Country
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“Dirt Cheap” hitmaker Cody Johnson has collaborated with artists like Jelly Roll (they recorded “Whiskey Bent” on Johnson’s album Leather album) and Terri Clark (the two performed “I Just Wanna Be Mad” on Clark’s Take Two album). But he has his sights set on a duet with the reigning CMA and ACM entertainer of the year winner.
During a recent interview with Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton, Johnson said he’s long aimed at doing a collaboration with Lainey Wilson.
“I’m going duck hunting with her boyfriend Duck [Devlin “Duck” Hodges]. I guess that’s how he got his name, because he’s really into hunting,” he said. “I heard Loretta Lynn’s ‘Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man.’ I called Lainey and said we should record that song together, and she agreed. But we haven’t done it yet.”
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“Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man,” a collab by Lynn and Conway Twitty, reached No. 1 on Hot Country Songs in August 1973 and received a Grammy nod for best country vocal performance by a duo or group.
It’s safe to say Wilson has been busy of late, having just released her new album, Whirlwind. Johnson, whose song “Dirt Cheap” is in the top 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, also revealed that another country music A-lister, Luke Combs, had been pitched “Dirt Cheap”– but Johnson got to it first.
Johnson said of Combs, “He didn’t click on it. So here’s to you Luke! He didn’t listen to it until I after released it. He thought the title looked familiar. I talked about it afterwards — had some choice words to say about ‘Dirt Cheap.’ I said, ‘Everything happens for a reason.’”
Recently Johnson headlined a rodeo in Brazil, at Cowboy Festival Barretos. “They called me, and we sold the thing out,” he said. “That’s pretty cool.” The festival has been around since the 1950s and has previously featured headliners including Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Shakira, Mariah Carey and Shania Twain.
The primary question around Texas country singer Randall King for the last several years has not been if will he break through on a national stage, but when? The answer could well be 2024, as Warner Music Nashville releases a single to country radio. “I Could Be That Rain” has a classic sound that draws from his ‘90s-country influences, and a weather-beaten lyric that rings true to his Amarillo roots.
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“I just flat out love storms, man, being from West Texas, how open it is, how flat,” he says. “They say you can watch a dog run off for three days out there. And you can watch the thunderheads just rolling in, and it’s beautiful.”
The emotions in “I Could Be That Rain” aren’t nearly as beautiful, though, as they are twisted. The protagonist finds himself shut out by his ex, with no chance to get close to her again. If only he could take the place of a rain shower, he could manage to touch her once more. Morphing into a downpour might be a little sci-fi for country, but the broken heart behind it grounds the story.
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“It’s just so real,” King says. “That’s what country music should be.”
Songwriter Mason Thornley developed the title and concept circa 2021 when he heard Brit-pop artist Labrinth’s 2014 ballad “Jealous” on Spotify. That song goes through a list of people and natural elements that may be sharing space with an ex, leaving the singer frustrated that his love interest is moving on when he cannot.
Thornley focused specifically on the rain in the opening image of “Jealous,” believing that that smaller concept could be built into something much larger. “I always thought that was a whole country song in itself,” he says.
Thornley developed the chorus hook and opening line, “Wish I could be that rain,” and wrote the front half of the chorus, personifying a downpour. As raindrops, he fantasized, he could touch his ex’s skin or sing her a song through the rhythm of raindrops on a tin roof.
He pitched the idea in several writing appointments, but didn’t get any traction. Finally, he got a good reception for his rain song during a writing appointment at the office of his publisher, the aptly named Deluge Music. Artist-writer Brian Fuller, one of Thornley’s frequent writing partners, thought humanizing the rain was a bit of an outlier concept, but he saw that as a positive.
“The wackier or weirder the idea, the more interesting it is to me,” Fuller says. “I like being able to chase hooks like that and just see [what happens]. Sometimes they turn out great. Sometimes they don’t turn out at all. But I really loved it. I mean, it wasn’t anything that I hesitated on at all.”
They finished the back half of the chorus – the first line in that exercise, “Wish I could move some clouds into your sunshine,” might be the song’s best – then moved to the first verse, pitched significantly lower to create some drama in the chorus.
