Legalize country music.
Ernest announced this morning that his new album called Nashville, Tennessee will be out everywhere on April 12th, and he’ll be releasing five singles from the record tonight, including one featuring Jelly Roll he’s teased before called “I Went To College, I Went To Jail.”
In what has seemingly already been a pretty effective marketing campaign so far, in which Ernest is “running for mayor” of his hometown of Nashville, he shared a video announcing his run today with a lot of information on what we can expect from the new album.
He touched on some of the movements we’ve seen in country music over the decades, from outlaw to red dirt, and noted that he intends to carry on the tradition of greats like Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, George Strait and plenty more:
“My fellow Nashvillians, I’m addressing our community not because I want to, but because I have to. Over the years, there have been many changes to my hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.
It’s important to ask ourselves, ‘How did we get here?’ We’ve had movements such as western swing, outlaw, red dirt, even the likes of bro country.
Heroes, such as Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, George Strait, George Jones, paved the way for artists like myself. We owe it to them to continue what they started.”
He continued, saying it’s important to “legalize country music,” and in his first act in the campaign to run for mayor, he’s releasing five new songs tonight, including the aforementioned collab with fellow Nashville native Jelly Roll:
“In order to keep growing the genre that made me, we must legalize country music but we need someone with the authority to do so.
That’s why I’m standing here today, proudly announced that I am running for mayor of Nashville, Tennessee. As I begin my campaign, my first act is to be releasing my new album on April 12th. It’s called ‘Nashville, Tennessee.’
In preparation for that, I will give you five songs which will be available everywhere tonight. My name is Ernest Keith Smith, and I approve this message.”
You can watch the entire speech here:
It remains to be seen how many songs are included on the tracklist, but he’s been teasing quite a few over the last few months that do sound extremely country and a little bit different than what we heard on previous albums like Locals Only (2019) and Flower Shops (The Album) (2022).
I love the sentiment of his campaign slogan “legalize country music,” and based on most of what I’ve heard so far, it promises to be a solid album that I’m really looking forward to hearing.
Easily my favorite thing he’s teased so far was the clip he shared of the duet with Lukas Nelson called “Why Dallas”:
