of the year, and none for record of the year. Best new artist has fared the best, with eight artists nomination over the past decade, but no winners (the last country winner was Zac Brown Band in 2010). Song of the year goes to the songwriters, so the shutout remains all the more baffling — since for the past two years, two predominantly country songwriters have received two of the five slots in the songwriter of the year, non-classical, category. Shout out to Jessi Alexander and Jessie Jo Dillon.
The relative shut-out in the big four categories remains for 2025, even while country enjoys a surge in popularity and dominates the Hot 100, with such titles as Post Malone and Wallen’s “I Had Some Help,” Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Wallen’s “Love Somebody” spending more than half the year combined at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Speaking of Wallen, he remains a third rail for Grammy voters. He finally received his first ever Grammy nominations this year for “I Had Some Help” with Malone, but the undeniable hit was locked out of song and record of the year and relegated solely to the country categories. (The Grammys’ more than 12,000 voters can all vote in the main four categories, but then are limited to 10 categories across three genre fields in an attempt to make sure voters stick to their areas of expertise when casting their ballots).
So it will be up to Beyoncé and Shaboozey to represent country music in the main categories (all of which are presented on air, while country is often relegated to the pre-telecast) on Feb. 2 and maybe Beyoncé will finally get her long overdue album of the year win.
In other noteworthy and happy nominations, country pioneer Linda Martell, the first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry, receives her first Grammy nomination at the age of 83 — in the best melodic rap performance category, for “SPAGHETTII,” by Beyoncé featuring Martell and Shaboozey.
Jessica Nicholson provided assistance on this story.
Koe Wetzel and Jessie Murph’s “High Road” travels to the top 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as it rises two spots to No. 10 on the list dated Nov. 16. The song – each act’s first entry on the survey – increased by 17% to 17.5 million in audience Nov. 1-7, according to Luminate. […]
In 2023, Luke Combs earned a No. 2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with his rendition of Tracy Chapman‘s 1988 pop hit “Fast Car.” Combs’ version was named single of the year at the CMA Awards, and netted a Grammy nomination for best country solo performance. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See […]
Post Malone and Chris Stapleton will each perform twice on the 58th annual CMA Awards, which are set for Wednesday, Nov. 20. Post will perform “Yours,” the closing track from his album F-1 Trillion. Stapleton will perform “What Am I Gonna Do,” the opening track from his album Higher. The two stars will also team to perform “California Sober,” a track from F-1 Trillion on which they collaborated.
Shaboozey, a first-time nominee this year with two nods, will perform a medley of his breakthrough smash “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which is in its 16th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and his new single “Highway.” Both songs are featured on his album Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going.
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Performing together for the first time, Thomas Rhett and Teddy Swims will offer a mash-up of Rhett’s “Somethin’ ’Bout a Woman,” from his new album About a Woman, and Swims’ “Lose Control,” a recent No. 1 hit on the Hot 100. The two Georgia natives also had a hand in co-writing Rhett’s “Angels (Don’t Always Have Wings),” a No. 1 hit on Country Airplay in 2023. Before that, they teamed on Swims’ pre-fame 2020 song “Broke.”
Dierks Bentley will be joined by Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes for a performance of Tom Petty’s 1976 classic “American Girl.” Bentley performed the rock classic on this year’s Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty.
Luke Bryan and Lainey Wilson, who are co-hosting the show with Peyton Manning, will each perform on the show. Bryan will perform “Love You, Miss You, Mean It,” which reached No. 2 on Country Airplay last month, becoming his 36th top 10 hit on that chart. Wilson will perform her current single “4x4xU,” which is currently up to No. 23 on that chart. The songs are featured on their albums Mind of a Country Boy and Whirlwind, respectively.
Ashley McBryde is also set to perform on the show, though her song selection has not yet been named. Additional performers and presenters will be announced in the weeks ahead.
Country Music’s Biggest Night is set to air live from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Wednesday Nov. 20 (8-11 p.m. ET). It will air on ABC and be available for streaming the next day on Hulu.
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 are on-sale now at Ticketmaster.
America’s presidential election found the country at a peak in anxiety, angry on one side about immigrants and fearful on the other of a descent into dictatorship.
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In the midst of that tension, Drew Baldridge – on the heels of his first top 5 single, “She’s Somebody’s Daughter” – targeted Nov. 4, Election Day Eve, as the add date for his new single, a litany of disasters and a celebration of resilience titled “Tough People.”
“What I love about this song is that it’s honest and it’s real,” Baldridge says. “It’s what our world’s going through. It’s what we’re all feeling.”
And, it suggests, we can all get through whatever crisis emerges – a tornado, cancer, a school shooting or a war.
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“Don’t give up. don’t stop loving people, don’t stop helping people out,” he says. “What you’re going through, you’re gonna come out better because of it. I think that’s the message that we want to share.”Baldridge was in a “David versus Goliath” mindset, he remembers, when he wrote it. He was about to self-release “She’s Somebody’s Daughter” to radio via PlayMPE on July 25, 2023.
The day before, he met up with fellow indie artist Adam Sanders and songwriter Jordan Walker (“When It Rains It Pours”) in writing room 2 at Sony Music Publishing Nashville. Sanders had heard, on Joe Rogan’s podcast, a version of “The Cycle of Man,” an assessment of generational changes from author G. Michael Hopf’s Those Who Remain: “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
Sanders held on to the hook, “Hard times make tough people,” until he could write with Baldridge, who wasn’t afraid of difficult topics. Both of them were thinking about their own careers as they worked on it, inserting some optimism into the hard times. “It’s just always a fight and a struggle,” Sanders says, “but hey, if you keep going, you can achieve your dreams no matter what. That’s where that came from.”
Walker turned the “hard times” hook into “tough times make tough people” and started playing guitar in a drop-D tuning, ideal for power chords. “It’s emotional, it’s deep,” Walker says. “As soon as you hit that first note, it just hits you.”
The first image accomplishes the same thing. A Midwest town endures a tornado that leaves only a Baptist church and a baseball field standing. The tough people, of course, rebuild it, as they would after a flood or a hurricane. “In my little town, one year, the whole roof of the cafeteria got ripped off, and a couple farmers lost their barns,” Southern Illinois native Baldridge recalls. “The next morning, I woke up and I went out there, and my dad and other farmers – everybody was coming together to help fix stuff. And that just has really stuck with me.”
A four-year-old girl battling cancer in Memphis – presumably at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – follows the tornado in the text. “You want to talk about three guys in a room crying – Drew’s got a little boy and I’ve got two little girls,” Walker says. “We all got choked up, and that was probably, honestly, the hardest part of the song to write.”
Not that the rest of it was rainbows and unicorns. The final vignette reveals a soldier who returns home in a flag-covered casket, and another recognizes a police officer putting his life on the line at a school shooting. Nashville’s Covenant School incident had occurred just four months prior, scarring the entire community, and it was a natural subject. They debated including that particular tragedy, and decided to go for it.
“It’s one of the biggest problems in this country – it needs to be talked about,” Walker says. “I’ve got two little girls that are in daycare, and luckily, there’s a cop that sits in the parking lot every day, so that deters anyone from wanting to do anything ignorant. But I can’t imagine when these girls get in high school, middle school, just kind of dropping them off and praying you see them at four o’clock.”
All of those hard times, though, were offset by the chorus, beginning with a melodic lift. After a couple lines of lyrics that border on victimhood, it turns to self-determination – a series of “keep on fighting” mantras leading to the feel-good conclusion: “Hard work pays off, good beats evil/ And tough times make tough people.”
They cut a demo, though in retrospect, they missed the creative mark. “I just don’t think that we captured the right emotion,” Sanders says. “It just kind of felt a little stale. We turned the song in to our publishers, and I don’t think anybody said anything.”
But when Baldridge presented a handful of songs to producer Nick Schwarz, he knew “Tough People” had to be part of the next round of recording. “The school shooting line is what made me go ‘Holy moly,’” Schwarz recalls. “It’s so real.”
They recorded it in mid-December at the Sony Tree Studios, focused on making it sound tougher than the demo. A tremolo guitar helped establish some tension. “I’m a sucker for tremolo and slap back – I just love those two sounds,” Schwarz says. “So I asked for tremolo, and they were like, ‘Nick and his tremolo’ and laughed.”
But the recording took an unexpected turn. Sanders got a standing ovation when he performed an acoustic version of “Tough People” at the Franklin Theater. Based on that performance, Walker made a new acoustic demo, and it was so good that he played it on Dec. 29 for Luke Combs, who wanted to cut it. A few weeks later, Lainey Wilson heard it while visiting Baldridge, and she called Combs to ask if she could record it with him. They made their recording on Jan. 25. Combs re-wrote a couple lines in verse two, but he kept the school shooting in the piece.
“One of the responding officers [at Covenant] is the canine officer for Metro Nashville,” Walker says. “He actually lives on Luke’s property and trains dogs out there. So Luke was like, ‘If anything, that line is staying. He goes, ‘That guy’s a buddy of mine, and I think nobody talks about that.”
