Ain't My Last Rodeo

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Riley Green makes it clear he’s here to stay on his aptly titled sophomore LP. The Alabama-born singer-songwriter got to approach this record, produced by Dann Huff, a little differently than previous project, telling Apple Music that the process gave him a more holistic view and, therefore, a fuller representation of his brand of country music. “We weren't cutting singles or EP, four or five songs at a time,” Green say. “We went and cut an entire album. So I was able to look at it and go, ‘Man, it'd be good to have something like this on there and something like thi,’ but then also have a theme for the whole album. And I think the best thing I can say about it is it's got a lot of different kinds of songs on it.” Highlights include “My Last Rodeo,” a song inspired by the passing of both of Green’s grandfathers in quick succession, and opener “Damn Country Music,” a heartfelt cover of the title track from Tim McGraw’s 2015 album. Green knows how to choose ace collaborator, too, as Luke Combs joins him on “Different ’Round Here” and Jelly Roll features on “Copenhagen in a Cadillac.” Below, Green shares insight into several key track. <b>“Damn Country Music”</b> “I wasn't thinking about the album as a whole when I cut that song. I first heard it from Jessi Alexander, who I write with a lot, and I had a vision for how I wanted it to go, and I think that's the coolest intro to the song ever. It just seemed like a no-brainer. It's just a cool way to start the whole album.” <b>“Mississippi or Me”</b> “I had ‘Were you missing Mississippi or me?’ and it was such a catchy hook. I wanted to write something around that, and I held on to it for a while and I kind of got a chorus started and thought I loved the cotton fields and two names on a water tank and Jack, all the visual stuff. We finished it in one day, but it was one of those that I played for a couple of years at shows and people have always caught me. I can post a picture of my dog and people are asking for that song, so it was great to be able to finally cut it and put it out.” <b>“Ain’t Like I Can Hide It”</b> “I was on a radio tour and I went to California, LA somewhere, and somebody from the label had steered me and was just like, ‘Hey, when we get out here, don't talk so much about hunting or whatever, because they don't really do that out here.’ I was telling the story to Bobby [Pinson] and Chris [DuBois] and I said it: ‘It ain't like I can hide it. As soon as they look at me, they're going to know I'm a redneck from Alabama. You hear me talk, it's not like I can cover this up.’ And Bobby said, ‘That's it. We're writing it.’” <b>“Copenhagen in a Cadillac” (feat. Jelly Roll)</b> “[Jelly Roll’s] got a great story and is very relatable somehow, even though his story is pretty crazy. But we hit it off when we first met and did some shows together. I wrote the song ‘Copenhagen in a Cadillac’ kind of as a joke. It’s a very fun song. And I think it's probably tough for me to always make sure I have that kind of thing, because I think I write towards a more ballad, meaningful-type song, and this was an idea I had that was just fun. I don't know if I would've cut it had Jelly not wanted to be on it, but I texted him the song and he called me the next day and was fired up about it. I think it's cool because it's probably a collaboration people weren't really expecting.” <b>“My Last Rodeo”</b> .

via Apple Music

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