Ty's FIRST 5 - Start With These New Songs 1/15/21
Notifications were hitting my phone before my phone was hitting the pillow, last night, and I have been deep into the playlist of new arrivals on Apple Music ever since! Its one certainty for us - our isolation in the world hasn’t disappeared yet, but music is appearing at a ferocious rate as artists and songwriters are even more alone with their thoughts. There are no massive tours sucking all the energy out of there creative minds, so they are turning to songs &. delivering some of the most universally-consequential music in decades.
With hundreds of new songs to comb through on Apple Music Country where I host The Ty Bentli Show every weekday - its LIVE to 165 countries (even if you don’t have an iPhone or Mac, you can grab the Apple Music app and listen!). To alleviate the lift of listening to hours and hours of music while you’ve got this crazy mix of home and work and life, I wanted to help you get started:
Here are the FIRST 5 songs to start with…
“Line By Line” - Maren Morris & JP Saxe
When I mentioned that its exciting to see artists locked into a music-creation era…Maren Morris is literally who I’m talking about. I saw her acknowledging how much she’s been writing & when I thought about the caliber of music that she released with GIRL - which I highlighted on The Ty Bentli Show as a Global Spotlight album - I realized she’d created songs like “Common” “The Bones” “To Hell And Back” and “All My Favorite People” while in the height of career insanity (tours, awards, radio promo)…and now we’re unleashing her without distractions! Whaaaaat is to come?!
This song teams Maren back up with Jimmy Robbins, alongside JP Saxe & Ryan Marrone and it cuts RIGHT to the matter. Interestingly its a song that feels like its being written as its being sung. And then it hits you that it is so poignantly titled. Even cooler is that you can feel the evolution of the love story and the delivery by Maren and JP has a way of acknowledging the uncertainty of the future, but the (somehow) certainty that it seems that this love story will forever exist. When it ends, it literally feels like that moment at the end of Back to the Future: “To Be Continued…”
LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Line By Line”
“Humble” - Ian Munsick
Last year, after finding out we were pregnant, and in the height of a pandemic, and amidst other responsibilities that were crashing all around us, my wife and I were supposed to meet at the post-office to sign documents on a passport application for our 2-year-old, Sebastian.
Being a pandemic, and since the world was learning a new normal of operations, there was a staffing issue and we were sent to a different post office. As I got the message, and headed that way to meet Corri, traffic got nuts, a cop pulled in front of me and I was a little later than expected as I parked and began getting my kid out of the car. Corri did something TOTALLY out of character (and never seen before) and yelled at me across the parking lot! “Come On! What are you two doing!?!!”
Instead of reacting with emotion or any sort of animosity, I (internally) was overwhelmed with happiness. I couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact details of what made her react that way for the first time ever, but it made me more aware of the fact that I am married to someone who really does not ever yell at or toward me & almost made me laugh out loud because of how much joy she puts in my life and the dichotomy of the ‘the usual’ and the scene in front of me..
Anyway, the story wraps up with me talking about it on the radio to all 165 countries of people who listen, playing Ian Munsick’s “Long Haul” (which perfectly fit the way I felt about her, even in that moment), and then going home that night and dancing with Corri to that beautiful song in our kitchen.
”Me Against The Mountain” (check out the video, including Ian’s wedding footage) was equally emotionally-connected and sweet.
With “Humble” we travel to a completely different place with Ian. If the 2 tracks above place you in a clearing in Wyoming, this one is right there in the honky-tonk. I talked to Ian about how much fun this song is, and he told me how much he’d been looking forward to its release. The consistent message is that Ian’s music is based around his value system. His sound continues to define a new space in country music (modern western).
LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Humble”
“Breakups” - Seaforth
When I first was introduced to Seaforth, I was wandering into Loser’s bar out in Vegas (its hidden behind the slots at the MGM Grand) during a wild ACMs weekend. And even in Vegas, these two guys stood out! Mitch and Tom were plugging in for an acoustic set and then ripped into a set that included “Love That”
Last year, I felt like the band had found a new gear. The energy and familiarity was there, but it was a step past all of that. Talking to them, this weekend, I realized that the gear they’ve shifted into was pandemic-mandated. Lockdown left them in a position to take over creative decisions in every aspect of the song - writing, crafting, and producing. They used the tools in their homes to create “Close Enough” and it continues with this highly-personal song (originally inspired by love left behind when the duo decided to leave their homeland of Australia for the Music City). You’ll find that these lyrics highlight the truth of the adage: “Personal is universal”
FUN FACT: Tom told me that on top of going through a recent breakup, there was an added challenge as the boys also sang the vocals for this track while battling COVID!
LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Breakups”
“Minimum Wage” - Blake Shelton
While the internet is busy giving Blake #h!+ for being rich while he sings about the simplicity of love, I was busy trying to find the original version of this song. I felt like I’d grown up on it. This is exactly why Blake is who he is. He acknowledges time-and-again that he is a SINGER. Not a writer…he just wants to tell the story and sing the song (and he’s literally never pitchy).
This song in particular, though, just feels like a timeless country song. It feels familiar and it is true to what country music is all about - an appreciation for hard work, the existence of heart, and - in this case - having the ability to count your blessings amidst the obstacles!
In the tradition of “Boys Round Here” or “God’s Country”…this song rolls in country. It just is. And for all of us who have waited until the lights were turned off before paying an electric bill, or jealously stared at the classic Mustang Shelby across the intersection, this song feels like a wild night, spinning around us while we realize that happiness exists in so many places…and one of them is when your head and your heart realize that you FOUND IT in the person whose laugh just lit up your world (I know that laugh; in my life it’s named Corri).
LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Minimum Wage”
“Never Have I Ever (Yo Nunca He)” - Danielle Bradbery & Kurt
It was hard for me to make this call on a week with a lot of fun music dropping - but I love the spirit and truth of the sentiment that “Music is Universal” (that’s two ‘universal’ lessons in this one post)!
Even with the heaps of praise and support, Danielle Bradbery’s voice and albums have never gotten the credit they fully deserve. I Don't Believe We’ve Met Yet was one of the coolest releases of 2017 - I think it fell victim to the terrestrial radio disease (of gender inequality). Luckily, people are smarter than (the) dinosaurs, and Danielle’s fans continue to support her. She has expanded that audience around the globe, and this version takes an already special piece of music to an incredible place.
From the first piano notes of this now familiarly heartfelt song, Kurt and Danielle have swept us into a position to appreciate the emotional FEEL of music.. Its more-beautiful to me with each transition between languages, until I no longer care which one is being sung. Back and forth, around and around, and increasingly less divided and more united. This song represents more than just love of one other in this highly-important time in our lives. It represents unity, and by the end of the song this ideology feels innate.
LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC: “Never Have I Ever (Yo Nunca He)”