Country
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Twenty-five years ago, singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne was done making her way through Nashville’s Music Row system. She’d released her first album, Sunrise, a country project produced by Bob Montgomery and Billy Sherrill, in 1989. Her sophomore album, Tough All Over, spurred top 30 Country Airplay singles with the title track and “I’ll Lie Myself to Sleep.” Lynne began contributing writing on her fourth and fifth albums, but longed for creative freedom.
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Then, she made the career-shifting decision to move from Nashville to California, crafting her liberating 2000 project I Am Shelby Lynne which perhaps served as her true debut. The album marked her foray from country into soul and R&B, with her commanding vocal and writing perspectives shining through every track. I Am propelled her to win new artist of the year at the 2001 Grammys, and marked her first project to debut on the Billboard 200.
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This year sees the celebration of I Am Shelby Lynne’s silver anniversary, celebrated through the re-release of the project’s vinyl and digital versions. As her decampment from Nashville to California propelled her breakthrough those years ago, Lynne’s return to Music City two years ago has heralded her latest reinvention — as she also releases her ninth studio album, Consequences of the Crown, which arrived Aug. 16 via Monument Records. The album marks her first since 2021’s The Servant.
After living in California for the better part of three decades, Lynne relocated back to Nashville to live closer to her sister, fellow singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, and to her nephew.
“I just wanted to get back to the South after all that time,” Lynne tells Billboard, noting songwriting — not recording — was her primary goal. “My original plan was to scooch into Nashville real quiet and find me some folks to write some songs.”
But Nashville’s creative community ultimately had other plans. Her friend Waylon Payne offered to introduce her back into Nashville’s writing circles. The first person Payne brought over was Ashley Monroe. “We were instantly drawn to each other and actually wrote a couple of songs on the first day,” Lynne recalls.
From there, her community of collaborators kept expanding, with Monroe bringing her Pistol Annies cohorts Angaleena Presley and Miranda Lambert — and soon, Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild was brought into the fold. It was Fairchild who set Consequences of the Crown into motion, first becoming Lynne’s manager and then encouraging her to record the album and landing Lynne a deal with Monument Records.
“She’s just an amazing woman,” Lynne shares. “Karen said, ‘Well, we need a new record from you,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, no. I think that part of my career… I think I’m done. I just want to write songs.’ But she made some calls and Katie McCartney at Monument [Records] said, ‘Let’s make a record.’ So here I am.”
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Lynne began those writing sessions last Spring, with the deal with Monument happening in August. When it came time to record the album, the all-woman creative collective naturally fell together: Lynne, Fairchild, Monroe and engineer Gena Johnson.
“We found ourselves in there together, and we just decided we’d go four ways on this thing,” Lynne says. “We met when the four of us could meet, because we found that we would never work without the four of us together, because it just didn’t feel right. The songs we were writing were good songs. I’d look around my living room and see these amazing, talented people. I felt loved and kind of taken in.”
The album’s pop-fused, yet stripped-back instrumentation, features Lynne not only on vocals, but on bass, acoustic and electric guitar, percussion, and drums. Monroe played a range of instruments including keys, piano, organ and acoustic guitar, while Fairchild contributed percussion and background vocals, with Johnson also handling percussion and programming. Also on the project is Eleonore Denig on strings, while Lynne’s sister Moorer offers background vocals.
Monroe is a co-writer on all but one of the songs on the album, with Fairchild contributing to five of the songs. Other writer credits scattered throughout the project include Payne (“Keep the Light On”) and Presley (“Keep the Light On,” “Over and Over”), as well as Meg McRee, Carter Faith and Jedd Hughes.
In the process, Lynne found a camaraderie and safe space for free-flowing collaboration and emotional excavation. Music led the way in the studio, leaving room for unexpected twists and turns, spoken-word moments, vocal howls and sonic shifts. The new album also nods to the work of I Am Shelby Lynne, as “But I Ain’t” interpolates “Dreamsome” from that seminal album — another mark of that impulsive studio vibe.
“When I’m on the mic and I’m hearing the music, letting things happen, it just kind of fell down because it was so real and we had to keep it,” Lynne says.
The album opens with “Truth We Know,” which Lynne calls “a sketch of words that I had written down right in the middle of my heart breaking.” Songs including “Shattered,” “Consequences” and “Over and Over” offer up the nuanced process of navigating a breakup and the work of healing and moving on.
