Country
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This week’s crop of new music includes the latest from country music powerhouse Morgan Wallen, while Thomas Rhett delves into ’90s country influences on his contribution to the Twisters movie soundtrack. This week’s new country releases also include music from Avery Anna, Chase Matthew and Vincent Mason.
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Morgan Wallen, “Lies Lies Lies”
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The Sneedville, Tennessee native has swiftly become one of country music’s dominant forces — and with his recent Hyde Park show in London and an upcoming slate of U.K. shows, Wallen is displaying his prominence as a key figure in heightening country music’s global reach. He’s been a consistent hitmaker, lobbing one popular track after another at Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, and earning two pinnacle-reaching Hot 100 hits (including the 16-week No. 1 “Last Night”). While many of those hits have been sleek, uptempo productions, Wallen takes a slight respite with this moody, heartbreak-riddled ballad, having previously recorded a live version of the song for his Abbey Road Sessions project. “Lies Lies Lies” finds Wallen in the throes of an unsuccessful attempt to convince himself that he is now fully removed from an ex-lover, only to collide with deep-seated, undeniable reality on the key line, “I’m still a fool for you.” Written by Jessie Jo Dillon, Josh Miller, Daniel Ross and Chris Tompkins, this angst-fueled ballad offers a vessel for the soulful nuances in Wallen’s Tennessee twang.
Thomas Rhett, “Feelin’ Country”
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This rollicking track — which marks Thomas Rhett’s contribution to the soundtrack Twisters: The Album — details the early hours of an evening that seems guaranteed to bring both partying and romance, with a few essential elements including a local beer joint, some classic ‘90s George Strait filling the air and a lover with, as Rhett sings, “a neon green dance-with-me look in her eyes.” While much of this singer-songwriter’s catalog of 20 No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits has been woven upon a bedrock of glaze-smooth, pop-leaning constructions, here he reminds listeners that he can handle a hefty slice of ‘90s country with aplomb.
Avery Anna, “Girl Next Door”
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Singer-songwriter Anna turns in one of her strongest tracks yet with this intricate sketch of a young girl who offers friendship to another 13-year-old who moves into the neighborhood, while also providing refuge as her friend navigates a strenuous family situation. She recalls the contrasting lives the two girls, with keen observations such as, “I was playing in the sun/ While you were taking care of everyone.” The fact that the composition was written by Anna alone makes the song, and her honeyed-yet-disquieted vocal rendering, all the more potent. Anna’s debut album, Breakup Over Breakfast, will be released July 19 on Warner Music Nashville, and seems aimed to heightening Anna’s promise as a towering, soul-baring tunesmith.
Vincent Mason, “Heart Like This”
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Interscope/UMG Nashville/Music Soup artist Mason earned a viral hit earlier this year with the tune “Hell is a Dance Floor” and subsequently released his EP Can’t Just Be Me. On his latest, he lends his gritty, flame-warm voice to a song detailing the emergence from heartbreak’s emotional wreckage and the subsequent ache-numbing attempts, only to ponder the way forward for someone whose heart has been battered. Mason wrote this stripped-back track with Cary Barlowe and Jaxson Free, and lyrically, “Heart Like This” is at once poetic and direct in its assertion. Yet Mason and co. infuse it with a melody that hews slightly closer along the lines of modern country than some of his previous efforts, making for release both heartfelt and contemporary.
Chase Matthew, Always Be Mine (EP)
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Across the span of five tracks on his newly released EP, the “Love You Again” singer makes a succinct yet vigorous bid to further build upon his hitmaking status. The EP offers up the heartbreak and hip-hop fusion of “Always Be Mine,” as well as the rock-dripped reminiscing of “First.” But chief among them is the closer “How You Been (Letter to the County Line Girl),” a soulful track that dials up the angst with a story arc of a chance encounter with a former flame. Overall, the set highlights his unique sifting of country, rock and soul elements and his ability to fuse them with his muscular vocal.
As the United States celebrated Independence Day on July 4, across the pond, one of country music’s reigning luminaries, Morgan Wallen, showcased his global appeal before 50,000 fans for his debut headlining show at BST’s Hyde Park in London. This marks the largest country concert ever held in the United Kingdom.
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Among the throngs of attendees were celebrities Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, as well as Kansas City Chiefs player Patrick Mahomes and retired soccer player Brittany Mahomes. “Country concert in London, count me in,” Brittany wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of the couple at Wallen’s concert.
Wallen’s July 4 show expanded upon the singer-songwriter’s previous sold-out headlining set at London’s O2 Arena in December 2023. His lengthy set at BST’s Hyde Park was highlighted by a solo rendition of his Post Malone collaboration, “I Had Some Help” (which reigned for six weeks atop Billboard’s Hot 100 chart), as well as an acoustic rendering of his song “Lies Lies Lies.” He wrapped the show by throwing it back to his breakthrough 2018 hit “The Way I Talk,” from his If I Know Me debut project.
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Wallen also made a surprise release of the U.K. exclusive “Lies Lies Lies” physical CD, while the official recorded version of the song is also available on all streaming platforms. The release follows 2023’s Abbey Road Sessions, which featured a performance of “Lies Lies Lies” and was recorded at London’s Abbey Road Studios.
Stateside, Wallen’s One Night at a Time Tour has been a concert juggernaut, often selling out multiple stadium shows in various cities, such as his three-night, sold-out stint at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium earlier this year. Wallen’s global recognition has been steadily ascending, too, with his blend of country, rock and hip-hop elements proving that his stardom expands beyond geographical or genre perimeters. Wallen’s international impact was on display in recent weeks when “I Had Some Help” topped Billboard’s Global 200 chart. The success illustrates Wallen’s steady growth, as the 11-time Billboard Music Awards winner previously notched a top 5 on the Global 200 with 2023’s “Last Night,” and had top 10 hits on the Global 200 chart with 2022’s “Don’t Think Jesus” and 2021’s “Wasted on You.”
Wallen’s concerts have showcased his numerous record-breaking songs and albums (such as his One Thing at a Time album, which earlier this year broke the record for the most weeks at No. 1 for a country album on the Billboard 200 chart) while simultaneously supporting the mission of The Morgan Wallen Foundation, which helps provide children with resources to thrive through sports and music, with a portion of every concert ticket purchased supporting that goal. That aim continued in London, with the Morgan Wallen Foundation earmarking $20,000 to support London Youth Choirs, which gives disadvantaged young people access to music, singing and performance.
The Hyde Park show served as an early taste of what U.K. fans can expect later this year, when Wallen further builds upon his international success with an overseas return on Aug. 28 with a show in Stockholm, Sweden, to launch his first European headlining tour. The seven-concert trek will also feature stops in Copenhagen, Denmark; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Glasgow, U.K. and more before wrapping with two back-to-back nights in Dublin, Ireland.
When Florida Georgia Line decided to go in solo directions, Brian Kelley arguably had the tougher route, simply because of his established role in the duo.
Tyler Hubbard has one of the most identifiable voices in the genre, and he understandably took the lead on all of the pair’s singles, plus most of the album cuts. Those trademark FGL harmonies relied heavily on Kelley’s input, but he found himself in much the same position as Kristian Bush in Sugarland — a familiar face that country fans heard all the time, but rarely by himself.
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So when Kelley turned to producer Dann Huff (Keith Urban, Kane Brown) for assistance with his second solo album, Tennessee Truth, he was fired up by Huff’s appreciation of his tone.
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“From the first meeting, he gave me so much confidence,” Kelley reflects. “He was a fan of my voice, and he was excited to go to work, and when Dan Huff says he’s got it, you’re like, ‘Hell, yeah.’ ”
And Huff really did get it.
