Carly Pearce Weighs In On The Power Of A “Divorce Album,” Says She’s Able To Give A Face To People Who Go Through It At A Young Age

Carly Pearce country music
Allister Ann

Carly Pearce put out one of the best albums for all of 2021 with 29: Written In Stone.

A self-proclaimed “divorce album,” she didn’t stray away from all the pain and heartache she felt in the wake of her public divorce from fellow artist Michael Ray after a short, eight-month marriage.

Earlier today, we had Miranda Lambert weighing in on the way she views a divorce album, and she’s someone who has quite a bit of experience on the matter. Her divorce from Blake Shelton resulted in a fantastic double album in 2015, The Weight Of These Wings.

And she says she gives other women a one-year time frame to move on (including herself):

“I see all these women getting divorced, and I’m like, ‘You got one year, then no more wallowing. Let’s cry these tears and move on.’”

It’s become a sort of trend lately, with three of the most prominent women in mainstream country releasing some form of a divorce album in the subsequent months following their breakup.

That includes Miranda and Carly with their aforementioned records, as well as Kacey Musgraves with Star-Crossed (2021) (which is a bit of a stretch in terms of most of the songs being decidedly “country,” but I digress).

And recently, ACM Female Vocalist of the Year Carly Pearce spoke to radio hosts Big D and Bubba about her amazing record and how it was born from a traumatic time in her life:

“People lost sight of the fact that my producer, Busbee, passed away right as I was filing for divorce. So my musical journey was falling apart just as my personal journey was falling apart.

So just to think about all of the things that aligned for me to make this album, and now, everyday, I get to see… I thought I made music that was impactful, but until this album, I didn’t even understand what that meant.”

And for Carly, it’s really about giving other people who’ve gone through a similar life event some hope when they turn on the radio.

As someone who got married and divorced in her 20’s, she often finds herself in the minority in terms of when that typically happens with no one to talk to about it:

“And now to be able to, maybe give young girls or young guys that are listening to the radio just a face to divorce at a young age that maybe they didn’t have before, I’m proud of that.

I think we need to humanize people more, and just because we’re behind a microphone, and we wear really fancy clothes sometimes and walk red carpets, doesn’t mean that we don’t go through exactly what everybody else goes through.”

It almost feels unfair at times to call these works of art “divorce albums,” because they pull inspiration from what the respective artist is going through at that time in their life. So really, you could classify anything they put out as a certain kind of album and categorize it that way.

But on the other hand, it’s really refreshing to hear them be so honest with their feelings and show other women who’ve gone through it, are in the midst of it, or hell, might even find themselves in a similar position one day down the road, permission to feel every single bit of every emotion.

Though it’s sad and unfortunate that they had to experience a divorce to inspire their songs, they’re also living proof that you can get through it and come out better on the other side.

Check out Carly’s thoughts here:

And one of my favorite songs on 29 pretty much sums it all up in terms of feeling like you’re a failure who’s running out of time to figure it all out… the acoustic version just hits on another level:

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