When is trace adkins new cd

People Exclusive. FB Tweet More. You'll get the latest updates on this topic in your browser notifications. Trace Adkins. Credit: Kristin Barlowe. View All. All rights reserved. They were kind of the opening band on everything. They were out there working it. I said, "Do you think we're actually going to have a No. It's just a matter of how long it's going to be No. It seems like you have that quality in your music too. You're not afraid to be yourself.

I think the biggest thing for me was once they went and did their thing, that was when I had to figure out what my thing was. What the hell am I going to sing about? That led all the way up to , when "Eyes on You" happened.

That was the beginning of me figuring out who I was and what I wanted to do. It took me that long! I was like: I don't care! I don't care what people say about my music anymore. Because I'm looking out and that's what matters.

People out there at the shows, screaming the songs back to me. That's what matters. Because there was a whole movement of people hating bro-country, whatever you want to call it. I was just like, "Man, I'm not being sucked into that anymore. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. At least I was myself. That's continued into the album. That's where I'm at.

I'm just really enjoying making my own music. So many different influences. I've got a lot of different noises in my head of what I want to do, and that's the hardest part about albums when you're an artist like that: You've got to figure out what makes the album, what puts it together and [which] your songs you're willing to move forward with.

Obviously, those artists are so different, but I think what binds them is big hooks and big melodies. That "walloping a ball out of the park" feeling.

I feel that quality in your music. That depends on who I'm writing with. Freaking huge melodies. I'm going to sing the hell out of this. Then, I've got three songs that I sat right here and wrote with just me and an acoustic guitar, and those are completely different. So, that's part of the challenge: Piecing those [together] and putting them on a record.

But if it's my voice and it's me singing a song and making sure that I believe it, then it all comes together and it's OK.

Going back to "bro-country": It seems kind of like you're taking those tropes and bending them to your will. Somebody might sniff at that music and be like, "Oh, it's just about beer and God.

The biggest thing for me with that is, that's my life. If you've got a problem with it, go listen to somebody else's music. That's literally what I did over the last year: Sat around a fire and drank a piss-load of beer. It wasn't just God; we had conversations about everything.

About my buddy's kids, about life, about our pasts, about our struggles, about what we're excited about. And God's a big part of that. God's a big part of my life. That's a lot of the conversations I had with buddies last year, and beers were involved. When alcohol's involved, the truth tends to come out, for whatever reason.

I'm going to sing about what's in my life, and that's been even more solidified through the last year. Living life normally again for the first time in 10 years. That's why I'm real excited about Pt. III , but I'm also real excited about what's coming next. That's going to be the songs I wrote mostly during quarantine. It's going to have some dark stuff.

It's also got a lot of positive stuff. It's not close to done. I'm figuring it out. I'm not trying to write anymore. You walk in at and leave at 4. It's like: Man, I'm tired of that. I'm never going to do that again, really. When I'm home during the week, when I'm touring, I'm going to chill. I'm going to relax. I'm going to golf. And then, when it's time to home in and write a record—which is what I'm going to do; I think we're going to Montana for about four days to write—it's all we're doing.

We're going to fish; if we don't write a song that day, whatever. We're going to get ideas, piece them together, and by the time we leave that retreat, we're going to have exactly what we need. Despite the abundant darkness of , Ingrid Andress had the biggest year of her life. Andress has already achieved so much, she's joked about retiring before she even turns What is next for me? Though she has been working on her cooking skills while in quarantine, Andress' success thus far proves that she's too good at songwriting to give it up just yet.

And as the only country act in the Best New Artist category this year, Andress has made a name for herself as an artist, too.

Don't worry, Ingrid fans: Her retirement isn't part of it. How does it feel to be the only country artist in the Best New Artist category? I still feel like that was an accident. I feel honored that I am doing something that represents Nashville. I'm glad that I get to represent a part of country music that maybe people don't necessarily think of when they think of country—you know, a lot of people think of it as like, beer and trucks.

I'm glad that people realize that I don't have to sing about beer and trucks for people to like it. Although "More Hearts Than Mine" was released in , last year felt like you established that you weren't going to be a one-hit-wonder with the release of your album Lady Like.

What was it like to have your breakout year happen in a time when you could hardly even be face-to-face with people? I'm probably one of the only people I know who can be like, " was my year. There's just so much hype that goes with all that celebration, and to me, it's about the music and how people are connecting to it.

Last year was more about that authentic connection to the music. It was cool to hear people's stories of how they hear their own lives in whatever I was saying. Your mom was a piano teacher, so I assume that's how you got started with it. But what ultimately made it feel like your instrument? It was a love-hate relationship at the beginning. But when you live with your piano teacher, you don't have a choice.

We made a deal where if I got to a certain level of piano, then I'd get to pick whatever instrument I wanted. Naturally, I picked drums because I was going through a punk and metal phase.