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“It was a little bit devastating for me, and I was in a sad kind of a way,” Lynne says. “These songs are little chapters of the pain I was going through when I was breaking up with somebody, and I compare it to all of my crappy relationships, but they can fit in through all of the broken hearts that we’ve had.”
The Nashville Lynne has returned to has both changed and stayed the same. It’s notable that in that time, the Nashville country music scene has moved from the height of the “bro country” era dominated by hip-hop-inflected country songs recorded by white males, and the spark of “Tomatogate” that continues to see women artists fighting for a precious few slots on male-dominated mainstream country radio. Currently, traditional-leaning artists including Lainey Wilson and Cody Johnson are making waves, while as country audiences take to streaming, Americana and folk-oriented artists such as Zach Bryan, The Red Clay Strays, Tyler Childers and Allison Russell are surging, and Shaboozey’s genre-blending anthem “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is dominating.
“Of course, Nashville’s grown into this huge city, so that’s different,” Lynne says of the changes she’s seen in Music City. “But the good old boy network still runs — it’s just another set of boys. So that exists.
However, Lynne, who is gay, also acknowledges that Nashville has changed in other important ways: “How can I put it? Queers have come in and we just f—king run everything. And so, Nashville has had to embrace all of the changes — and look at this eclectic group of people we have, like Allison Russell, Fancy Haygood… people that are saying, ‘I’m doing this.’
“I’m proud of musicians just taking over and saying, ‘F—k you. This is who I am. I’m country. Kiss my a–,’” she continues. “I don’t think genre really matters anymore, because everybody’s doing exactly whatever in the hell they want to do, musically. I love the variety, and the mixed bag of what country music truly is — I don’t listen to mainstream music much, but I guess they’re Americana artists.”
Consequences also serves as a potent reminder of Lynne’s own trailblazing, genre-blending ways, as she melded different styles long before it was the “in” thing to do — though she’s quick to recognize that fearless spirit in others, such as Beyoncé. Lynne is a fan of Beyoncé’s country-influenced Cowboy Carter, a project she calls “well done and brilliant. I couldn’t wait until it came out because I love her and I said, ‘This is not just a country album, but it’s an album for the country.’ It’s an uplifting, creative experience.”
Ahead, Lynne has select shows, including what is sure to be a homecoming of sorts at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 26. But for now, she’s celebrating the creative community that has formed around her, as she’s open to exploration on her next ventures.
“I’m still kind of blown away that everything happened the way it did, because it’s just proof that you don’t need to plan everything — just get out of the way,” she says.
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This time of year, Tony Brown is frequently reminded of his work with Elvis Presley.
On Aug. 16, 1977, he was at the Nashville Airport with several other Presley band members waiting for a plane that would take them to Portland, Maine, for a show. Instead, Colonel Tom Parker sent word that the tour was off and they should go home. In his car, Brown heard on the radio that Presley had died. If the DJ had teed up Presley’s then-current “Way Down,” Brown would have heard himself playing piano even as his world tipped over.
“My first thought was, ‘Now what am I going to do, man?’ ” Brown recalls. “ ‘I already spent the money I was going to make on that tour.’ ”
Brown’s doubts about his future were understandable, though with hindsight, they were temporary. He got a job in the RCA A&R department, and in a few short years, Brown led the MCA A&R department, where he became one of country’s leading creative figures, pushing the genre’s edge through his 1980s work with Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith. He would also play a significant role in shaping ’90s country — still very much in vogue in 2024 — through his productions of Vince Gill, Wynonna, Reba McEntire and George Strait.
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The Academy of Country Music will recognize Brown’s influence on the format’s direction on Aug. 21, as he receives the ACM Icon Award during the ACM Honors at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. During the event, to be hosted by Carly Pearce and Jordan Davis, trophies will also be bestowed upon the likes of Lainey Wilson, Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan, Trisha Yearwood and Alan Jackson.
“Getting this award just sort of gives me, I don’t know, credibility in my mind that I’m not an old-timer,” Brown confesses.
He is, to be certain, in a different part of his career. Working at a label, particularly before laptop technologies and the internet became dominant, provided an opportunity to be at the hub of the creative activity, and it fed the extroverted part of his personality.
