The Hill - Commentary

If you kinda looked at my social media over the last couple years

I've been writing so much with so many different people and over the

Last couple years I've written like 150, 200 songs and every time we

Get in the studio, we're like, "What are we gonna do with all these

Songs?" because so many of them hold such a special place in my heart

And after Country Again: Side A was complete, obviously the normal

Thing to do would be like, "Okay, well, Country Again: Side B's gonna

Come out next." And as we started working on that record, I wrote

This one song called "Where We Started" and this song, for some

Reason, spurred a lot of other songs that kinda followed suit with it

And when we got in the studio and recorded this song, it kinda

Started becoming a different project. It kinda started becoming not

Country Again: Side B, what I wanted it to be and as we started

Talking, you know, with the label and our team, kinda like in the way

That movies work, it's like Batman comes out and then Superman comes

Out and then Batman 2 comes out. It just kinda felt off-kilter and

Those are the kinda things that I love to do and this album seemed to

Be such a great middle ground between the two. I think on this record

, I just didn't wanna hold back on what I feel on a daily basis. The

Very first track on the record is called "The Hill." It's the only

Song that I didn't write on this album but my friend Jordan Reynolds

Sent it to me and when I heard it, I just broke down in tears

I was like, "Holy crap, this is really sad," and I'm a sucker for

A sad song but it's also extremely redemptive and I don't know

Between that song and "Angels" and "Where We Started," I think I'm

Known as like the love song guy, you know? And it's always

Butterflies and roses and we don't have any problems and all this

Kinda stuff and, you know, after my wife's book was released and it

Kinda got into the details of just our marriage and, you know, the

Ups and downs that we've been on, it was just like, well, man, why

Not talk about those real emotions that I experience in my marriage

And a lot of people experience in their marriage and kinda put it

Out there, you know? I think songwriting, if it's not based on the

Most honest of truthfulness, then what's the point of saying it?

It's pretty interesting listening to "The Hill" and the next song is

"Church Boots." Like I love taking people on those emotional roller

Coasters, if you will. I like to make you cry but then I like to

Immediately make you smile and then once you smile, I want you to

Dance and then once you dance, I want you to cry again and I

Don't know, my last few records have kinda been in that kind of

Weird sequencing and it's something that I really enjoy from a

Record listener. I like to be completely caught off-guard every

Time I hit the next track and that's kinda what this record is

And it's fun but it's also reflective and sad and happy but that's

Life. You know, I think every day you kinda go through all these

Emotions and especially after, you know, a year, you kinda

Reflect and you go, "Man, March was hard but April was great and

June was a party and July was this" and I think music is so related

To what life is and to me, that's what this record was about