It’s a new chapter for Chase Rice. The Florida native just released Go Down Singin’, 11 songs that Rice is releasing as an independent artist, after releasing his last two albums on Broken Bow Records.

Rice’s decision to make music on his own terms came after a few back-to-back disappointing occurrences, which ultimately gave Rice the passion and desire to forge his own path in country music.

“We got no nominations for anything for CMAs, I think it was,” Rice recalled at a recent media event. “Which is fine. I’m never nominated for anything, so I wasn’t expecting much. But I did think ‘Bench Seat,’ the video, was good enough to be nominated. It wasn’t like I was mad, ’cause it was Lainey [Wilson] and Jelly [Roll] from my label, so it’s like, for you to take third, that’s two who are good to take third from. But I didn’t get that, and then the same day they pulled ‘Bad Day to Be a Cold Beer’ off of the radio, and then the next day they didn’t approve the budget for the album we were recording.”

It was when Rice found out that the budget for the album he was writing for wasn’t going to be approved that he decided to do things on his own instead.

“I get that they’re paying money,” Rice acknowledged. “But if it was something that I could afford to pay for myself … I told Oscar [Charles], who was the producer on my last two albums, ‘Dude, why don’t we just go on our own and do this?'”

“I love Broken Bow. We had a clean break, and that was cool,” he added.

Much like with his previous I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell, it was important for Rice to honor his late father, Daniel, who passed away in 2008. On his former project, Rice used a photo of his father on the cover. For Go Down Singin’, Rice recreated the photo, with himself instead of his dad.

“He knew me when I was playing guitar,” Rice explained. “I wasn’t very good yet, but that’s what he saw. He saw me go into a room with a track guy and started humming hip-hop melodies over tracks. I don’t know what he’d think of that. He certainly wouldn’t want his picture on the album. That’s why we waited so long to use that [photo]. I didn’t know if I’d ever use that, but when we wrote the Cowboys album, I thought it was perfect.

“I don’t necessarily want my face on album covers,” he continued. “I never wanted that for some reason; it was just weird to me. This business is so full of promoting yourself. It shouldn’t be about that. It’s about music. That’s all it’s about.”

Rice will always mourn that his father didn’t get to see him succeed in country music, but the singer-songwriter has no doubt his dad would be pleased with Go Down Singin’.

 

“He loved storytelling,” Rice said. “He loved honesty. He was a no-bullsh–, to-the-point guy. I think he’d be very happy with where I’m at.”

Rice’s last independent album was Dirt Road Communion in 2012. Although he had success as a signed artist, the 39-year-old is happy to return to making music on his own terms.

“It’s my first release in over 10 years as a fully independent artist,” Rice said in a press release about the project. “All we thought about when making this music was ‘How do we put the very best songs that I’ve got on one album?’ No thoughts of what’s popular right now, or what will work blow up or go viral, simply ‘Who am I and what am I best at?’ It’s got songs about the music industry and what it can do to your soul; it’s got love lost songs. It’s got a song about my dad once again, it’s even got a murder song that might be my favorite song on the album.”

See a track list for Go Down Singin’ below. Find all of  Rice’s music and upcoming shows at ChaseRice.com.

Go Down Singin’ Track List:

1. Go Down Singin’ (Chase Rice, Blake Pendergrass)
2. Fireside (Chase Rice, Jackson Dean, Jonathan Sherwood, Oscar Charles)
3. That Word Don’t Work No More feat. Lori McKenna (Chase Rice, Lori McKenna, Oscar Charles)
4. Hey God It’s Me Again (Chase Rice, Corey Crowder, Randy Montana)
5. Oh Tennessee (Chase Rice, Lori McKenna, Oscar Charles)
6. Haw River (Chase Rice, Blake Pendergrass)
7. Arkansas (Chase Rice, Rob Baird)
8. Numbers (Chase Rice, Jeff Hyde, Ryan Tyndell)
9. If Drinkin’ Helped (Chase Rice, Lori McKenna, Oscar Charles)
10. Little Red Race Car (Chase Rice, Jackson Nance, Heath Warren)
11. You In ’85 (Chase Rice, Lori McKenna, Oscar Charles)

Photo Credits: Ben Christensen