“Everybody would come to your office to play songs, and even the artists would come to your office to listen to songs together,” he says. “Now you need to call them up and say, ‘Do you want me to come to your place to listen to songs? Are you going to come to my place?’ And they go, ‘Just send them to me.’ It’s a whole different dynamic, and I’m not used to that. I’m a face-to-face kind of guy.”
The North Carolina-bred keyboard player grew up in a gospel environment — his evangelist father forbade him from listening to secular music. Studying with a piano teacher in Louisiana one summer as a teenager, he got introduced to country — particularly through Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music — and pursued that direction professionally. He played piano with Presley, The Oak Ridge Boys, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell’s Cherry Bombs, and ultimately landed on Music Row, where his gospel background applied nicely. Gospel is a format defined by the words more than the sound, and Brown was keenly focused on lyrics as he signed singer-songwriters and picked material for his production clients. He frequently demanded song pluggers supply lyric sheets when they pitched material.
“I love the melodies,” he says, “but I really follow the lyric.”
Brown’s impressive rèsumè includes, just for starters, Crowell’s Diamonds & Dirt, Stapleton’s “What Are You Listening To?,” Wynonna’s “No One Else on Earth,” Yearwood’s “How Do I Live,” Gill’s “I Still Believe in You,” Strait’s “Blue Clear Sky,” David Lee Murphy’s“Dust on the Bottle,” Chely Wright’s“Single White Female,” Gary Allan’s“Smoke Rings in the Dark,” Steve Wariner’s“The Weekend,” Sara Evans’“A Little Bit Stronger” and Brooks & Dunn’s “Believe,” which infused Brown’s gospel history in both its sound and its lyric.
“I still cry, man,” Brown says of the recording. “It just makes me cry.”
But McEntire’s “Fancy,” he suggests, is probably the most famous of his productions. More than 30 years after its debut, its swampy tone — enhanced by Steve Gibson’sslide guitar — still feels current.
“Just before he walked out of the studio, he said, ‘Hey, let me put some slide Mac Gayden kind of thing on there,’ ” Brown notes. “It was kind of like an afterthought overdub. He put it on there, and it gives it that snaky kind of Deep South, snake-oil thing.”
Brown survived a horrific ordeal in April 2003, suffering a head injury when he slipped at a Santa Monica, Calif., restaurant. His mother died while he was hospitalized, and it left him with plenty to process as he began appearing in public again roughly two months later. He eventually discovered he was mired in depression.
“Depression is a strange thing — it’s hard to know you got it,” he says. “I didn’t realize it until I went to a therapist, and he figured it out. It’s nice to get out of it.”
Working in a freelance capacity, Brown admittedly doesn’t produce as many albums as he did at the height of his career, though he’s hardly finished. He oversaw a diverse-sounding 2023 album, Gaither Tribute: Award-Winning Artists Honor the Songs of Bill & Gloria Gaither, featuring Ronnie Dunn, Josh Turner, CeCe Winans and Jamey Johnson, among others. Brown also co-produced several of the tracks on Strait’s Cowboys and Dreamers, due Sept. 6, and he’s producing a portion of McEntire’s next project.
The ACM Icon Award is a welcome confirmation amid that renewed activity. The fear he had when the Presley gig came to a tragic halt isn’t much different from the uncertainties he still feels about his future as an independent contractor. When he was producing 13 albums a year, he took the work for granted. Now he has enough time between commitments to savor just how fortunate he has been — and to know he’s not ready to stop.
“I am totally pumped that this [award] popped up right now,” he says. “It’s a big deal.”
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This week, Post Malone made his much-heralded country music debut with his collaborations-packed album F-1 Trillion–and then surprised fans with the release of F-1 Trillion: Long Bed, with an additional nine songs. Elsewhere, Brantley Gilbert teams with Justin Moore for a new track, while bluegrasser Bella White covers an Emmylou Harris classic.
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country songs of the week below.
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Post Malone, F-1 Trillion: Long Bed
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Post Malone’s country era officially arrived in full bloom on Friday (Aug. 16) via his new album F-1 Trillion. While his foray into the genre came with the help of one of the format’s biggest artists, Morgan Wallen, on “I Had Some Help,” the full F-1 Trillion project displays Post Malone’s undeniably deep-seated love for the genre, with an array of collaborations with Luke Combs, Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw, Ernest, Hank Jr. and other genre stalwarts. Each of those collabs feels crafted toward the featured artist’s strengths (in the case of McGraw’s collab, it even ties in titles of some of McGraw’s lengthy list of hits). However, Post Malone also proves he can do country just fine without any star-studded collabs, such as on the tender ode to his daughter, “Yours.”
Later in the weekend he also surprised fans with nine additional, solo-recorded songs for the Long Bed edition, and in the process, offered up a slate of some of the overall album’s strongest, and delightfully country, material. This “no skips” string of songs includes the Western swing romps of “Who Needs You” and “Back to Texas” and flirty ’90s country of “Hey Mercedes.” “Two Hearts” looks at the reverberations that heartbreak has on an entire family, while he makes the case for a post-breakup, passion-filled reunion on “Ain’t How It Ends,” but acknowledges that “Hank and Johnny, Strait and Ronnie Dunn made all the rules.” Meanwhile, the somber “Killed a Man” is a clear-eyed look at viciously and suddenly putting his various vices behind him.
The extended version of F-1 Trillion cements Post Malone as an artist with a full-fledged sense of his musical vision and contributions to the genre — while the fiddle, steel guitar and ’90s country twang that fill this album suits this Texas native with aplomb.
Brantley Gilbert feat. Justin Moore, “Dirty Money”
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Georgia native Gilbert and Arkansas native Moore team up for this pride-fueled celebration of those who earn their “dirty money” straight from the ground, providing food for communities through raising and harvesting crops. Written by Gilbert with Josh Phillips, this track revs up with all the gritty churn of a combine, as a bed of industrial-scale, frothy guitars, sharp percussion and thudding bass carry the two artists’ intertwined, destinctive drawls.
“Dirty Money” serves as the opening song to Gilbert’s upcoming album, Tattoos, out Sept. 13.
Morgan Wade feat. Kesha, “Walked on Water”
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On her new album Obsessed, Wade offers her most detailed and unvarnished storytelling to date, particularly on her new song with veteran pop hitmaker Kesha. “Walked on Water” is a post-breakup realization of one’s own faults and delusions that led to the relational dissolution. “People like me/ We don’t do well at sea/ ‘Cause I thought I walked on water,” Wade sings, as her oil-and-sandpaper voice weaving together with Kesha’s on this tender piano ballad, a solo write from Wade.
Bella White, “Luxury Liner”
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Canadian-born White issued her debut album, Just Like Leaving, four years ago and since then has proven to be a prolific and essential new voice, thanks to songs including “Not to Blame.” Here, White covers the Gram Parsons-written, Emmylou Harris-recorded “Luxury Liner,” which was the title track to Harris 1976 album. White’s version retains the song’s frenetic instrumental urgency, particularly with razor-sharp fiddle and a steady percussion, while White’s voice interjects a hazy, twangy purity.
“Luxury Liner” is from White’s new five-song covers EP Fire for Silver, which also includes covers of Lucinda Williams’ “Concrete and Barbed Wire,” and Jeff Tweedy’s “Nobody Dies Anymore.”
Muscadine Bloodline, “Good in This World”
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Since forming their duo in 2016, Muscadine Bloodline’s Charlie Muncaster and Gary Stanton have forged a reputation as two of country music’s liveliest entertainers, and a duo deadset on creating their career on their own terms, outside of the major label system. On their latest album, The Coastal Plain, released, Aug. 16 on Stancaster via Thirty Tigers, they further elevate their songcraft, particularly on the meticulously detailed album closer, “Good in this World.” The song hinges on the tale of a young man’s chance meeting with a Vietnam veteran at a gas station, as the veteran tells of relishing in (and intentionally making) many of his life’s simplest but best moments, from listening to “Brown Eyed Girl” to buying his loved one pearls. The conversation is a perspective-shifting one, leading the younger gentleman to make the most of his own moments, both present and future.
Keith Urban gave just a few hours’ notice before performing a free concert Friday night (Aug. 16) in the parking lot of a large convenience store and gas station in north Alabama. Hundreds of people turned out for the show in Athens, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of Nashville. It was outside a Buc-ee’s, a […]
Taylor Swift is praising Post Malone following his new album release.
The 34-year-old pop superstar took to her Instagram Story on Saturday (Aug. 17) to gush over the “Sunflower” singer’s country debut, F-1 Trillion, which dropped on Friday.
“Was lucky enough to hear this amazing music on set of the ‘fortnight’ video when Austin played it for me,” Swift captioned an image of herself on set with Malone, 29. She added, “It’s incredible how versatile his artistry is. And just the most down to earth guy alive.”
