Bio

Little Big Town
NIGHTFALL

The night, with its curtain of darkness, contains many things. Hope, doubt, faith, need, resolution, joy, rage, dreams, exhaustion, romance. From that first dusky “Babe…” over a few vacillating guitar notes, Nightfall’s intimacy washes over listeners. Opening with a velvety song of desire, “Next To You” suggests a subtle look at how the world gets the best of us, how connection heals and ultimately, love is the answer.

Easily Little Big Town’s most nuanced project, upon inception, they didn’t realize they were on the verge of producing their ninth studio album. But with songs to capture, creative fires to stoke, Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook went into the studio to develop what was there with no masterplan. It wasn’t long before the fiercely musical foursome realized they’d found a new creative horizon – and they just kept going until Nightfall emerged from 34 songs, myriad experiments and the inherent harmony singing that has defined the Grammy-winning group since they emerged with the steamy, stark “Boondocks.”

“From the first time we sat in the living room, it was amazing that we all gravitated to the harmonies we sing,” explains the sunny-voiced Schlapman. “In 20 years, we really have stayed with the harmonies we settle into organically. We’re all really strong and opinionated, and we’ve always been really involved, but over the years, we’ve become more comfortable with who each of us is. Our different personalities and strengths have become the thing that brings us together as us.”

Nightfall includes the Grammy-nominated consciousness tug “The Daughters,” debuted to universal acclaim on “The Academy of Country Music Awards,” the cascading loveliness of “River of Stars,” the Mexican horn stomping revelry of “Wine, Beer, Whiskey,” the James Taylor-esque hope of “Bluebird” and the naked piano/gospel vocal chorus-tinged soul plea of Sweet’s raw vocal pledge on “Forever And A Night.” This is grown-up music, complex, wise, yet vulnerable.

“It’s so easy to keep layering guitars on top of each other,” Westbrook says of the sonics. “Every sound is intentional on this record. We’d empty tracks out to create more space. Those spaces let the energy come through. The space allows you to absorb what we’re saying.”

In the ache, there is surrender. In the conflict, solutions. Fairchild injects “Sugar Coat’s” whispery self-examination with a dose of awareness. Ruminating “Sometimes I wish I liked drinking, Sometimes I wish I liked pills/Wish I could sleep with a stranger, but someone like me never will,” her clear-eyed examination of societal expectations suggests the potential for a rejection of the good girl’s smile in the face of what’s handed her with a truth-reckoning “One of these nights I’ll meet you in the driveway, and tell you to go to Hell…” “How many of us are going through Hell in secret?” Schlapman asks. “For generations, women were taught not to complain, not to explain, while behind the scenes, it’s a total disaster. Secrets are so cancerous, and most of us have them. That’s the empowerment: she suffers for knowing…until…” Fairchild agrees, “Through her awakening she finds resolve and is willing to tell the truth. No more sugar coating.”

It’s followed by Westbrook’s searching “Problem Child,” which turns the rejoinder of “What’s your problem, child?” into a recognition and invitation to seek solace. As Fairchild, who Schlapman calls, “the Tom Brady of the project,” says of the song’s tenderness, “We had just written this song and instantly wanted to record it. That’s Jimi’s very first vulnerable vocal, where he said, ‘I don’t know if I know this enough to really sing it…’ That made this vocal, and everything this song is trying to communicate.”

Sweet sees the cinematic juxtaposition of it. “With those beautiful strings and that vocal, it speaks to everyone that has felt like a black sheep, like a problem child. We’ve all been that person, whether (it was when) we were a child or not, and it takes something sad and cloaks it in hope.” Not that Nightfall is a somber place. Yes, it opens the gates to reflection, but in that comes freedom and joy.

“Over Drinking,” which sounds like a throw down, celebrates moving through angst to lighter ground… “I’m Over Drinking, Over You.”
Real country, classic material with a metaphor that turns the tropes inside out. Pretty profound. “If I’m out at a bar and I’ve tied one on…I’m drunk ‘cause I’m happy not drunk ‘cause you’re gone.”

“When ‘Over Drinking’ got texted to my phone,” Fairchild marvels, “it was such a fun song, country and smart. We immediately knew it belonged on Nightfall, although the record was basically mastered and finished. We knew this was a song our fans would love. We didn’t waste a moment despite being on the road.”

Dispatching a runner to a local Bed, Bath + Beyond to buy all the baffling they could find, an “instant session” was born in an empty room backstage. “It was so spontaneous and creative!” Fairchild continues. “We carry a recording rig with us, and set it up. The drums, bass, and guitars sounded amazing. That ‘in the moment’ feeling is all over the track.”

In perfect 6/8 time, Little Big Town leaned into hard country with a slinky, celebratory earthiness. The Telecaster stings and the sticks on the rims usher in a triumph from tear-in-my-beer anguish. It juxtaposes the pluck of the teasing nag of the gently undulating “Throw Your Love Away,” which finds the ether-voiced Schlapman sparkling through a catalogue of indelible memories, or the acoustic smolder “Questions,” where the burgundy in Fairchild’s voice illuminates as she sifts through the post-breakup doubts she will never voice.

Obviously, there are layers of Fleetwood Mac’s intoxicating harmonies, the acoustic nature of Laurel Canyon, the sweeping sense of emotion that underlies Joni Mitchell and the great respect and love for the songwriters of Nashville, TN. “I’m a dreamer,” Sweet offers. “This music hopefully honors that as musicians in country music. If people can open their hearts and just connect with music in a way that feeds them, makes them feel what they need or want to, then we got it.”

Westbrook explains, “The atmosphere everyone’s living in right now had our heads in more adult places. You always want to have fun, but we’re adults with families – and needed to say something that mattered.” Still, as Schlapman boils it down, “This was a journey, and still is. Whether you’re going to the mountains, or the beach, even sitting in your living room with a glass of wine, this record is an experience. It will take you through so many places in life, hopefully sink in, and take you where you need to go, or give you what you’re looking to find.” Fairchild adds, “The sequence is deliberate to take you through the romance of Nightfall…the questions we have when we’re alone, the joy and the frolic of love and friendship, and the strength to overcome.”

As fingers find a gut string guitar, then a piano, that tranquility closes Nightfall with the reality tug of “Trouble with Forever.” Four voices caressing the breathlessness of how things start, showering the truth about how love and life fade like a benediction for the best of who we are.

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NEWS AND NOTES: Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton, Little Big Town, Parker McCollum

Kacey Musgraves performed her new single, “The Architect,” on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote the release of her new album, Deeper Well, last week.

Kacey also talked about her new album, Deeper Well, as well as winning her seventh GRAMMY for Best Country Duo/Group Performance with Zach Bryan for their smash single, “I Remember Everything.” She also talked about “almost dying” during the video shoot for the title track, getting a speeding ticket in Iceland and her upcoming world tour.

 

 

 

Kelly Clarkson recently performed a rousing version of Chris Stapleton‘s recent No. 1 smash, “White Horse,” during the Kellyoke segment of her daytime talk show.

The members of Little Big Town are set to perform some of their biggest songs and share the stories behind them when they are featured on CMT Storytellers debuting April 5th at 8pm ET/7pm CT on CMT.

 

 

Parker McCollum, a self-proclaimed sports fanatic, is going to be running a March Madness bracket of his own. He’ll give away a bunch of cool prizes, including a flyaway to his show at Red Rocks in Colorado later this year. You have to fill out the bracket by Thursday (March 21st). Check out his video, which includes instructions in filling out the bracket by clicking the link in his bio.

NEWS AND NOTES: Kacey Musgraves, Reba McEntire, Darius Rucker, Little Big Town

Kacey Musgraves just revealed on socials she will be the musical guest on NBC’s Saturday Night Live on March 2nd. Actress Sydney Sweeney (Anyone But You, Euphoria, The White Lotus). This will be Kacey’s third musical performance on the long-running show.

 

Reba McEntire will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 63rd annual Western Heritage Awards at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City on April 13th. Reba’s late father, Pro Rodeo Hall of Famer and three-time world champion steer roper Clark Vincent McEntire, was posthumously inducted by Red Steagall (who discovered Reba singing the National Anthem 50 years ago) into the Hall of Great Westerners in 2019.


Darius Rucker
‘s episode of CMT’s Campfire Sessions will air this Friday (February 23rd) at 10pm ET/9pm CT. He performs several of his hits in stripped-down acoustic versions in front of an actual campfire.

The members of Little Big Town are guest-hosting Apple Music Country’s The Kelleigh Bannen Show this week through Thursday (February 22nd).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VALENTINE’S DAY 2024

Each year on February 14th, many people exchange cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special someone. The day of romance we call Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century.

Over 190 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion.

We’ve got some thoughts and feelings and more about love, romance and marriage from several of your favorite country artists. A few are new and some have become our favorites over the years. Which country stars are romantic? Which ones have a good reason to celebrate the holiday that’s all about love?

 

Reba McEntire teams up with Sonic to bring a limited edition Sweetheart Meal — complete with her favorite Tater Tots — for Valentine’s Day.

 

Audio / Alan Jackson talks about his love for wife, Denise, over the years.

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AJ (Valentine’s Day) OC: …continue to. :24

“We got a lot of history together now, and we’re happier than we’ve ever been. So, she’s still beautiful, and she’s always inspired songs. I mean, one of my early hits was a song called ‘I’d Love You All Over Again,’ I wrote for her for our 10th anniversary. I mean, there’s been a zillion songs that have pieces of our good days and bad days inspired, and they continue to.”

Audio / Billy Currington recalls his first real Valentine’s Day.

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Billy Currington (Valentine’s Day memory) OC: …took off running. :21
“Yeah, I remember my first girlfriend. I was in first or second grade, but anyway, I remember it was Valentine’s Day and your mom going, ‘You’ve got to give your girlfriend something, and you’ve got to go give it to her.’ I’ll never forget — we got her a box of chocolates or whatever it was. I remember going down to her classroom and knocking on the door, getting her to come to the door. I remember handing it to her, and then I took off running.”

Audio / Carrie Underwood is all about the chocolate most couples give each other on Valentine’s Day.

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Carrie Underwood (Valentine’s Day-chocolate) OC: …white chocolate. :14
“Chocolate’s every woman’s friend – in their time of need or in their time of happiness or in their time of sadness or madness, chocolate is my friend. Anything with caramel in it, ooooooooh. White chocolate’s good too. You can’t beat some good white chocolate.”

Audio / Before tying the knot with wife Cassady, Dierks Bentley says Valentine's Day wasn't always a pleasant holiday for him.

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Dierks Bentley (Valentine’s Day) 1 OC: …want to. :19

“Well, before, as a single guy in the past, if you were dating someone, it’s that holiday that comes along where you have to really like stamp out on paper exactly where the relationship really stands. You don’t want to undershoot it ’cause then you’ll be in trouble, you know, if you don’t give the right present or don’t say the right things, you’re gonna be in the doghouse. But then if you overstate your hand, then you’re moving the relationship way faster than you actually want to.”

Audio / DIERKS BENTLEY SAYS THE MOST INTERESTING GIFT HE AND HIS WIFE CASSIDY HAVE GIVEN EACH OTHER WERE MIXTAPES OF SONGS.

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Dierks Bentley (Valentine’s Day-most interesting gift he’s given his wife) OC: …formulate yourself. 1:19
“When ‘What Was I Thinkin’’ was released in 2003, I didn’t know what my life would look like, and all of a sudden, I found myself out on the road full-time, just gone. So, the place where I was staying, I had some friends pack it up and move it into a storage facility…and in there I found some letters that she and I had written back and forth when we were dating. I was working at The Nashville Network and she was working out in San Francisco and found some letters I had written her and I’d gotten back and some stuff she’d sent me, including a CD of songs she’d been listening to, back when you made CD mixes and there’s like these three hearts on that CD. I just found that it was so meaningful for me those gifts you give each other before any money, before anything else was going on, just music, giving of mixtapes was so cool. She reminded me of a mixtape that I had sent her. I’d sent it to her via FedEx, because it was so important she get this as quickly as possible. This was sadly before, I guess we had internet back then, but you really couldn’t send songs over the internet. I think the most interesting thing I’ve given her and she’s given me was just mixtapes, because there’s nothing like music to put into words and the thoughts you have in your head that you can’t formulate yourself.”

Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about the love you have for your children.

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Dierks Bentley (Valentine’s Day) 2 OC: …could before. :28

“You get married and that’s a long-term, bigger image of what love can be. Then you have a child, and your heart gets spread so thin and it’s so vulnerable, like it’s a really tough, tough feeling, and it can kill you. It can really be painful at times, and at the same time, it’s so great. But it definitely stretches your heart…and it doesn’t change anything, it just makes your heart, I think it just makes it bigger. I think you just find that you can love more than you ever thought you could before.”

Audio / Eric Church says his wife, Katherine, loves him in spite of, and for, his fallibilities.

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Eric Church (Valentine’s) OC: …love song is. :19

“True love to me is when you love a person in spite of all their fallibilities, and for me, I have a lot of ‘em. I’m definitely at times hard to love, and that’s what’s great about Katherine and the way she loves me. She loves me in spite of those things and really for those things.”

Audio / George Strait talks about love.

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George Strait (Love) OC: …go ‘round. :14
“If you don’t have love, I mean what do you have? You know, you have love for your wife or your husband or your children or your dogs or your horses or your golf clubs, you know? Love is what makes the world go ‘round.”

Audio / Jon Pardi says he has learned a lot about love and about Valentine’s Day from his wife, Summer.

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Jon Pardi (Valentine’s Day – Summer) OC: …for you. (laughs) :35
“One thing Summer has taught me is that gifts are cool, diamonds, blah, blah, blah, but to take your time and clear your mind and write something about what she means to you on a card is probably the most least expensive and the biggest price you can give her is just to write and tell her how much you love her on a little card. That’s what she taught me for Valentine’s Day, so I just do that. It’s way cheaper. (laughs) And of course, I always say to her, ‘Babe, every day is Valentine’s Day for you.’” (laughs)

 

Audio / Jordan Davis talks about meeting his wife in New Orleans. They were both there attending separate weddings.

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Jordan Davis (meeting wife) OC: …here we are. :47
“My college roommate was getting married in New Orleans. My wife was in New Orleans for a totally separate wedding. Both wedding parties were staying at the same hotel, so we met, the first time, in the lobby of the hotel. I’m actually wearing a necklace that has the coordinates to that hotel. Then the next day, me and my brother walk into a bar in New Orleans, and her and her friends were sitting in the corner, and I was like, ‘Hey-that’s the girl from the lobby.’ She was actually dating somebody at the time. But we kind of exchanged numbers and stayed in contact, and about two months later, a month later, she came into town for CMA Music Fest and told me that she no longer had a boyfriend, and here we are.”

Audio / Jordan Davis reveals the Valentine’s Day tradition he and his wife enjoy every year, however THIS year, he’s touring overseas, so it might be a little hard to find an Olive Garden in Europe.

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Jordan Davis (Valentine’s Day tradition) OC: …happy Valentine’s. (laughs)
“When it comes to Valentines, Kristen is way more romantic than I am. I’m not a very romantic guy. I have worked on it.  I’ve tried to get a little bit better over the years. Kristen loves chocolate so she’s good for a big chocolate box, but here’s our thing about Valentine’s Day, and this is the God’s honest truth. We’ve been going to Olive Garden on Valentine’s Day since we met. We’ve continued that tradition. I think it started with her and a friend, they used to always go to Olive Garden on Valentine’s Day before they started dating, or before they got in a relationship. So, we have carried that out, so this year will be our, I believe our eighth Valentines in a row where we go in for endless salad and bread sticks. So, if its Valentine’s Day, and you’re at an Olive Garden, we could be next to each other. So, yeah, hope to see somebody out there at the table next to us just hammering on some breadsticks. So, happy Valentine’s.” (laughs)

 

Audio / Jordan Davis talks about a couple of his favorite love songs.

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Jordan Davis (love song) OC: …well done! :25
“I guess Valentine’s Day gets you to thinking about love songs. You know, me and my wife’s first dance was ‘I’m Gonna Lose You’ [by] John Legend and Meghan Trainor. I think that’s just an amazing love song. I think also a love song that I heard the other day? ‘Strawberry Wine’ from Deana Carter? Great love song. I listened to that a lot. Ooooh Deana Carter. Well done.”

 

Audio / Josh Turner says his wife would call him a romantic, but since they have four children, it takes a bit of work to make time for each other.

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Josh Turner (Romantic) OC: …long time to come. :26
“If you ask my wife Jennifer if I was a romantic, she would definitely say, ‘Yes,’ but she knows that sometimes my hectic schedule and our busy lifestyles can kind of interfere with the romantic side of things. But we do try to make efforts towards being together and having adult conversations and taking time away from the children and doing things that husbands and wives do, so we’ll definitely try to continue that for a long time to come.”

Audio / KEITH URBAN TALKS ABOUT THE SUPPORT HE AND HIS WIFE, OSCAR-WINNING ACTRESS NICOLE KIDMAN, GIVE EACH OTHER, WHICH IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT WHEN TWO CREATIVE ARTISTS ARE MARRIED TO EACH OTHER.

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Keith Urban (Nicole support) OC: …very important. :17
“I feel very blessed that I have the support of my family like I do. It’s a beautiful thing having two artists because we understand the passion and the responsibility of what we get to do. It’s very important.”

Audio / KYLIE MORGAN SAYS HER HUSBAND JAY ALLEN IS THE MOST ROMANTIC PERSON SHE'S EVER MET.

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Kylie Morgan (Valentine’s Day) OC: …I’ve ever had. :33
“Man, I will say my husband Jay Allen, who is also a country music artist if you guys haven’t heard of him, he is the most romantic person I’ve ever met in my entire life, truly. For Valentine’s Day, gosh, two years ago, I came home to the entire house being lit with tiny candles, a whole dinner made with my favorite bottle of wine, and this was even before he proposed. So, a lot of people thought that he was gonna pop the question that night, but he saved that for a later time. But it was the most magical Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had.”

Audio / Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman says falling in love with her husband, Stephen Schlapman, came as a big surprise.

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Little Big Town (Kimberly falling in love) OC: …healed me. 1:20
Kimberly: “Well, I wasn’t planning on falling in love, at all. I didn’t want to…I wasn’t sure that I ever would.  So, my husband now and I were just really good friends, and after my late husband died all my friends were calling me, all the time. Just checking up on me. He was just an old friends. We had known each other for about six years and he started calling me just like everybody else did.  But, he started calling me more than everybody else did [laughs]. We had both been through similar losses, he hadn’t lost a mate but he had lost a close friend, so we kind of bonded over that. I grieved, kind of, at him a lot. He took my grief, I had a lot of grief left, and he just took it and listened and accepted it and was so understanding and let me talk about my late husband all the time. We still talk about him a lot, and he’s totally fine with it. He says that, that made me who he fell in love with and he never minds if I bring anything from the past up which is just really sweet. I was shocked, I remember when I first realized that I was having feelings. I just thought, OK, this is so weird.  What is this?  I haven’t felt this in a long, long, time. This is weird. But, eventually I allowed myself and it’s been the most beautiful gift of my life. It pulled me out of the deepest hole that I’ve ever been in and healed me.”

Audio / Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook had a chemistry performing together, but it wasn’t until they each found themselves single…at the same time…that sparks flew romantically. The pair, who wed in 2006, have a son, Elijah.

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Little Big Town (Jimi & Karen fell in love) OC: (Kimberly) …to be together. :48

JIMI: “We were in the band a long time before there was ever anything which is interesting. I think there was always something underlying there that we were kind of trying to ignore. And then when the opportunity came, when all of us, ended up single kind of at the same time, a very strange turn of events for the band in a lot of different ways. And those feelings, you were able to come out with them finally. It was like, we’re single. Let’s get together. And, you know, she has a beautiful heart and she’s absolutely gorgeous and I just love her dearly.”

PHILLIP: “Get a room!” [laughs]

KIMBERLY: “They’re a perfect match. They really are. They were meant to be together.”

Audio / LITTLE BIG TOWN’S PHILLIP SWEET WAS READY FOR LOVE WHEN HE MET REBECCA, HIS WIFE SINCE 2007.

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Little Big Town (Phillip – reasons fell in love) OC: …real love. :17
“I think everything that I had gone through before had prepared me to be ready to see that there was genuine love there for me, and my Rebecca.  So, it was just a great time, I wouldn’t have been ready before I met her…Now it’s just been a really great journey to heal through the past and to know real love.”

Audio / LUKE BRYAN TALKS ABOUT MARRYING CAROLINE, HIS COLLEGE SWEETHEART.

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Luke Bryan (married college sweetheart) OC: …married. :27
”I married my college sweetheart. We dated back in college and broke up for nearly six years, and while I was off doing my Nashville stuff and touring and writing songs, she was finishing getting her career kind of going. Man, we just kinda bumped into each other one night, and it was like bam, here we are married.”

Audio / Luke Bryan talks about his favorite love song.

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Luke Bryan (love song with Caroline) OC: …That’s it! :11
“Caroline and I, we had a love song in college. It was Lenny Kravitz’ [starts singing] ‘I just can’t get you off of my mind.’ That’s it!”

Audio / Maddie & Tae’s Taylor Kerr talks about her husband, songwriter Josh Kerr. The pair are just about to celebrate their fourth anniversary as a married couple (they got married February 21st, 2020).

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Maddie & Tae (Tae talking about husband Josh) OC: …that way, you know? :45
“From the moment I met Josh, he never shied away from sharing what’s on his heart. For me, sharing what’s on my heart is sometimes hard, but he always created the environment and dynamic of it’s totally normal to open up and let people to see that side of you. And so, the more we spent time together, the more I kind of adopted that mindset of like, ‘Okay, I can be vulnerable. I can take risks. I can put myself out there and maybe get rejected, but maybe it could be awesome.’ Our relationship is that to a T. I was skeptical at first and I was scared, and he was scared. And we both just, we went all in, and I felt so safe to go there with him and he’s always made me feel that way, you know?”

Audio / Travis Denning wrote two songs about his now-wife Madison Montgomery and released them ahead of their wedding last year – “Second Best Thing” and “New Year’s Kiss.”

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Travis Denning (writing 2 songs for Madison) OC: …that way. :40
“I had the title ‘Second Best Thing’ I think right when me and Madison started dating and really started getting serious. It’s funny to look back that I wrote a song about getting married that early in our relationship, but for as creepy as that might sound (laughs), I mean, it’s just the truth. I knew really fast that we were going to spend the rest of our life together, and then I later wrote ‘New Year’s Kiss’ just recalling that kind of initial moment that I knew we’d probably end up being more than just friends. I recorded them a while ago and have just been holding on for the right moment to put them out, and I wanted this to kind of feel like a gift to her, and I hope it comes off that way.”

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