songwriting
Modern-day America is full of conspiracy theories. Among them: Votes have been changed by space lasers, birds aren’t real and large corporations are injecting vaccines into over-the-counter foods.
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With his new single, Luke Bryan unintentionally found a conspiracy that’s been grossly overlooked: Honky tonks have manipulated the population with magnets.
To be clear, that is a kooky – and unfounded – proposition, but it is true that country bars have an irresistible attraction for many of their customers. That internal pull is at the heart of Bryan’s “Country Song Came On,” released by Capitol Nashville to country radio Oct. 28 via PlayMPE.
The single’s protagonist is ill-equipped to say no to the joint’s alluring features, and his plan to get a good weeknight’s sleep is derailed by the pursuit of a good time. “I’ve certainly been drawn in, no shortage of times, by the vibes of a bar, and the right songs and the right ambience,” Bryan says.
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He knows that scenario from both sides of the fence: he’s paid the cover charge as a patron, and sang cover songs on a hole-in-the-wall stage.
“From the time I was 16 years old till I got my record deal, I [played] most of my concerts in little bars and honky tonks,” Bryan says, “so I spent a good 12, 13 years playing in those environments and playing the Merle Haggard songs and the Waylon Jennings songs and the Keith Whitleys and all that. So it’s nice to find one like this that really is authentically me.”
“Country Song Came On” found its genesis in a second-floor writing room on April 18, 2022, at SMACKSongs’ Music Row headquarters in Nashville. Songwriters Neil Medley (“Made For You,” “Hung Up On You”) and Ryan Beaver (“Pretty Little Poison,” “Party Mode”) had been co-writing frequently for more than a decade, but it was the first time they worked with River House writer Dan Alley.
Once they settled on the “Country Song Came On” title, the rest of the piece unfolded naturally, as they explored a regular guy who cedes control of his evening hours to a greater power. “It’s not my fault,” Alley says with a laugh. “It’s the song’s fault, or it’s the barstool’s fault.”
Beaver toggled on acoustic guitar between a tonic chord and a two-minor, adding a seventh note into the latter triad to give it extra color. Most, though not all, of the song resides in that simple back-and-forth interplay, as they crafted a bluesy melody over the top.
“I tend to play a lot of voicings,” Beaver says. “If there’s an A-minor, I’ll play it a couple of different ways, just for it to feel fresh or new or different. An A-minor is an A-minor, but if you add a seventh, or you play that A-minor in [a different] position, it feels different, sounds different. We were probably just all entertaining ourselves, but it’s really a lesson in simplicity, going back and forth between those two chords a lot.”
They had the opening line of the chorus (“I was gonna drive by, wasn’t gonna stop”) and the payoff lines (“I wasn’t gonna drink / But then a country song came on”) and mapped out the chords and melodic progression of the first verse and chorus before filling in the rest. Even though the start of the chorus was obvious, it didn’t have a typical lift.
“That character is not going to sing a big chorus,” Medley says. “It just never felt for one second that we needed it. It just felt like this groove is going on, so why take it out of that? Let’s just continue.”
Midway through that chorus, they switched up the phrasing and melody just enough to propel it forward, and they cemented the club’s magnetism once they settled on the lyric for that passage: “Wasn’t gonna let the bar twist my arm / But I’m helpless in a honky tonk.” Bryan suggested that second line could be a title on its own. “’Helpless in a honky tonk’ – we should write that at some point,” Medley quips.
They had the bar’s band cover a George Jones hit in the second verse, and gave “Country Song” a very subtle bridge, then did a work tape to end the day. As much as they liked it, they didn’t get around to demoing “Country Song” until the fall, using a four-piece band. Alley sang lead, unintentionally copping a Blake Shelton sound. Shelton and Bryan were their leading targets once their publishers started pitching it.
“There’s a lot of space in it, [and] it’s kind of traditional, just to leave a little space and not get too many words jumbled in there,” Alley says. “That kind of leans towards the old school.”
Bryan quickly put it on hold when he heard the demo in January 2023. Producers Jeff and Jody Stevens booked a different set of studio players than in past Bryan sessions for a recording date at Nashville’s Starstruck Studios. Steel guitarist Eddie Dunlap and guitarist Sol Philcox-Littlefield got plenty of space to set the sonic tone.
“Due to the title, I think we thought ‘Country Song’ was going to need a lot of steel on it,” Jody says.
Philcox-Littlefield enhanced that attitude by playing a growling baritone guitar instead of the light Memphis soul licks featured in the demo. “[Bryan] wanted something country and something straight ahead,” Jeff says.
Those two musicians played the most prominent role in defining the sound, and divvying up the parts was effortless. “I’ve been recording this kind of band ever since 1993,” Jeff says. “If they’re working well together – and they almost always do – by the time the second run-through comes through, they’ve kind of got their spots figured out.”
It jelled so nicely that even after Bryan stopped singing at the 3:06 mark, the band kept grooving another 50 seconds. “We could have made that outro about half as long,” Jody says, “but I don’t think it’d be as fun.”
Bryan’s final vocal, also cut at Starstruck, was just as effortless, given the easy nature of the song. He made one important revision, replacing Jones in the lyric with “ETC” – short for Earl Thomas Conley, whose songs Bryan covered frequently when he was playing barrooms.
“If people don’t know what ETC is, they’ll get online or Google, and maybe go dive into some deep, deep, deep cuts of Earl Thomas Conley,” Bryan says.
The ETC alteration uniformly impressed the writers. “That was the moment I realized, not only does Luke love this song, but Luke really cares still, this many years into his career, about his craft and about songs,” Beaver says. “And he made it his.”
“Country Song Came On” is as magnetic as the bar it celebrates, and it debuted on the Country Airplay chart dated Nov. 30, easily surviving the internal vetting process. If anyone suggests the decision to make it a single was contentious, consider it another conspiracy theory.
“Through the years, I’ve had songs that I really believed in, that not everybody believed in, and they worked out,” Bryan says. “This one’s funny, because everybody’s really on the same page and excited to see it come out.”
Award-winning songwriter Rhett Akins has signed with Jonas Group Publishing (JGP). Additionally, Jonas Catalog Holdings will acquire songs from Akins’s extensive catalog, while Warner Chappell Music will continue its long relationship with Akins and administer the copyrights.
Akins, who is a two-time BMI songwriter of the year winner, eight-time CMA triple play winner, Academy of Country Music songwriter of the decade recipient and a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, has had songs recorded by Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton and more.
Jonas Catalog Holdings has also acquired songs from his Little Brocephus Music,Ritten by Rhettro Catalogs. The acquisition includes songs such as “Love You, Miss You, Mean It” (Luke Bryan), “What’s Your Country Song” (Thomas Rhett), “To Be Loved By You” (Parker McCollum), “Half Of Me” (Thomas Rhett/Riley Green), “It Matters To Her” (Scotty McCreery), and “Red” (HARDY/Morgan Wallen).
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Jonas Group Publishing launched in 2020 and is a division of Jonas Group Entertainment, founded by Kevin Jonas Sr. in 2005. Jonas Group Publishing is led by JGP president Leslie T. DiPiero and is home to songwriters including Akins, Justin Ebach, Terri Jo Box, Franklin Jonas, Bailee Madison, Amy Stroup and the catalog of Julia Michaels.
“Rhett is an extraordinary songwriter,” DiPiero said in a statement. “Personally, I have admired his work since I first came to town. He is a master of everything that is great about country music. It is an honor to represent his catalog of excellence, and our entire team is looking forward to contributing to his continued growth and success.”
“I’ve seen Leslie’s dedication to songwriters for many years,” Akins said. “She is a friend of and advocate for creators. The impact the Jonas family has made on the music world is remarkable, and it is obvious their love for music and family is their driving force. You put all that together, and I think you have a pretty unstoppable squad that leads with their values. I am very excited to join Kevin, Leslie, and the whole Jonas Group Publishing team.”
“We are honored to welcome Rhett to our roster, along with his incredible catalog,” Jonas of Jonas Group Entertainment stated. “Rhett is an immensely talented songwriter whose contributions have shaped the landscape of country music and beyond. His catalog reflects not only his incredible talent but also his ability to create songs that resonate with audiences around the world.
“We are thrilled to bring Rhett’s body of work into the Jonas Group Publishing family, which would not have been possible without the support and expertise of our trusted financial partner, Corrum Capital Management. We must also thank Access Media Advisory and Teresa Miles Walsh, Dave and Ruscell Pavlin, Matthew Beckett, and Milom Crow Kelley Beckett Shehan PLC for providing valuable assistance throughout the purchase of the catalog. All of us at JGP look forward to celebrating and amplifying Rhett’s extraordinary artistry.”
The vibe for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame induction on Nov. 6 was a little odd.
Less than 24 hours after an election with results that many pundits see as a pushback against diversity, the Hall welcomed six new members whose output covered a nicely diverse stylistic landscape that touches on country, pop and R&B.
The class featured two performing artists — The Bellamy Brothers’ David Bellamy and late multigenre figure Tony Joe White — plus Liz Rose (“You Belong With Me,” “Crazy Girl”), Victoria Shaw (“I Love the Way You Love Me,” “The River”), Al Anderson (“Unbelievable,” “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright”) and Dan Penn (“Cry Like a Baby,” “Do Right Woman — Do Right Man”).
It was just the third time in the Hall’s 54-year history that two women were inducted together. Prior to Rose and Shaw simultaneously joining, Shania Twain and Hillary Lindsey (“Blessed,” “Jesus, Take the Wheel”) were installed in 2022, and Tammy Wynette and Kye Fleming (“Smoky Mountain Rain,” “Nobody”) were recognized in 2009.
“It’s extra special that there’s two women this time,” Shaw noted in her acceptance speech. “Someday we won’t have to point that out, but it’s still nice.”
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The diversity of the current class was represented by performances that ranged from swamp rock to gospel-flecked soul to pure country. Karen Fairchild applied a spiked tone to Little Big Town’s four-part harmony on Rose’s “Girl Crush,” Nikki Lane balanced a cutting vocal resonance against Kenny Vaughan’s smoky guitar on White’s bluesy “Polk Salad Annie,” and Garth Brooks milked the silence between the phrases in a folky rendition of the Shaw co-writes “A Friend to Me,” “She’s Every Woman” and “The River.” John Andersonoffered a greasy, driving interpretation of Bellamy’s “Redneck Girl”; Wendy Moten prefaced Penn’s induction with a dramatically dynamic version of the 1960s soul single “The Dark End of the Street”; and Vince Gill participated in Al Anderson’s segment by performing“Some Things Never Get Old,” a ballad Anderson recorded as a solo artist, with backing vocalist Carolyn Dawn Johnsonand bassist Glenn Worf.
Nikki Lane performs onstage during the 54th Anniversary Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame Gala at Music City Center on November 06, 2024 in Nashville.
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Acceptance in the Hall is notable. It’s an unpredictable — and thus, insecure — vocation, and sustained success is often elusive. Bellamy recalled that his father pestered him to develop a backup plan in the early part of his career, assuming that songwriting wasn’t likely to pay the bills. Jim Stafford’s recording of Bellamy’s “Spiders and Snakes” changed that, starting a hit list that includes “Old Hippie,” “Kids of the Baby Boom” and “If I Said You Have a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me.”
“My dad called me — I was on the road somewhere,” Bellamy noted during his speech. “He had been to the mailbox and got my first royalty check. He said, ‘Son, I think you’re going to be able to make a living at this.’ ”
For Al Anderson, songwriting built upon his guitar skills, burnished during a run in the eclectic band NRBQ. He became adept at creating hooky, uptempo songs.
“He knows 400,000 chords,” fellow songwriter Sharon Vaughan (“Powerful Thing”) said while inducting Anderson. “During the writing of a song, he uses about 200,000 of them before you get to the second verse.”
Anderson was enthusiastic. He enlisted fellow writer Tia Sillers (“I Hope You Dance”) to speak on his behalf, and she stood at his side on a box, placing her at his eye level. But Anderson still got in a few words before leaving the stage.
“It’s a beautiful thing, writing songs,” he quipped. “You can’t beat it. It’s just the shit.”
Penn’s induction embodied the country/R&B blend that has become increasingly prominent in country circles. He fashioned hits for the likes of Ronnie Milsap,Johnny Rodriguez and T.G. Sheppard in the 1970s, though his journey was rooted more typically in pop and soul. His career started in earnest in the Muscle Shoals region and took off after he moved to Memphis, where he scored with James & Bobby Purify’s recording of “I’m Your Puppet” and James Carr’s “The Dark End of the Street.”
“Dark End” exemplifies Penn’s ability to fuse styles. It rose to prominence in the 1960s, when he still lived in Memphis, though he authored it during a break in a Nashville poker game. Despite its soul history, “Dark End” authors David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren recognized it in the Country Music Foundation book Heartaches by the Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles. It fits both blue-collar genres in part because of its theme.
“We were always trying to come up with the best cheating song ever,” he was known to say, according to his inductor, songwriter Gretchen Peters (“Independence Day”).
White’s career path likewise wound through both Tennessee music capitals — son Jody White, in accepting his late father’s induction, recalled The Blues Brothers hanging out at the family’s house in Memphis and watching football at Waylon Jennings’Nashville home. White’s biggest copyright, “A Rainy Night in Georgia,” also transcended boundaries, providing soul singer Brook Benton with a classic recording and becoming a country hit for Hank Williams Jr.
“It just invokes a feeling of loneliness,” Jody said before ceremony, “and I think that’s what’s special about it. It’s hard to just make someone have that strong of a feeling by listening to your song.”
Rose is also a genre-hopper. While her songs have succeeded primarily in country, she’s co-written 17 Taylor Swift releases, and they include both country hits (“Tim McGraw,” “Teardrops on My Guitar”) and music from her pop era (particularly the 10-minute “All Too Well”).
Despite the ceremony’s proximity to a contentious election, the Hall of Fame demonstrated how songwriters can pull together even when they disagree. A bit surprisingly, during the course of the evening, neither presenters nor inductees mentioned the election.
“What’s great about this community, everybody’s walking in that room, [feeling] part of the music community as songwriters,” Rose said on the red carpet. “There should be no politics. We all love each other, and that’s being an American.”
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In 2003, Eminem made Oscar history with “Lose Yourself,” the first rap song to win best original song. Now he’s in contention for another top honor. He’s one of 26 songwriters or songwriting teams vying for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame this year.
Just six will be elected – three from 13 nominees in the performing songwriters category and three from 13 nominees in the songwriters category, which is reserved for non-performing songwriters. The six inductees will be celebrated at the SHOF’s 2025 Induction & Awards Gala in New York City, which is expected to be in June at the event’s usual home, the Marriott Marquis.
All but five of the 26 nominees are individuals. The five collaborations on the ballot are Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan; Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter; Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham; three members of The Doobie Brothers (Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald and Patrick Simmons); and five former members of N.W.A (Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella).
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Almost all the nominees are still living. The only exceptions are Sloan, who died in 2015 at age 70, and N.W.A’s Eazy-E, who died in 1995 at age 30.
The youngest nominees are Ashley Gorley and Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, both 47. The list includes four women – Franne Golde, Sheryl Crow, Janet Jackson and Alanis Morissette.
Several songwriters who are strongly associated with songwriters who were previously inducted into the SHOF are on the ballot this year – Walter Afanasieff (his frequent collaborator Mariah Carey was inducted in 2022), Roger Nichols (his frequent collaborator Paul Williams was inducted in 2001), Jackson (her brother Michael Jackson was inducted in 2002) and Mike Love (his Beach Boys colleague Brian Wilson was inducted in 2000).
The list includes eight members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Crow, Eminem, Jackson, George Clinton (who is in the Rock Hall as the leader of Parliament/Funkadelic), Love (who is in the Rock Hall as a member of The Beach Boys), Steve Winwood (who is in the Rock Hall as a member of Traffic), the three aforementioned members of The Doobie Brothers and the five aforementioned former members of N.W.A.
The list includes three members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Sonny Curtis was inducted into that body in 1991, followed by Tom Douglas in 2014 and Oldham in 2020. Curtis, 87, has had many pop and country hits, including “I Fought the Law” and “Walk Right Back,” but he may be best-known for writing “Love Is All Around,” the pitch-perfect theme song from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Three of the nominees are past winners of the Grammy for producer of the year (non-classical). Narada Michael Walden won that award in 1988, chiefly for his work with Whitney Houston. Afanasieff won in 2000, Dr. Dre in 2001.
A songwriter with a catalog of notable songs qualifies for induction 20 years after their first significant commercial release of a song.
Eligible voting members have until midnight ET on Dec. 22 to turn in their ballots with their choices of up to three nominees in each of the two categories.
Here’s a complete list of the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s 2025 nominees for induction. The SHOF supplied the five songs listed after each nominees’ name, which they stress “are merely a representative sample of their extensive catalogs.”
Songwriters
Walter Afanasieff – “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” “Hero,” “License to Kill,” “Love Will Survive,” “One Sweet Day”
Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan – “Secret Agent Man,” “Eve Of Destruction,” “Where Were You When I Needed You,” “You Baby,” “Can I Get to Know You”
Mike Chapman – “The Best,” “Love Is a Battlefield,” “Ballroom Blitz,” “Stumblin’ In,” “Kiss You All Over”
Sonny Curtis – “Love Is All Around (Theme from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”),” “I Fought the Law,” “Walk Right Back,” “More Than I Can Say,” “I’m No Stranger to the Rain”
Tom Douglas – “The House That Built Me,” “Little Rock,” “I Run to You,” “Grown Men Don’t Cry,” “Love Me Anyway”
Franne Golde – “Dreaming of You,” “Nightshift,” “Don’t Look Any Further,” “Don’t You Want Me,” “Stickwitu”
Ashley Gorley – “I Had Some Help,” “Last Night,” “You Should Probably Leave,” “Play It Again,” “You’re Gonna Miss This”
Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins – “Say My Name,” “The Boy Is Mine,” “You Rock My World,” “Déjà vu,” “Telephone”
Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter – “One Tin Soldier (Theme from “Billy Jack”),” “Don’t Pull Your Love,” “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got),” “It Only Takes a Minute,” “Country Boy (You Got Your Feet In L.A.)”
Tony Macaulay – “Baby Now That I’ve Found You,” “Build Me Up Buttercup,” “Don’t Give Up On Us,” “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All,” “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)”
Roger Nichols – “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “I Won’t Last a Day Without You,” “Out in the Country,” “Times of Your Life”
Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham – “I’m Your Puppet,” “Cry Like a Baby,” “A Woman Left Lonely,” “Out of Left Field,” “It Tears Me Up”
Narada Michael Walden – “How Will I Know,” “Freeway of Love,” “You’re a Friend of Mine,” “Baby Come to Me,” “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”
Performing Songwriters
Bryan Adams – “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” “Heaven,” “All for Love,” “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?,” “Summer of ‘69”
George Alan O’Dowd p/k/a Boy George – “Karma Chameleon,” “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” “Time (Clock Of The Heart), “Love Is Love,” “Miss Me Blind”
George Clinton – “Atomic Dog,” “Flash Light,” “(Not Just) Knee Deep,” “I’d Rather Be With You,” “Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)”
Sheryl Crow – “All I Wanna Do,” “Soak Up The Sun,” “If It Makes You Happy,” “A Change Would Do You Good,” “Everyday Is a Winding Road”
Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald and Patrick Simmons p/k/a Doobie Brothers – “Listen to the Music,” “Takin’ It to the Streets,” “Black Water,” “What a Fool Believes,” “Long Train Runnin’”
Marshall Mathers p/k/a Eminem – “Lose Yourself,” “Stan,” “Mockingbird,” “Houdini,” “Rap God”
David Gates – “Everything I Own,” “Make It With You,” “Baby I’m-A Want You,” “The Guitar Man,” “If”
Janet Jackson – “Black Cat,” “Together Again,” “Again,” “Got ‘til It’s Gone,” “Rhythm Nation”
Tommy James – “Mony Mony,” “Crimson and Clover,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” “Sweet Cherry Wine,” “Tighter, Tighter”
Mike Love – “California Girls,” “Good Vibrations,” “The Warmth of the Sun,” “I Get Around,” “Fun, Fun, Fun”
Alanis Morissette – “You Oughta Know,” “Ironic,” “Hand in My Pocket,” “Thank U,” “Uninvited”
Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella p/k/a N.W.A – “Express Yourself,” “Dopeman,” “Fu*k Tha Police,” “Gangsta Gangsta,” “Straight Outta Compton”
Steve Winwood – “Higher Love,” “Gimme Some Lovin’,” “I’m a Man,” “Valerie,” “Roll With It”
Bernie Taupin is slated to receive the Outstanding Career Achievement Award during the Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA) to be held on Nov. 20 at The Avalon in Hollywood, Calif. The show, now in its 15th year, honors composers, songwriters and music supervisors for their contributions in music for film, TV, video games and more.
Submissions for all HMMA categories are open through Oct. 31. The complete list of final nominations will be announced on Nov. 4.
Taupin, of course, is best-known for his long, hit-studded and award-winning collaboration with Elton John. The pair were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and received that organization’s top honor, the Johnny Mercer Award, in 2013. In 2020, they received both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best original song for co-writing “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from the hit biopic Rocketman. Earlier this year, they received the Library of Congress’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, as well as an Ivor Novello for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. Most recently, Taupin cowrote (with John, Brandi Carlile, and Andrew Watt) the original song “Never Too Late” for the Disney+ documentary Elton John: Never Too Late. The song is performed by John and Carlile.
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Remarkably, their only songwriting collaboration to receive a Grammy nomination was the soundtrack to the 1971 teen romance film Friends (no relation to the later TV megahit), which won best original score written for a motion picture or a television special. Go figure.
Taupin has also had some notable successes independent of John. He co-wrote Heart’s “These Dreams” and Starship’s “We Built This City,” both of which topped the Billboard Hot 100. He received a Grammy nod for best country song for cowriting “Mendocino County Line,” which was recorded by Willie Nelson & Lee Ann Womack. His song “A Love That Will Never Grow Old,” sung by Emmylou Harris for the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack, won a Golden Globe for best original song. Taupin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical excellence award category in 2023. Fittingly, John did the honors in inducing him.
Past HMMA Career Achievement Award recipients include Marc Shaiman, Kenny Loggins, Smokey Robinson, Diane Warren, Earth Wind & Fire, Glen Campbell, Dave Mason, John Debney, and Christopher Young.
Tickets are available now at: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/2024hmmawards/1419072. For more information, visit hmmawards.com.
In 2022, Riley Green notched his first No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hit with the Thomas Rhett duet “Half of Me.” Now, as he prepares to release his third studio album, Don’t Mind If I Do, on Friday (Oct. 18) on Big Machine Label Group, he’s seeing a fresh career surge with another duet, the flirty “You Look Like You Love Me,” a collaboration with fellow Alabama native and singer-songwriter Ella Langley.
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The song went viral earlier this year, but has proven to have staying power, currently at No. 10 on the Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 30 on the all-genre Hot 100.
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“I didn’t know that song was going to be the hit that it has become,” Green tells Billboard. “I thought it was a cool song and the talking in the verses were a great nod of the cap to traditional country music. Both of us being from Alabama and growing up in similar areas, we have the same kind of twang and our voices just kind of mesh well together. I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, so it’s been awesome seeing her success with this.”
That “nod to traditional country music” has been one key to the song’s success, as retro country sounds continue to make waves again in the format.
In a time when artists are putting out sprawling, pop-flavored albums, Green’s tightly-woven, 18-track project magnifies his devotion to country songwriting. Green wrote over half of the songs on the album, with a couple of his solo writes being among the standouts. That laser focus on writing comes naturally for Green, who has long taken inspiration from Georgia native and Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson.
“Alan wrote a lot of his own songs. I’ve co-written with some great writers and have had some big hits from co-writes and I’ve never stopped co-writing, but there’s also something authentic about writing a song by yourself,” Green says. “I think you perform those songs a little different, maybe. I grew up listening to CDs and listening to ’em top to bottom, so I want to always make my albums an experience to listen to.”
One of Green’s solo writes, the poignant story song “Jesus Saves,” unfurls the tragic life events that led a military veteran to end up by the side of the road, holding up a ragged cardboard sign.
“Some of those things that the guy had been through in that story were things that if any of us had gone through it, maybe we’d be in the same position he was,” Green says. “I think that was a way to try to help people be a little more compassionate. And I just remember that with that song after I wrote it, when I listened back to it, I felt something from it. I was the same way when I wrote [2020 hit] ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died’ and listened back for the first time. It choked me up a little bit. So, there’s always something special about songs that can do that. When fans feel that same way, it’s motivating and makes you want to continue to write those kinds of songs.”
On another solo write, he teams again with Langley for the love song “Don’t Mind If I Do.” From touring together to releasing multiple duets over the past few months, Green and Langley’s musical collaborations feel like a throwback to the 1970s, when artists like Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, as well as George Jones and Tammy Wynette, released numerous collaborative albums together.
Asked if Green and Langley might consider such a project, Green says, “Well at this rate, I think we’re working on it. We’ve got two songs this year, but I think that’s probably part of the success we’ve had. I think people kind of long for that storybook type of thing, the George [Jones] and Tammy Wynette, or Johnny [Cash] and June [Carter] and all that. You haven’t seen it in a long time—maybe Tim [McGraw] and Faith [Hill] would be the closest thing we’ve seen and I don’t have a problem leaning into that at all. I think she writes great songs and I love her voice so I think if there’s something else that comes along that fits, we’ll probably do it.”
Given the two artists’ creative chemistry, both vocally and in performance, Green says he understands why some fans have speculated that their compatibility extends into the romantic realm.
“With ‘You Look Like You Love Me,’ it’s a girl picking up a guy in a bar song, so I can totally see where that led fans to think something and then we go with ‘Don’t Mind If I Do,’ which is a more heartfelt love song,” Green says. “But we’re just great friends and I’m really a fan of her music, so it’s awesome to have this success with her on both these songs.”
Beyond “Don’t Mind If I Do” and “Jesus Saves,” the new album also catalogs a range of emotions, encompassing heartbreak anthems (“That’s a Mistake”), smoldering romance songs (“Worst Way”) and an older song, “Alcohol of Fame,” a lighthearted nod to boozy nights out.
“I had that title, ‘Alcohol of Fame,’ and I remember thinking, ‘How has someone not already written this?’ You have to start looking it up to make sure it wasn’t already a song, because it was such an obvious thing, but it’s a fun song to play,” Green says. “I wrote it a couple of years ago and it’s nice to finally be recorded and included on an album.”
For the tour announcement for Green’s 2025 Damn Country Music Tour, he again eschewed modern standards—instead of announcing with a social media graphic or brief video, Green turned to a retro, cinematic treatment.
He gathered with his tourmates, among them Langley, Erik Dylan, Vincent Mason, Jake Worthington, Drake White and Lauren Watkins, to create a parody of the 1977 Burt Reynolds film Smokey and the Bandit, complete with Green’s character “Duckman” nodding to Reynolds’ iconic role, while Langley’s “Smoke Show” pays homage to Sally Field’s character Carrie. Together, Green and Langley evade the cops in a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, while they use the CB radio to call out to the tour’s other opening acts, inviting them to join to head out on the road.
“Growing up, Reynolds was one of the coolest guys there was,” Green says. “I’ll never forget [in the movie] Happy Gilmore when a limousine pulled up and they said, ‘You must be Burt Reynolds or something.’ I feel like that’s how we all felt growing up. That was the most famous person around.”
“You Look Like You Love Me” has notched Green and Langley their first CMA Awards nomination in the musical event of the year category. At the Nov. 20 ceremony, Green is also thinking about who might take home entertainer of the year since he’s worked with so many of the nominees.
“There’s been so many people that have had such big careers. Luke Combs has been great and I toured with him last year. Lainey [Wilson] is having such a big moment and it’s really hard not to mention Morgan [Wallen], he’s had such a big moment. We went and played a show in the U.K. together [at BST Hyde Park in London] and it was the biggest country show they’ve had there. I don’t really need much more than that to kind of look his way.”
Outside of music, Green launched his Duck Blind bar in Nashville earlier this year, working with Nashville entrepreneur Steve Ford to open the space in the former Winner’s Bar and Grill location in Midtown, rather than adding another “star bar” on downtown Broadway.
“There’s nothing against anybody that’s got a bar on Broadway, I just never hung out on Broadway and I don’t know many artists that do. I’ve hung out in Midtown and everybody I’ve ever met—songwriters and other artists—has been in Midtown, so it’s cool for me to put my name on something that has been nostalgic for me. It’s also full circle for me to own a bar and have up-and-coming artists coming there to play, showcase their songs and hopefully get a start like I did.”
For the immediate future, don’t look for Green to launch too many other business ventures. “I don’t really need any more projects right now,” he says, before hedging his bet. “But I didn’t think I was going to be in the bar business this year either, so who knows?”
Last year, Zach Bryan saw two of his songs spend weeks atop Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart, including the 20-week chart-topper “I Remember Everything” with Kacey Musgraves and the six-week No. 1 “Something in the Orange” (which also reached the top 20 on the Country Airplay chart). Earlier this year, he also won his first Grammy, in the best country duo/group performance category for the Musgraves collaboration.
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But during a recent interview with one of his musical heroes, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Bruce Springsteen, Bryan opened up about why he doesn’t want to be considered “a country musician.”
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“Everyone calls me it,” Bryan told Springsteen as part of Rolling Stone‘s Musicians on Musicians series. “I want to be a songwriter, and you’re quintessentially a songwriter. No one calls Bruce Springsteen — hate to use your name in front of you — but no one calls Bruce Springsteen a freaking rock musician, which you are one, but you’re also an indie musician, you’re also a country musician. You’re all these things encapsulated in one man. And that’s what songwriting is.”
Springsteen said that Bryan has been “connected to the country genre,” but also noted that after attending one of Bryan’s shows, he saw “so much — and I don’t want to call it rock — just energy in your performance. You bust all those different genre boundaries down.”
“That’s why you’re a hero to me, because no one’s ever come up to you and said you were in any sort of lane,” Bryan responded. “When I first started making music, I told Stefan and Danny, my managers, I was like, ‘I want to be in a lane where, when people look back, they can listen to my music and it’s supremely whatever you were doing.’ You were the only person in my head that has ever done that.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Bryan opened up about his own battle with imposter syndrome. Springsteen asked Bryan when he first considered himself “a serious songwriter.”
“I still don’t!” Bryan responded, saying, “To this day I have really bad impostor syndrome. But I had a lot of friends in the Navy, and we’d go out to the bars and we’d always have these times, and I’d go back to my barracks room and I’d sing about it. I never had anything else to express myself. You work so much you never really have time to talk about these things. So I’d go home and I would write, and I never in a million years thought I would become a songwriter because I never thought I had the talent. And that’s not a humble thing, it’s just I never in a million years thought I would be sitting here with you. Because we would hear your songs, and they’re beautiful and poetic and genius. When I play [my songs], I’m like, ‘There’s no way people enjoy these like they would enjoy a Dylan song or a Springsteen song or anything like that.’”
Springsteen also spoke candidly of his own feelings about songwriting, saying, “Songwriting’s hard. And I don’t think I felt really comfortable with the idea that I was writing good songs till I was about 22 or 23, when I was coming up with the songs for my first record, a record called Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., which came out in 1973.”
Springsteen also complimented several of Bryan’s songs, particularly “Revival” and “Open the Gate,” noting that they are “songs you’re gonna be singing till you are as old as me.”
Springsteen released his latest album, Only the Strong Survive, in 2022, while Bryan released his latest project, The Great American Bar Scene, in July.
Who gets songwriting credit on a song and who doesn’t can sometimes lead to an uncomfortable conversation. But at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week, that topic took the spotlight in the riveting (and informative) Why Are There 50 Writers On My Song? panel on Monday (Oct. 14).
Moderated by Pierre Hachar, managing partner at The Hachar Law Group, panelists included regional Mexican singer-songwriter Eden Muñoz, renowned producer-songwriter Sergio George and Colombian hitmaker Keityn. At one point during the conversation, the group reflected on why, today, even managers can get a songwriting credit.
“I think it is clear that the composers deserve the credit,” said Keityn while discussing the subject. “The credits go to the one who deserves it and that is the actual composer.”
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The conversation also touched on how nuanced the concept of songwriting credit can be, particularly when someone is in the studio who doesn’t technically write the song but contributes somehow to the idea or inspiration of the lyrics.
Below, find the best quotes from the panel:
Eden Muñoz: “The credit has to go to whoever participates in the writing process. When you’re in a studio, you know who is a composer and you know who is not. It’s something that you can almost feel. You can’t just be sitting around in the session and expect credit. It’s extremely important to set limits in the studio. It’s how I work today. I separate the songwriters and take them to a different table and they are the only ones in that room.”
Sergio George: “In my opinion, anyone who contributes to the process should have songwriting credit. I remember I was in a songwriting camp, there were like four to five people, and there was one person who gave some ideas of how the song could be. That person actually had nothing to do with my music, but got credit because if it wasn’t for her, the song would not have been made. That’s true of the arranger, because some arrangements are so emblematic and make the song. We should be fair all around.”
Keityn: “The 50 songwriters thing is not even about the artist, songwriter or producer, to be honest. Platforms like Spotify, when they do the breakdown of who gets credit on their platform, it is always based on the actual split, and they label them as songwriters. I don’t understand why everyone who is in the split [gets listed as] as a songwriter.”
Muñoz: “Today, we are in a business where managers [have the] sin of arrogance and want to be everywhere and get songwriting credit. I remember back in the day, the manager would sometimes even hide, but now it seems like they are glued to one another. Sometimes the manager acts more like the artist.”
The 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo. It will simultaneously be available on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app, and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.
In the two years that the Recording Academy has presented a Grammy for songwriter of the year, non-classical, four women have been nominated for the award. Amy Allen, Nija Charles and Laura Veltz were nominated in the category’s inaugural year. Jessie Jo Dillon was nominated at the ceremony in February.
Men won both years. Tobias Jesso Jr. won in 2023 for writing songs by such artists as Harry Styles, Adele and FKA Twigs. Theron Thomas won earlier this year for writing songs by such artists as Lil Durk featuring J. Cole, Tyla and Chlöe.
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The list of 61 songwriters vying for nominations in that category this year includes 20 women, one of whom may make history as the first woman to win in the category.
The list includes two women who have already won Grammys – Allen, who won album of the year in 2023 for her songwriting contributions to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, and Diane Warren, who won best song written specifically for a motion picture or for television in 1997 for “Because You Loved Me” from the Michelle Pfeiffer film Up Close and Personal.
This year’s entry list also includes eight women who have been nominated for one or more Grammys, but have yet to win – Dillon, Sarah Aarons, Caroline Ailin, Jessi Alexander, Brittany Amaradio (aka Delacey), Ink (Atia Boggs), Ali Tamposi and Emily Warren.
The list also includes 10 women who are vying for their first Grammy nomination – Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Jessie Early, Julia Gargano, Sarah Hudson, Lauren Lee Hungate, Steph Jones, Kayla Morrison, RAYE, Sasha Alex Sloan and Betsy Walter.
You may be surprised to see RAYE on the list, due to the academy’s focus in this category on non-artists. To qualify for the award, writers “must have written a minimum of five songs in which they are credited solely as a songwriter or co-writer” (and not also as a primary or featured artist, or producer). But if they meet that threshold, they may also have written or co-written tracks on which they were the artist.
RAYE qualified because in addition to writing for herself, she writes for other artists. Her entries this year include Rita Ora’s “Ask & You Shall Receive,” Halle’s “Because I Love You,” Jennifer Lopez’s “Dear Ben Pt. II,” Beyoncé’s “Riiverdance,” and Neiked’s “You’re Hired” (featuring Ayra Starr).
Nominated songwriters can come from any musical field, except classical. Those composers are recognized in the best contemporary classical composition category.
Will any of these women be nominated for songwriter of the year, non-classical? We’ll find out on Nov. 8 when the nominees are announced. Winners will be revealed on Feb. 2.
As a bonus, here are the first women to win in 10 other songwriting categories at the Grammys.
Song of the year: Carole King in 1972 for writing “You’ve Got a Friend,” which was featured on her Tapestry album and was also a No. 1 Hot 100 hit for James Taylor. It took a while for a woman to win this award: This was the category’s 14th year. King later also became the first woman to win the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
Best rock song: Alanis Morisette in 1996 for co-writing “You Oughta Know,” the most incendiary track on her Jagged Little Pill album, with Glen Ballard. This was the category’s fifth year.
Best R&B song: Betty Wright in 1976, for co-writing her track “Where Is the Love” with Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch (both of KC and the Sunshine Band) and Willie Clarke. Note: This is not the far more famous Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway song of the same title, but confusion with that classic may have worked to this song’s benefit. This was the category’s eighth year.
Best rap song: Miri Ben Ari in 2005, for co-writing Ye’s “Jesus Walks” with Che Smith and Kanye West (as Ye was then known). This was the category’s second year.
Best country song: Debbie Hupp in 1980, for co-writing the Kenny Rogers ballad hit “You Decorated My Life” with Bob Morrison. This was the category’s 16th year.
Best song written for visual media: Cynthia Weil in 1988, for co-writing the Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram hit “Somewhere Out There” (from An American Tail) with her husband and longtime collaborator Barry Mann and film composer James Horner. This was the category’s first year. (The ballad also won song of the year.)
Best American roots song: Edie Brickell in 2014 for cowriting “Love Has Come for You” with Steve Martin. They also recorded the song. This was the category’s first year.
Best gospel song: Yolanda Adams in 2006 for cowriting her track “Be Blessed” with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and James Q. Wright. This was the category’s first year. The award is now known as best gospel performance/song.
Best contemporary Christian song: Laura Story in 2012 for writing her own track “Blessings.” This was the category’s third year. The award is now known as best contemporary Christan music performance/song.
Best contemporary classical composition: Joan Tower in 2008 for composing “Made in America.” This was the category’s 30th year.