“Because he was not the lead singer in the band, I think he really wants to stamp his personality, let people know he can sing,” agrees Huff. “And I always have enjoyed his voice. He’s got a beautiful, kind of almost-Alan Jackson tenor.”
Kelley is set up for success in his latest single, “Acres,” an upbeat release that most certainly stamps his persona. It piles up brands and activities related to one of his favorite getaways — including Mossy Oak clothing and a Chevrolet K5 Blazer — and frames those images with a melody that hammers the sweet spot in his voice. At the end of most lines in the chorus, the next-to-last syllable — “a-cres,” “Bla-zer,” “Ga-tor,” “take her” — repeatedly lands on the same note, one that creates tension within the key signature even as it highlights one of the best sections of his range.
“I think we got it in the groove key for me where it’s easy, in a sense of a vocal,” he says. “But it’s also pushing and it’s got character, and I’m able to utilize my voice to the fullest.”
Kelley wrote “Acres” at his Middle Tennessee home with Adam Sanders (“Ain’t Worth the Whiskey,” “Hell of a Night”) and Will Weatherly (“Good As You,” “Thinking ’Bout You”) on June 15, 2023.
“I remember just sort of strumming on guitar, the fast chord progression of the intro,” notes Sanders. “I thought that I was just kind of playing around, and Will was like, ‘Hey, that’s really cool, don’t stop’ — and in true Will Weatherly fashion, he just whipped the track out.”
Kelley picked the title “Acres” out of a list on his phone, and he tied it to a piece of land his in-laws own in Georgia.
“We go there once or twice, sometimes three times a year,” Kelley says. “It’s a place where you can fish, you can hunt, you can chill. We’ve written songs out there, we’ve ridden around; we’ll do night rides, looking for all sorts of stuff. It’s kind of a little bit of a safari vibe, you know, and, man, it’s become a really special place since we got married.”
They started at the chorus, plugging in brand names, with nearly every phrase heading toward the end-of-the-line, melodic sweet spot on the way to the hook: “Put her in the middle of some acres.” The setup line was a bit of a challenge, though Sanders solved the puzzle during a break when he got the line, “My baby loves it when I take her,” along with a staccato melody.
“When I found that it worked at the end of the chorus, in the middle of the chorus and the end of the verse, and placed all three in the same places with the same melody, it somehow became the glue that glues everything together,” says Sanders. “Once we got that, it was kind of like it just wrote itself.”
With that solved, they started working on the verses, where they instinctively altered the sound. The melody shifted to a curvy landscape, and they left more space between the lines.
“Selfishly, as a singer, you have to have some time to breathe,” Kelley says.
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For the listener, it provided enough variance from the rapid-fire chorus to keep it interesting, though still feeling like it naturally connected to the chorus.
“If you’re part of a song where [the verse] isn’t different enough, just trust me when I say you don’t want to listen,” says Weatherly. “You don’t want to hear the chorus a million times over if the verse sounds like the same melody.”
They created more variation at the bridge, where a building melody naturally leads the listener back to one more run through the chorus. The bridge also allows a subtle reference to “something rolled in a pay-per.”
“That just had to be in there somewhere,” Weatherly says. “That’s too aggressive for the verses and the chorus, but you can kind of tuck that into the bridge and maybe people won’t notice. And if they do, then they’re kind of like, ‘Light one up for us.’ ”
Sanders sang lead for Weatherly’s demo, built around acoustic guitar and programmed drums. It provided a great template when Huff cut instrumental tracks with Kelley at Nashville’s Sound Stage. They speeded the tempo up a few clicks, and Evan Hutching’s punchy drums, Ilya Toshinskiy’s ringing acoustic guitar and some electric guitar chunking provided layers of rhythm underneath the verses’ leisurely melody. At the chorus, the electric guitars morphed into heavier block chords to avoid clashing with Kelley.
“When you get in the chorus, it’s such a rapid-fire lyric,” says Huff. “We probably tried some little jangle parts and stuff like that, but ultimately, you do not want to be drawn away from the vocal at that point.”
