"That's the last song I wrote for the album," Ballerini says on a recent morning in a sunny West Hollywood hotel suite. After years of screwed-tight Nashville songcraft, Ballerini achieved a more conversational aspect on "Rolling Up the Welcome Mat" that carries through to the new album. In 2017, when she was 24, Ballerini married Morgan Evans, an Australian country singer she'd met when the two co-hosted an awards show in Brisbane. For Ballerini, the liberation was sufficient to drop an F-bomb in one tune — hardly a given in country music. According to Ballerini, "Cowboys Cry Too" is "one of the two most country radio-friendly songs I've ever put out."

Source: Los Angeles Times November 16, 2024 14:07 UTC