But when Baldridge partnered with BBR Music Group/BMG to market the follow-up to “She’s Somebody’s Daughter,” the label insisted “Tough People” was his best option as an artist. Baldridge told Combs he thought he should take it back, and Combs agreed. And when the writers wanted to give Combs a songwriter credit for contributing a couple lines, he insisted on taking only 10% ownership, instead of 25%.
Schwarz subsequently worked more on the recording, cutting new parts and moving a lot of the existing instrumental support around to heighten the song’s drama and better emulate the acoustic demo’s spirit. Baldridge tried to match the story’s intensity in his final vocal. When he heard the results later, he went back in to re-cut the vocal on the second chorus and make that part more forceful ahead of the guitar solo. “I can’t sing the word ‘tough’ weak,” he reasons.
Stoney Creek released “Tough People” through PlayMPE on Oct. 25. While the hard times in “Tough People” might play into the issues of the day, Baldridge hopes he can remain neutral on the song’s controversies but still inspire people to be their best selves.
“I don’t want to have to do political interviews or anything,” he says. “This is where we’re at. Take it how you want to take it, and hopefully some good can come out of it.”
Ten-time ASCAP songwriter of the year Ashley Gorley is donating royalties from the Billboard Country Airplay chart-topping hit “I Am Not Okay,” written by Gorley with co-writers Taylor Phillips and Casey Brown, and recorded by Jelly Roll, to help aid mental health initiatives for those in the songwriting community.
Gorley, who is also known for writing No. 1 hits including the Morgan Wallen/Post Malone 16-week Hot 100 chart-topping “I Had Some Help” and other hits recorded by Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, Kelsea Ballerini and more, is commemorating the success of “I Am Not Okay” by supporting the launch of a program by The Onsite Foundation, aimed at helping the creative community. The Creatives Support Network will provide free mentorship, education, resources and mental wellness support specifically created to help members of the songwriting community.
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“A song about struggling to get out of bed in the morning is No. 1 and that really speaks to where we are in the world,” Gorley said in a statement. “It was important for us to take this moment to say ‘you’re not the only one,’ and to support a creative network with programming that is tailored to songwriters at any stage of their journey.”
Songwriter-focused intensives are a key part of the program, including two-day immersive, individual or group coaching and therapy sessions designed for creatives. The program also includes mentorship, social impact initiatives and online curriculum and conversation resources complimentary to the creative community, thanks to Gorley giving 80 grants for 80 individuals, in addition to program infrastructure support.
“This song in particular, along with the Jelly Roll Era, is creating a movement and timely conversation regarding the need to equip creatives with necessary tools to optimize their personal and professional pursuits,” Onsite’s Miles Adcox said in a statement. “I’ve been at the intersection of Music and Mental Wellness for the better part of my career and have experienced firsthand the challenges and opportunities facing today’s creatives. Music is medicine, and the comfort, relief, support, and overall impact it provides globally to humanity is immeasurable. Our storytellers are a national treasure we should pour into and protect at all costs. We’re grateful to Ashley, Jelly Roll, and the Tape Room writers for starting this conversation in the songwriting community and for lending their expertise and resources.”
The Jelly Roll hit “I Am Not Okay” offers an honest portrayal of the struggles many face with mental health issues. The song is from Jelly Roll’s recent Billboard 200-topping album Beautifully Broken.
Among Gorley’s recent accolades are ACM songwriter and song of the year for the Cole Swindell hit “She Had Me at Heads Carolina,” and ASCAP’s country song of the year with Wallen’s “You Proof.” Gorley was also honored as NSAI’s Songwriter of the Decade for 2010-2019.
In 2011, Gorley, a Belmont University graduate, also formed his own publishing company, Tape Room Music, with a roster that includes his “I Am Not Okay” co-writers Brown and Phillips.
With a hotly-contested presidential election going on, Shaboozey thinks we could all use a little “Good News.” So, he’s here to give us a taste of just that. In a TikTok posted on Monday (Nov. 5), the “Bar Song” singer shared a snippet of his yet-to-be announced new single, in which he looks for some […]
Guitarist, keyboardist, singer and songwriter Coy Bowles has been part of the Zac Brown Band since 2007, co-writing hits including “Colder Weather” and “Knee Deep” and earning a trio of Grammy wins along the way.
But when he’s not lighting up stages with ZBB’s signature freewheeling, jam-band vibe, Bowles is crafting music for another audience: kids.
In 2020, Bowles released his first children’s album, Music for Tiny Humans. On Friday, he released a follow-up called Up and Up, crafting the album’s 13 kid-aimed songs with collaborator Carlos Sosa, who has also toured with Zac Brown Band.
