I can still write it with a groove and with tempo, but still say stuff." I really started to dig in and write the songs that I still want to write, and pull heartstrings, but I don't have to write them slow and sad. And so that's where I started this record and the record before. "He said, 'What we need is tempo songs with ballad lyrics and ballad thoughts, meaningful feelings and content. "Doug was a huge, huge part of my life, like a big brother/uncle/daddy figure, took me everywhere, taught me so much," Brice says. Under his tutelage, Brice recognized that even songs that demand a physical response - danceable titles or rockin' anthems - should still say something. Songwriter/publisher Doug Johnson, known for penning Randy Travis' "Three Wooden Crosses" and Clay Walker's "She Won't Be Lonely Long," laid the groundwork for some of Brice's current creative advancement during those earlier times. Brice authored Tim McGraw's "Still" and Eli Young Band's first #1, "Crazy Girl." And he racked up recordings with Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney and Jerrod Niemann. He penned Garth Brooks' "More Than A Memory," the first single to debut at #1 on the Billboard country chart in 2007. Before he earned his recording deal with Curb Records, he signed a publishing contract that had him writing songs for some of Nashville's best. The world at large is paying attention to Brice.Īnd that mirrors the reception he received among his peers in Nashville's creative class after moving to Music City from South Carolina in 2002.
He has amassed over 2.3 billion career on-demand streams, more than 3.2 billion Pandora Radio plays and more than 450 million YouTube views. There are already plenty of people on board the Lee Brice express. "We can stretch a boundary, and we can bring some people in." Those songs helped Brice in his determination to widen perceptions of his art beyond the sensitive country balladeer. "I Hope You're Happy Now" applied a big-sounding train groove to a regret-filled storyline, and "One Of Them Girls," which topped the chart in September 2020, embraced a propulsive backbeat. "Rumor," which ascended to #1 in 2019, is a stew of blues and gospel. I'm just rowdy, fun, tough, let's go, let's hit it - you know what I mean? But you don't hear it in the singles much." "They come out and kick the footlights out - you know, we have that side. "There's so much more to me, and most people who've been to my show, they see that," he says. Those textures have always been there in one form or another - his celebratory #1 "Drinking Class" and the alt-rock undercurrent in the chart-topping "Hard To Love" bear that out - but Hey World is the deepest, widest and most complete exploration to date of Brice's unbound creative spirit. Throughout Hey World, listeners experience a fully-formed version of Lee Brice, through the twangy power-pop of "Good Ol' Boys," the old-school R&B behind "Don't Need No Reason," the bluesy sexual tone of "Do Not Disturb," the new wave tech flavor of "Soul," the dark and dangerous "Sons And Daughters" and the honky-tonk middle finger in "If You." It's still sensitive, but it's imbued with an undeniable playfulness and a commanding drive. In the follow-up #1, "One Of Them Girls," he attacks the subject matter with bite and swagger. Singing next to smoky vocalist Carly Pearce on the #1 single "I Hope You're Happy Now," the power and range in his voice comes in loud and clear. He is, one might argue, a sensitive country roughneck, the guy who embraces the power of long-lasting relationships in "Love Like Crazy," "A Woman Like You" and "I Don't Dance." He's the guy who makes his audiences cry every time he memorializes people who sacrificed their lives on our behalf in "I Drive Your Truck."īut with his 2020 album Hey World, people are likely hearing Brice differently. Ten years after the release of his first album, music listeners likely think they have a good idea about who Lee Brice is, based on his eight #1 singles and his seven CMA Award nominations.
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