Makin’ Tracks

Absence, it is said, makes the heart grow fonder, and touring musicians ought to know. The travel, the time spent waiting and prepping in the dressing room and the let-down moments after the show is over are all windows of time ripe for gnawing self-reflection and what-ifs. Time apart can indeed change a heart, and Russell Dickerson figured that out roughly a decade ago, when a breakup with Kailey Seymour forced him to confront a gaping hole as he traversed the club circuit as a newly single man. “We had just broken up, and I was looking for anybody,” he remembers. “I was like, ‘I’m going to be out here on the road. Might as well see if I can find a wife out here.’ It didn’t work. But at the time, we were just playing crappy bar after crappy bar. I’m giving it my all, nobody’s showing up, ...

Given that Parker McCollum emerged from the Texas bar circuit and signed with MCA Nashville behind music heavily informed by classic country, the singer-songwriter has received a fair amount of comparison to one of his biggest influences, George Strait. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news His voice is different — McCollum conveys a distinctive angst, while Strait typically delivers with a quiet confidence — but there’s enough similarity to justify the correlation. And it makes McCollum a tad uncomfortable. “I certainly love all the comparisons that I’ve been getting recently to him, but I certainly don’t want that to be my identity,” he says. “I’m incredibly influenced by his sound and his records. He is the standard for me and country musi...

It’s a hallmark of Southern dialects that one-syllable words are frequently stretched into two: “there” becomes “they-er,” or “damn” – in the title of a Florida Georgia Line album cut – becomes “Dayum, Baby.” Oklahoma-bred Corey Kent figuratively puts the accent on steroids in “Wild as Her,” holding the word “wild” out for 12 “wi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ild” rollercoaster syllables in the back half of the chorus. And for good measure, he repeats the feat immediately, extending the run to 13 syllables. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The thing is, that passage is tough. It covers a wide melodic range, for starters, and without any separation between the notes, it can quickly devolve into non-descript mush. Create too much separation, it soun...

It’s a little early to be thinking about trick-or-treaters, but Miranda Lambert’s “Strange” is perhaps a good soundtrack for ultra-organized planners considering this year’s Halloween costume. “It does sound like this creepy carnival in a cool way,” she says with a laugh. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Strange” is a reaction to the pandemic, an out-of-balance period in American life that threw the population into uncertainty, battling a creepy virus that — particularly in its infancy — was novel and dangerous. Lest we forget how odd it was, Lambert and her co-writers, Luke Dick (“Burning Man,” “Don’t Come Lookin’”) and Natalie Hemby (“Heartache Medication,” “Pontoon”), wrote “Strange” at Lambert’s Tennessee farm in 2020, when vaccines...

“Hey, hey, U.S.A./ We ain’t seen our better days.” In a divisive era with many Americans skeptical about the future of the democracy, Luke Bryan’s new single, “Country On,” is a timely elixir, a four-minute reminder of the nation’s proud middle class, its work ethic and the sense of community that comes from simply doing what they do. “When I’m onstage, and when I’m singing ‘Most People Are Good,’ I feel that most people are still that, and I feel like most Americans really support the American dream,” Bryan says. “There’s a lot of forces out there really trying to interrupt that, but the day that we wake up and feel like the United States can’t have better days, I think the whole spirit of the country is lost.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts a...

Go ahead and jump. Some people are paralyzed by risk; Kelsea Ballerini, judging from the upbeat tone of her new single, “Heartfirst,” prefers to follow the Van Halen playbook. “It’s been a theme throughout my whole musical journey,” she says of embracing risks. “I really do believe that nothing good in life comes unless you jump, unless you just take the chance. And love obviously — like, relationships of any kind — are that.” Ballerini took a creative risk that mirrored the message of “Heartfirst” when she penned it in July 2021 with Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and songwriter Alysa Vanderheym (“Talk You out of It”) at Vanderheym’s home studio in the Nashville area. They poured some wine, listened to some music and came up with a pulsing Fleetwood Mac sort of groove. Explore Explore ...

When the video for Michael Ray’s “Holy Water” debuts March 16, some of the footage will take viewers to the Cassia Baptist Church — a little white house of worship in Eustis, Fla., that the singer attended three times a week during his youth. The preacher’s goal on many a Sunday is to define the line between right and wrong, though in practice, it’s not always so easy. That gray area in between is fertile ground for drama, and that’s a big reason that Ray recorded “Holy Water” in the first place. Explore See latest videos, charts and news “That’s what I love about the story,” he says. “It’s like a movie in your ears.” A short movie, though: The typical film lasts around two hours, while the action in “Holy Water” takes place in a scant three-and-a-half minutes, exploring a man of the cloth...

Jon Pardi wrapped the singles from his Heartache Medication album with “Tequila Little Time,” a melodic, Mexicali-tinged mid-tempo song about a guy providing a shoulder — and a drink — to a broken-hearted woman at a bar. With “Last Night Lonely,” Pardi submits the first single from his next album, a swaggering country mid-tempo track about a guy once again buying a drink for a woman at a bar, essentially suggesting that this could be the first day of the rest of their lives… together. Explore Explore Jon Pardi See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “It’s definitely got the same values, but it’s still a different story and it’s a different sound,” Pardi allows. “And it’s got a fiddle solo.” The fiddle was not envisioned by the three “Last Night Lonely” songwri...