The album features songs such as “Dance, Dance, Dance,” “I’m Hungry,” “See the World in Color” and “The Clean Up Song,” the latter of which was inspired by a friend of his who was tired of hearing the same song sung over and over when it was time for kids to clean up in the classroom. At the same time, Bowles and Sosa had been speaking about the 1987 Run-D.M.C. classic “It’s Tricky,” admiring its production and how modern and catchy the song is, nearly four decades after its release. Bowles wanted to write kids’ music that sounded modern and in line sonically with some of the melodies and beats kids are hearing around them. He also wanted to shy away from what he calls “toxic positivity.”
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“These songs aren’t always just sunshine every day,” he tells Billboard. “The song ‘How Do You Feel’ is about doing tough things. It’s not toxic positivity. There’s real songs about ‘I miss my mom’ or ‘I’m pretty sad right now, but I know things will change and we all go through things.’”
The album also has plenty of moments of levity, such as “I’m Hungry,” inspired by Bowles’ daughters, Hattie and Millie.
“They would come down and listen to a song and be like, ‘Dad, I love it. I’m hungry,’” Bowles recalls. “I’d give ‘em some food, we’d work on a song more, and they’d come down later, listen to it and say, ‘Oh, it’s even better now. Dad, I’m hungry.’ Then Carlos would be like, ‘Dude, is that all they ever say?’ So we started making kids’ voices and saying, ‘I’m hungry, I’m hungry.’ And he looked at me and was like, ‘Dude, that’s really good actually.’ So he and I, being a place where there’s not a lot of rules and regulations when we’re writing this stuff and humor can be part of it, it just turned into this cool, funny song about being hungry. So the kids had a lot to do with it and influenced the direction.”
Bowles’ albums Up and Up and Music for Tiny Humans extend his creative work in writing and releasing children’s books since 2012, when he released the book Amy Giggles, Laugh Out Loud, based on the story of a friend who was bullied for her laugh as a child.
“I wrote songs my whole life. I got to a place where I was on a tour bus with 12 people and you really can’t write songs by yourself — there’s no corner to go write in,” he says. “There’s always someone around, so I just started writing anything that popped into my head. I started writing short stories and jotting down stuff that was happening with the band in a journal. It felt like it was keeping me healthy, mentally and creatively. Zac [Brown] had three kids at the time, and I showed him a few things I wrote. He said, ‘That would make a great children’s book. I have three kids and we’re reading books constantly.’”
Amy Giggles, Laugh Out Loud resonated with readers. “It started connecting with teachers because of the anti-bullying sentiment. I had no kids at the time, and I didn’t know many teachers at the time as far as early education, but I started getting Facebook posts about them having ‘Amy Giggles Day’ in their classrooms and kids dressing up like Amy Giggles. I started connecting with teachers to create content for their classrooms and it expanded from there.”
Since then, he’s released books including When You’re Feeling Sick, Will Powers: Where There’s a Will There’s a Way, and Behind the Little Red Door. Bowles has even done some public speaking to encourage teachers.
“Almost everybody who’s successful in life, they have somebody who cared about them. And some people, the only person in their life who’s sheltering them and guiding them with love is their teacher,” he says. “I think that they’re overlooked sometimes, and I want to make it my life’s purpose to shine light on teachers and let them know how important they are to our society as of now and the future.”
Bowles has always been connected to the education system — he was a guitar and vocal instructor for eight years — but over the past five years, he’s been actively providing content that parents and educators can use at home and in their classrooms, including a social-emotional learning kit with Lakeshore Learning that incorporated songs from his first children’s album.
“That’s been successful and is in a lot of classrooms, so we decided to make another with Lakeshore, and the music we were writing for Up and Up is part of that. We were talking with teachers and they said they would love to have transition songs, songs that signal different parts of the day. We have a song about washing hands, a song about leaving school to go home. But so many people who do that try to make it very on the nose, and we tried not to do that.”
He’s deepened his focus on offering music and content for kids through his company called CoyCo (Creative Opportunity Yields Creative Output), offering a range of products including worksheets, the Lakeshore Learning Kits that focus on topics including social-emotional learning, language and literacy, and his previously released books.
“My goal is to be one of the nimblest companies, hopefully creating content that’s viable for what teachers are going through,” Bowles says. “Because we self-publish, there’s not a lot of red tape. If I sit down with teachers and they are like, ‘We are seeing difficulty with mental health right now,’ a few months later I can have a book and some songs and videos ready to be played in the classroom or at home. My goal is to be a leading content creator in the education space and in the kids space.”