The “Anti-Hero” hitmaker’s post also included a link to stream F-1 Trillion.
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Malone has spent months in Nashville, writing and collaborating with Music City’s top country artists and songwriters in crafting the new set. He teamed with Morgan Wallen for the six-week Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “I Had Some Help,” and his collaboration with Blake Shelton, “Pour Me a Drink,” is at No. 14 on the Country Airplay chart.
F-1 Trillion also features collaborations with Luke Combs, Dolly Parton, Jelly Roll, Tim McGraw, Ernest, Hank Williams Jr., Lainey Wilson, Brad Paisley, Sierra Ferrell, HARDY and Chris Stapleton.
Earlier this year, Swift teamed up with Malone on “Fortnight,” the lead single from her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department. The track spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May.
Malone also joined Swift for the trippy music video of “Fortnight.” The visual features Post’s tattoos on Taylor’s face as she appears to wipe her face clean, only to reveal a face full of ink instead. In a series of flashback scenes, both of the musicians are fresh-faced, as Swift runs into the arms of a tattoo-free Malone.
See Swift’s post about Malone’s F-1 Trillion album on her Instagram Story here.
Post Malone has spent months in Nashville, writing and collaborating with Music City’s top country artists and songwriters in crafting his debut country album, F-1 Trillion. So it should come as no surprise that though he’s just released F-1 Trillion on Friday (Aug. 16), he’s still got plenty of songs in the tank. Malone surprised […]
Shaboozey dominates Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Aug. 24) for a fourth week with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – gaining entrance to a select group of artists’ breakout hits that have led for at least that long over the chart’s 34-year history.
The song by the Virginia native (born Collins Obinna Chibueze) drew 30.5 million audience impressions at the format Aug. 9-15, according to Luminate. The single, on American Dogwood/EMPIRE, with country radio promotion by Magnolia Music, concurrently crowns the Pop Airplay chart for a second week.
“A Bar Song” is only the ninth country career-establishing No. 1 at the format to reign for four-plus weeks – and the second among the three most recent Country Airplay leaders, after Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” (featuring Morgan Wallen) ruled for four beginning in June. (Before that, however, no such song had achieved the feat in over 18 years.)
What makes “A Bar Song” so special, and a hit at multiple formats, from country and pop to rhythmic? Travis Daily, who in May became Cumulus Media vp of country, after being named brand and content manager of the chain’s WKDF and WSM-FM Nashville in April, tells Billboard, “I have a kid in college who sends me music almost daily, and he sent me the song one night as I was packing for my move to Nashville. My first reaction was, ‘This is exactly what we need to stand out on WKDF when I get to town.’
“After listening multiple times, I began thinking that this is going to take off before I even get a chance to drive across the country [from Salt Lake City],” Daily says. “Some people think it’s a mystery that it’s doing so well, which kind of baffles me. We have a great song by a very talented artist that our audience seems to love. Passion for this song is almost unheard of.
“Some country programmers don’t like when pop stations play our country hits,” Daily further muses. “I would argue that songs like this give me a chance to convert some audience into becoming fans of the greatest format in the world, which is obviously country.”
Below, browse the songs that have topped Country Airplay for four or more weeks by artists making their first major inroads at the format (counting acts’ first entries on the chart as a lead artist or their initial songs promoted to country radio). They include memorable rookie anthems by acts that went on to become some of country’s biggest names.
Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Image Credit: Daniel Prakopcyk
Jordan Davis has built quite the reputation as a modern-day storyteller, winning the Country Music Association’s song of the year award in 2022 with “Buy Dirt,” claiming the Academy of Country Music’s song trophy this year for “Next Thing You Know” and climbing to No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart in May with “Tucson Too Late.”
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Moving at a ballad or midtempo pace, all three explore a life lesson or personal crossroad. But his latest release, “I Ain’t Sayin’,” takes a different attitude, mirroring the barroom setting of his 2017 debut, “Singles You Up,” with a steady dance texture similar to Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time.”
“It’s been a minute since we’ve released this kind of song,” Davis says. “I feel like I’ve been long overdue for it.”
