How They Remember You, which could potentially be Rascal Flatts’ last album, is out. The seven-song record, which includes “Quick, Fast, In a Hurry” with Rachel Wammack, is all songs that the trio already recorded, but had never been able to fit on an album, until now.
“These songs, truth be told, are over-cuts from some projects we’ve worked on before,” Jay DeMarcus shared with BMLG. “They’re songs that we wanted them to be out there but for whatever reason didn’t have room on the projects that they were cut for. And we got to thinking one day, let’s finish these out. We have nothing to do while quarantined, we’re locked down. Our fans want new music why not go in and finish these out, get them mixed and make them part of a special project. We went in and reworked the arrangements a little bit, and kind of brought them up to date in some aspects.
“It was so much fun to work on new music because we hadn’t worked on new music in three or four years now,” he added. “So, to be able to pass some of the time of the lockdown and the quarantine creating music again was very therapeutic for me.”
Since the songs were recorded during the past two decades of music, they are all nostalgic for the three band members. who didn’t write any of the seven songs.
“Some of them really do hearken back to kind of the good old days, if you will, of Rascal Flatts sound, and it’s just really well written songs,” Joe Don Rooney said. “I don’t think any of us wrote any of these songs. They’re all outside pitches. That speaks volumes for the songs. It was just really a unique project to put together at this time when everything’s shut down.
“It’s hard to really get a lot of people to be able to be available to finish out some of the songs,” he continued. “So, it was very much a lot of cut and paste and piece-mealed together project but it sure has worked out really well and I’m really excited for the fans to hear this new music, and especially the lead single, ‘How They Remember You.’ I really think it’s an unbelievable lyric and I think we’re blessed to be the ones to record that song.”
The songs on How They Remember You are all from an impressive list of songwriters, including Thomas Rhett, Josh Osborne, Marc Beeson, Rhett Akins and more, not that those writers helped sway Rascal Flatts’ decision to put the songs on the project.
“What I like to try to do is not be skewed by the writers that are on it, so I find out afterward,” Jay explained. “I like to just listen with no filter on it and go, ‘That’s a great song. I don’t care who wrote it.’ So, it doesn’t really matter to us, I think, at the end of the day who writes a song — obviously, there have been writers throughout our career that have written more than others and it’s a testament to what kind of genius writers they are. But I don’t like to be clouded by knowing who’s on it at first. Now, after we cut it I like to find out but certainly not in the beginning stages.”
A video for the title track of How They Remember You was just released, featuring fan footage from the last 20 years. The record is available for purchase at Amazon
How They Remember You Track List:
1. “How They Remember You” (Marc Beeson, Josh Osborne, Allen Shamblin)
2. “Feel It In The Morning” (Zach Beeken, Jared Keim, Jenn Schott, Will Weatherly)
3. “Quick, Fast, In A Hurry” (featuring Rachel Wammack) (Kelly Archer, AJ Babcock, Pete Good, Brandon Ratcliff)
4. “Looking Back” (Rhett Akins, Jesse Frasure, Ashley Gorley, Thomas Rhett)
5. “Warmer” (Fancy Hagood, David Hodges, Brett McLaughlin)
6. “Sip Away” (Zach Beeken, Jacob Durrett, Jared Keim, Garrett Nichols, Jason Sellers)
7. “Through the Years” (Steve Dorff, Marty Panzer)