“I like to write those big, overarching choruses a lot of times, if you got a singer in the room who can do it,” Thornley says. “Brian’s got a great voice, and it’s not a problem for him to go up and hit those notes.”Going low in the verse allowed for introspection. For that first stanza, they used a July shower to make the protagonist nostalgic, recalling the romantic moments the couple experienced in the rain. For the second verse, the singer contemplates how, if he had morphed into rain, he could affect her in ways he could not as a human.
“It’s not that I’m going to text her, or I’m going to go try to see where she’s at, if she’s at a bar that we used to hang out at, or she’s with her friends,” Fuller says. “I’m not going to drive by her house and see if she’s home. If there’d be a unique way to do this, if there’d be a way that I could get back to her and make her think about me, I know that the rain would be the way to do it.”
They didn’t cut a demo immediately, but when Thornley was on vacation months later, Fuller discovered that Parker McCollum was considering outside songs for a project. “I Could Be That Rain” seemed like a potential match to Fuller, so he asked Thornley if they could finish the demo. Thornley worked on it during his downtime, and when he got back to Nashville, Fuller put a vocal on it.
“Rain” didn’t land with McCollum, so Fuller recorded his own version with producer Joey Hyde. When Durango artist manager Scott Gunter was shopping for a producer for developing vocalist Jake Jacobson, Hyde sent that recording among several others to demonstrate his skills. Gunter listened steadily to “Rain” for weeks before he realized that the song might work for King. Indeed, King was instantly attracted to it, though he called Fuller to make sure it was cool.
Once he got a thumbs-up, King and co-producer Jared Conrad recorded it at Nashville’s Soundstage in July 2023, intent on balancing his ‘90s proclivities with 2020s touches. “I wanted it to still be the traditional country sound that I have, but with a little bit of that darker, modern edge,” King says. “I have a Gary Allan/Dierks Bentley influence in me, that’s kind of ‘Smoke Rings in the Dark.’ And that’s what we wanted on this record. I wanted to put some ‘Smoke’ on it.”
The band played it three times at a slightly faster tempo with okay results, but on the fourth go-round, King suggested steel guitarist Justin Schipper take a more prominent role, playing the opening signature lick and handling the instrumental solo.
“Production-wise, we did try to take it a little more sad,” Conrad says. “I mean, just adding a steel guitar to it helps that immediately.”
King also wanted to weave the feel of rain on a tin roof into the sound. Tim Galloway hinted at that with a pulsing rhythm on bouzouki, a tinny-sounding Greek stringed instrument, but King heightened the effect by asking drummer Evan Hutchings to play in tandem with Galloway, tapping the metallic side of the snare.
When King sang the final vocals for the album, Into the Neon, he held “Rain” back until the end, fearful that its range might destroy his voice for the rest of the songs. “This is by far the hardest record I’ve ever sang in my life,” he says. But he handled a couple full run-throughs well, then Conrad changed things up to focus on specific parts of the song.
“We just chopped it up into the sections so I could do all the low verses together and then move into the choruses,” Conrad says. “But I’m assuming he had practiced it a lot, because in the studio, it felt super natural.”
Warner Music Nashville released “Rain” to country radio via PlayMPE on July 10, making it his first single the label has worked nationally to primary stations. King is confident in its potential.
“It’s a song that people can relate to,” he says. “People understand when you’re hurting and missing somebody. You’re hoping that they hurt and miss you, too. That’s as straightforward as it could go.”
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Sometimes a dream becomes a wish that comes true. That is clearly the case for Post Malone, who shared a video on Monday (August 26) in which he is playfully snuggled up with his duet partner: country icon Dolly Parton. “Don’t have the heart to break yours @DollyParton,” the rapper-turned-country-cronner labeled the X post accompanying a nine-second clip of the dynamic duo sharing smiles during a photo shoot.
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With the sound of the camera shutter clicking in the background, Malone, 29, strikes a silly arms-wide-open pose at first, as Parton, 78, leans her head into his chest, a broad smile on her face. “You are amazing, I’m so… I can’t believe it, my heart’s beating so fast,” Malone tells his musical hero Parton, who shifts positions, taking Posty’s hands and positioning them so that he’s hugging her around the waist from behind as the photographer breaks out in a loud laugh.
