Country
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Plenty of country songs have rested through the years on the drinking habits of the lonely. Merle Haggard’s “Misery and Gin,” Moe Bandy’s “Barstool Mountain” and The Charlie Daniels Band’s “Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye” all find broken-hearted men numbing their hurt with a little liquid medication at the tavern.
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It’s a good bet that the vast majority of country listeners know at least something about that plot, which makes them likely to appreciate Vincent Mason’s first radio single, “Wish You Well,” in which the singer processes the passing of an old relationship by downing a few at the bar.
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“This guy and this story, I’ve definitely lived it — and definitely lived it recently,” Mason says. “But I think it’s better than to try to get it back.”
The scenario is well-suited for a steel-soaked ballad, though “Wish You Well” defies that expectation. It trips along behind a buzzy guitar at a speedy pace, the melody flying by so quickly it’s easy to miss most of the words and catch only pieces of the story before it becomes familiar.
“Right from the beginning, it’s got that acoustic riff, and it’s moving really quick,” Mason notes. “I’m a big John Mayer fan — I came up on that when I was learning how to play guitar — so that slap flick kind of pattern on the guitar, it’s fun for me to play.”
The song owes its existence to the title of songwriter Blake Pendergrass (“Relapse,” “Days That End in Y”) and the tenacity of co-writer Geoff Warburton (“Best Thing Since Backroads,” “But I Got a Beer in My Hand”). Pendergrass stumbled across the hook during a brainstorming session, with the “wish you well” payoff line mashing up a common courtesy with a well drink. He envisioned a series of wishes in the song, with the singer attempting to escape his lack of fulfillment by downing the house whiskey instead of a particular brand. He introduced the idea during a songwriting session around the fall of 2022, receiving a mostly cool reception. Warburton was in the room that day, and he liked it enough that he continued to ask about it periodically over the next year.
Finally, during a four-person writing appointment on Oct. 3, 2023, at a studio owned by writer-producer Chris LaCorte (“23,” “Wind Up Missin’ You”), Warburton asked about “Wish You Well” again. This time, the collective response was enthusiastic, and they dug into it with abandon as Warburton kicked into a rapid groove on guitar. They tackled the chorus first, loading up the opening lines with a half-dozen wishes — “Wish you would call/ Wish you would miss me” — in a fairly repetitive cadence.
“That first half of the chorus came out pretty fast in the room,” Warburton remembers. “Everyone was ping-ponging ideas, and it just kept falling into place really fast.”
After following that wishful tack for four busy lines, they shifted into syncopated rhythms in the next four, simultaneously changing the lyrical focus as they barreled to the “wish you well” drink at the end.“Once we had that first half,” Warburton says, “we’re like, ‘OK, maybe we chill on the wish stuff.’ ”
After a pause, they repeated the hook for good measure.
“There’s a lot of information in the chorus,” says co-writer Jessie Jo Dillon (“10,000 Hours,” “Am I Okay?”). “I always think when a song does that, you need to either let the song breathe or repeat the hook as a tag because someone just had to digest a lot of information.”
The chorus took up enough real estate that they had little space left for the verses. Still, they compressed more wishful thinking into those stanzas. The opening line has the guy drinking three shots, parallel to a “Jim Beam genie” granting him three wishes. Pendergrass wasn’t certain that would go over when he suggested it. “I got a little bit of pushback on stuff like that,” he says. “I love doing weird, kind of quirky lines like that. Thankfully, they let me run down that road a little bit.”
Jim Beam is a small contradiction: The song hinges on a generic well drink, but the genie employs a specific brand. “He’s like, ‘Maybe I’ll start with the good stuff,’ ” Dillon says with a laugh. “Then, he’s wasting all his quarters on the jukebox, so he has to scale it back. I’ve so been there.”
That jukebox makes its appearance in the ultra-short second verse, and they specifically named an old-fashioned model instead of a modern, digital version — to rhyme “quarter” with “order,” and to carry out the wishing motif: The guy is throwing coins in a music machine instead of a fountain. “Who wants to sing about typing in your Apple Pay on the TouchTunes on your iPhone?” LaCorte asks rhetorically. “It’s a little less poetic.”
For a quickie bridge, they extended the wish motif – at closing time: He’s still alone and decides to wish upon a “2 a.m. star.” While the words pass fast throughout the song, they flow smoothly, allowing the listener to get absorbed in its musicality. “That’s one of my main priorities when I’m writing, is that I want to make sure that there’s nothing that sounds unnatural in the phrases,” Pendergrass says.
LaCorte whipped up a sparse, mostly acoustic demo with Pendergass singing lead. And Warburton developed a simple, melodic guitar riff. “I’d just been noodling,” Warburton recalls. “Chris was like, ‘Oh, what’s that? Put that in there.’ ”
“Wish You Well” became a favorite for Hang Your Hat Music GM/executive vp Jake Gear, who was hired as Universal Music Group Nashville vp of A&R in March 2024. Around then, he gave the demo to Mason, who was signed to MCA Nashville, without any kind of suggestion that he might want to cut it.
But Mason fixated on it and, after a month of listening, committed to it. The demo was strong enough that they used it as the foundation for the master recording, and the guitar was so rhythmic that they flirted with skipping drums. Ultimately, Aaron Sterling added parts, first playing cajon, though he gradually moved to a more standard kit.
“We were kind of like, ‘Play the drums, but don’t draw attention to the drums,’ ” Mason recalls.Mason had trouble making the words feel distinct when he cut the lead vocal, so he came back twice, and they cut the tempo both times, finally settling at 169 beats per minute, about six beats slower than the original pace.
“It’s a very wordy song, a very fast song, and there’s a lot of syncopation to that melody,” LaCorte explains. “It takes a lot [of] reps so [that] it comes out naturally. But it definitely helped once we backed it down a few clicks.”
