Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS MARCH 9, 2020 | PAGE 1 OF 17 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] Morris, Brown Top Charts Brandy Clark Makes A Personal >page 4 Statement On The Record Nashville Works Toward Recovery Ten seconds into Brandy Clark’s Your Life Is a Record, a the listener to an expectant conclusion of what turns out to be >page 9 languid grunting tone emerges, unconventionally planting a breakup album, released by Warner on March 6. “The Past a baritone sax into the opening moments of what’s ostensibly Is the Past,” she declares in that glassy finale, with fragile a country album. guitar arpeggios supporting a It’s a tad mysterious. In transitional journey into some Dan + Shay Launch context, it could be a bassoon or unknown future. Putting that Arena Tour a bass clarinet — Clark thought upbeat sentiment at the end >page 10 it was a cello the first time she of the project rather than the heard it — but it reveals to the beginning was one of the few listener that Your Life Is a Record, places where she dug in her heels produced by Jay Joyce (Eric with the label. Current News: Church, Miranda Lambert), “I wanted it that way because Just LeDoux It is not quite like either of the to me, ‘The Past Is the Past’ is >page 10 previous records the award- bittersweet, but it’s hopeful,” winning singer-songwriter has she explains. “It’s like, ‘OK, we’ve launched in the marketplace. gone through all this and I’m still Makin’ Tracks: “I said to Jay when I heard sad about it, but I’m letting you Pardi’s Strait Talk that baritone sax thing, ‘Man, go.’ And I’m driving away — like, >page 14 I know this is crazy ’cause it’s a I literally feel like I’m in the car slow, sad song. But I feel like that in that song.” starts the record,’ ” notes Clark. She’s clearly in the driver’s “When I hear that tone, I feel like seat in her career after briefly Country Coda: something’s coming.” venturing down an artistic road That something unfolds she decided was not her best When The Chicks CLARK Nested At No. 1 gradually as 11 songs in a range of path. Her debut album, 2013’s >page 17 styles — country, folk, traditional 12 Stories, introduced Clark as a pop and torchy R&B — form an emotional narrative within a songwriter with a traditional-country bent, able to fashion mostly acoustic framework. Clark is at times smoldering, at detailed scenarios into meaningful plotlines and convey them times humorous and frequently dark or sarcastic. But by the through a congenial, every-woman tone. close, she has worked through all the stages of grief and takes Her sophomore project, 2016’s Big Day in a Small Town, took PHELPS CHRIS BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE MARCH 9, 2020 | PAGE 2 OF 17 on a more commercial attitude, and Warner worked the album through the Nashville office specifically to focus on the mainstream country audience. Big Day in a Small Town’s snarky lead single, “Girl Next Door,” sounded very much like a hit but stalled at No. 39 on Country Airplay. With Your Life Is a Record, her project is being handled by Warner Music Los Angeles (which also worked her debut) as Clark focuses more on satisfying her fan base and her own artistic ambitions than appealing to programmers. “On the second one, I didn’t even know I was doing that,” she says. “I had gotten signed to Warner, and they had put me with Jay, and I still felt like, ‘Oh, I’m just making my music.’ But I went out and did a radio tour and worked really hard to get played at country radio. For me growing up, that was where I got so much of my music, and so the thought of being WSMV-TV Nashville and CMT raised more than $387,000 for the on country radio was really a dream for me. I did have, and still do have, American Red Cross’ tornado-relief efforts on March 5 with a three-hour supporters there, but when that didn’t work out the way I dreamed it would, Rebuilding Tennessee Telethon. From left: WSMV host Tom Reynolds I do think it gave me a freedom to be like, ‘I’m just going to make a record and Lady Antebellum members Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood. that is for me.’ ” Your Life Is a Record reflects her situation well. The album loosely mirrors the dissolution of a long-term relationship, reaching its deepest moments in tracks five and six: the dreamy “Who You Thought I Was” and the richly textured “Apologies,” as the singer aspires to maturity in the midst of the heartache. Perhaps tellingly, it breaks in track seven — “Bigger Boat,” featuring a guest appearance by lovably craggy Randy Newman — into absurd juxtaposition by lampooning the bratty political climate in which her high-minded split occurs. The boat in that song is part of a once-unconscious tenet in her writing, which often uses very tangible objects to reveal a key emotion. The record album she portrays in “I’ll Be the Sad Song,” the ring in “Pawn Shop,” the cars in “Bad Car” and “The Past Is the Past” all provide a physical image Matt Stell (center) took part Feb. 26 in the WSSL Greenville, S.C., that helps understand the feelings in the narrative. Future Stars & Guitars concert in Spartanburg. He’s flanked by “I was just having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day who iHeartMedia/Carolina vp programming Kix Layton (left) and WSSL has just lost a parent,” says Clark. “I lost my dad when I was 25, and I was music director Aaron Michael. telling my friend — because, you know, they’re at that point where everybody in the family’s kind of fighting over things — I said, ‘That will go away, but it always happens.’ I think it happens because the person you love touched those things. So you want them because you can’t touch them anymore, and they can’t touch you. But you can touch those things.” As Clark prepares to embark on a tour on March 29 to support Your Life Is a Record, she has seemingly mastered the art of touching others with sound. That baritone sax at the album’s outset, produced with a human breath, is merely a prelude to the humanity in Clark’s vocal performance. She counts Mariah Carey’s self-titled debut among her favorite albums, but Clark’s approach is different: simple, straight-forward and appropriately personal. “It’s not about, ‘Oh, I can sing this note’ or how much full voice I can put into this note,” says Clark. “It really is about whether or not what you’re Little Big Town performed from Universal Orlando on NBC’s Today. doing vocally connects with somebody else’s heart. And I think to do that, From left are LBT’s Karen Fairchild, Today host Al Roker and LBT’s it’s got to connect with your own heart.” Phillip Sweet. CONGLETON NATHAN BIGTOWN: LITTLE BROWN. DANIEL ANTEBELLUM: LADY ACCESS THE BEST IN MUSIC. A DIGITAL VERSION OF EVERY ISSUE, FEATURING: COVER STORIES . SPECIAL REPORTS . CHARTS . REVIEWS INTERVIEWS . EVENT COVERAGE & MORE AVAILABLE FREE TO CURRENT BILLBOARD SUBSCRIBERS billboard.com/iPad BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE MARCH 9, 2020 | PAGE 4 OF 17 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Maren Morris Scores First Hot Country Songs No. 1; Kane Brown Crowns Country Airplay; Dixie Chicks Return Maren Morris earns her first No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart Airplay at No. 36. It enters with 3 million impressions that were helped by hourly as “The Bones” (Columbia Nashville) bumps 2-1 on the March 14-dated plays at participating iHeartMedia stations on March 5, a day after its release. survey, which blends airplay, streaming and sales data. It dethrones Dan + Shay It is the trio’s second-highest entrance among 27 total visits, dating to its and Justin Bieber’s “10,000 Hours” (Warner Music Nashville/WAR), which 1997 debut. “Landslide” opened at No. 32 in September 2002 and reached ruled for 21 weeks, becoming the fourth-longest-leading No. 1 in the list’s history. No. 2 that November. Follow-up “Travelin’ Soldier” became Dixie Chicks’ 14th “Bones,” which Morris wrote with Jimmy Robbins and Laura Veltz, reigns top 10, and sixth No. 1, in March 2003. Since then, the band hasn’t hit the in its 53rd week on the chart. Only Dan + Shay’s top 30, after lead singer Natalie Maines made “Tequila” took a longer trip to the top, leading in its controversial comments about then-President 54th frame (Feb. 2, 2019). Pop radio airplay aided George W. Bush ahead of the Iraq War, also in both songs in their ascents. March 2003 (see page 17). “Bones” became Morris’ fourth No. 1 The act, which also consists of sibling founders when it topped Country Airplay for two Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, wrote weeks beginning Feb. 15. It rebounds 5-4 with “Gaslighter” with Jack Antonoff. It’s the title 28 million audience impressions in the week track from Dixie Chicks’ first album (due May 1) ending March 8, according to Nielsen Music/MRC since 2006. Data. It also ranks at No. 12 on the all-format Radio “When Dixie Chicks put out new music for the Songs ranking (56.1 million) as it places at No.