Graduating to Sophomore & Junior Albums

Last month we highlighted some awesome EP releases. EPs are exciting because it’s the beginning of an artist’s introduction to the world. A little taste of what they have in store for us for a full debut album. What is just as (or even a little more) exciting is the anticipation to the follow up albums, not the first but waiting for the second and third albums. It is just like years of high school. Freshman year (the first album) you have the nervous excitement because its all new and you don’t know what to expect. Sophomore and junior year (2nd and 3rd albums) you are more settled, pretty much know what you are going to get, but still anticipating new changes and excited for more of the good parts experienced in freshman year. So now we are going to highlight and get excited for sophomore albums from Maren Morris and Carly Pearce and junior albums from Kelsea Ballerini and Old Dominion.

Let’s start with our first sophomore Maren Morris. Maren’s debut album titled Hero came out strong with top singles My Church, 80s Mercedes, I Could Use a Love Song, and Rich. Maren has hit the ground running opening up for big names Charles Kelley and Keith Urban before hitting the road on her own Hero headlining tour. After being sought out for a huge collaboration with Zedd & Grey for The Middle Maren crossed over to headlining for former One Direction stud Niall Horan on The Flicker World Tour. Back in April Maren teased an incomplete studio schedule to record MM2, with her hand covering the tracklist she captioned it ‘she’s ready to record’ the excitement has been giving us all the feels for months! Speaking of feelings she opened her set on the Flicker Tour with a new song titled The Feels. An upbeat funky jam clearly inspired by the fun love she is in with 6 month newly wed Ryan Hurd. As she jams around on stage she sings “You’re giving me the feels” Video below (full version on Facebook) from her tour stop in Holmdel, NJ at PNC Bank Arts Center. Video cred Rockin Rox Promo (me).

Our next sophomore really loves wine and is currently in love with Michael Ray, that’s right you guessed it Carly Pearce. This month CP has been teasing CP2 with Instagram photos of her in the studio with well known producer Busbee. Carly’s debut album Every Little Thing was released last October. Her first single to country radio Every Little Thing earned Carly Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2018 CMT Awards and (in my personal opinion) earned her the best acceptance speech given at a country award show. The infamous “To the guy that broke my heart, Thank You” hands down is the line to beat.

If you didn’t feel the heartbreak just listening to the song the video definitely delivered, there is a very good reason this video won. The imagery, like the song, was so raw and personal Director Patrick Tracey did an amazing job, and CP was the natural star she is.

She followed up the success of that single with an even more theatrical video for her second single Hide the Wine, directed by Shaun Silva. Carly recently joined old time friend and fellow country star Brett Young at NYC Opry City Stage for a Front & Center taping. Each did an hour set for the televised show, both episodes will be released in the Spring. (Hint: check out the front row crowd shots for yours truly!) Carly did an interview with People magazine explaining what to expect from the next album. We have come to know CP for her heartbreak songs or love gone wrong songs. However, this time around she is in a different stage in her life, she is in love with a sweet man that is treating her the right way. Carly says her new music will reflect this happier phase of her life, but of course we can still expect classic Carly heartbreak to be thrown into the mix. Just because artists grow and get into stable and loving relationships does not mean they cannot pull from a very relatable place such as heartbreak or lack of respect. CP2 is on the way and I for one cannot wait to see the spectrum of life topics that will make up the tracklist, ranging from heartbreak to happiness and every little thing in between.

Another happy newlywed who doesn’t plan on just singing happy love songs for her 3rd album is our first junior of the list Kelsea Ballerini. Kelsea recently went to Instagram live to discuss all the exciting news she has been forced to keep secret for what seems to fans like forever. She just released her crossover collaboration with The Chainsmokers This Feeling. Along with the announcement of Unapologetically Deluxe set for release October 26th. Kelsea’s next single is Miss Me More. Below is a video of KB performing Miss Me More on her Unapologetically tour where she performed the album cover to cover. Fans (me included) love the sass of this song, and a few of the tracks off of Unapologetically which have a little punch to them, she’s not just singing about roses and peter pans anymore. Luckily for fans who love this sassy side of Kelsea, she revealed in an Instagram Live that there is a lot more sass to expect from KB3. Bring on the sassy junior KB we are all ready for it.

Our final group of juniors collectively go by the name Old Dominion. End of September OD has been teasing fans on Instagram with photos from inside the studio. A multi photo post on the 25th captioned “It’s getting real #OD3” began the thread of a few similar posts. One including Matthew Ramsey leaning over the sound board captioned “It hurts so good. #OD3” and a third post with Matt, Trevor, and Brad in the room with writers and/or producers captioned “All hands on deck #OD3”. Each post literally made my heart skip a beat in excitement.

I personally have been around for this group’s journey since all they had to perform were the 5 songs on their original EP. And now just the other day, in the studio also (shocker), they were popping 2 bottles of champagne celebrating their newest single Hotel Key being #1 for two weeks in a row. From dive bars to stadiums, their albums Meat and Candy and Happy Endings always told a unique story only OD knew how to write, record, and perform. The last VIP I attended included an acoustic pre show and Q&A at their Metlife Stadium stop on the Trip Around the Sun Tour with Kenny Chesney. Kenny saw the talent of these guys from day one, when they only had 5 songs and opened up for Kenny at 4 in the afternoon. Now with 6 #1 hits and countless hits as songwriters, which each one of them set out to do in the beginning, they have the freedom to be choosy about which songs they hold onto for themselves or which ones they release hoping to get a cut. At the VIP they actually sang a new song (per my question of what their favorite song they have written for OD3 so far was). Matthew answered saying his favorite was a song called Smooth Sailing. Not expecting them to play it Trevor starts strumming the cord and Matthew looks at Brad says “I guess we are doing this”. They never performed that song live before, so that was a treat. They also mentioned that since they are writing for themselves as a band, but will always be songwriters first, they will hold onto a song they write a little longer before deciding if it is going to make their next project or be up for grabs. Which was when Matthew interjects “Nobody tell Kenny Chesney about that song”. The crowd laughed because Kenny’s song Save It For A Rainy Day was an Old Dominion cut and the summer and island vibe of this new one definitely would be something Mr. Chesney would jump on. Hopefully it still makes the album because Matthew also joked that now that he said it was his favorite it probably won’t make the album. It is hard to go through all that they have written and have yet to write when recording an album with only 12 or 13 tracks tops. There are sure to be plenty more #1’s off of OD3, so we'll just have to anxiously wait for its arrival! Follow the video to my Facebook for a clip of their new one Make It Sweet and grab your tickets to the Make It Sweet Tour with Morgan Evans and Jordan Davis!

Since I was a little bit of a nerd in school each new year of high school or college was exciting on some level. However, I am ten times more excited for the sophomore and junior acts of these artists. Maren, Carly, Kelsea, and Old Dominion are all growing as writers, artists, and performers coming into their second and third acts, changing, molding, but staying true to who they are as people. That is what we love about their work, their stories shine through whether it depicts where they are in life, either in a loving marriage, reminiscing about a past relationship, or bringing the sass. As they grow and work with other artists we benefit from these changes, we might get a crossover collaboration or a song cut on another artist’s album. Stay tuned for the updates on the albums of sophomore and junior year for these four graduating artists!