Nashville has a reputation as a ‘ten year town’, and no-one knows that better than Hailey Whitters.
The song of the same name, from the Iowa-born singer-songwriter’s self-funded 2020 debut album ‘The Dream’ (which appeared on over 15 end-of-year best-of lists), won critical acclaim for its smart, authentic sound and helped Whitters up over 75 million streams to date. She continued to build on the record’s success last year, releasing the deluxe edition ‘Living The Dream’, as well as being nominated for a CMT Award and a Grammy, named as the first Opry NextStage Artist of the Year and touring alongside Luke Combs and Midland. Now she’s back with the follow-up, ‘Raised’ – due for release this month – and is currently in the middle of her first headline tour before making her UK debut on the C2C main stage.
I spoke to Hailey recently about the new record, what to expect from her set at C2C and how she’s finding life on the road. Read on to find out more…
Your new album ‘Raised’ comes out next month – what can you tell us about that?
Oh man, I’m so excited about ‘Raised’. ‘Raised’ feels like the prequel to my record ‘The Dream’. If ‘The Dream’ was about my ten year town story, my Nashville story, ‘Raised’ feels like the record that tells about the girl that grew up in the Midwest, the people, the place that inspired her to move to Nashville or to chase country music. It very much feels like the way I got to Nashville, and why I decided to chase country music. It’s a lot of the musical influences that inspired me growing up as a kid in the Midwest hearing country on the radio, and a lot of the stories and the people that encouraged me to pack up and leave at 17 and chase this dream.
One thing I’ve noticed listening to the record is that there’s a real warmth and almost a celebratory feel about where you grew up. Was that something that was important to you when you were making this album?
Yeah, it was. I think that… all I remember about 17 was wanting to get the heck out, but now that I’ve been 14 years away from my hometown I can look back on it very fondly. I can look back on my childhood very fondly, perhaps maybe a bit romanticised at times, just because I’m not there still. But I wanted this to be the golden things that I remembered. Obviously it’s very much about where I come from, but I hope that when people hear it they can find something in there that reminds me of their home town or where they grew up and maybe they can look back more fondly on some of those moments from their own childhood.
You released ‘Everything She Ain’t’ as the lead single from the album earlier this year. Can you tell us more about that song and why you chose that one as the first release from this record?
I mean to be honest I think that was a label pick. I’m so happy with every single song that’s on there. There’s not a single “I like this one a little less” moment. So I let the label kind of have free rein over what they felt like would make the biggest splash right off the bat. And it was just hands down, ‘Everything She Ain’t’ was just across the board a giant favourite for everyone. So I think that one just kind of naturally led the way.
There’s 17 tracks on there with the interludes as well – did you have a clear vision in your head for what would go on the album and how you wanted to structure it? Or did that evolve out of the process of writing and recording?
I think the first seed that just planted the entire concept of the record, it was back in 2019 maybe. My producer [Jake Gear] and I had gone in the studio, and we had a batch of songs. We had ‘Raised’, ‘Big Family’, ‘Our Grass Is Legal’, ‘Boys Back Home’. We had this mini concept kind of thing like, “well if we were to make another record, the things that you’re writing seem to be very inspired by where you came from, so maybe we look into a record called ‘Raised’ or something”. We’d written the title track ‘Raised’ at that point.
So we went into the studio, we cut those songs, and then really loved the sound of it. I mean we had fiddle on there, we had steel guitar on it, and it just seemed very natural. It seemed like the next chapter. It’s funny because in a way it feels like the prequel to ‘The Dream’ but it’s coming after it. But that kind of bred the concept of the entire record and I spent the last year writing for it and going back in the studio and continuing to tell that story.
Some of the things happened for it on a whim, like the prelude for ‘Boys Back Home’. That just happened because our guitar player and our piano player, Pat McGrath and Mike Rowhaus, were just riffing off each other in the studio getting ready to play ‘Boys Back Home’ and it was just so beautiful. I said “hey, hit record, let them just go for it and see what comes out of that”. That prelude still makes me cry. And so I was like, “That just has to be on the record. It has to be on there.”
Were there any songs that were particularly easy or particularly challenging to write for this album?
Oh, man. I mean, ‘Everything She Ain’t’ we wrote I think in like an hour. That one just very easily and very quickly just jumped out. Some of these writes were double writes, and not because it was challenging or difficult, it just took us a lot longer. ‘Pretty Boy’ for example, we wrote that and then we went in and fine-tuned it a little more. We just wanted these songs to be the best that they possibly could, and so we’d get back in and finish those. ‘Boys Back Home’ was a two day write, not because it was hard or whatever but because we really wanted them to be perfect.
You’ve also got a collaboration with American Aquarium on the album – how did that come about and what was it like working with them?
I’m such a fan of American Aquarium. I just love their records. I’ve known about BJ [Barham] for a really long time but it was quite recently that we actually started writing together. We’ve written a few times, we’ve written with Lori McKenna, and I’m just a fan of him as a writer and as a singer. I think the band has this really cool unique sound, kind of heartland rock kind of thing.
And we were looking for a feature on ‘Middle Of America’ and it just seemed like a no-brainer to see if they’d be interested in that. So we asked and they said yes, so I’m very excited. I think that the song needed them. To hear the before and after, I just think that they elevated it to the next level and really made that song what it is. So I’m very glad to have them on it.
You’re currently in the middle of your first headline tour. How are you finding that compared to other tours you’ve done? And are there any songs you’re playing live that fans are reacting to in a way that’s surprised you?
Yeah. I mean, the whole tour has just been so rewarding. It’s very scary to go out there [laughs] and just be like, “Are people actually gonna show up to this?” You feel all the pressure on you because it’s your show and you’re the headliner. But it has been just so fulfilling to go out. And we’re playing 90 minute sets on this show, which has been really nice because usually on an opening set you can get anywhere from 20 to 30, 40 minutes max. So to have a full 90 minutes and to have these packed rooms showing up singing every single word to every song is just a really, really surreal feeling.
We’ve been playing things that we don’t typically play on an opening set because we don’t have time. We’ve been playing Loose Strings – that’s been a song that a lot of people have asked for and we do this really cool arrangement on it. Things like that. What else have we been playing? I mean, gosh. We’ve just been playing things that we don’t really have the opportunity to play. Ten Year Town, Janice At The Hotel Bar. It feels really great to get to play those songs and to get to hear people sing them back, ’cause those are songs we don’t get to play in every set. It feels really nice to have those moments.
You’re coming over to the UK to perform at C2C this weekend – what can people expect from your sets there and how are you feeling about it?
It’s gonna be all the hits in one quick 30 minute set! [laughs] No, I’m just really excited about it and I wish I had so much more time. Because I’m just very grateful to my fans over there. I mean they have just been relentlessly asking me to come over and I have been trying to get there as quickly as possible. I feel like we have so much time to make up for and I’m just really excited to get to play for them, and I hope that I can cover everything that they’re hoping to get from me. It’s been a long time coming and I’m really excited to get to share the stage with them.
Hailey Whitters’ new album, ‘Raised’, will be released on 18th March 2022 via Pigasus Records/Songs & Daughters/Big Loud Records.
Hailey will be appearing at C2C: Country to Country Festival in London, Glasgow and Dublin from 11th-13th March 2022. More information and tickets are available from https://c2c-countrytocountry.com/
