Tanner Usrey has spent the last few years building a name for himself in the country-rock and Americana scene, and his new album ‘These Days' marks a bold step forward. A native of Prosper, Texas, Usrey first made waves with independent EPs like ‘Medicine Man,' earning a Yellowstone placement, 300 million+ streams and a reputation as a dynamic live performer. Following his 2023 full-length debut ‘Crossing Lines,' he now returns with ‘These Days,' a deeply personal project produced by Grammy-winner Dave Cobb. Our review here.
Recorded between Nashville’s RCA Studio A and Cobb’s Savannah-based Georgia Mae Studio, ‘These Days' fuses Southern rock grit with Muscle Shoals soul. From anthemic heartbreakers to stripped-back ballads, Usrey wrestles with love, loss, mental health and self-reflection. With Cobb pushing him vocally and creatively, the album showcases Usrey’s most vulnerable, visceral songwriting yet—and sets the tone for what’s shaping up to be a major new chapter, both on the record and on the road with the Bad Love Tour which starts on the 18th of this month. We caught up with Tanner to talk all about it.
Lovely to talk to you today, Tanner, I know how busy you must be in release week. Are you doing anything special to celebrate the occasion?
Yeah, we've got shows across California and Nevada this weekend with Cody Jinks so that will be a good weekend!
We last spoke in April 2024 before your visit to London for the Highways festival. Did we leave you with some fond memories of that trip?
Oh dude! Absolutely. I loved London and getting to play the Royal Albert Hall was a dream come true and getting to do it with Shane Smith & the Saints was magical – those are my boys – it was an honour.
‘Crossing Lines' was a such a big album for you. Can you sum up what it did for you and your career?
It was a long overdue first album. I'd released EPs before that but that changed the game for me. Getting to release a full length album is an honour of all its own.
Did making ‘Crossing Lines' feed into the making of ‘These Days' in terms of knowing what you were doing and having the experience of having done it all before?
I think this is the most locked-in of any project that I have done in my career. I have never been more happy with a group of songs than I am with this record. ‘These Days' is a statement of intent for me and the sound that I have been trying to achieve all my career.
You worked with Dave Cobb this time around – what influence did he have on you and what skills did he bring to the project?
He's just a genius, man – he's Dave Cobb for a reason, right? (laughing) He's so good at capturing voices and I feel like I haven't been able to capture our live sound in the studio before now. If you go to a Tanner Usrey show it's different to listening to us on Spotify but Dave captured our sound perfectly.
He's the nicest the human being and a genius as well. If I could step into his mind for just 30 minutes I'd be better off for it. (laughing)
Which song on the album was the easiest to write and which song took the longest to get it to where you wanted it to be?
Honestly, I'd probably say that the title track was the quickest. That one or ‘Better Weather.' That kind of stuff just falls out of me. I don't think that there was really a difficult song that took a long time to get there, though. Dave Cobb was so good at capturing the moment and we recorded all the songs live so each one felt organic and ready.
We'd run each song once to get the band in the right place and all the levels sorted and then two takes later Dave would be, like, ‘Tanner, that was your vocal, you're done,' and I was, like, ‘Wait – I don't have to do it 67 times?' (laughing) We did two weeks – one week in Savannah in Dave's studio and one week at RCA Studio A in Nashville – pretty crazy spots, right?
I can hear similarities to ‘Crossing Lines' in songs like ‘Gasoline and Adderall' and then some differences on songs like the title track and ‘If You Call Me Again.' How would you describe the album in terms of it's evolution from ‘Crossing Lines?'
Sonically, this is the sound that I've always wanted. I think my voice has gotten stronger too but the production overall is awesome, it sounds more mature and more focused.
‘Smoke in the Air' seems to me to be the emotional centre point of the album and as good a song as you've ever written.
I appreciate that, man. I got to write that song with Wade Bowen. Wade was the reason I started playing music, I was at one of his shows in senior year and I looked across to my brother and said, ‘This is what I want to do.' Getting to call Wade a friend and getting to write a song with him is crazy to think about – if you had told 16 year old me that he would probably slap you! (laughing)
Songs like the title track and ‘Better Weather' portray an artists and a person who is deeply focused on self-betterment and learning from the mistakes of the past. Do you find it easy to be so open and vulnerable in your writing?
Yeah. I've always wanted to write about real stuff. My high school English teacher once told me that if you can't make 'em laugh then you should make 'em cry so that stuck with me! (laughing) I want people to feel something when they listen to my music.
There's a a Tom Petty / Bruce Springsteen vibe on ‘4th of July.' Did you consider releasing that last week or are you saving it for next year?
Yep, yeah, that's what I was going for on that song. We thought about putting it out as a single to tie in with the holiday but we did release some sneak peak listens of it and highlight it across the socials.
The album closes with ‘Gasoline and Adderall' which is a real romp of a song. You seem quite angry at the world on that one………
Yeah dude. I had that chorus and I texted Aaron Raitiere who wrote stuff like ‘You Look Like You Love Me' – we've always had a great time writing together and have come up with some real ‘off the wall' shit! (laughing) I was, like, dude – this song is going to be a live hit but it's not going to get anywhere near radio! (laughing)
We were just angry and ranting and screaming at the world in a kind of ‘what's wrong with everything' vibe. I was listening to a lot of Drive By Truckers at the time and we wanted to channel their vibe on that. We're closing down the shows with that song at the moment – right now we are opening with ‘Do It To Myself' and closing the shows with ‘Gasoline……' so that mirrors the flow of the album as well.
Last time around on ‘Beautiful Lies' you did versions with Graycie York and one with Ella Langley. There's no duet on ‘These Days' – was that because you didn't want to or just didn't have the right song?
A bit of both really. I wanted this album just to be me. I feel like a lot of people are doing the collaboration thing right now and I don't shy away from that but I wanted this record, at least for right now, to just be me – this is Tanner Usrey, take it or leave it!
Ella's career has sky-rocketed in the two years since she recorded ‘Beautiful Lies' with you.
Dude, she's a superstar, I've always said it. She is the most hard-working individual that I know. Watching her go from being a singer to model to actor to social media influencer, you have to be everything and she deserves everything that she has coming her way. I got to see her in Charleston a couple of months ago and the crowd were just insane, I was thrilled for her.
Your ‘Bad Love' tour starts on the 18th of July and seems to be running all the way through to November. What's the best and worst things about being out on tour? I reckon you've probably got it down to a fine art by now.
We're pretty well versed in that now! (laughing) The worst thing is having to pack up your bag every day, that's never great. Every time you get to step on stage – that's probably the best feeling in the world, though, and it makes up for any type of inconvenience that you might have felt. I've always wanted to be the best and leave our shows thinking that it is the best show they have ever seen. We pride ourselves on that.
If somebody said you could only play live for the rest of your career or you could only cut albums in the studio – which option would you choose?
I'm a road dog, dude. I'd pick playing shows every time.
At the beginning of the interview you mentioned playing the Royal Albert Hall in London. What's the most iconic venue that you've played and what venue is on your bucket list or wish-list to play that you haven't mentioned to appear at yet?
It would easily be the Royal Albert Hall dude, what an honour that was. I really want to play the Caverns in Tennessee. I've always wanted to play there, it looks so cool. We've played Red Rocks, we've played the Ryman, the Opry – I just need to go back now and headline them all! (laughing) I need this record to blow up! (laughing)
Tanner Usrey's fabulous new album ‘These Days' is out today (July 11th) in all the usual places.