Justin Schipper overdubbed steel and Dobro, and Josh Reedy from Thomas Rhett’s road band delivered harmonies, which get a stark highlight in the final chorus in engineer Dave Clauss’ mix. The track was so commercial that MCA took it to country radio on Feb. 13, making it Mason’s first cut that was serviced to broadcasters. It’s at No. 56 after three charted weeks on the Country Airplay list dated March 29.
“Growing up listening to country radio, I think you kind of just know,” Mason reasons. “It’s just got that X factor and that little bit of a hit thing, and I think it has the best chance on a first listen to grab people’s ear.”
Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, Luke Bryan, Cody Johnson, Megan Moroney and Keith Urban are among the acts who will appear at Nissan Stadium as part of CMA Fest, which will run June 5-8 in Nashville and span 10 stages.
Also slated for Nissan Stadium are Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley, Jordan Davis, Riley Green, Ella Langley, Ashley McBryde, Parker McCollum, Rascal Flatts, Red Clay Strays, Darius Rucker, Shaboozey, Black Shelton, Zach Top and Bailey Zimmerman.
Four-night stadium passes range from $240 to $1,061, while single-night stadium ticket starts at $79.80.
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CMA Fest, which began in 1972 as Fan Fair, will spread across Music City on stages both free and paid. The event has a new partner, bank and financial services company SoFi, in a multi-year partnership.
MŌRIAH will kick off the Chevy Riverfront Stage on Thursday morning, performing the national anthem. Other artists playing that stage over the festival run include Gavin Adcock, Tanner Adell, Cooper Alan, Drew Baldridge, Sam Barber, Gabby Barrett, George Birge, Tyler Braden, Colbie Caillat, Ashley Cooke, Dasha, Jackson Dean, Marcus King, Randall King, Brandon Lake, Chris Lane, Ella Langley, Maddie & Tae, Dylan Marlowe, Kameron Marlowe, Max McNown, Midland, Megan Moroney, Ian Munsick, RaeLynn, Redferrin, Josh Ross, Conner Smith, Austin Snell, Alana Springsteen, Thelma and James, Tigirlily Gold, The War And Treaty, Hudson Westbrook and Tucker Wetmore.
Appearing on the Dr. Pepper Amp Stage at Ascend Park are Rodney Atkins, Frankie Ballard, Casey Barnes, Danielle Bradbery, Blanco Brown, T Graham Brown, Karley Scott Collins, Billy Dean, Tyler Farr, Filmore, Josh Gracin, Ty Herndon, Braxton Keith, Erin Kinsey, Lakeview, Edwin McCain, John Morgan, Kylie Morgan, Jerrod Niemann, Jamie O’ Neal, Mason Ramsey, Owen Riegling, Emily Ann Roberts, Reyna Roberts, Kaylee Rose, Shaylen, Sister Hazel, Iam Tongi, US Navy Band Country Current, Darryl Worley, Charlie Worsham and Jake Worthington.
Artists playing The Chevy Vibes Stage at Walk of Fame Park are Angie K, Graham Barham, Blessing Offor, Craig Campbell, Dillon Carmichael, Mackenzie Carpenter, Ashland Craft, Kashus Culpepper, Dailey & Vincent, Jade Eagleson, Exile, Mickey Guyton, Kelsey Hart, Tayler Holder, Greylan James, Willie Jones, Tiera Kennedy, Vincent Mason, Madeline Merlo, Drake Milligan, Lorrie Morgan, David Nail, Meghan Patrick, Dylan Schneider, Shenandoah, MaRynn Taylor, Thompson Square, Pam Tillis, Lauren Watkins, Mark Wills, Rita Wilson and Waylon Wyatt.
The Good Molecules Reverb Stage at Bridgestone Plaza’s line-up includes Willow Avalon, Maddox Batson, Laci Kaye Booth, Brenn!, Franni Rae Cash, Chapel Hart, Julia Cole, Preston Cooper, Kolby Cooper, Wesley Dean, Melanie Dyer, Madeline Edwards, Mae Estes, Carter Faith, Lanie Gardner, Cole Goodwin, Fancy Hagood, Jack Wharff and The Tobacco Flats, Max Jackson, James Barker Band, Just Jayne, Alexandra Kay, Zach John King, Matt Lang, Bryce Leatherwood, Hannah McFarland, Walker Montgomery, Will Moseley, Elizabeth Nichols, Adrien Nunez, Scoot Teasley, Cameron Whitcomb, Blake Whiten, Austin Williams and Eli Winders.
Acts will perform free at The Hard Rock Stage with a slate that includes Ashley Anne, Palmer Anthony, Hayden Blount, BODHI, BoomTown Saints, Luke Borchelt, CECE, Hayden Coffman, Abbey Cone, Crowe Boys, Eddie and The Getaway, Sterling Elza, Brian Fuller, Giovannie and The Hired Guns, Colt Graves, Reid Haughton, Christian Hayes, The Heels, Hueston, Solon Holt, Preston James, Jason Scott & The High Heat, Britnee Kellogg, Alex Lambert, LECADE, Trey Lewis, Tyler Joe Miller, MŌRIAH, Clayton Mullen, O.N.E The Duo, Harper O’Neill, Pistol Pearl and the Western Band, Peytan Porter, RVSHVD, Sacha, Matt Schuster, Sophia Scott, SKEEZ, Kevin Smiley, Payton Smith, Liam St. John, Colin Stough, Troubadour Blue, Leah Turner, Alli Walker, Carson Wallace, Brendan Walter, Chandler Walters, Jay Webb, Wesko, Angel White and Sam Williams.
