Country Update

Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS NOVEMBER 23, 2020 | PAGE 1 OF 18 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] Stapleton, Wallen Country By The Glass: The Genre’s Songwriters Reign Page 4 Grapple With Alcohol’s Abundance Bluegrass Turns 75 Country fans might not see all the world through “Whis- so long. Ironically, drinking is one of them.” Page 10 key Glasses,” but they’re definitely hearing it through Getting drunk is such a stereotypical activity in the genre that alcoholic earbuds. it was listed among the elements of the “perfect country and The 2019 Morgan Wallen hit “Whiskey Glasses” brought western song” in David Allan Coe’s “You Never Even Called Me songwriter Ben Burgess the BMI country song of the year title by My Name,” but alcohol has not always been prominent. When Rhett, Underwood on Nov. 9, and the Country Airplay chart dated Nov. 24 reveals Randy Travis reenergized traditional country in the mid-1980s Make Xmas Special a format that remains whiskey bent, if not hellbound. Seven of while mostly avoiding adult beverages as a topic, the thirst for Page 11 the songs on that list liquor dwindled. The — including HAR- trend turned around DY’s “One Beer” so strongly that three (No. 5), Lady A’s hits in the late-1990s FGL’s Next Album Is “Champagne Night” — Collin Raye’s ‘Wrapped’ (No. 12) and Kelsea “Little Rock,” Dia- Page 11 Ballerini’s “Hole in mond Rio’s “You’re the Bottle” (No. 14) Gone” and Kenny — posit an alcohol Chesney’s “That’s Makin’ Tracks: reference boldly in Why I’m Here” — took ‘Hung Up’ On the title. on 12-step recovery Cartwright Single But the liquor themes. Page 15 flows in more sub- Drinking became tle ways, too. Thir- prominent again YOUNG PEARCE RAMSEY teen of the top 20 in the mid-2000s, songs reference beer, thanks in great part to Country Coda: whiskey, wine, bars or drinking in the verses, as do 25 of the a string of Toby Keith titles, such as “Whiskey Girl,” “I Love Oslin’s ‘Monday’ top 40 singles. This Bar” and “Beer for My Horses.” By the time of the “bro- Appointment Does country have an alcohol problem? It has definitely cre- country” era around 2013, Music Row uncorked a round of Page 18 ated a problem for songwriters committed to staying fresh. songs about small-town field parties, and the genre has kept “It is getting harder to write those songs, and I think it should its buzz going ever since. be,” suggests Burgess. “You can wear something out, and you “Even 10 years ago,” says songwriter Josh Osborne (“San- know, there’s certain lifestyles you can only keep up with for gria,” “Drinkin’ Problem”), “when you would sneak alcohol BROTHERS. RIKER YOUNG: SHEARER. JOHN PEARCE: BLASK. GUERIN RAMSEY: BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE NOVEMBER 23, 2020 | PAGE 2 OF 18 into a song, it felt a little more risky or a little more taboo or whatever. But people have a love/hate relationship with [booze], and I think that makes it interesting.” Still, keeping it interesting is more challenging than ever. Certain phrases — “Take a sip,” “Jack Daniel’s,” “Fill your cup up” — are pretty much cliché. That doesn’t mean a songwriter can’t use them, but the context is significant. “There are clichés that come up in songwriting for country music a lot, and I think people like hearing [some of them], too,” says songwriter Jesse Frasure (“Sun Daze,” “Whiskey and Rain”). “We’re just trying to find fresh ways to do it. I worry more about putting trucks in songs than I do alcohol. At least there’s a lot of different ways we can spin the alcohol thing, but man, we Shania Twain (right) discussed her Kelsea Ballerini collaboration, “Hole run out of Silverado and F150 references pretty quickly.” in the Bottle,” with Kelleigh Bannen (left) on Bannen’s Apple Music The artist’s context plays a role in just how much alcohol writers can pour Country show. into a song. Brett Young, who set “Catch” in a bar, is willing to use adult beverages to establish the scene. But he avoids characters that overindulge. “I’m always reminding people, ‘Hey, my brand is PG-13,’ ” he says. “So you can talk about drinking, but we’re not going to talk about getting wasted.” Thanks to cultural double standards, women have to know their limits, too. It’s one of the reasons that men flourished when heavy drinking became prominent in the bro-country era and women did not. “As a listener, I don’t really want to hear it from a woman, but somehow it’s kind of acceptable for a guy,” says “Hide the Wine” singer