Maren Morris wrote a letter about her breakout year, women's role in country music, and her next album.
Read Maren's full letter HERE.
"Three chords and the truth" is the resounding motto for lovers of country music. Whether you write it, play it, or just sing along, our genre has always stemmed from artfully expanding on real-life situations; telling it like it is. In our current 140-character culture, a lyrical slap in the face seems to be more refreshing and necessary than ever.
This past year was one of the most exhilarating and surprising of my life. My debut album went number one, I won my first Country Music Award, I played SNL, and I won a Grammy (OK, I'll stop sounding like a braggy douche now), all while being in a landscape where the girls in my format were referred to as "the tomatoes of a salad," meaning just an "accessory" and "don't overdo it by playing too many of them at your station." In 2017. Hard to believe, right?
I'm about to start writing for my sophomore album, which is exciting and extremely daunting because there's the looming aspect of the proverbial "sophomore slump." How can I build off the success of my last album but also reinvent my sound enough to keep myself intrigued creatively, along with keeping my fans, and, well, reinvigorating my genre? I've grown into the woman I am even more after stacking a decade's worth of bucket-list moments into one year. From a number one album and a sold-out tour to watching my first two singles die in the top ten, those experiences will all come out in the wash. I know that whatever songs do fall out in the writing room (and I just hope they're fucking good), they will be the purest reflection of myself. A banjo or fiddle doesn't make a country song, it's the core-cutting truth that does, and I intend to explore it one day or beer at a time."