All artists perform for free to benefit the CMA Foundation, with a portion of ticket proceeds supporting music education programs. CMA Fest will be filmed for a special airing on ABC and Hulu later in the summer.
For more details and ticketing options, go here.
Lady A member Charles Kelley and his wife Cassie let fans in on a secret on Tuesday (March 25), revealing that they are expecting their second child this fall. In an Instagram post shared by the couple, they captioned the photos, “Biggest surprise of our lives! Baby Kelley coming early fall 2025 🍼👶🏻🤰🏼 Big brother […]
Maren Morris has announced the release date for her anticipated fourth studio album, Dreamsicle. The 14-track LP is slated to drop on May 9, with the first single, “Carry Me Through,” slated for release on Thursday morning (March 27). Morris has been doing a slow reveal of the new album on her newly wiped Instagram […]
Kenny Chesney, June Carter Cash and musician-producer-label exec Tony Brown have been given country music’s highest honor: They were named as the latest inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame during a ceremony held Tuesday (March 25) at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
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CMA CEO Sarah Trahern, Country Music Hall of Fame CEO Kyle Young and Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill revealed this year’s slate of individuals who have been named as the latest inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Country Music Hall of Fame launched in 1961, and “since then it has been the ultimate recognition of country music excellence,” Trahern told the audience.
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“We honor not just talent, but impact, not just success, but legacy,” Trahern added.
The three inductees will be inducted during the annual Medallion ceremony, set for later this year.
Chesney will be inducted in the modern era artist category. During his career, he’s become known for massive concerts, 33 No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits, his passionate No Shoes Nation fanbase, and his work ethic. Though Chesney released his debut single in 1993, it wouldn’t be until 1997 that he earned his first No. 1 with “She’s Got It All.” From there, he kept amassing songs that connected with fans, and in 2000, he earned a triple platinum Greatest Hits collection that included songs such as “How Forever Feels,” “That’s Why I’m Here,” “Don’t Happen Twice” and “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy.” He appeared on George Strait’s stadium tours in 1999 and 2000, which sparked his desire to create a career and sound that was solely his. His album No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems debuted at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, and he soon sold out the University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium, while hits such as “There Goes My Life” and “I Go Back” kept coming. He’s now won four entertainer of the year awards from the Country Music Association and an equal number of EOY wins from the Academy of Country Music.
He continues breaking new ground as the first country artist to set a residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas. He’ll release his first book, Heart*Life*Music, later this year.
“I always felt like country music told a lot of truth,” said East Tennessee native Chesney on stage at the Country Music Hall of Fame. “It’s also fueled by a lot of dreams. I had a really big dream that not a lot of people saw coming. My dream started on the shoulders of the dreams of George Jones. It was built on the shoulders of the dreams of Randy, Teddy, Jeff and Mark of Alabama, Conway Twitty, Doc Watson,” he said.
“I wanted to spread as much positive energy as I possibly could. I just want to say thank you. This is beautiful,” Chesney concluded.
June Carter Cash will be inducted in the veteran’s era artist category.
As the daughter of Maybelle Carter (who in 1927 formed The Carter Family along with Sara and A.P. Carter), Virginia native June Carter Cash grew up in show business, teaming with her sisters Anita and Helen, along with Maybelle, to form Mother Maybelle and The Carter Sisters. The Carter Family laid much of the foundation for commercial country music and Carter followed in their musical footsteps, learning to play autoharp by age 10 and appearing on the Carters’ radio broadcasts. She also developed a talent for comedy, developing stage characters such as Aunt Polly Carter. A multi-faceted entertainer, in the 1950s through 1970s, she appeared on Gunsmoke, The Adventures of Jim Bowie and Little House on the Prairie. She was in the 1958 film Country Music Holiday, 1986’s remake of Stagecoach and multiple episodes of hit primetime Western drama Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
The Carter Sisters joined Johnny Cash’s roadshow in 1961, sparking what would become one of music’s most well-known love stories. As a songwriter, Carter Cash wrote with Merle Kilgore what would become Johnny Cash’s 1963 hit “Ring of Fire,” which spent seven weeks atop Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart. Carter and Cash wed in 1968. They won Grammys for their collaborations on “Jackson” and “If I Was a Carpenter.” Carter Cash was also a bedrock of support for Nashville’s greater music community, offering respite for artists at the couple’s Hendersonville, Tenn., home, including artists such as Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Larry Gatlin. She also continued recording her own projects, and her 1999 album Press On won a Grammy for best traditional folk album. Carter Cash died on May 15, 2003, at age 73. Her final album, Wildwood Flower, released posthumously that same year, earned Grammys for best traditional folk album.
Carter Cash’s children, Carlene Carter and John Carter Cash, were on hand to accept the induction news for their mother.
“I can’t tell y’all what this means to us, to our whole family,” Carlene said. “My mom was a force of nature. Everything she did, she did with grace and style and finesse and humor. I was so proud to be her daughter. Anything that Is good about me is because of that woman.”
John Carter added, “You look up here — will the circle be unbroken. Of course that song has ancient origins, but there’s one person who sang that song more than anyone else in her lifetime and that was my mother, June Carter. She was a songwriter, a musical historian, a comedian, but she carried the torch for country music history with her though her lifetime. Millions of people knew Carter Family songs because of my mother … She appreciated the music, but she brought it all together with a laugh. ‘Anchored in love’ is one of her life mottos, and ‘press on.’ But blessed to be here today. She did not know a stranger …she would be so grateful for this.”
June Carter photographed circa 1965.
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Producer, label exec, musician and North Carolina native Tony Brown will be inducted into the non-performer category, which rotates every three years with the songwriter and recording and/or touring musician categories.
Early in his career, Brown spent time playing in bands for the Oak Ridge Boys, Elvis Presley, Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris. He played on Harris’ projects including Blue Kentucky Girl. As a label executive, Brown signed hitmakers including Alabama and Gill. As a producer, he had his first hit with Steve Wariner’s 1983 song “Midnight Fire,” produced with Norro Wilson.
In 1978, he joined RCA’s Free Flight Records; soon after it closed, he transferred to RCA’s Nashville division, signing group Alabama. In After heading back onto the road to tour with Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash’s The Cherry Bombs, Brown returned to RCA and to Nashville, signing Gill. Brown moved from RCA to MCA Nashville, helping it become country music’s kingpin label in the 1990s and becoming president of the label. He brought Gill to MCA and signed artists including Patty Loveless and Marty Stuart and developed working relationships with artists including Wynonna Judd, and production relationships with artists including George Strait and Reba McEntire. He also aided numerous Americana artists, signing and producing artists including The Mavericks, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett and Allison Moorer. He left MCA to co-found Universal South Records with Tim Dubois in 2002.
Tony Brown speaks onstage during the Country Music Hall of Fame Inductee Announcement at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on March 25, 2025 in Nashville.
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Brown has won six Grammys and is a member of the Gospel Music hall of Fame. His accolades also include Leadership Music’s inaugural Dale Franklin Leadership Award, the ACM’s icon award and the Americana Music Association’s lifetime achievement award. He’s aided record sales of more than 100 million units during his career.
Taking the stage, Brown said, “I’ve had a lot of big things happen in my life and career — this is the biggest. This is cool, I don’t care who you are. I’m totally blown away … never ever imagined that I would be. Thank you to the CMA, the Hall of Fame, Vince Gill, all the people who helped me get here … the engineers, songwriters, song pluggers. This is better than money … this is about making an impact and when it comes down to it, that’s the reason we all get into this business, to make an impact.”
Trisha Yearwood added to her lengthy list of career accolades on Monday (March 24), when she was honored with the 2,805th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, during a ceremony held in Los Angeles.
Media personality Cody Alan, known for his work on SiriusXM and CMT, emceed the event, which honored Georgia native Yearwood’s numerous career milestones over the past three decades, and her journey from aspiring singer to multi-faceted entertainer, singer, author, television show leader, actress and businesswoman.
Two of Yearwood’s friends and fellow country artists, Reba McEntire and Carly Pearce, celebrated her at Monday’s ceremony.
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“What matters is the impact she’s continued to have on this industry, the genre, on me and on all of the next generation of female country artists,” Pearce said.
Pearce recalled several of the kind gestures Yearwood has made to her over the years, including greeting her backstage at the Opry and sending gifts from Yearwood’s line of pet products, for Pearce’s dogs Johnny and June, and inducting Pearce as a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
“What a full-circle moment and honor for me to get to be here to help usher in this historic achievement after all the times Trisha has stood by my side,” Pearce said. “She is as beautiful on the inside as she is the outside, and I believe her loved ones would say that she is the same, down-to-earth girl she has always been. I’m grateful to have such a wonderful blueprint for what it means to have an impactful career, but also most importantly what it means to be a good person. In an industry where people will chew you up and spit you out, Trisha is the warm hug. And don’t we all just need a Trisha Yearwood and a warm hug in our lives? This star is one not everyone will achieve, but where you belong.”
Yearwood’s fellow Hollywood Walk of Fame member McEntire recalled first meeting Yearwood at the ACMs in the 1990s, at a party after the show.
“I came by and sat with you and your mom…and I thought, ‘I love her already, she’s sittin’ with her mom,’ cause my mom and I were real close, just like you and your mom,” McEntire said. “Your dry sense of humor and wit won my heart….You were funny and the years just kept going by and we got to hang out and be with each other, we got to sing together and have dinners together. You taught me a lot about cooking on your cooking show and she was like, ‘Oh poor little Reba. I’m going to help her learn how to cook,’” she said with a grin. “And I appreciated that more than you know. But our friendship throughout the years means the world to me, because girls out on the road need a buddy and we are in the country music business where girls stick together. We have fun together, we complain and gripe to each other, because you can’t do that with anybody else, nobody else understands. So congratulations today, I’m thrilled to pieces for you…I love you with all my heart and congratulations.”
Among those in attendance was Yearwood’s husband and fellow country artist and Hollywood Walk of Famer Garth Brooks, who could be seen wiping away tears during the ceremony.
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce president/CEO Steve Nissen introduced Yearwood to the audience and welcomed her to accept her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The ceremony also took place near the iconic Capitol Records building, which also happens to be the place where Yearwood recorded her 2019 album Let’s Be Frank, an album of Frank Sinatra classics.
“This street represents creative genius, innovation, brilliance, recognized by your peers,” Nissen said, before Yearwood was presented with a resolution from the city council of Los Angeles.
Yearwood said, “It’s one of those surreal moments. My team, Team TY, who are all here and who I love, we all talk about being where your feet are and I’m trying to be where my feet are, but it’s very surreal to be here. It’s such an honor and the thing that makes it so special are the people who are here. I see a lot of faces in the crowd, who have been coming to see me since 1991. I love you and you know that, because all I ever wanted to do was to sing.”
To Pearce, Yearwood said, “Carly, your words were so kind. I want to tell you that when I met you for the first time, it was at a CMT Awards show and I just immediately knew that you were genuine. I knew I wanted to be your friend. So it’s been my honor to get to know you a little bit.”