Carly Pearce. “Stupid, and stupid that I would even feel that way. But I think as women, we want to hold ourselves to [having] some sort of class.” Country may have also overserved beer and wine to its listeners thanks to Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman (left) shared a laugh with NBC a pair of clubs, Winners and Losers Bar & Grill, at the edge of Music Row in host Hoda Kotb during a Nov. 16 appearance on Today in support of her Nashville. Plenty of songwriters have spent time at the bar before a late-night children’s book A Dolly for Christmas. writing session or in an afternoon break from writing, and when they get back into the room, ideas from those rounds of drinking have found their way into such modern successes as Maren Morris’ “I Could Use a Love Song” and Cole Swindell’s “Break Up in the End.” “It truly is the watering hole, and I think one of the heart and souls of this town,” says Burgess of Winners and Losers, noting that COVID-19 has re- duced trips to the bar in 2020. “I’m really not wanting it to go away. As much as the hangovers started hurting a little more, the older I get, I really want to see live music in these bars. Come back, man, as quickly as possible.” Ultimately, the current flood of alcohol references is cyclical. But since songs usually take 18-36 months to hit the radio after they’re written, it’s tough for writers to predict what alcoholic terms will be in vogue by the time a tune reaches programmers’ earbuds. Thus, writers do their best not to get swayed too much by current playlists and simply write the song at hand on a particular day. Big Loud recording artist Ashland Craft joined several female media “The idea is the idea, and if you get an idea that pertains to alcohol, you write figures to celebrate the Nov. 20 release of her single “Two Wildflowers it the best way you can,” says Old Dominion’s Matthew Ramsey. “No matter and a Box of Wine.” Clockwise from upper left: Sweet Talk PR owner what subject that we are writing, we’re trying to avoid the cliché — or exploit the Jensen Sussman, Craft, Make Wake Artists day-to-day manager Sophia cliché — as much as we can. It’s no different with alcohol than with a breakup Sansone, Pandora artist marketing and industry relations manager Alina song or a love song. It just happens to be a tangible and popular subject.” Thompson and People contract writer Nancy Kruh. BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE NOVEMBER 23, 2020 | PAGE 4 OF 18 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Stapleton’s Starting Over Starts At No. 1 On Top Country Albums; Wallen Adds Fourth Country Airplay Leader Chris Stapleton’s fourth full-length, Starting Over (Mercury Nashville/ to 33 million impressions. The song, which Wallen wrote with HARDY, Er- Universal Music Group Nashville), soars in as his fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s nest K. Smith and Ryan Vojtesak, is the lead single from Wallen’s 30-song Top Country Albums chart (dated Nov. 28). sophomore LP, Dangerous: The Double Album, due Jan. 8, 2021. In its first week (ending Nov. 19), the set earned 103,000 equivalent album “Thank you, country radio, my incredible fans and my relentless team for units, with 75,000 in album sales. It arrives at No. 3 on the all-genre Bill- making this our fourth consecutive No. 1,” says Wallen. “Also, thank you board 200, awarding him his to my co-writers for collaborat- fourth top 10. It also begins as ing with me on this song and his fourth leader on Americana/ for just being some damn good Folk Albums. friends. Happy Thanksgiving, Stapleton co-wrote 11 of the everybody.” 14 songs on the Dave Cobb- The 26-week trip that produced Starting Over, which “Hometown” took to the list’s arrived Nov. 13. The set follows penthouse was Wallen’s fastest Stapleton’s first three Top Country ride to No. 1. “Chasin’ You” Albums No. 1s. Traveller launched reached the top in its 42nd week at No. 2 on May 23, 2015, and this May; “Whiskey Glasses,” hit the peak that Nov. 21 with which ruled for three weeks in 177,000 units (153,000 in album June 2019, ambled to the apex sales). From A Room: Volume 1 in 40 weeks; and “Up Down,” blasted in atop the May 27, 2017, featuring Florida Georgia Line, list with 219,000 units (202,000 dominated in June 2018 in its in album sales), followed by From 32nd frame. (Wallen debuted A Room: Volume 2 opening at No. 1 on the chart with “The Way I STAPLETON WALLEN on the Dec.

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