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“I Ain’t Sayin’” was tailor made for Davis, fashioned May 25 on the final day of a writing retreat in snowy Livingston, Mont. While Davis wrote that morning with several other creatives in a rented cabin, Travis Wood (“Girl in Mine,” “’98 Braves”), Mark Holman (“Flower Shops,” “Don’t Think Jesus”) and Steve Moakler worked in a separate building, determined to craft something a little more speedy for Davis. Holman had created a few musical tracks prior to the trip, and one of them, built around some hand claps and a buzzy acoustic guitar, energized the room.
“It might just be like little guitar parts and a little loop or something behind it just to kind of catch a vibe,” Holman says. “It’s not a full thing. It’s just enough to be like, ‘Oh, we like this. We like the feeling of this.’ ”Wood had a ready-made chorus that he had penned with Los Angeles-based songwriter Emily Reid, with whom he frequently writes “starts” — small chunks of potential songs that can serve as a foundation during a full writing session. He reached out to her to make sure she was OK with this one getting used on this trip.
“I’m in L.A., they’re in Montana, and I got the FaceTime from him,” Reid remembers. “He was like, ‘Hey, we’re writing this “I Ain’t Sayin’” idea. It’s really going well. Can you just make sure this first verse makes sense?’ Because sometimes when you’re in the thick of it, it’s hard to have perspective. And I was like, ‘Damn, sounds brilliant.’ ”
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Reid’s original idea wasn’t actually the title. It was the phrase “He sure as hell ain’t,” which became the payoff line at the end of the chorus that she and Wood started. They weren’t entirely certain what the plot should be, though it fit a scenario involving a mismatched couple. As they built it, they used the phrase “I ain’t sayin’ ” as a repetitive lyrical device in a loaded chorus.
“When we were punching out that phrasing, we wanted to do something that felt really fresh,” Reid notes. “We wanted to make it really rhythmic and get a lot in there.”
When they came up with one particular line, “I’m here and he’s MIA,” they felt it had a lot of potential, though once they finished writing it, Reid put it out of her mind. Thus, the call from Wood was a welcome surprise.
As it started taking shape in Montana, Wood, Moakler and Holman unlocked the opening verse, depicting a woman who had bought a beer for a date who seems to have stiffed her. The protagonist presents himself as a short-term alternative, though the writers knew instinctively that he couldn’t be too pushy.
“We could have gone to further extremes with the guy and the girl,” Moakler says, “but we ended up choosing [to] walk the line, I think, in a cool way where he’s not overtly trying to steal the girl. He sees his opportunity, and he seems like a relatable guy, you know. That was the job of the day.”
As the protagonist moves in during the second verse, he attempts to reframe the woman’s bad moment with a bit of hope: “He let you down, but here’s the upside” — using a word, “upside,” in a way that’s rarely heard in a country song.
“It’s a little different,” Holman acknowledges, “which is always good.”
They saved the most elaborate lyrical twist for the end of that second verse, guaranteeing that that stanza could meet — if not exceed — the quality established in verse one.
“ ‘I ain’t trying to change that miss to a missus/But he don’t know what he’s missing’ — I just love that wordplay, Wood says. “It perfectly paraphrases the ‘I ain’t sayin’ I’m the one, I’m just saying he ain’t.’ I mean, you couldn’t find a cooler way to paraphrase that.”
They debated “He Sure As Hell Ain’t” as the title, but settled on “I Ain’t Sayin’,” avoiding a slightly profane word in favor of the song’s most frequently heard phrase.
“I think we picked the right one,” Moakler says. “I haven’t heard a song called that. The only hang-up with the song is, people say, ‘What’s it called?’ And you say, ‘I Ain’t Sayin.’ ’ And they say, ‘Wait, why won’t you tell me?’” Holman quickly whipped a demo together, and Wood went back to his cabin, where Davis’ small group was still writing in a different room. When that team finished, Wood had writer-producer Paul DiGiovanni (Travis Denning, Justin Moore) play the demo, which seemed to connect with Davis.
“Jordan was pretty effusive about it, but I didn’t know if he was just being polite,” Wood says. “When we hit that miss/misses line, he turned around and looked at me after that line. So I was like, ‘I think he likes it.’”
Indeed, the next week, Davis, DiGiovanni and a studio band tackled “I Ain’t Sayin’ ” at Sound Stage in Nashville with drummer Nir Z sharing duties 50/50 with the programmed percussion. “The loop thing was going basically throughout the whole song, so I needed to just go to another level on the master and just keep the energy going,” DiGiovanni says. “The demo was just like the verse feel the whole time, and I just kind of kicked it over the top.”