Of McEntire, Yearwood said, “The person that taught me how to do that was the first artist who was so kind to me at an awards show and that was Reba McEntire, who just exemplifies friendship and class. She sent me flowers at my first awards show when nobody even knew I was in the dressing room. I though they were from my mom and dad and then I saw they were from Reba and I’m like, ‘Oh, okay.’ I’m so blessed that you and I have become more than just colleagues, but friends that get to hang out, because you’re right. There’s a misconception that female artists in particular are always climbing at each other and trying to get at each other, but the truth is, we’re all cheering for each other and with each other. This is an example of that. These girls, from every generation of country music, we’re all for each other.”
She also thanked the members of her team, Team TY, saying, “We are a team, I love you so much.” She added, “My family, my sister Beth, who is the crier, more than my husband actually. Her and her husband John are here representing our parents, who I know are here in this moment and just loving every second, especially my mom. She’s loving a star on Hollywood Blvd.” Yearwood continued by thanking her longtime producer Garth Fundis, saying, he is “the man who brought me ‘She’s in Love With the Boy,’ he brought me ‘The Song Remembers When,’ he brought me ‘Walkaway Joe,’” and thanked him for “helping me make my dreams come true.”
She also thanked her husband Brooks, calling him, “the one who has really been a cheerleader and one who, as many accolades and awards as he has won, I never see him get more excited than he does when I receive something. And for all the people who want this for me, nobody wants it more than you and I appreciate you for being my support. We’re down a few stars from each other, but we’ll figure out something, we’ll put out some breadcrumbs or something,” she added, jokingly. “I want to thank you all for taking out your time on this gorgeous day to be here for this star.”
McEntire and Pearce then joined Yearwood to reveal Yearwood’s newly minted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Among the Georgia native’s accolades are three Grammy wins, three CMA Awards, membership in the Grand Ole Opry and the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, the ACM Honors icon award and CMT’s inaugural June Carter Cash humanitarian award. She won her first Grammy for best country vocal collaboration, for a collaborative rendition of the Patsy Cline classic “I Fall to Pieces” with Aaron Neville. She picked up two more wins, for best female country vocal performance (“How Do I Live”), and for best country collaboration with vocals (“In Another’s Eyes”) with husband Garth Brooks.
The Belmont University alumna has amassed numerous hits including her breakthrough “She’s in Love With the Boy,” as well as “How Do I Live,” “XXXs and OOOs (An American Girl),” “The Song Remembers When,” “I Would’ve Loved You Anyway,” “Believe Me Baby (I Lied),” and “Thinkin’ About You.”
Beyond the 15 albums she has released, she is also host of the Emmy-winning Food Network show Trisha’s Southern Kitchen. She’s written four New York Times bestselling cookbooks and has had cookware, furniture and home accessories lines. She also co-owns the Nashville bar Friends in Low Places with Brooks, with menus created by Yearwood.
Ahead, Yearwood is prepping her upcoming new album, which will feature her own work as a songwriter on each of the tracks. She’s previewed the project with the lead song “Put You in a Song.” Beyond her own business initiatives, Yearwood supports a range of charitable causes, including her longtime work with Habitat for Humanity, her support for breast cancer research and her nonprofit Dottie’s Yard which aids shelters and animal rescue causes.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame launched in 1961. Other country artists with with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame include Brooks, Roy Acuff, Clint Black, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Brooks & Dunn, Freddy Fender, Lefty Frizzell, Crystal Gayle, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Loretta Lynn, McEntire, Tim McGraw, Buck Owens and Charley Pride.
This week’s collection of new music features a somber new track from Eric Church, who has set his upcoming album, Evangeline Vs. The Machine, for May. Jeannie Seely welcomes Hannah Dasher and Tiera Kennedy for a new collaboration, while Lukas Nelson, Valerie June and Riley Roth offer new music.
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country, Americana and bluegrass songs of the week below.
Eric Church, “Hands of Time”
Horns, guitars, passionate choral voices and Eric Church’s signature swaggering voice swirl together on this new release written by Church and Scooter Carusoe. The song builds into a punchy, rock-fueled anthem as Church sings of turning to simple pleasures — particularly music — to fend off the impact of the passing decades. “We ain’t as young as we used to be, but young at heart is so easy/ When you let some loud guitars and words and rhymes handle the hands of time,” he sings, giving praise to artists including Kris Kristofferson, Tom Petty and Bob Seger; suitably, the sound of a ticking clock winds down the song. “Hands of Time” is from Church’s upcoming new album, Evangeline Vs. The Machine, out May 2.
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Lukas Nelson, “Ain’t Done”
After parting ways with his longtime band Promise of the Real in 2024, Lukas Nelson transitions into his first solo outing with “Ain’t Done,” from his upcoming debut solo album American Romance, out June 20 on Sony Music Nashville. Written by Nelson and Aaron Raitiere, “Ain’t Done” pulls back on the hard-charging, full-band sound, opting for a more bare-bones sound bolstered by slabs of fiddle. He looks at life’s various shifts with an even-keeled perspective, in a song that seems in some ways to mirror his own current season of musical transition. “There’s a guarantee with every evening sun/ Nothing lasts and God ain’t done,” he sings. Though in a newly solo venture, Nelson’s new music still brims with the insightful songwriting and grizzled voice he’s known for.
Valerie June, “Sweet Things Just For You”
Valerie June previews her upcoming album Owls, Omens and Oracles (out April 11 on Concord Records) with this musical collaboration with Norah Jones (on backing vocals) and producer M. Ward. Breezy and straightforward, this romantic track finds June singing about absorbing the light and positivity from a significant other, and desiring to mirror that love and affection back toward them. Plucked guitar bolsters this sweetly sung piece of sincere affection, which offers a charming glimpse into June’s upcoming project.
