In case you missed it...
Maren Morris has confirmed what many thought was coming - she's leaving country music behind. The singer released a new "two-pack" of songs Friday that, along with the accompanying videos, made it pretty clear she was done with country music. The hints were there: her dabbling in pop music, her switch of record labels from Columbia Nashville to Columbia, the singer increasingly finding herself at odds politically and ideologically from many of her country music peers and fans. With the release of "The Tree" and "Get The Hell Out Of Here" Friday, along with an interview with the "LA Times," it was made quite clear: Maren Morris was putting country music in the rearview mirror. "I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over," she said of the genre, "But it’s burning itself down without my help," Morris told the outlet. She admitted she felt "very distanced" from the music format, saying "I had to take a step back. The way I grew up was so wrapped in country music, and the way I write songs is very lyrically structured in the Nashville way of doing things. But I think I needed to purposely focus on just making good music and not so much on how we’ll market it," she told the publication. "The last few records, that’s always been in the back of my mind: Will this work in the country music universe?" Morris says a full-length album is coming; for now the two songs, packaged as "The Bridge," are exactly that for the singer - a bridge between her country past and the music she hopes will take her and her fans into the future.
Ever go to see a concert - and a special guest shows up on stage? Ever wonder how that happens? Tyler Hubbard posted a clip on Instagram yesterday that showed exactly how that goes down. It starts with Jelly Roll addressing the camera. "Yo yo yo - Tyler - we got a show in Bakersfield the same night. Come sing with me dude. What time you go on? Call me. Love you." And just like that - it was set. The video shows Tyler in the crowd watching Jelly do his thing - and then joining him on stage as the two went into the Florida Georgia Line song "Cruise." Check out the very cool video below...