Scotty McCreery's latest album, ‘Rise and Fall,' takes listeners on a poignant journey through the highs and lows of life, love, and the timeless allure of country music. From the opening track, ‘Little More Gone,' in which McCreery sets the stage with a classic honky-tonk vibe and Garth Brooks-esque tremors in his vocals, through to the heartfelt closing double whammy of ‘Red Letter Blueprint' and ‘Porch', ‘Rise and Fall' is a superbly sequenced album full of Country music joy from an artist just getting better and better. We were thrilled to catch up with Scotty recently to talk all about it.
Thank you for your time today, Scotty, we always appreciate and look forward to talking to you. We wanted to start with a congratulations! What a year you are having – the new album, a sixth number one and an Opry induction too!
Thank you very much. Sometimes we're so busy and caught up with life out on the road that you forget to stop and smell the roses. I appreciate you saying that and it's fun to look back on what we've achieved this year.
It's great to dig into ‘Rise and Fall' with you a little. It's such an interesting and powerful album. What was your mission statement going into the writing and recording of it or did you just let the songs emerge organically out there in North Carolina?
You know, we wanted to go with the flow a little but I did know what I wanted to achieve with it. I felt like I had a little bit more freedom with this record because we'd had a little success with the previous ones. I felt like I could do a bit more of what I felt was in ‘my lane' so I told my collaborators what I was looking for – the music I grew up on and the music I love and we went from there.
We got a lot of songs and I'm really proud of them – it sounds like the kind of music I grew up on.
‘Cab in a Solo' was your sixth number one. What I think is great about you is that your number ones and hits are scattered equally throughout your career rather than all coming from one phase or project. That must be satisfying?
Yeah, you know, it kinda helps us create a kind of longevity and helps us keep going over a longer period of time, for sure. That's not to say I wouldn't also love five number ones in a year or off the same album though! (laughing) One a year over a long period of time is fine by me.
‘Fall of Summer' is now at radio. How much does chart success mean to you and what are the other metrics of success that you consider to be important?
I think for me, we spend so much time touring that a lot of success can be found in seeing the crowds at your shows. That's what I really lean on because it shows that your songs are really connecting with people, when you see the smiles on their faces or see them singing along. I know you have to have songs on the radio but seeing our crowd sizes grow makes me feel equally as happy.
‘Rise and Fall' begins with three consecutive heartbreak songs although ‘Lonely' is quite positive by the time it gets to the chorus. Did that surprise some of your fans?
(laughing) Yeah, I think so. A lot of my music before this album had been quite autobiographical – you know, songs like ‘This Is It' and ‘Five More Minutes.' On this album I didn't want to just constrain myself to songs about me – sometimes my favourite songs have been heartbreak songs by folks that have been married a long time or murder songs from Reba and Garth and I'm pretty sure they've never done anything like that in real life, right? (laughing)
Sometimes it's cool to play a different type of character or person in a song and we experimented with that a little on this album.
I feel like you put a lot of thought into the sequencing of the album. There's a really great flow to it and then it ends with ‘Porch,' which really couldn't go anywhere else, could it?
I probably spent more time on the sequencing of this album than on any other album I've ever made. I had pieces of paper that I was moving around in lists. Even my producer, Frank Rogers, who has worked with hundreds of great artists said that I was the only person he's seen that spent so much time sequencing this one album.
To me, I'm old school, I think of an album as a singular journey and I want a feeling or story to unfold as you listen to it.
Did you have a big pool of songs to choose from that meant a bunch of songs you liked was missed of this album?
There were some on this record that we wrote that just didn't fit the style or the journey that we wanted people to go on. I was, like, ‘I love this song but I'm just not sure it fits on this record.' When the label tell you what capacity you have and it's only 12 or 13 songs you have to be pretty determined and know what you want to achieve and sometimes a really good song just doesn't fit the figure picture.
‘A Little More Gone' sounds like a Garth Brooks song from the 90s to me. Was he a big influence on you?
He was! I don't think anyone who was listening to music in the 90s could not be influenced by Garth! He was the king of it. I'm glad to hear you say that, it makes me feel good.
When you are up on stage with the band, do you prefer to sing uptempo songs like ‘A Little More Gone' and ‘Can't Pass the Bar' or do you love the big ‘Five More Minutes' style ballads?
I love each type of style for different reasons I think. I do have more fun singing the uptempo ones that you just mentioned – you get to move around and feel a little but like Elvis up on that stage, you know? (laughing) On the other hand, a big ballad and the slower ones really allow you to use your vocals and sing from the heart, so I love them for different reasons.
You have enough songs, five albums in now, to put together a really great setlist of hits and favourite album cuts now. That must be very satisfying?
It is because I can still remember the days when our live setlist was full of covers! (laughing) We love playing our own material now although we will still through the odd cover in here and there for some crowd-pleasing moments.
There's a lot of fun on the album, a lot of heartbreak and then we get to ‘Red Letter Blueprint.' Tell me about the inspiration behind that song?
That's a pretty autobiographical song. My faith is such a huge part of my life. I grew up in and around church too so that was a song that I really wanted to include on the record and I wanted to get that message out there alongside the other type of songs we have, especially right now when the world is a little crazy.
Do you play that song in your live set or is it too personal a song to you?
We have been playing it. I think summer fair season slows it down a little though. When we were playing shows indoors in January, February, March we were playing ‘Red Letter…' and it was going down really well but playing it at outdoor festivals and shows………there's a different feel and vibe where it might not work as well.
You deal with becoming a dad and your son, Avery's birth, directly on ‘Love Like This.' What have you learnt about yourself since becoming a father?
It's a crazy thing, having a child! (laughing) I've learned that I've got a wonderful wife who does a lot of the heavy lifting in our family which I am very thankful for! It also opens up a new type of love which enables you to feel things you've never felt before. I've also learnt to be more patient. (laughing) There's a whole other door to life that you just didn't know was there before you had children.
Has it opened up any creative wells and inspirations in you? Are you likely to be making a Luke Combs style ‘Fathers and Sons' album at all?
You know, I was joking before I even knew that Luke was doing that album, that I'd wrote enough songs about Avery and about being a dad to make a whole album! (laughing) To make multiple albums even but I'm not exactly in the same place that Luke is in terms of being able to do a project like that! (laughing)
I will say I love Luke's record though. Me and the band were listening to it just the other day and it was driving all us daddies to tears, I'll tell you!!
You were inducted into the Opry earlier in the year. What did that accolade mean to you?
Everything. As a guy who grew up loving Country music and whose mum went to the Opry for shows in the 70s and told us stories about it it means everything. I have a deep appreciation for the history of Country music so it was always a goal of mine once I got started in this career and you never really think it could come true. I don't think I've stopped smiling since it happened, it's a big deal for me.
So, with that goal achieved, what goals have you set yourself in the next phase of your career?
You always want to set the bar high when it comes to making records. I am really proud of what we did on this album but I want to make an even better one next time around. I want to write better songs and play better shows. I'd love to build up the live shows to where we could get to go and do some arenas around the country too – we've got a little ways to work for that right now but you've got to set yourself goals, right?
One of the things you do very well is tour internationally now as well. I thought your set at the C2C festival in 2022 was outstanding. Do you think we'll see you over in the UK during this ‘Rise and Fall' cycle? Next year maybe?
We're actively talking about it right now. We have offers on the table and we've just got to see if our tour schedule can line up. At the moment, it's looking likely so I can't wait for that to be announced.
Check out Scotty McCreery's new album ‘Rise and Fall' in all the usual places now and keep an eye out for those international dates!!