Jeannie Seely, Hannah Dasher and Tiera Kennedy, “Who Needs You”
“Miss Country Soul” Jeannie Seely, who has performed more than 5,400 times on the Grand Ole Opry during her 58-year career, teams with a new generation of country artists — Tiera Kennedy and Hannah Dasher — on this twangy post-breakup anthem that feels perfectly suited for a girls’ night out. Written by Seely, “Who Needs You” features the three entertainers musing that 100-proof whiskey, a new romance and some moments of recreational smoking are all preferred alternatives to returning to an ex-lover. Seely’s voice brings in a slice of gritty wisdom, Dasher’s vocal purrs with sweetness, while Dasher offers up both humor and wit. “Who Needs You” is one of a slate of collaborations Seely is releasing, including work with Mae Estes (“Let’s Get Together”) and Madeline Edwards (“Anyone Who Knows What Love is (Will Understand)”).
Riley Roth, “Right Where We Left Off”
After releasing the 2024 TikTok wedding anthem “Give Me Away,” Riley Roth returns with a sentimental new song centered on paying homage to unbreakable friendship. Time and distance can’t chip away at the rock-solid bond these friends have forged over years of supporting each other through heartbreak, life pivots and a host of trials and triumphs. This sweetly sentimental track and churning, bubbly instrumentation fits her soft, conversational voice well. “Right Where We Left Off” was written by Roth with Lauren McLamb and Kyle Schlienger.
North Carolina native John Morgan currently has a Billboard Country Airplay top 10 hit with his Jason Aldean collaboration “Friends Like That,” and is gearing up for his debut album, Carolina Blue, out April 25.
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But in a true “only in Nashville” kind of moment, both of those milestones came courtesy of not only innate talent and ambition — but also one propitious Uber ride, when a conversation about songwriting led to Morgan sharing his contact information with the driver. At first, nothing came of the incident, but months later, the two had another chance meeting in Music City. The driver passed Morgan’s music onto his buddies, who happened to be longtime Jason Aldean collaborators/bandmates Tully Kennedy and Kurt Allison. Morgan began co-writing with them, and soon got a call from Aldean himself.
“He was just like, ‘I really dig what you’re writing. I like your style,’” Morgan recalls of the conversation. “It was the fact that he saw me not only as a writer, or just a track guy, but he saw me as an artist. He’d never seen my show or anything, just heard the demos and the songs.”
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Carolina Blue will release on Aldean’s Night Train Records, his imprint with BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville, while Aldean also signed Morgan to a publishing deal with Triple Play Music, the publishing company Aldean launched with Allison and Kennedy.
Beyond “Friends Like That,” other highlights on the album include the ode to his Carolina roots in the title track, as well as a mix vulnerable songs and up-tempo grooves including the rural anthem “Long Ride Home,” “One More Sunset,” and the breezy, romantic “I Know Better,” and the introspective “Kid Myself.” Strains of his myriad influences, from bluegrass to John Mayer’s guitar work, can be heard throughout.
Morgan’s musical roots began to take shape when he started taking piano lessons alongside his uncle and two cousins. “Two of us hated piano, so I switched to guitar and my cousin switched to banjo, and we just started jamming together,” Morgan recalls. Those jam sessions evolved — and by 10 years old, he was steadily playing local gigs and bluegrass festivals as part of the family bluegrass band.
“I did that circuit for about 10 years. It was a big part of my life and childhood, middle school through high school,” Morgan says. “It’s funny, I met [fellow country artist] Zach Top through that, at the Darrington Bluegrass Festival]. He was playing mandolin in his own family band.”
That time in the bluegrass music scene served as a catalyst for Morgan to craft his own songs.
“Having been doing traditional bluegrass for so long, you’re playing the same song as everybody else is playing, every version. I was like, ‘I got something to say. I want to write my own stuff.’ And that’s when I really chased that, for sure,” he says.
For a time, he gave up his musical ambitions and planned to work at his father’s property management business in North Carolina. He purchased property and was fixing up an old house on the land when a moment of realization shifted his perspective: “It just hit me out of nowhere, like, ‘Man, I’m not happy. I got everything going [on] outside and it looks great, but I knew music was missing in my life, so I moved to Nashville.”
He calls his Nashville arrival in 2020 “a daunting thing,” adding, “I lived in an apartment with one of my best friends and the rent was like almost two grand a month. Obviously, living in a city was a big change but it was just making friends, networking and figuring out how to get my foot in the door.”
He quickly became a versatile creator and asset in the writing rooms, learning how to track and mix songs, and fashion demos. “YouTube was my best friend, and I had a few guys that let me shadow them and watch their process,” he says. “I credit that a lot for two things: getting me into better writing rooms, and also finding my voice. If I was writing with two or three writers, they’d want me to sing the demo. With bluegrass, nobody cared how you sang — they cared how you play. I knew I could sing, but I didn’t know what my voice was, so doing those demos helped me figure out what felt good for me.”
Five years later, Morgan has forged a career as both an artist in his own right, as well as an in-demand songcrafter. He wrote on eight songs for Aldean’s Macon, Georgia double project, including the chart-topper “Trouble With a Heartbreak,” and the Aldean/Carrie Underwood 2022 ACM Award-winning single of the year, “If I Didn’t Love You.” Morgan has also written songs recorded by Jon Pardi (“Hung the Moon”) and Thomas Rhett (“Country For California”).
Carolina Blue follows Morgan’s 2023 EP Remember Us?, which featured a solo version of “Friends Like That.” Co-writing each of the dozen songs on Carolina Blue, Morgan has filled the project with songs he’s stacked up over the past few years, working with co-writers including Allison, Will Bundy, Ben Hayslip, Kennedy, Randy Montana, Jordan Schmidt and Lydia Vaughan.
