Luke Laird knows how to write a country song. And then some.
And he’s been proving that over and over and over again since about 2005, when he got his first big-deal cut on a Lee Ann Womack album.
But until today, not a lot of people knew that the prolific country music maker could sing. Laird’s announcement this week that his full-length, solo artist debut album Music Row would be released on September 18 changed all that, because he can and he does and it’s everything you hope a country songwriter will sound like. Bottom line? Laird sounds every bit as genuine as the songs he pens and his voice is worthy of the words he writes.
So… I’m releasing my album “Music Row” on 9/18 and you can hear the title track today! I poured my heart into every one of these songs and hope you can find a little piece of yourselves in them too. https://t.co/lmqNLSvujT pic.twitter.com/UHet3RnZVH
— Luke Laird (@lukelaird) August 27, 2020
He kicks off his ten-track album with the autobiographical title track that takes him down memory lane, to his first trip to Tennessee. “I wanted to root this project in the feeling I got when I first came to Nashville — the allure of driving on Music Row and knowing there were songwriters working in those houses. It was so cool to me. I can still romanticize it, and I still like coming into Music Row to write in one of those little houses,” Laird said in a press release. “There’s something magical about it to me.”
Laird reflected on that sentiment in an Instagram post on Wednesday (August 26), saying, “If you would have told me back then that one day I would actually get to live in Nashville and write songs for the stars, I don’t think I would have believed you. I dreamed about it, but dreams and reality don’t always meet up.”
He thinks of his new album as his story of a songwriter who moved to Nashville to write songs for other people. “When I write a song, I enjoy it, and after I finish it, I like playing it, but really, as a songwriter, you want to share your songs with people. That’s my favorite part of writing songs — sharing them, just seeing people connect to them. It’s such a gift.”
Music Row full track list:
(All songs written by Laird except “Branch On The Tree,” which was co-written by Laird, Lori McKenna, and Barry Dean)
1. “Music Row”
2. “Good Friends”
3. “Hangin’ Out”
4. “That’s Why I Don’t Drink Anymore”
5. “Why I Am Who I Am”
6. “Leaves on the Ground”
7. “Jake and Mack”
8. “One More Divorce”
9. “Branch On The Tree”
10. “Country Music Will Never Die”
As for his other job — much, much more than a side hustle — as a songwriter, he is still stacking up hits for other country artists. Here is a tiny fraction of the songs Laird has co-written since getting his first cut 15 years ago:
Carrie Underwood “Last Name”
Blake Shelton “Hillbilly Bone” (featuring Trace Adkins)
Eric Church “Over When It’s Over”
Sara Evans “A Little Bit Stronger”
Miranda Lambert “Baggage Claim”
Eric Church “Drink in My Hand”
Florida Georgia Line “Party People”
Little Big Town “Pontoon”
Carrie Underwood “Thank God for Hometowns”
Chris Young “You”
Jason Aldean “1994”
Lee Brice “Parking Lot Party”
Luke Bryan “I See You”
Lady Antebellum “Downtown”
Kacey Musgraves “Back On The Map”
Brad Paisley “Beat This Summer”
Darius Rucker “Radio”
Kenny Chesney “American Kids”
Tim McGraw “Diamond Rings and Old Barstools”
Kacey Musgraves “Keep It To Yourself”
Blake Shelton “Gonna”
Eric Church “Talladega”
Kacey Musgraves “Pageant Material”
Jon Pardi “Head Over Boots”
Jake Owen “If He Ain’t Gonna Love You”
Dierks Bentley “Can’t be Replaced”
Thomas Rhett “T-Shirt”
Maren Morris “Drunk Girls Don’t Cry”
Jake Owen “Down to the Honkytonk”
Carly Pearce “Hide the Wine”
Kacey Musgraves “Space Cowboy”
Tenille Townes “Somebody’s Daughter”
Sam Hunt “Hard to Forget”
Tim McGraw “One of Those Nights”*
*Watch for me fangirling in front of the stage.