A song about outdoors life needed some distinctly country flavor, so during overdubs, Huff brought in fiddler Jenee Fleenor and put her in the middle of “Acres,” playing a simple solo with appropriate sonic flavor. “I thought it was badass,” Weatherly says of Huff’s production.
Kelley’s wife, Brittney, thought so, too, believing it showcased her spouse better than any other solo track he has recorded to date. “When I come in on that first verse,” says Kelley, “she goes, ‘Man, that’s my husband. Heck, I’m going to turn that thing up.’ ”
He made “Acres” the opening track on Tennessee Truth, which Big Machine released on May 10, and it earned immediate positive feedback. The label sent it to country radio via PlayMPE one month later, and Kelley is optimistic that it will help to further set him apart.
“Hopefully,” he says, “fans will start being able to identify with BK.”
Shaboozey scores his maiden top 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 13), as his launch entry “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” jumps six spots to No. 6. It surged by 20% to 20.5 million audience impressions June 28-July 4, according to Luminate.
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The track interpolates J-Kwon’s 2004 hip-hop classic “Tipsy,” with the pair performing a mash-up of the songs on June 30 at the 2024 BET Awards. The makeover by Virginia native Shaboozey (born Collins Obinna Chibueze) has already led the multimetric Hot Country Songs chart for three frames beginning in May.
The song is the lead single from Shaboozey’s LP Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, which arrived at its No. 2 Top Country Albums high in June. The crossover hit is also the first song ever to go top 10 on all four of these charts: Country Airplay, Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and Rhythmic Airplay.
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Baldridge Banks First Top 10
Drew Baldridge notches his first Country Airplay top 10 as his co-written “She’s Somebody’s Daughter (Reimagined)” pushes 11-10 (18.3 million, up 7%). The hit is a rerecording of the Patoka, Ill., native’s 2019 track “She’s Somebody’s Daughter” and marks his fifth entry on the chart.
In addition to writing, recording and touring, Baldridge is a radio personality, currently handling weekend shifts on Mt. Wilson Broadcasting’s KKGO Los Angeles.
‘Help’ Ties 2024’s Best
Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, controls Country Airplay for a third week (32.6 million, up less than 1%). The former’s first No. 1 and Wallen’s 13th ties for the longest command among the 15 leaders in 2024, joining Sam Hunt’s “Outskirts,” which started its reign in April.
Following his July 4 headlining debut at London’s BST Hyde Park, which also featured performances from Riley Green, Ella Langley and Ernest, Morgan Wallen has released the fan-anticipated ballad “Lies Lies Lies,” via Big Loud/Mercury/Republic. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Written by ACM songwriter of the […]
Zach Bryan is showing his appreciation to The Boss.
On Thursday (July 4), the 28-year-old country music star profusely thanked his musical hero Bruce Springsteen on social media following their collaboration on Bryan’s new album, The Great American Bar Scene.
On the 19-track project, which dropped July 4 through Warner Records, Bryan is joined by his one of his most obvious influences, Springsteen, on “Sandpaper.”
“thank you for the day @springsteen. thank you for your kind words. thank you for letting me take this picture,” Bryan captioned a photo of Springsteen on X (formerly Twitter). “thank you for making my whole life a dream of a younger me. a reason to believe.”
Fans of Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” will instantly recognize the chugging beat on “Sandpaper,” which is identical to the feel of his 1984 hit.
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The Great American Bar Scene includes 18 songs and a poem, highlighted by the preview releases of “Pink Skies” and “Purple Gas.” A double vinyl version of album is slated for release on Oct. 10.
Following the album’s release on Thursday, John Mayer — who is featured on the gentle song “Better Days” — praised the country star on social media.
“I always knew this song Zach wrote was special,” Mayer began his post on X. “I had no idea how beautiful, powerful and deep an album it would be a part of. I’m stunned.”