Managed by Rich MGMT and booked by Wasserman, Morgan says his new album aims to connect listeners with his own story, while giving them universal songs to find their own point of relation. “I tried to capture that effect on this project of giving people different tastes of what I love and what I grew up listening to, but also keeping that identity as an artist,” Morgan says.
Below, Morgan — Billboard’s Country Rookie of the Month for March — opens up about his journey, his influences, working with Aldean and more.
Jason Aldean joins you on a new version of “Friends Like That.” How did that collab end up on the record?
I think we pitched it to [Jason] initially and it didn’t fit his record at the time. I released that song I guess two years ago and put it on the streaming world and shortly after that he reached out and said, “I’d love to look at doing a collab with you.” We got in the room and wrote some stuff together and got some cool stuff, but were never sold on it together. This song was doing its thing in the streaming world, so I said, “What if we reworked it? It fits both of our lanes. Sonically, it has that driving guitar and it’s a subject matter we can both sing about.” We went in and revamped it to make it its own thing.
Who else would you love to collaborate with?
I really love Cody Johnson. He’s just one of those guys that can absolutely rip. And he’s also just a great guy, has great messages in the song.
What is one album you never get tired of listening to?
Eric Church’s [2009 album] Carolina. I’ve been a fan of his and what he’s done over the past several years, just doing what he feels like is him in the moment. But that album specifically was inspiring to me. Casey Beathard is one of my favorite writers. It’s unbelievable what he can do with a hook. And truthfully, the [2009] Wide Open record from Aldean was a big influence, too.
You’ve written hits for other artists. When you moved to Nashville, did you at any point ever aim to be solely a songwriter?
It crossed my mind a lot, because I’ve got two kids now. The biggest thing you have to let go of [to be an artist] is your time. It crossed my mind, but I try to stay focused on the bigger picture. [Being an artist], it’s not only an outlet to provide for my family but also an outlet for people who have been in my corner from the beginning to take care of their families.
“Kid Myself” feels like a maturing, yet apologetic look at some past decisions. What inspired it?
That kind of pulls the curtain back a little bit on my personal life, a sense of a relationship that I was in back home in that whole time period where I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and taking my dad’s business over and all that. I was dating a girl and it was getting to a serious point where it was like, we either do this or don’t. I feel like “Kid Myself” is in a way, an apology and a sense of, “I’m sorry that it was such bad timing. I’m sorry that I was just a kid myself, too.”
What are your must-haves on the road?
It’s changed a bit, but I love a good, bottled whiskey. Woodford [Reserve]’s always been my go-to, and there’s Buffalo Trace. I’m not too particular. The funny thing is we always had on our rider a veggie tray, a fruit tray and a bottle of whiskey to balance it out.
What is the best career advice Jason has given you?
He’s very unique, in the sense that he’s got a 20-year career as an artist himself, and now as a publishing head and a record label head. The biggest piece of advice he gave me was when we were putting the album together and he’s like, “Don’t cut album fillers. You don’t need fillers; you need hits.” That changed my perspective on what this album was going to be. I feel like some of ‘em aren’t teed up to be radio hits, but I just made sure every song we cut had a great hook, great melody and had the potential to be a single.
Would you ever want to put out a bluegrass album in the future?
That’s one of my bucket list things. I know the last time saw Zach [Top], I said, “Dude, whenever things get rolling for us, let’s get together and make a bluegrass album.” That would be awesome.
When newcomer Hudson Westbrook breaks into the chorus of “House Again,” his first single promoted to country radio, he draws the word “now-ow-ow-ow” across four greasy syllables.
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“It is not,” he allows, “the most normal way to do it.”
In fact, the line wasn’t written that way originally, but stretching the word creates an extra melodic effect and makes it linger, like the woman that the singer can’t get out of his mind. It fits the song’s images nicely, the word hanging around — just like her memory — haunting the hallways where every moment of lonely he “now” experiences seems to last forever.
That “now-ow-ow-ow” twist may be a defining moment in Westbrook’s growth. Just 20 years old, the former Texas Tech student has only been playing guitar for four years and writing songs for two, so he’s still figuring out who he wants to be as an artist and musician. But retooling that one key word in the chorus shows his ability to personalize a piece of music and bring out its central meaning.
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“Hudson likes to sit with songs,” says “House Again” co-writer Neil Medley (“Made for You,” “Hung Up On You”), who has penned about a dozen songs with Westbrook. “What I get back from him that we’ve written is always a little different, but it always falls right into what Hudson does best. I think if he were a video game, he unlocked a skill that day of knowing how to [tap into] his artistry. That was his voice that did that, and he made it so hooky.”
Neither Medley nor co-writer Dan Alley (“Country Song Came On”) knew Westbrook when they wrote with him for the first time on June 4, 2024, at the River House office in Nashville, where all three were signed.
“To be honest,” Alley says, “I had never heard of Hudson.”
Uncertain what to expect, Alley and Medley went through possible topics in a phone call the night before, though it turned out they didn’t need them.
“Hudson came in hot with probably five or six just really solid ideas right off the bat and blew me away,” Alley recalls. “One of them was basically the concept of a girl turning a house into a home. [We were] building a story around that, whether it was going to be positive, whether it was going to be negative.”Medley and Alley had both written songs before using a house-and-home foundation, so they dug in, looking for a different angle they could explore.
“I said, ‘Well, I want to write a song about a home that turned into a house again,’ ” Westbrook says. “They were like, ‘Well, that’s the hook.’ Honestly, I didn’t even know if the idea was writable.”
As Westbrook does routinely, they wrote it in chronological order from the first line.
“You got to set the scene before you sing about the scene,” he reasons.
