It will take you less than 15 minutes to check out the best new music that dropped this week. These are the FIRST 5 new releases I think you should hear. To be fair, though, this week was PACKED with amazing music and I’m gonna add some other notables at the bottom of this page.

I’ve got another freaking amazing Live-stream event from Nashville coming up on Tuesday - benefitting Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (check www.facebook.com/ty.bentli). I also happen to have taken the weekend to visit my family in South Dakota for the first time since 2019. Corri and I finally felt like it was a safe time to pack the whole family on a plane and we couldn’t wait to meet our nephew, Milo, and see everyone! There’s a lot going on in our family right now and it made it even more important to us that we were here for more time with the people we have been missing immeasurably.

As is always true, music helps me to center, or fully feel, or just connect. That’s why I’m sitting in my parents basement typing it up after everyone has gone to bed. It really does feel important to me to just SHARE the music that I would tell my family and friends to check out & I believe these FIRST 5 songs will be the ones you get excited to share with your friends, too!

As always: All the stuff I’m listening to is on my official playlist TY BENTLI’S DAILY SOUNDTRACK

First things first..
These are the FIRST 5 new releases you need to hear:

“Same Boat” - Zac Brown Band

This song is definitely the soundtrack in the elevator to heaven. And as you rise into the great forever, its slowly dawning on you that there will be wakeboarding in Heaven! Of course there will be - and it’ll be right next to the ski lift that takes you to the top of the sickest mountain you’ve ever snowboarded - the one that has a pizza and fish tacos restaurant a third of the way down, and free DQ blizzards at the bottom as you pick up your complimentary tea tree shampoo & Playstation 5.

I heard this song brilliantly described by one of my coworkers as “I Was On a Boat That Day” meets “Undivided.” Its true! And it all stems from the family tree of “Toes.”

This is a massive “We Are the World” or “Forever Country” moment waiting to happen - its just a question of which awards show or HBO special it will happen on! I spend the whole song wondering when Jimmy Buffett is gonna pop in! Oh - and there’s a damn cool message in here!

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Same Boat”

“Highway on the Water” - Brian Kelley

When I moved to Los Angeles the first time, it was an escape from the path I’d been on. I was spreading my wings…but I wasn’t really loaded up with cash. So one of the first places I lived was almost a monthly rental of a small sailboat in Marina Del Ray. The one single thing that kept me from spending the $550 that would have had me sleeping in the one room cabin was that I’d moved there with my sidekick and best friend, Carter (my collie). He was afraid of stairs (I had to carry him up three flights to my apartment every time I took him out during the first 5 months of his life) and hardwood floors (he didn’t trust them, and only walked backward on hardwoods…so he could keep on eye on them). He hated thunderstorms, and I just knew he would despise the gentle rock of the boat. He’d hate the leap from the deck to the dock. He’d hate the cramped space, and it wouldn’t have been fair. But that first move to LA was 17 years ago and I still have this itch to have experienced that, so clearly I’d have loved it.

I spent summers on Lake Okaboji in Iowa, when I was a kid. My grandparents had a ‘cottage’ (pretty awesome house) that I would stay at with them for weeks at a time. I’d go with my family, with Grandma O, with Grandpa Jim, with cousins. Anything to be at the lake! I was waterskiing about as soon as I could walk (and that’s barely an exaggeration). I could swim like a fish - as a kid, I genuinely never got tired and am certain I could have swam across the entire lake and back without much issue. My dad and mom had spent at ton of time at that lake as kids, too, so they also had a boat that we had docked at a marina on the Missouri River. I’d spent many nights sleeping on that boat, or camped on the shores of the Missouri. All of these experiences lend to the feeling I have when I think of heading off into the water. I don’t know why it seems so free - its technically quite limiting once you’re far enough out & on a limited diet - but BK makes me wish I’d figured out how to give my kids that same experience. Lakes, rivers, and oceanic dreams.

