Where last week was filled with music that demanded the arrival of summer, with sunroofs open, music cranked up, and a fun destination plugged into the GPS… this week was a different tone. A lot of heartbreak, reflection, and even a new song about a dog (which never ends well) from Jameson Rodgers. And through it all, it was a damn deal to pick just 5 songs for this list.
NOTE: watch for my cheats on sneaking in new songs - its already happened once

I got over 9 hours of new music from country artists around the world, this week! Its amazing! Its also a lot of music to listen to, which is why I want to help you get started on the discovery with just five picks to get you started.

Want more? All the stuff I’m listening to this week is on my official playlist TY BENTLI’S DAILY SOUNDTRACK

Here are the FIRST 5 new releases you should hear:

“That’s When” - Taylor Swift & Keith Urban

In breakups, are you the Breaker or the Breakee? For a long time, I was a total commitmentphobe (its a thing). The weird thing is that I was also a serial monogamist. I was always in a short-term serious relationship.

I read somewhere that a ball player (I think it was a Yankee) used to give out Parting Baskets filled with goodies to remember their relationship by. I’m not sure I really love the presumptive conceit of that idea…but I also kinda get it. I usually felt that the people I was saying goodbye to were really great humans, and I hated breaking up with them because they didn’t deserve any heartache, but they also didn’t deserve to end up with a guy that knew he wasn’t their perfect match. Wouldn’t have been nicer if I could ensure that when they returned home with their feelings that they also had a movie to watch, ice cream to chow down, and maybe a coupon for a spa day when they felt up to it?

Personally, I just believe I knew the truth of the fit. I was pretty aware of what I wanted in a partner and more-importantly what I wanted to feel. I didn’t think I should feel like I’d rather be hanging with my dog, Carter, than my girlfriend. Drama makes me tired, fighting doesn’t scream ‘love’ to me, and I eventually would admit I needed more space. Like: always space, not ever not space. So I’d end it. No ‘on a break’ just endings. Then the tables turned, and I fell in love in a different way, but she didn’t feel the same… and we tried space (like forever space). Nothing like that purgatory of wondering how a break will play out..

This song is one of the most-celebrated moments shared between my friend, Kacey Jo (who also works with me on The Ty Bentli Show, so she’s obviously a HUGE music lover), and that includes the time Criss Angel gave me tickets to his Vegas show so I could take Mindfreak fanatic Kacey and he popped up right next to her in the audience during his magic act! Kacey is a massive Swiftie, and I am a huge fan of Keith Urban - and they reconnected for this song on Taylor’s Version of her FEARLESS album

Written back during the era of this album, Taylor was doing her own headlining tour while also popping up to open for Keith on his Escape Together world tour. This one puts Taylor on the Breaker side of a break. The song is freakin infectious! Lyrically, its a bit Keith-esque - structured as train of thought storytelling. It reminds me of the concise, staccatoed lines that help Keith tell a story so quickly in his music. I wonder if the invitation to duet is Taylor affirming the influence she posted about, this week.

You can dig all the way into that FEARLESS (Taylor’s Version) album - its officially out - and if you want a little more Tay-infused style, check out Megan Maroney “Haven’t Met Yet”

Get ready for an awesome ear-worm - Taylor crushes it and Keith (as he does) immerses himself in the world of the song with an introductory hum-in…

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “County Roads”

“Love Again” - Fancy Hagood

I’m really excited by how country music is growing - around the globe, and in regard to the number of stories it is able to tell. We are seeing more truths being told, which adds opportunities for those of us who don’t create the music to see our own reflection in the stories. That connection replaces loneliness and conquers fears.

From the first sneak peek into Fancy Hagood’s brand new album, Southern Curiosity, Ive been finding connections to his music. His soaring vocals on “Don’t Blink” drew me in. The lyrics made me want to hold my wife close and dance in the kitchen. So many might be focused on his sexuality, but that’s not the lone detail in his music - his view on life and uninhibited delivery of guttural emotions can relate to all of us. The sentiments are universal.

The other day I called Fancy to assuage my own curiosity. I love country music because of its unparalleled ability to share real life - and I hoped to pick his brain on how he feels about creating music that tells stories of an under-represented perspective in country music. I asked if he felt it was appropriate for me to call it “country music?” His reply was pretty awesome because he told me that he’s created his own genre to discourage any limitations as he creates. I also asked if he was putting out music that he hoped would allow country fans to feel a tighter bond because it was telling their story in ways they hadn't heard before...and he said "No." Then elaborated (not an exact quote, but what I remember) “I actually wrote this album kinda for me - baby Jake. The kid who needed to hear it. Its like icing on the cake that it might mean something to someone else, too."

The first lyrics on this album is the first lyric in this song. Its a moment that every single one of us have experienced or will. That lonely moment when we wonder if we’ll ever find our real path in this world…and if we do, will it be worthwhile?

It unravels in a soaring - literally limitless - velvet vocal that has become synonymous for me with Fancy (aside from rare exceptions where he restrains himself, perhaps to make a different kind of point on songs like “Forest”). Taking us into that moment of falling for someone and seeing the world suddenly open up in front of us…then crumble…then return with the same reckless abandon. Its incredible. And its only Track 1.

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Love Again”

“Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” - Jennifer Nettles

I started working in country radio as Jennifer Nettles was one of the most identifiable voices on my playlist. “Stuck Like Glue” will always remind me of the years I was planted with my ass stuck in a studio in Chicago as I recorded show after show after show on the country stations I’d been asked to join.

At the time, I was experiencing one of the biggest highlights of my life - living in Chicago - and career - taking KissFM to the #1 afternoon show in a major market was a very real kind of rewarding. With that had come an opportunity to dive into one of my other passions in music (country!). While my day job was in top 40 in a few cities, my side hustle was hours of recording countless country radio shows. I’d repurpose what I’d done live in Chicago, add in local flavor and send it off to places like Nashville, Phoenix, DC, Atlanta and other cities that I’d come to love almost as much as my home. Because each show was recorded specifically for the city it would air in, I had listened to the music 10x as much as I would later in my career when I delivered just ONE show that was syndicated across the US. Jennifer Nettles voice was captivating all of us - people in San Antonio loved her as much as the people from her home state that listened in Atlanta. And as a guy who loved bringing energy to the evening shows, I just loved playing those Sugarland jams.

My excitement at hearing Jennifer Nettles sing hasn’t dissipated, and it immediately drew me to this first sampling from her upcoming album (which is a bunch of songs from the classic American songbook to the monster hits that were still showing nightly before NYC watched the lights go down on Broadway, last year).

Almost everyone is familiar with the classic “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” - but it feels brand new! Grammy-winning orchestrator Alex Lacamoire (think Broadway shows like “Hamilton” & “Dear Evan Hansen”) teamed up for J-Net’s album and you’ll hear the contemporary jazz arrangement and immediately be transported to the aforementioned shows - I wish I could describe what you’re about to experience, but its impossible. The arrangement includes timing as specific as your favorite comedian hitting a punchline, or your favorite thriller movie lighting you up with the climactic reveal of the monster. But the true homerun here is the unbelievable delivery by Jen. She’s got a fairly extensive theatrical background and you can feel her stepping into familiar territory as she delivers a performance that isn’t trapped inside a vocal booth…its sent to the rafters and fills an auditorium. Prob not technically country, but … you won’t mind.

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat”

“Die to Go Home” - Brett Kissel

I wonder if my parents even read this blog. I don’t do a great job promoting it and I’m not a salesman (I’m the dude that prefaces an ‘ask’ with “you should feel totally comfortable saying no, but I was wondering if maybe…”). That said, I kind of want to call my dad and ask him about something he mentioned a few months ago. I don’t remember how it came up, but he brought up the day that I told them I wanted to quit college and was going to be pursuing radio.

To me, the kid that was just making a (small, temporary) decision, I don’t remember that as anything significant. On the other side of it now, as the parent who will always want to know I’m guiding my kids on a path that will offer them as much happiness as this world can offer, I know I’ll be very aware of the day they tell me that they’ve made what is actually a life-altering decision.

My parents always knew that I needed to spread my wings and fly off from my hometown in Sioux Falls, SD. Frankly, I probably learned it from them - my dad had left his family’s machinery business in his mid-20s and moved us from Iowa to South Dakota as he decided to become a police officer. Then he decided to start the K-9 unit in my hometown…and eventually, he’d buy a limo on eBay on a whim and my parents would start up a limo company. So, I moved out during the summer after my senior year of high school (sleeping on a waterbed frame filled with an air mattress in the living room of an apartment I rented with two friends from Gigglebees, where I worked). Then I moved off to college and started a part-time radio job..then let the next job dictate my decision to move down south (I did a little more college there, but not much), and eventually just let go of my passion for physics and chased my dreams of using music and stories to connect people and hopefully do some good.

I want to talk to Dad about that - and maybe he’ll even let me do it on FaceTime and share that convo here (watch for updates). But that being said, there are a few songs out this week that speak to the spirit of those who will chase the world & those who are wiser and know that the most comfort and happiness are closer than you think. I almost put Riley Green’s callback “Corn Don’t Grow” but decided on a song that that speaks to the way I feel - especially after the last year, where I went 13 months without being able to hug the parents and sisters that I used to hug every day.

Brett and I were talking about how when he was a kid, he’d stop EVERYTHING when he spotted an airplane in the sky. I totally connected with him on watching those planes and being filled with a desire to see the world that they were headed off to explore. I wondered what runway was that plane headed toward?

Brett takes titles like “husband” and “Dad” very seriously, even amidst the chaos and travel involved in an artist’s schedule. This year, he’s had the opportunity to recenter and refocus and - importantly - reassess. We chat now and then about this strange pandemic. Its so horrible in so many ways, and has also offered this incredible opportunity to experience so many moments with our kids and our wives. His new album is called “What Is Life?” - and its filled with the perspective gained in this turbulent year. And speaking of turbulence, what Brett and Jesse Frasure crafted here is a song that speaks to the way I now feel about airplanes, after what I would call the good-fortune of being able to travel so often for the syndicated show that I was doing, and other work-events. Now, almost every single time, I look at the airplanes that fly overhead and I am happy for the many passengers on-board that I know are arriving back home.

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Die To Go Home”

“I Still Do” - Seth Ennis

Soo… I do think I might still have a bunch of love notes from the girl I had a crush on from the moment I saw her on the bus in 7th grade. It was 3 years before I would finally take her out on a date, and I don’t even have a clue what that date was. You’d think I’d have cared more about that, but I mainly just remember the electricity of the first real crush. Like in the purest sense - couldn’t shake thoughts of her, and would lay awake for hours when I was at my grandma’s cottage on Lake Okaboji and just wonder what this girl was up to and if she was falling in love with some other guy while I was out of sight out of mind (even though she didn’t really know how I felt).

Sidenote: I just remembered our first date, down to the red dress she wore and the striped sweater I wore. Its a longer story, but actually not one of the classiest decisions I’ve made in my life (I’d asked this girl to go to a dance with me but she had plans, eventually I lined up another date, then backpedaled my way out of it after crush-girl circled back and said she’d like to go with me… ugh. teenagers suck).

Other note: I also have many more momentos from moments with a girl I can safely promise is not just puppy love. I’ve saved cards, notes, ticket stubs, and every single one of them makes me immediately wish to have one specific hand slip into mine.

Seth Ennis is just a cool dude, and I was really impressed with an open letter he shared recently. He’d almost dumped … music! Thank God he didn’t, especially if this is a song we would have lost to the grey ether of work tapes. I may not need to look back at lost love, cuz I’ve found its successor, but I can still fall into a lit beat and the energy of this song is infectious!

Sidenote: (since I’m on a sidetone trend) How does Seth throw so many lyrics into a line and not make it turn into a Twisty-style rap. His phrasing is freakin phenomenal!

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “I Still Do”

Its Not Over

I’ve couldn’t be stopped this week, and there is WAY more new music to share, along with my general favorites to play on The Ty Bentli Show, lately. There are stompers and heartbreakers, a playlist built to showcase every perspective and you’ll love it start to finish:

TY BENTLI’S DAILY SOUNDTRACK is on my homepage on Apple Music.

FIRST 5 - Start With These New Releases 4/9