Parton posted an Instagram video from the meet cute two weeks ago, writing, “@postmalone’s always said nice things about me and I’ve always appreciated it. He’s got such a big heart.” In the video Malone tells Parton, “whatever you need from me in the whole world,, I’m there,” as the two joke around, with Dolly yanking on Post’s baseball hat and complaining that he’s too tall as he crouches down to meet her eye. Legendarily polite, Malone repeatedly says “yes ma’am” as the two make small talk, with Dolly remembering that she saw a picture of a custom suit Malone wore in 2019 covered in images of the country superstar.
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In the lyric video for the song, Malone flips through a bunch of Parton memorabilia, including a vintage 1979 Dolly pinball machine.
The look of sheer joy on Malone’s face in the pics (see below) in that moment is palpable and he has good reason to be elated. His debut country LP, F-1 Trillion, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (dated August 31) with 250,00 equivalent album units earned in its opening week, according to Luminate; the album is also Posty’s first No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart.
In addition, all 18 songs from the standard edition charted on the Billboard Hot 100 – including all 15 collaborations – led by former six-week No. 1 smash with Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help” at No. 2.
Check out the sweet moment between Malone and Parton below.
Luke Bryan was among the dozens of country artists honoring the late Toby Keith during a Nashville taping at Bridgestone Arena in July as part of the two-hour NBC concert special Toby Keith: American Icon, which will air Wednesday (Aug. 28) from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET/PT, and Billboard has an exclusive look at […]
Nearly a decade ago, as a college senior, rising country singer Kassi Ashton signed a record deal with Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN)/Interscope Records. Now 30 — and following the success of her highest-charting single to date — the California, Mo. native will finally release her anticipated debut album, Made From the Dirt, on Sept. 20.
Foundation
Singer-songwriter Ashton is a study in contrasts: a motorcycle enthusiast who designs and crafts many of her stage and red-carpet outfits from scratch (including for this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards, where she was nominated for new female artist of the year). As a child, she competed in pageants mostly as a vessel for showcasing her music. Even then, her vocal prowess was apparent, thanks to influence from vocalists including Adele, Aretha Franklin and (later) the country-soul of Chris Stapleton. Ashton soon started writing original songs, enrolling at Nashville’s Belmont University to study commercial voice and music business.
Discovery
In 2016, as college graduation neared, Ashton signed a management and publishing deal with Nashville-based Creative Nation. By 2017, she scored a label deal with UMGN in partnership with Interscope. But the ensuing years were spent refining her sound and weathering setbacks, with none of her singles promoted at radio — and no debut album. “I never felt like I should quit,” she says. “When I signed, they wanted me to go straight to radio. I said no because I didn’t have a song I wanted to sing for the rest of my life.” Her first full-length was also delayed by the pandemic in 2020, but in 2022, she finally issued her debut country radio single, “Dates in Pickup Trucks,” followed by “Drive You Out of My Mind.” The two songs built momentum, but this year’s “Called Crazy” has resonated most, rising to No. 32 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. “It came so easy,” she says. “I felt like I was finding a pillar.”
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Future
Nearly a decade after inking her label deal, Ashton will release her long-awaited debut album, Made From the Dirt, on Sept. 20. She teamed with longtime collaborator Luke Laird, as well as Oscar Charles, to craft an eclectic mix of uptempo jams (“I Don’t Wanna Dance”), grungy rock gems (“Son of a Gun”) and a heartfelt tribute to her late grandmother (“Juanita”). “I couldn’t have made this album at 23,” Ashton says. “It would have been rushed and not steady with who I am as a person. I can’t wait to see how what I’ve put energy, time and tears into is connecting.”
A version of this story appears in the Aug. 24, 2024, issue of Billboard.
After seven years on her label, Tenille Townes and Sony Nashville have parted ways. Though Townes has achieved much success in her native Canada, including winning 15 Canadian Country Music Association Awards over the past five years, her Stateside career never experienced the same liftoff, even after winning the ACM Award for new female artist of […]
Post Malone is back with another massive week on Billboard’s charts, thanks to his new album F-1 Trillion.
The set launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (dated Aug. 31) with 250,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening week, according to Luminate. That’s the second-biggest week of 2024 for a country album, following the opening frame of Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter (407,000 units) in April. F-1 Trillion also becomes Post Malone’s first No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart.