They started with an image, “This kitchen used to be a dancehall,” that introduced the household theme while incorporating his Lone Star roots. Westbrook leaned emotionally on his parents’ divorce, inserting himself into a situation he had witnessed at age 7. Similarly to George Jones’ “The Grand Tour,” the song proceeded through the house, with nods to the bedroom, the window and the front door, each of them triggering some thought of the woman who no longer resided there. Medley concocted a video in his mind that helped capture the mood.
“I’m walking through these rooms in my head, and I can see what’s missing, what she left behind that used to mean something,” Medley recalls. “Everything we were trying — maybe not ‘Doorbell don’t ring,’ but the porch swing, the kitchen where they’re dancing together — we wanted to, for the most part, try to connect it with them as a couple.”
The lyrics played out primarily as a narration until the end of the second verse, when the singer finally lets loose with “What the hell did you do?” almost like a primal scream.
“It’s the primal ‘I’m screwed,’ ” Westbrook notes. “It’s the first time in the song that you really hear a point of anger.”
The whole process took place with strummed acoustic guitars ringing underneath.
“We kind of let Hudson run with whatever melody was in his head and didn’t try to really get in the way of that,” Alley says. “He’s just a very organic artist, and he loves to sing. He was singing a lot in the room, and everything was just kind of sticking.”
They recorded a very basic work tape; neither Alley nor Medley had a clue that day if Westbrook actually liked “House Again.” Westbrook didn’t know either, though he played with it periodically in the weeks afterward. He slowed it down about 10 beats per minute, and in the new tempo, that “now” lyric at the start of the chorus practically begged to get stretched out.
In September, he cut “House Again” at The Amber Sound, a homey studio in Nashville’s Hermitage neighborhood co-owned by producer Ryan Youmans (Muscadine Bloodline, Luke Grimes). They cast it sonically like Keith Urban’s “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” using bluesy triplets in tandem with a Hammond B-3 and a gritty electric guitar. Youmans revised a major chord near the end of the chorus as a minor one, heightening the self-pity in the text.
A day later, Westbrook returned to River House to do the final vocal with co-producer Lukas Scott (Austin Snell, David J). Scott used the room’s ambient side lighting to give the place a darker atmosphere, and Westbrook sang it like he meant it. The performance had some small quirks — he sings “pillow,” for example, as “pellow” — but those enhanced his authenticity.
“He does have unique little inflections and ways that he sings things, and sometimes, if he tries to change it, I tell him, ‘Don’t,’ ” Scott says. “His voice has so much character in the way that he sings those words.”
They got Kaylin Roberson to sing harmonies, allowing the song to subliminally hint at the woman who’s still inhabiting the singer’s mind, even if she’s no longer in his house.
“When you hear the female vocal and his vocal,” Scott says, “it can almost feel like there’s potentially a girl singing, and thinking the same thing.”
Westbrook thought initially that the song was too personal to appeal to anyone else, but River House vp/GM Zebb Luster suggested he might be overthinking it. The label released “House Again” to digital streaming partners on Oct. 18. It has rolled up more than 45 million streams since on Spotify alone, leading to a deal with Warner Music Nashville, which released it with River House to country radio via PlayMPE on Feb. 24. It debuted at No. 57 on the Country Airplay chart dated March 22. It’s at No. 31 on the multimetric Hot Country Songs list in its 19th charted week, creating a welcome dichotomy in his concerts.
“It did help get some stuff off my chest, and I do enjoy singing it with a fistful of anger every single night,” Westbrook says. “But how do you sing with a fistful of anger if you got 3,000 people singing along? You just can’t help but smile, so it’s been really cool.”
As he counts down to the May 16 release of his upcoming fourth studio album, I’m the Problem, Morgan Wallen is giving fans a taste of the project, releasing two new songs Friday (March 21).
He released the post heartbreak anthem “Just in Case,” and then leaned into greater reflections on “I’m a Little Crazy.”
Wallen wasn’t a writer on “I’m a Little Crazy,” which was penned by Hunter Phelps, Jameson Rodgers, Michael Hardy (HARDY) and Smith Ahnquist. The song delves into the mindset of someone acknowledging that they may have some unique tendencies, from keeping a loaded gun by the bedside to numbing the pain of watching the daily news, but looking at the greater reams of crimes happening in the world, they decide, “I’m a little crazy, but the world’s insane.”
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Meanwhile, “Just in Case” finds Wallen singing a tale of someone who just can’t quite move on from a past relationship. He wrote the track alongside Alex Bak, Blake Pendergrass, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, John Byron, Josh Thompson and Ryan Vojtesak.
These two new songs join previous releases “I’m the Problem,” “Love Somebody,” “Smile” and “Lies, Lies, Lies.” Wallen has also teased other songs, including a track written for his son, Indigo Wilder, called “Superman.”
The country artist has spent the past year on his farm, writing and creating the new project with with key collaborators including producers Charlie Handsome and Joey Moi, and it seems the album will be a deeply introspective one that not only acknowledges his past, but reveals more about the road ahead of him.
“I have been a problem, for sure, and I’ve got no problem admitting that,” Wallen said in a previous statement regarding his upcoming album. “But there are other sides to me as well. I’ve spent the last 11 months really trying to figure out, ‘Do I still want to be the problem? Is it time to move past that phase in my life?’ I think it probably is, and this might be the last time I get a chance to honestly say it.”
May 16 will simultaneously mark Wallen’s I’m the Problem album release, as well as serving as the first day of his inaugural Sand in My Boots Festival, set for Gulf Shores, Ala., on May 16-18. The festival’s lineup includes Wallen, Brooks & Dunn, 3 Doors Down, Diplo, Ernest, HARDY, Riley Green, Post Malone, T-Pain, Wiz Khalifa and more.
Beyond the festival and album, Wallen is also slated to perform on Saturday Night Live on March 29.
Hear “Just in Case” and “I’m a Little Crazy” below: