While the music industry has retreated over the holidays to let the past year fade away, it starts with new energy into the first week of the new year. While details for the most anticipated album of the year -the one by Morgan Wallen- have not been announced yet, his producer Joey Moi already conceded during the podcast interview with Bobby Bones in December, that the new album is more or less done.
Already definitive is the release date for the 6th studio album of 57-year old Canadian country icon Shania Twain, titled "Queen Of Me": February 3, 2023. It is the second album after her health-related break from music and a follow-up to 2017's "Now". In a very open and honest interview with People-Magazine she talks not only about the coming project, but also how her personal history has changed herself. And not the least also her voice!
12 songs will be contained on the new project, out of which 3 have already been released. On January 6 'Giddy Up!' follows as the fourth one: an uptempo song, accompanied by an Official Dance Video and a specifically choreographed dance to it. Linking back to the most successful hit of her career 'Man! I Feel Like A Woman!', the new track is not only supposed to stand for the positive energy of the new album, but also for her new found confidence. PR surrounding the release of the song appears to make it the new single, despite it being not known, what format it will go to. However in the end it probably is not that important for Shania Twain, as she has got nothing to prove, being still one of the most successful female artists in music history with well over 100 mio. albums sold worldwide.
Also releasing a new album (slated for February 10) is Chase Rice. It carries the long and potentially sacrilegious title "I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell". Likewise it is his 6th full-length studio album and he has high hopes for it, to (once and for all) open a new chapter in his career. One that shall truly represent him. "I was fed up with how I was starting to act or how I’ve been acting", he was telling countrynow.com. "I realized that the other way was so much more realistic and so much more real to who I am as a person. I found so much joy from it that there was no way I was going back to the other way."
A change of direction that was brought about by the seclusion of the pandemic and one which shall help him leave the initial phase of his career behind for good. A time, when he was riding the bro-country wave high with his third album "Ignite The Night" (2014), which brought him much commercial success, but little respect from critics and the establishment. "['If I Were Rock & Roll'] was the first song I’d written by myself in eight, nine years probably and that’s what started the process."
Apart from this song and another one ('Key West & Colorado') released in the summer of 2022, Chase Rice put out a third and surprisingly rocking song, titled 'Way Down Yonder' during October of 2022, along with a western-themed video. And at the beginning of the new year (January 6, 2023) finally the title cut of the upcoming album project got an advance release.
The midtempo 'I Hate Cowboys' is a very well written song, which does remind one of Hardy's 'Hate Your Hometown' for a reason. And that is because (next to Chase Rice and well known songwriters Brad Tursi of Old Dominion and Ross Copperman) Hardy was also a writer on this song. In the lyric it becomes clear that the reason for hating cowboys comes from the fact, that one has stolen his love.
pretty thing that's never seen one before
has got a thing for bad guys, yeah.
starts talkin' 'bout them Texas stars,
She's gone and that's why I hate cowboys.
Speaking of Old Dominion, the group has also put out a new single as a precursor for an upcoming album. There are no further details available for the time being, but the album will be a follow-up to their pandemic-project "Time, Tequila & Therapy", which was commercially their least successful so far. The new song co-written by Jessie Jo Dillon and called 'Memory Lane', conveys midtempo-nostalgia in typical Old Dominion fashion, by wrapping it in a happy sound, that belies the hokey lyrics about a love that shall live forever on Memory Lane.
Brett Eldredge who has been going for much deeper meaning in his last 2 projects, has released a new studio-version of the song 'Hideaway' from his current album "Songs About You". Unjustly, the 36-year old singer-songwriter from Illinois, with his distinct voice and reflective lyrics, no longer plays a commercial role. His last top-10 hit on the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart ('Love Someone') already dates back to 2018. Production wise the new song does not offer much new.
Meanwhile Tyler Hubbard has managed to seamlessly continue on from the success of Florida Georgia Line to his own solo-career with his very first single. Already back in mid November 2022, '5 Foot 9' went all the way to the top of the radio charts. Reason enough to fix the release date of his first full-length studio album to January 27, 2023 and put out another advance song on January 6, 2023. Written together with Russell Dickerson and
Thomas Rhett, the song 'Me For Me' however is an unspectacular adulation ballad about her love for him.
Much more attention should be given to the first solo-project of 20-year old Aidan Canfield from the state of New York, who may be virtually unknown outside of TikTok. As yet, he is still without a record contract and has therefore released "We're Young, Alright" independently. All 12 songs on the album were written by him. Having grown up on Country and Rock, he calls Bruce Springsteen and Zach Bryan his prime influences. Especially the latter can unmistakeably be recognized in his music. Just take a look at the bonfire video version of his song 'The Idea Of Me' on YouTube!
However his feeling for a catchy chorus, the seamless integration of rock sensibilities and a full band production let him step out of the shadows of a simple Zach-Bryan-cover-singer, with songs such as 'Seein' Straight'. Building on that he transforms the title cut 'We're Young, Alright' into a perfect live anthem, while at the same time making it an invitation to live life right now, even if it is only for one night, because love don't give a damn about tomorrow!
At the the same time he stuns with deep lyrics that belie his age and seem to come from the wisdom of an old soul, when he lets the 12-song project end with the grandiose and autobiographically sounding 'Arm's Reach'. It reminds one of the fact, that life's happiness is often just within short reach:
PS: and if you would like to attend the Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam as one of the 3 best country music festivals in the USA (according to
jonesaroundtheworld.com) in Panama City this June and experience -among others- headliners Morgan Wallen,
Miranda Lambert, Hardy and Kane Brown, I am afraid to tell you, that you are too late ...
Or in the words of the festival website: All Ticket Types - SOLD OUT!
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