The “Your Body Is A Wonderland” singer added, “I’m blessed to have been able to fulfill my dreams of making music. What I never saw coming: to be asked to play with an artist as deeply tapped in as @zachlanebryan is. Thank you for inviting me into your dream-coming-true.”
In addition to prepping new music, Bryan has been headlining his Quittin Time Tour, which welcomes a slate of openers including Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Turnpike Troubadours and The War & Treaty.
See Bryan’s post about Springsteen on X here.
John Mayer is sharing his admiration for Zach Bryan‘s new album. On Thursday (July 4), the 46-year-old musician took to social media to praise the country star’s highly anticipated release, The Great American Bar Scene. Mayer is featured on the track “Better Days.” “I always knew this song Zach wrote was special,” Mayer began his […]
Morgan Wallen‘s concert at Denver’s Mile High Stadium on Wednesday (July 3) was interrupted when a fan threw an iPhone at him while he performed “Cowgirls.”
In a video caught by a crowd member, Wallen is seen performing the hit when a phone strikes him on the shoulder. Barely flinching, the singer picks it up and tosses it back into the crowd before continuing his performance.
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Wallen has had a tumultuous time with fans throwing objects at him. During a show in Melbourne, Australia, back in March 2023, the “Last Night” singer narrowly missed a drink that was thrown by an audience member.
In a fan video that captured the wild moment, Wallen stops the music and stares at the area where the cup came from while the crowd shouts “kick them out! kick them out!” Wallen, pointing, says, “Go ahead. One of y’all own up to it or I’m gonna kick your whole f—in’ group out. One of y’all go ahead and say ‘I did it.’ All right, kick that kid out of here then.”
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Then, during a show in Minneapolis last month, the singer was hit in the face with women’s underwear while performing.
The incident is part of a troubling trend of fans throwing objects at artists, which has been on the rise.
In June 2023, Pink was left shocked when a fan threw their mother’s ashes onto the stage during a performance at BST Hyde Park. Similarly, Cardi B had water thrown at her during a concert in August 2023, and Bebe Rexha was hit with a phone in June 2023, causing injury.
Harry Styles and Kid Cudi have also faced similar disruptions, with Styles being hit in the eye by a Skittle during a 2022 show in Los Angeles and Kid Cudi cutting his Rolling Loud set short due to fans throwing bottles at him.
In addition to these incidents, Wallen recently faced legal troubles for his own object-throwing episode.
On April 7, he was arrested for allegedly throwing a chair off a rooftop bar in Nashville, just days after starting his One Night At A Time North American tour.
He was charged with three counts of reckless endangerment and one count of disorderly conduct. The case is set to continue later this summer, with the next hearing scheduled for Aug. 15.
Despite his legal woes, Wallen’s popularity continues to soar. His collaboration with Post Malone, “I Had Some Help,” recently rebounded from 2-1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking its sixth non-consecutive week at the top. The song, Post Malone’s sixth leader and Wallen’s second, spent its first five weeks on the list at No. 1 beginning upon its debut in May.
The collaboration is the first to log six weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2024, surpassing the five weeks on top (of six in total dating to late 2023) for Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me.” No song has led longer since Wallen’s “Last Night” rang up 16 weeks, nonconsecutively, at No. 1 in March-August last year.
“I Had Some Help” also hits No. 1 on the Radio Songs chart, becoming a rare title that has topped the all-format airplay tally as well as the Country Airplay survey.
By now, Zach Bryan fans know what to expect from his music: overwhelmingly mid-tempo, acoustic guitar-based songs that are inevitably going to pack a punch. Without ever changing his inflection much, Bryan’s songs continue to deliver an emotional wallop thanks to his economical, but cinematic, trenchant lyrics. You wouldn’t think he could be much more […]
What’s better than some new country music on the Fourth of July? Zach Bryan unveiled his highly anticipated new album, The Great American Bar Scene, on Thursday (July 4) via Warner Records. Guests on the set include Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer, Noeline Hofmann and John Moreland. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See […]