My favorite take-away with Brian Kelley’s career outside of FGL is how interesting his delivery is. This dude is a legit lead, solo act. He’s got a voice that mixes in bits that remind me of Kenny, Dierks, King George, Sammy Kershaw, Eddie Rabbit, I dunno…its just familiar and I feel bad at how impressed I am with it. I feel like I wasn’t giving BK enough credit before this. He takes moments to steer away from a gritty twang and instead floats into a place in his range that is just cool and unpretentious (maybe even better displayed in the other new track that he dropped today: “Songs For You” This song though so-far a standout on his upcoming album “Sunshine State of Mind”

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Highway on the Water”

“I Quit Drinking” - Kelsea Ballerini & LANY

I sat here for five minutes trying to think of a place I stopped going because of a breakup, or a habit I changed because of an ex, or a friend I stopped talking to because they had been closer to my girlfriend than to me.. but I couldn’t think of anything (maybe I repressed?)

What I did think of is a loaner vehicle I’d driven while my car was in the shop one time in Chicago. It was just as crossover SUVs had started to get popular, and I’d asked the dealer if I could ‘test drive’ an Audi Q7. I loved the way Audis drove (based on maybe one other experience driving an Audi at that time), and thought this new model was badass - plenty of cargo room, plenty of power and an instrument panel full of gadgets and features I’d never seen in my Mazda.. So, strongly considering making the leap and exploring what it would take to get me into a Q7 today, I went to pick up Andrea, my girlfriend (or maybe still just one of my best friends at that time? Close to the grey area). As I pulled up in front of her house in Little Italy, she came out and immediately commented on this car that I was slowly falling in love with…

“Nice minivan!"

And that was that. No matter how much she profused to be joking. No matter how much she backtracked, complimented the leather seats, or swore it was actually kinda cool…it was NOT for me. My parents got one a few years later and I remember getting in and thinking “I always liked these” but it just isn’t something I could do. She and that moment ruined something I ‘loved’ - short lived love, granted, but its what came to mind as I listened to Kelsea and Paul Jason Klein singing about the inability to appreciate champagne, whiskey or parties downtown, anymore.

As is true with so many moving songs, it is the simplicity that defines this song. Not overstated, just stated. I love when the music grows around us as we get wrapped in the emotion and this song is exactly that. One voice, another, together…one piano, light strings…bring in percussion… As the arrangement builds and the emotions grow the inevitable is coming…an a cappella goodbye.

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “I Quit Drinking”

“Infinity” - Fancy Hagood

This artist. He can do no wrong. His voice. Fancy Hagood will be an icon, some day. Elton John, Whitney Houston, Bono, Kacey, Carrie. He is such a specifically gifted, authentic person that its inevitable.

And I finally saw it in person, three days ago. I created a fundraising event called #HotChickenandHits for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Frankly, I invited people that I’m a fan of and assumed it would be exactly what people would enjoy seeing. Tuesday’s lineup included Lindsay Ell, Canaan Smith, Charles “Deacon” Esten, and I took a leap and invited a guy I had only gotten to know during quarantine: Fancy Hagood.

I wanted to see if his voice could deliver in a live setting the way it delivers in a recorded one. Could it move an audience the way it moves a listener? And the fast and undeniable fact is: Yes. It. Can.

We slid open the floor-to-ceiling windows of 12/30 Club as the show started and there were specific performances that caused new packs of people to join a growing audience on the sidewalk. More than one of those songs were from Fancy Hagood. I had friends leaning over to me (my friends who I know have heard my show) and saying “who the hell is that!?” And “T.F.!?” And all the other things that people say when they are moved so deeply by a performance and realize that they are in the midst of something special. Something great. Its just flat out true with this guy. He was the least familiar name on the playbill that night, and the fact that this night was the first experience that so many people were having was indescribable to me. Its validation when I have been sharing his music with people around the world on The Ty Bentli Show, but now people were unable to be distracted while listening. He was there, filling not just the room, but the Nashville night beyond. And it wasn’t something people will forget - it was something people have been DMing, texting, and emailing me about. And now we’ve got another track to add to Fancy’s bookend-to-bookend legend of an album Southern Curiousity.

Off the soundtrack to “Love, Victor” arrives Fancy’s immediately unparalleled voice speaking to the desire to get carried away in a moment. We’ve all had moments in life where we realize this is what we want to feel forever. For me, it was a kiss in the kitchen with Corri. It was the first time I landed a massive jump on my snowboard (50% chance that’s gonna happen). It was the day I cracked the mic and heard the incredible, crisp sound of my voice on 103-5 KissFM in Chicago. Fancy continues to carry an indescribably-vulnerable emotion in his music, and that raw delivery sounds like the voice inside our own hearts.

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Infinity”

“‘Til You Can’t” - Cody Johnson

I don’t know why I have never felt like I will get enough time with my kids and my wife…but I have never felt like I’ll get it. I have been a workhorse most of my life, but when Corri and I had Radley, I just knew I wanted to see him every single day - my father in law often quotes me for having told him that as a new dad. FaceTime existed, and I knew that I could take a business trip and easily slack on that stuff - limiting it to a quick checkin call with Corri, or a few texts throughout the weekend, “I’ll see you Monday.” Instead, I decided to make sure that that poor kid saw me on a FaceTime call. I made sure I snuck off to my hotel room or a quiet corner for a real conversation and interacted with him through the phone.

I often think back to the time that Smash, my coworker in Chicago, told me he wanted to get home each night so he’d have a 3-4 hours to play with the kids. My inner monologue had been screaming “THREE HOURS!??” For some reason it seemed like a decent 45 minutes would be enough on a weekday, until I landed in that position with Radley.

I wanted quality time. I wanted to be the one who knew what made him laugh each (very different) day when he was a baby. I wanted to know before anyone else that he was about to talk. I wanted to be there the moment he took his first steps. I wanted to be this connected to my kid (and eventually my kids) forever. I had a sense of urgency about being in his life. Not everyone has that opportunity to have love like that and I was there to teach him his first word (I literally used my fingers to guide his mouth closed and open to say “Mmmm oooo mmm” and he said it repeatedly on a trip to join Corri at Rock-n-Shock outside Boston), I was there the day he took his first steps (and just happened to capture the entire thing on video as he walked straight toward me…nearly sat down…then popped up and continued his journey!).

Then my car shot off the interstate. A torrential rain in Mississippi caused the SUV I was riding in with my coworkers to hydroplane. I was nearly asleep in the back seat as I heard someone yell “S***” then heard a loud bang, and was momentarily weightless as I awoke in near darkness because of the airbags that covered the windows as we flipped over and over - I had no idea what had happened or where we were headed. I assumed I needed to prepare for one of three things that could result: we were rolling into a field and would hopefully stop rolling soon, we could be crossing the interstate and would hopefully not encounter a vehicle but could stop on the road in which case we needed to get to safety quickly, or we may land in water and need to get out of the vehicle immediately. …water slammed through the windshield along with an unbelievable amount of slime and sludge. But we landed upright and in the middle of stream flowing through the grassy median of the interstate.

The long story to get to the short point. Although I don’t have much post-traumatic stress from that, there were quite a few times where my voice got caught in my throat when I told the story and expressed the thing that had scared me the most about how that could have ended: I just want to see my son’s story play out. I want to see him as a grown man. I want to meet that version of Radley, and I want to tell him how proud I am of him. I want him to have the reassurance of both his mom and dad having been there for him though his life. And I want to be here so that Corri isn’t facing the challenges that come with going the path alone. Now I want that for three little ones. Radley, Sebastian and Teddi.

Many times in my life I have decided that a decision should be wise, but it should also be bold. There’s no time to waste. There’s no better time than now (and that doesn’t just mean when it comes to taking chances, it also refers to the days when you need to give yourself a break! But there are bold decisions that will change your life in a great way, and I want to be someone encouraging and supporting that sort of approach by myself and those around me).

Cody Johnson sings the words of Ben Stennis and Matt Rogers. Almost immediately, this trifecta of talent hit upon the parenting relationship that I felt was so fragile that day in 2017. It speaks to the moments I wish I could call my Grandpa and see what his advice would have been to me as he began to know me as a man. I think of many specifics moments in every single line of this song. Every single one.

This is a song that is motivational in a way that disavows tough guy facades and illustrates that anything worth caring about is worth caring about now. You can imagine the power and the double-meaning I now hear behind the line about a ‘rain check.’ And wait for that last note.

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “‘Til You Can’t”

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
”Dig Yourself” - Tigirlily
”Bar Friends” - Restless Road
”Somethin’ in the Sunshine” - Julia Cole w. Renee Blair
”Mad I Need You” - Kylie Morgan
”Rescue Me” - Chris Young
”Things He Handed Down” - Lady A

Its Not Over

There is more 🔥 new music to share. New releases alongside my favorite tunes to play on The Ty Bentli Show. A playlist built to showcase every avenue 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 (June 11th)