When Bryce Leatherwood repeatedly outlasted the other competitors each week to win NBC’s The Voice in fall 2022, he experienced music as a raw competition.
As he moves into the next chapter of his music career, Leatherwood is still aware of the scads of artists all vying for the same brass ring, and his first radio single, “Hung Up on You,” is designed specifically to make an impression in a busy music marketplace.
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“The biggest part in today’s country is you got to stand out some way,” he says. “You got to differentiate yourself from the pack.”
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“Hung Up on You” definitely separates itself. The chorus features an edgy, anthemic melody, while the production sports a funky bass part at its open, a squealing guitar near its close and tons of growling, uneasy sounds in the middle. In the process, “Hung Up” fulfills Leatherwood’s competitive intentions.
“The whole time we were in the studio, building it out with the musicians, I was just like, ‘Be as off the wall as you can. Do what you want to do. Do the wildest stuff,’ ” he recalls. “As we got into post-production, I was just like, ‘Crank the guitars up, crank that bass up. Make it just punch.’ And it does.”
“Hung Up on You” has existed for a decade. Brandon Lay, then signed to Universal Music Nashville, had a co-write canceled, but Warner Chappell Nashville got him into a room with Neil Medley (“Made for You”) and former Dirt Drifters guitarist Jeff Middleton (“Drowns the Whiskey”) at Liz Rose Music.
“Thank God you’re here,” Medley said when Lay arrived. “We were about to write a ballad.”
Nearly every artist is looking for something uptempo, and all three writers turned their attention to that pursuit. Lay, it turned out, had part of the hook, and his comrades were able to figure out what to do with it.
“I had half of that title,” Lay says. “I was ‘hungover, hung up’ on something, and then they were like, ‘Hung up on you.’ I kind of was missing the forest for the trees, but I had a general idea of the title.”
Middleton dialed up a phat, scrappy bassline he had been playing with and topped that dark sound with some R&B-infused keyboards. They introduced the story with a vivid line, “Stumbled in with the rooster crowing,” that speaks to a long night of partying. The verse continues with more partying as two people stumble down the hallway to a rolling cadence.
“Brandon Lay’s lyrics are so wordy,” Medley says. “I think he listened to a lot more rap or whatever than I did, but I’ve always loved his phrasing. I would assume that the verses are just littered with Brandon Lay-isms. He’s so good at those lyric phrasings and the meter of everything.”
“The choruses,” Middleton adds, “are a little more settled in country songwriter kind of things.”
Those choruses emphasize the melodic part of the quotient with some longer-held notes as the hangover becomes a greater focus: “Keep the shaaaades down, keep the daaaaay out.” A little more rhythmic phrasing ensues “till the haaaaze clears,” and the stanza finally arrives at its “Hungover, hung up on you” hook.
Verse two started with another line, “Woke up with the room still spinning,” that shows some time has transpired. It continues the hungover theme while underscoring that the buzz from the evening is about the two people as much as it’s about the vices they might have employed.
Middleton guided a long bridge, slowing down the mood a bit before they pick up again at the final chorus. It mimics — perhaps unintentionally — the stop-and-start flow between the song’s two characters, whose relationship is not entirely defined. “I’ve always thought of it as kind of a random hookup,” Lay says. “But it could go either way. I guess that’s open for interpretation.”
Lay sang on the fuzzed-up demo with his voice electronically altered. He turned it in to the label and it got some attention, but not enough that it became a single. It was the heart of the bro-country era, and the funk core and long bridge of “Hung Up on You” were likely a little outside the box for the time. “It kind of fell into that Eric Church kind of lane,” Medley says. “And I guess Eric was the only one doing Eric.”
A few other acts cut it but didn’t release it, and before Lay left the label, he recorded it once more with producer Jonathan Singleton (Luke Combs, Riley Green). That version stayed in the Universal vault.Leatherwood moved to Nashville in January 2023, shortly after he won The Voice, and heard “Hung Up” within his first couple of months in town. He was sold on the spot.
“It definitely had that funky vibe to it,” he says. “I think it inspired what the final product was in a big way, but it was definitely not what the record turned out to be.”
Producer Will Bundy (Ella Langley, Graham Barham) oversaw the session at Nashville’s Sound Emporium, with Billy Justineau on Wurlitzer, Evan Hutchings handling drums, Ilya Toshinskiy strumming acoustic, Derek Wells playing seering electric guitar and Mike Johnson manning pedal steel. “That always helps just bring it back in country land,” Bundy says of the steel.
Jimmie Lee Sloas ran his bass through a fuzz pedal, approximating the tone on the demo. “Buckley [Miller], who engineered it with me, he whizzed up a big fuzz on that bass and just made it sort of nasty and made that sort of the backbone of the song, which I feel like is a high risk, high reward,” Bundy says. “It’s definitely different, but it’s cool to see people love it.”
The writers were pleasantly surprised when they learned their 10-year-old song had been cut and even more pleased to discover it was Leatherwood’s first radio single, which Mercury Nashville/Republic released via PlayMPE on Sept. 5. Imitating the demo, Leatherwood’s cut has his voice electronically altered during the verses, though it shifts to its natural tone as the haze clears in the chorus.
“I love the way Bryce sings it,” Middleton says. “It feels country, even with all that stuff going on. He’s a country singer, and that song pushes the boundary a little bit.”
Leatherwood performed “Hung Up On You” during his Grand Ole Opry debut on Sept. 14, and he hopes to keep singing it for years to come. It definitely gives him a chance to be noticed. “There’s nothing like it,” he says. “I think it’s go big or go home. If you go to country radio, you don’t want to leave any stone unturned, and I think this song leaves no stones unturned.”