Scotty McCreery can’t wait for fans to hear his new album. The 29-year-old just released “Cab In A Solo,” the debut single from his next project, which McCreery says also marks a new musical chapter for him as well.
“I’m pumped about this thing,” McCreery tells Everything Nash. “It’s a little different for me, a touch. I feel like a lot of my other records were very autobiographical. This one has a couple of those songs. There’s a song for Avery. There’s a song for Gabi. But we’re kind of going in some different directions on this record. Some heartbreak, and some breakup songs. Some honky-tonking songs, and stuff I really haven’t done before on records.
“But I grew up loving those kinds of songs, so we just kind of let the guitar take us to where it wanted to when we were writing these songs, and this is where we ended up,” he adds.
When McCreery wrote “Cab In A Solo” with Frank Rogers and Brent Anderson, it was part of a songwriting retreat, penning tracks for his next record. Although he didn’t know at the time that he was writing his first single from the project, McCreery did know right away that the song was pretty special.
“It’s one of my favorites I’ve written in a long time,” McCreery gushes. “We went up to the mountains in North Carolina, just me and a bunch of buddies; guitars, cold beer and fireplaces. We sat outside and wrote songs. We wrote a bunch that weekend. But when I was driving back in the mountains, and even since then, I kept going back to ‘Cab In A Solo.’ I kept going back to it. To me, that meant, ‘Oh, there’s something here.’ Luckily, everybody else loved it, and the label. We put it out there, and it’s been off to a great start.”
“Cab In A Solo” was the most-added song the week it was released. The song comes on the heels of five consecutive No. 1 hits, and his most recent “It Matters To Her” single, which landed in the Top 5. After winning American Idol, and then getting dropped by his record label, McCreery has experienced both very high highs and very deep lows, which makes his current string of successes that much sweeter for him.
“It’s been very cool,” McCreery admits. “I’m still just writing these songs that I believe in, songs that I love, and writing from the heart. I’d be doing that if nobody was listening. If I was playing in a coffee shop, and there were five people, I would still be writing songs, and getting out the guitar, just because I love it, and it’s in me. But the fact that I get to do this, and they play my songs on country radio, and people on the West Coast you’re hearing it, and up north and down south, it never gets old.
“No matter where you go in the country, people are singing back ‘Five More Minutes,’ and they’re yelling back ‘Damn Strait,'” he adds. “I’m just so grateful. There was a time when that was not going on, so I remember how that was, and I think that keeps me grounded, and keeps me grateful.”
A title or release date for his new record has yet to be announced. McCreery just announced plenty of fall tour dates, which include a run with rising star, Dylan Schneider. Find all of McCreery’s music and upcoming shows at ScottyMcCreery.com.