All 18 songs from F-1 Trillion’s standard edition chart on the Billboard Hot 100 – including all 15 collaborations – led by former six-week No. 1 “I Had Some Help” at No. 2. Here’s a recap (all of which are debuts except where noted):
Rank, Title:No. 2, “I Had Some Help,” feat. Morgan Wallen (holds at No. 2; spent six weeks at No. 1 in May-July)No. 13, “Pour Me a Drink,” feat. Blake Shelton (up from No. 30; peaked at No. 12 in July)No. 17, “Guy for That,” feat. Luke Combs (up from No. 36; returns to peak)No. 23, “Wrong Ones,” feat. Tim McGrawNo. 25, “Losers,” feat. Jelly RollNo. 34, “California Sober,” feat. Chris StapletonNo. 40, “What Don’t Belong to Me”No. 42, “Finer Things,” feat. Hank Williams Jr.No. 50, “Nosedive,” feat. Lainey WilsonNo. 54, “Yours”No. 56, “Have the Heart,” feat. Dolly PartonNo. 60, “Goes Without Saying,” feat. Brad PaisleyNo. 63, “Missin’ You Like This,” feat. Luke CombsNo. 65, “Hide My Gun,” feat. HARDYNo. 66, “Devil I’ve Been,” feat. ERNESTNo. 78, “Never Love You Again,” feat. Sierra FerrellNo. 83, “M-E-X-I-C-O,” feat. Billy StringsNo. 88, “Right About You”
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(The standard edition of F-1 Trillion was released on Aug. 16 and sports 18 songs. Later on Aug. 16, Post Malone released a deluxe reissue, dubbed the “Long Bed” edition, with nine additional solo tracks by the singer.)
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Post Malone also charts a 19th song on the latest Hot 100: Taylor Swift’s former two-week No. 1 “Fortnight,” on which he’s featured, ranks at No. 55. The haul marks a new weekly best, surpassing his 18 entries on May 12, 2018, when his album beerbongs & bentleys made its chart arrival.
With 15 debuts, Post Malone ups his career total to 95 career Hot 100 entries. Of those, 48 have reached the top 40, 13 have made the top 10 and six have hit No. 1. He first appeared on the chart dated Sept. 26, 2015, with his breakthrough hit “White Iverson.”
Multiple guests on F-1 Trillion make notable visits to the Hot 100. Thanks to his feature on “Finer Things,” Hank Williams Jr. tallies his fourth career entry on the chart, and first since “A Country Boy Can Survive (Y2K Version),” with Chad Brock and George Jones, in 2000. Before that, he had last charted in 1964 with “Long Gone Lonesome Blues” and “Endless Sleep.” “Finer Things,” at No. 42, is now the highest-charting song of his career.
With her role on “Have the Heart,” Dolly Parton adds her 22nd career Hot 100 hit and second this year, after “Tyrant,” with Beyoncé. Before that, she had last charted via her featured turn on Brad Paisley’s “When I Get Where I’m Going” in 2006. This marks the first calendar year that Parton has charted multiple songs since 1985, when she logged two duets with Kenny Rogers—“The Greatest Gift of All” and “Real Love.”
Plus, Billy Strings scores his first career Hot 100 entry thanks to his featured appearance on “M-E-X-I-C-O.” The 31-year-old bluegrass star has already forged a successful history on Billboard’s rankings, including seven career entries on the Bluegrass Albums chart:
Peak Position, Title, YearNo. 3, Turmoil & Tinfoil, 2017No. 1 (25 weeks), Home, 2019No. 10, An OurVinyl Sessions (EP), 2019No. 1 (9 weeks), Renewal, 2021No. 1 (16 weeks), Me / And / Dad, 2022No. 6, Meet Me at the Creek / Pyramid Country / Must Be Seven / Meet Me at the Creek (Live at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Winston-Salem, NC 3/4/23), 2023No. 1 (5 weeks), Live, Vol. 1, 2024
He has spent 55 total weeks at No. 1 on the Bluegrass Albums chart in his career (encompassing the No. 1 runs of his four leaders). That’s the fifth-most since the list launched in 2002, after Alison Krauss (242), Steve Martin (83), Nickel Creek (82) and Old Crow Medicine Show (66).
