{"id":1304345,"date":"2019-02-26T08:22:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T15:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1803372"},"modified":"2019-02-26T08:22:25","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T15:22:25","slug":"justin-moore-one-decade-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/justin-moore-one-decade-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Moore, One Decade In"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Alison Bonaguro<\/a><\/span> 11m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

Country songs, if they\u2019re done well, are timeless. And country singers, if they stay true to their roots, can do the same.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no better example of that than Justin Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moore moved to Nashville from Arkansas right after finishing high school. And after a few years of writing and playing, he had his first breakout hit, \u201cSmall Town USA<\/a>.\u201d That was released 10 years ago this month, and in the decade since, Moore has released 15 singles, had four kids, and has just crossed the one million mark in Twitter followers.<\/p>\n

Later this spring, Moore will release his fifth album \u2014 Late Nights and Longnecks<\/em> \u2014 and it sounds just like you\u2019d expect from an artist who\u2019s never strayed from the traditional country sound that brought him to Nashville in the first place. CMT.com had the chance to talk to Moore on his tour bus before his Chicago show on Thursday night (Feb. 21), and get to know what\u2019s changed for him and his music, and what\u2019s stayed exactly the same.

CMT: How would you say your new album compares to your last albums?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Justin Moore: This one is a more mature album in a way. And that makes sense, because I\u2019m almost 35, it\u2019s been 10 years since my debut album, and this is my 12th year on road.

It\u2019s been almost three years since you released your last album Kinda Don\u2019t Care<\/em>. Was that time off intentional?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was. It gave us time to decide what we wanted to say, and ample time to write and find songs. I\u2019m not the kind of artist who can write songs at 10:00 on a Tuesday morning like a lot of writers do. I know that means fans have to wait to hear new music, but we wanted to stay true to our roots and not rush things.

So how\u2019d you do that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well when Jeremy (Stover) and I were writing songs for my first record when I first moved to town, we both were single, so we\u2019d pop down to the beach and rent a house in the Florida panhandle and drink beer and write songs. Act a fool, then the next day, get up, drink beer and write songs. We wrote a lot that way, and even recorded some songs at some hole-in-the-wall studio in Destin. Then fast forward to about six years ago, my wife and I bought a house down there. So in order to make this new album sound traditional, I said, \u201cLet\u2019s go get a handful of our buddies, and go to the beach and lock ourselves in and drink beer and write songs.\u201d That\u2019s what we did for about five weeks. It was just a bunch of us knucklehead rednecks at the beach.

Did you go back to the same hole-in-the-wall studio to record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, we came back to Nashville for that. We actually tracked it at the Castle<\/a>, where so many great albums have been recorded. Alan Jackson, Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire, George Strait: they\u2019ve all made records there.

And now that Late Nights and Longnecks<\/em> is done, how do you feel about the finished product?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our entire career has been rooted in traditional country. Maybe the last album stepped out of box a little. It had moments, like \u201cSomebody Else Will,\u201d that were different from \u201cSmall Town USA\u201d. But about a year ago, I told Jeremy, \u201cI want to make the most traditional album we\u2019ve ever made.\u201d And we did.

So did all the songs come from that writers\u2019 retreat down in Florida?
<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not all of them. \u201cThat\u2019s My Boy,\u201d the song devoted to my son which I\u2019ve never been able to do, was written in Nashville. (Moore and his wife welcomed their fourth child and first son Thomas two years ago.) We were in Jeremy\u2019s hot tub late one night, and I said I wanted to write a song called \u201cThat\u2019s My Boy.\u201d So we texted Casey Beathard, and we just wrote it. And the next day was our last day to track.

Does that happen a lot?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not for me. It is my first last-minute song. Did you know that David Lee Murphy finished writing his \u201cDust on the Bottle<\/a>\u201d on his way to the studio to finish recording his debut album, in 1995? And it was his biggest hit ever. I\u2019m a firm believer in the ones that come out of nowhere and smack you in face and brand a moment in time. Those are the ones meant to be special.<\/p>\n

For ten years now, you\u2019ve stood your ground about being what I think of as country country. Has that been difficult with the genre leaning in so many different directions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I understand that there are people out there who want to hear rock-country, rap-country, pop-country, country-country and whatever. It\u2019s been an ongoing debate. And there are artists who do each and every one of those things, and fans who like each and every one of those things. But I decided early on that I\u2019m gonna do what I do best. I don\u2019t want to go out there and pretend to enjoy doing this if I don\u2019t. It\u2019s not fair to the fans if I am faking it. I\u2019m not an actor.

But do you ever feel pressure to do whatever it that\u2019s hot right this minute?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not if the team around me is being real with me on song choices and the balance of what we send to radio. We do rocking songs, real life songs, lifestyle songs. But you need someone who will say, \u201cJustin, we cannot do another drinking song.\u201d We\u2019ve stretched our legs with the music over the years, but never compromised what were about. I have a career because we provide insight into who I am as a person. Fans really want to know who you are. They can deal with fact that I may not be the guy who\u2019s the best singer, but I am the guy you want to go get a beer with.<\/p>\n

So you like letting fans into your life through the music, but what about through social media. That\u2019s a fine line, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Until my kids are old enough to tell me they\u2019re okay with it, it\u2019s just gonna have to be little doses. I want to grow my artistry because of my artistry. I want people to respect what I do from a writing and recording standpoint. I want them to want to keep coming to my shows because of that. The kids know that what I do is different because people come up to me at Walmart, or kids at school tell them, \u201cI love your dad\u2019s song.\u201d But I\u2019m not going to use my kids to further my career.<\/p>\n

What little moments from your career still kind of blow you away?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are times, like on this new record, when Jeremy and I would look at each other like, \u201cCan you believe we\u2019re on the bus writing a song with David Lee Murphy? Or Dean Dillon?\u201d I\u2019m so fortunate to have already worked with so many of my heroes, and I hope I can keep doing more and more of it.<\/p>\n

Moore and Stover \u2014 who has produced all five of his albums since his self-titled debut in 2009 \u2014 were co-writers on all ten tracks of Late Nights and Longnecks<\/em>, due out April 26.<\/p>\n

Embedded from www.youtube.com<\/a>.