I was like, "I just want to bang on some s--t. I was homeschooled for the majority of my education, so high school was confusing. Piano felt like therapy. It was just a great outlet emotionally.

After getting your start writing for other artists, what made you decide to pursue being an artist yourself? There was a song that I wrote that was very personal to me. I didn't want anybody to have it, but I still had to give it away.

When I started writing about my personal feelings, it became harder to picture somebody else singing them. So I thought, "You know what, if I don't want to give these away, I probably need to sing them and put them out myself. It came out of the natural progression of me finding what I wanted to write about. I think it was going back and forth between Nashville and LA to write.

I've been doing that for five years now. The writing process is so different for each city—writing country music in Nashville, you're all sitting in a room with guitars and talking about lyrics and how to set up the song.

Whereas in LA, you go in, there's a track playing, it's on a loop, and you just have to sing melodies over it. Nobody's talking about lyrics. My sound came from learning how to combine those two things. I would write songs that would straddle the line, and people would say, "We can't pitch it to a country artist, but it also has smart storyteller lyrics.

And it's not poppy enough for pop. You're part of a groundbreaking GRAMMY year for women in country, as the Best Country Album category—which includes Lady Like —is all projects from solo women or female-fronted groups for the first time.

Has it felt like there's been a shift in the way women are supported and recognized in the genre? Then you look at country radio, and it's white dudes. It brought me a lot of joy to see the contrast and how opposite it is to what country radio is doing right now.

But to see all these women validated for their great work is a huge statement. Even if it's not on the radio, it's still acknowledged as a beautiful piece of art. I feel like there's sort of a female movement and confident, feminine energy happening in every genre right now. Do you think that, too? For sure. I hope more women start saying how they feel about things because chances are, we're all going to relate to it. Even if it's something that people feel is controversial, I'm like, please bring it on.

The more controversy, the better. We've evolved so much, and I feel like it's our jobs as creatives to pull the mirror up to what's happening in society. It's going to happen eventually, so we might as well start coming out and being honest about how we feel. You hold true to that on Lady Like , and now you're being rewarded for it.

I'm just here to write about my feelings and hope people feel the same way. Especially in this past year, when everything was so divided and chaotic, I feel like the response to my music was a nice reminder that we all could come together by listening to music that is relatable to all of us. That juxtaposition is an anecdotal portrayal of the country stars' story: A hard-working duo composed of a brilliant vocalist Mooney and mastermind producer Smyers , whose DIY approach has made them one of the genre's biggest acts of the moment.

With the world hitting pause, there was a silver lining for the country stars: plenty of time to record a new album. Mooney insists that whether happy or sad, every song encompasses the album's title. That's how we grow as people, we learn things, and we move on. You declared in a tweet that Good Things is your best album yet. What makes this feel like your best? Smyers: We felt like our self-titled album was kind of the moment where things really connected on a different level.

We had "Tequila" and "Speechless," and we've been trying to build on where they took our career. We feel like we owe it to everybody who have gotten us where we are—our fans, our team, everyone around us—to keep pushing ourselves, raising the bar. I guess it made us put some unnecessary pressure on ourselves. Every time we were in the writing room, it's like, "Alright, I got this idea," "Well, is it as good as 'Tequila'? The blessing in disguise is we had a year and a half off of the road.

We tried to make the most of an unfortunate situation. We camped out in [my home studio] and dug in. We pulled songs that we wrote three years ago, and songs that we wrote six months ago. We tried to pick the best material that we possibly could, and I feel like we really tapped in.

We tried everything. We put ourselves out there with that tweet, so there was a lot of pressure when the album came out, because our fans went into it thinking that. But we feel confident about it. We're so proud of every song front to back. The first single from Good Things , "10, Hours," seemed to follow up the success of "Tequila" and "Speechless" in a huge way. Smyers: Yeah, that song exposed our music to a whole new fan base. It was crazy to have that song be such a big hit and not really even get to play it live.

We've finally got back on the road and are able to feel the energy, impact, and weight of that song. Mooney: We haven't gotten to meet BTS , but we did have one of the guys [ Jungkook] cover "10, Hours " which was so cool. Seeing those things proves how music is so universal, and shows the power of music that a country song written in Nashville could be then sung all over the world.

It's a very unifying feeling, especially in the times that we're going through right now. Do you feel like the response to that kind of set the tone for the rest of the album? Smyers: Sonically, that kind of was the step in the direction that the rest of the album went. The overall aesthetics of the song—it was all about the vocals, and that was kind of the feature of the production.

I feel like we really leaned into that for the rest of the album. Empty Chair. Heartbreak Song. Ain't That Kind Of Cowboy. Running Into You. Mind On Fishin'. Better Off. Still A Soldier. Watered Down. Jesus And Jones. Watch The World End. Tough People Do. Them Lips On Mine. Million Dollar View. Just Fishin'. Brown Chicken Brown Cow. This Ain't No Love Song. All I Ask For Anymore. Marry For Money. You're Gonna Miss This.