Three of his albums have also reached the Billboard 200: Renewal (No. 82 peak), Me / And / Dad (No. 37) and Live, Vol. 1 (No. 58). He has also raked in six Grammy Award nominations, winning for best bluegrass album in 2021 for Home.
The final nominations for the 58th annual CMA Awards will be revealed on Monday, Sept. 9, at 7 a.m. CT, with the complete list also being posted on the CMA Awards’ website. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news This year’s CMA Awards will be held Wednesday, Nov. 20, […]
Porter Wagoner‘s golden, rhinestone-crusted bootsand intricately stitched wagon-wheel cuffs provide some showbiz flash for the cover.
But inside photographer Ed Rode‘s coffee-table book Songwriter Musician: Behind the Curtain With Nashville’s Iconic Storytellers and Players, a series of static images captures a raw sense of dozens of creators affiliated with Music City.
The Chicks make goofy faces for the camera, informal Luke Bryan plays guitar with his shoe scuffing a couch, Dolly Parton gets lost in personal nostalgia, Dierks Bentley strikes a pose next to the mud-covered pickup that brought him to Nashville, and George Strait flashes a smile under a blue clear sky, though his eyes suggest a bit of sorrow or weariness.
People operate in a dynamic world, and through constant movement, convey multiple feelings at a time. When they reveal a little more than intended, a shift in expression or a gesture can cover the deep emotions when they rise to the surface. But a still photo, taken at the right moment, can capture a fleeting window to something intangible in the subject that might have been perceptible for a millisecond.
Given the emotional disposition at the heart of music, Rode’s portraits bring depth to a range of familiar artists and not-so-public songwriters and musicians. Self-published Aug. 20 by Ed Rode Photography, Songwriter Musician is more than 30 years in the making, drawing on the thousands of music-related photos he’s accumulated since moving to Nashville in 1990.
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“The way I like to shoot photos — as a photojournalist, as a documentary photographer — is capturing moments, capturing people as they are, trying to reveal personalities, trying to really tell a story,” Rode says. “I want to tell a story with one photo.”
Writing about music, it’s been said, is like dancing about architecture — words can never fully capture the pitch of an A-flat or the snarl of a Telecaster. Likewise, a photo can’t convey the spiritual tone of a scintillating mandolin or the raucous volume of an amped-up honky-tonk. But Rode’s photo of bluegrass icon Bill Monroe, leaning against a tree as he plucked his Gibson F-5 Master, provides a sense of Monroe’s relationship to his instrument. And a two-page spread of Keith Urban and Steven Tyler jamming in front of a packed house at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge captures the exuberance in the room, even if the page itself is silent.
Rode relates to the joy in the Urban-Tyler club collaboration and to the necessity that drove Monroe to play for 10 minutes impromptu for an audience of one in a Tennessee field.
“When he started playing, it was [like] breathing,” Rode says. “That’s the way I feel. I wake up every morning and I want to pick up a camera, I want to go make a photo. I want to capture a moment that won’t be repeated again. I dream about it. To me, I’m the luckiest SOB in the world. I do something that I absolutely love.”
Rode’s younger years set him on a path that’s obvious in hindsight. He grew up in a Midwestern home where Chet Atkins and The Beatles were frequently on the turntable. He had an affinity for drumming that ticked off his teachers and his Catholic-school principal, who was able to monitor classes from his office.
“I would be there banging the heck out of the desk,” he remembers, “and over the loud speaker, I’d get, ‘Rode, stop drumming.’ And to me, that was like fuel.”
He apprenticed at The Grand Rapids Press in Michigan, learning his craft while shooting photos at rock concerts, car wrecks, political speeches and basketball games. Shortly after accepting a job at The Nashville Banner in 1990, he got an assignment to cover a No. 1 party, where he met Atkins, the same guy whose albums were part of his childhood soundtrack. Atkins took a liking to Rode and had him over to his Music Row office a number of times. And, as Rode got enmeshed in the city’s creative community, Atkins encouraged him to think about doing some sort of documentary on Nashville’s songwriters and musicians.
Within a few years, Rode went freelance, shooting album covers, Music Row parties and concerts, and he built a significant catalog of candid shots and official portraits. He pitched the coffee-table book to publishers periodically, but never got a bite. Finally, with the aid of several investors, he designed and released the book on his own, uncertain of its commercial value but convinced of its historical importance. It captures plenty of familiar faces — Taylor Swift, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn and Chris Stapleton, just for starters — but also features a number of “insiders,” including songwriter Bob McDill (“Good Ole Boys Like Me,” “Amanda”), guitarist Mike Henderson, songwriter Dennis Morgan (“Smoky Mountain Rain,” “River of Love”) and producer Chris DeStefano (Chris Young, Chase Rice).
Rode holds an affinity for his subjects’ work.
“I feel like we both start with blank slates,” he explains. “Back in the day, you put a blank roll of film up and you’d shoot. You start with nothing. And when you’re writing a song, you got a piece of paper in front of you and a pencil or whatever and you start with nothing, and then out comes something. And I kind of felt that kinship a little bit.”
Rode is selling Songwriter Musician from his website, but even though his 30-year project is complete, the work is not.
“I haven’t stopped shooting songwriters,” he says. “The day I step off this earth, you can probably call my career done. But up until then, it’s really easy to pick up that camera and carry it with me everywhere I go.”
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In today’s crop of new releases, Thomas Rhett nods to the impact of Eric Church’s songs, Drew Green teams with HARDY, and Amythyst Kiah pairs up for a new track with Billy Strings.
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country songs of the week below.
Thomas Rhett, “Church”
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Thomas Rhett’s new album, About a Woman, teems with romantic songs about his relationship with wife Lauren. Among them is “Church,” which recounts days of idyllic early romance through the lens of various songs from singer-songwriter Eric Church, including “Sinners Like Me” and “Springsteen,” that are part of their love story. Nostalgia and vivid story songs have always been key elements of TR’s musical catalog, and here he meshes imagery of Church’s signature Ray-Ban sunglasses and red bandana into recollections of the moments that Church’s songs served as the soundtrack to relationship milestones. As always, TR offers a conversational tone to his music, perfect for this autobiographical track.
Amythyst Kiah feat. Billy Strings, “I Will Not Go Down”
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Kiah and bluegrass luminary Strings team up for this powerful declaration of self-preservation and fortitude. Kiah turns in a regal, determined rendering, as Strings further elevates this full-throttle track with vocals and fleet-fingered musicianship. “If I’m to be left all alone/ I’ll kill the beast all on my own,” Kiah sings. “I Will Not Go Down” is featured on Kiah’s upcoming album Still + Bright, out Oct. 25 on Rounder Records.
Maggie Antone, “One Too Many”
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Virginia native Antone is poised as one of country music’s most fearless new artists, thanks to her unvarnished songwriting, vocal swagger and viral hits such as her recent “Johnny Moonshine.”
Like all the songs on her new album, Rhinestoned, out now on Love Big/Thirty Tigers, this solo write from Antone churns with clever one-liners, unflinching slice-of-life depictions (in this song’s case, the highs and lows of a night out on the town) and is steeped in honky-tonk country, helmed by Antone’s distinct twang. On “One Too Many,” she revels in a night out with some of her friends — Jack Daniel’s, Johnnie Walker and Mary Jane, who “rolled up and she got me stoned.” Though later in the song she wakes up to the hazy consequences of such a night out, she’s honest about the unrelenting allure to try it all again the following weekend.
Nate Smith, “Fix What You Didn’t Break”
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Smith has earned two No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits and seems poised to add to his slate of rock-fused country constructions with his latest. The production here delves into the surging rock of 2000s pop, with slightly distorted vocals and careening guitars, all propelling this soul-salvaging tale as he thanks his lover for looking past his emotional wreckage from previous heart-shattering breakups and aiming to “fix what you didn’t break.” As always, his voice is a gem. “Fix What You Didn’t Break” is from upcoming album, California Gold, is out Oct. 4.
Drew Green feat. HARDY, “Colorado”
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If this boot-stomping Green/HARDY collaboration feels familiar, it’s because Florida Georgia Line previously released this tune back in 2019. Written by HARDY, Green and Hunter Phelps, this radio-ready party anthem finds them escaping heartbreak in Appalachia thanks to good buddies, plentiful alcohol and other vices. This churning track is sure to find an audience with weekend revelers and fans of either artist’s music.