But the enhancements were comparatively incremental. “We never made a lyric change, we never made a melody change,” Davis says. “We dropped the key a half step from the original demo, maybe we bumped the [beats per minute] down a couple. But other than that, it was basically taking Mark’s demo and letting Paul kind of pepper in his touch on it.”
While the tracking band established most of the rhythm and textural sounds, DiGiovanni did add some color during overdubs, including a Spanish-flavored guitar in the background, steel-sounding guitar parts and a Southern rock-like twin guitar break.
“It didn’t need a shreddy, really crazy guitar solo by any means,” he says. “There’s so much melodic stuff happening in the song, so I just tried to do something that was kind of familiar. I think I sat down and put my track on loop and played like five or six different kinds of melody things, and that one just stuck out.”Davis tends to inject downward-sliding grace notes into his vocal performances, and though the writers didn’t specifically put that into “I Ain’t Sayin’,” it adapted well to his approach.
“That chorus melody, I was kind of like, ‘Wait a second, you’re sure I didn’t write this?’ ” he notes. “It just felt like something that I would write and something that I would say.”
MCA Nashville released “I Ain’t Sayin’ ” to country radio via PlayMPE on July 24, and it’s at No. 52 in its beginning stages on the Country Airplay chart dated Aug. 17.
“It’s something that I think people want,” Davis says of its breezy, summer-ish sound. “It feels like it’s the right release right now.”
On Aug. 16, 1969, Merle Haggard’s “Workin’ Man Blues” climbed to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. It became the seventh of the genre cornerstone’s 38 leaders, the third-most in the survey’s history after George Strait, who reigns with 44, and Conway Twitty, who notched 40. Haggard wrote “Workin’ Man Blues,” which Ken […]
As country music consumption on streaming services has surged in recent years, so has the slate of country songs reaching the coveted milestone of being certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), signifying 10 million units moved (with each permanent digital download counting as one unit, while 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams count as one unit).
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Luke Combs notched the 10th and 11th country singles to earn Diamond status from the RIAA, with his songs “Hurricane” and “When It Rains It Pours.” These are added to his previous RIAA Diamond-certified song “Beautiful Crazy,” which reached the milestone last year, making Combs the country artist with the most Diamond-certified singles.
RIAA Chairman & CEO Mitch Glazier said in a statement, “The power of artists’ voices and their ability to create connections with fans through music resonates across live shows and playlists that builds community and shapes culture. RIAA has the honor of celebrating the impact of those moments, and today we acknowledge the 10th (and 11th) country singles to earn Diamond recognition for US sales and streams — each surpassing 10 million. Congratulations to these amazing artists and incredible label partners who continue serving hits to loyal fans and those just discovering them!”
In addition to Combs, the country artists who have had songs reach the RIAA Diamond milestone include Lady A, Kane Brown, Brett Young and Darius Rucker.
During a celebration held in Nashville in March to celebrate the Diamond certification for Brett Young’s “In Case You Didn’t Know,” the singer-songwriter stated, “This has truly been the song that keeps on giving. As grateful as I am to this song, and what it is meant to my career, I’m even more grateful to all the people behind the scenes that works so hard to make sure it would be the successful. I think we all had high hopes, but never imagined this song earning an RIAA Diamond certification. Thank you to everybody that came out, and everybody that had a hand in all of the success.”
Notably, the Bebe Rexha/FGL hit “Meant to Be,” which is certified Diamond by the RIAA and topped the Hot Country Songs chart for 50 weeks (and rose to No. 2 on the Hot 100), is classified in the pop genre in the RIAA’s tally, while the Diamond-certified Lil Nas X/Billy Ray Cyrus collaboration “Old Town Road” is classified in the country genre in the RIAA’s tally — based on how the songs were classified when submitted for certification. There are, of course, more country songs on the cusp of being added to the Diamond club, such as Morgan Wallen’s “Whiskey Glasses,” which is currently certified 9x Platinum by the RIAA. Meanwhile, songs from Taylor Swift, pre-pop stardom ascension, are also close in the running, such as “Love Story,” which has been certified 8x Platinum.
Here, we look at the 11 country songs that have earned the Diamond certification distinction from the RIAA, starting with the most recently certified.
Luke Combs, “When It Rains It Pours”