6 January 2020

January 5 marked the seventh anniversary of Maren Morris moving from Texas to Nashville and she marked the occasion with a reflective Instagram post. In that time, Morris has grown to be one of country music’s leading female artists, with her two albums ‘Hero’ and ‘GIRL’ receiving critical and fan acclaim, while she also has two CMA Awards to her name – one for New Artist of the Year in 2016 and now for Album of the Year for ‘GIRL’ last November. Morris also won a Grammy Award in 2017, taking home Best Country Solo Performance for My Church. Also since she moved to Nashville, Morris met and subsequently married Ryan Hurd, with the two now expecting a baby in the coming months. Speaking about the occasion, Morris – who posted two pictures, one of her moving in 2013 and one of her giving a speech for winning Album of the Year at the CMA Awards – explained how she would write with anyone in order to try and get some momentum behind her, which also helped her improve her craft. “7 years ago today, I had short hair, some okay (alright, crap) demos in my pocket and moved into a Craigslist house sight unseen for $350 a month,” she wrote. “I wrote with anyone + everyone who’d sit in a room with me. I got better and I found my tribe of people I loved to create with and we’d geek out over The Cardigans and Sheryl Crow records. “Looking at the gap between these photos, I actually do know where the time goes. It gets encapsulated in each fantastic, mundane, life-changing, soul-crushing, mediocre, hallelujah song in my catalogue. “Cheers to 7 years, Nashville, and to the friends here I now am lucky to call family.” Given her pregnancy, it is expected that Maren Morris will be taking a break from music in 2020 to focus on her family life.

Carly Pearce has shared the third single from her upcoming self-titled second album – due on February 14 – with Call Me now being available to all. You can see a lyric video below. [wpdevart_youtube]u8ySA26Wr2c[/wpdevart_youtube] Call Me, which appears to be about her husband Michael Ray, follows in the footsteps of her duet with Lee Brice in It Won’t Always Be Like This and I Hope You’re Happy Now, which is currently doing the rounds on country radio. Speaking about the single on her Instagram page, Pearce said that as soon as the late producer busbee, whose last work was Pearce’s upcoming album, came to her with the track, she grabbed it with both hands as it felt incredibly relevant to her personal life. “From the minute busbee sent me this song that he wrote with my gal Emily Shackleton and the boys from Little Big Town, I knew I had to cut it,” Pearce quipped. “Gimme alllll the sass, because after all…. I DID slide into Michael Ray’s DM’s.” Given that her album isn’t due for another six weeks or so, it is highly likely that Pearce will share another track from her record before it is released – though considering it is 13 tracks in length, it’s worth taking into account that she has already shared basically a third of it with the general public. 2020 is shaping to to be a very busy year for Carly Pearce, who in addition to releasing her second album, already has several American dates pencilled in over the coming months – including a date at the Ryman in Nashville on January 18. All dates are available here. Last year, the Kentucky born/Nashville based artist was a Main Stage act at C2C and was very much warmly received by those in attendance at London, Glasgow and Dublin.