Chase Rice has a lot of exciting projects on the horizon.
In case you missed it, Chase joined the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast to talk about anything and everything that he’s been up to as of late, including playing at Concert For Carolina, seeing the devastation in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina from Hurricane Helene firsthand, the evolution of his music over the years, his latest album Go Down Singin’, and the fact that he’s got a lot of new music on the way.
All signs are pointing towards his new music being much like his last two albums – I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell and Go Down Singin’. If you’ve been plugged into what Rice is doing lately, you’d know that his new sound is very far removed from anything he was ever doing during his “Bro Country” era. During his conversation with Whiskey Riff, Rice even alluded to a moment in particular that could very well have been his “ah-ha moment” for making the stylistic switch:
“I was talking to somebody about that out in Utah, and she said it, and I said, ‘Damn, I’m using that.’ It’s such a well thought-out thought. She said, ‘It sounds like you don’t want to be well-known, you want to be known-well.’ And I was like, ‘Sh*t, that was well said.’ That would be it.”
That led him to do somewhat of a reset with his music, and he’ll be the first one to tell you that he’s better off because of it. The switch has also led to some interesting collaborations, like when Rice teamed up with the Read Southall Band for the song “Oklahoma.”
If you happened to be a fan of that song, where Rice teamed up with one of Red Dirt Country’s finest, then you’ll be happy to hear that he’s got some more intriguing, potential collaborations on the way:
“I’m writing with Cleto (Cordero) in December, so we’ll see what happens there. I don’t know if it’ll be a Flatland Cavalry song or not. But that would be awesome… we gotta write it first. I’d love to do something with Flatland.”
Let’s hope that writing session works out swimmingly.
That collaboration with Flatland Cavalry’s Cleto Cordero is already on the schedule for Chase Rice. Another artist that the “Bench Seat” singer wouldn’t mind to explore? The great, incomparable Jamey Johnson:
“I have a song that I want to write with Jamey Johnson. Like damn, it has him all over it. He’s an interesting one because for a long time, people forgot about him or he went away. (What he does), that’ll never go away. He’s so good. So I have a song I want to write with Jamey.”
As you can hear Rice talk about in the clip above, he’s already got a new album on the way called Eldora. He describes as the project as “mostly story songs” that are inspired by his time spent out in Colorado, and it’s already taking shape with a couple of features:
“We’re going to have a song called ‘Two Tone Trippin” on the Eldora record that Wyatt McCubbin is gonna be on. I’ve already got a list for this Eldora thing. Wyatt (McCubbin) is going to be on there. Foy Vance, if you’ve ever heard of Foy. He’s going to be featured on a song called ‘Tall Grass.'”
Chase Rice fans would probably be okay just knowing that there’s another new collection of songs in the near future, but the country artist is already looking ahead to what he might do after Eldora is finished and released. A recent songwriting session, paired with Rice’s recent trip to be a part of the Concert for Carolina benefit show, has inspired Rice to do an immersive album of sorts about Appalachia:
“I wrote a song called ‘Kill the Boy,’ I think I’m gonna call it ‘Appalachia.’ I wrote that with Drake White last week. I don’t think that’s going to go on this record. I don’t think it fits. But that gave me the idea post-Eldora – being in Carolina so much this past week – to write an album called ‘Appalachia’ and go to the mountains of Carolina and actually write a record.”
As you can probably tell, Rice is no longer letting what’s popular determine his path stylistically. He’s letting his passion for music take the reigns instead, and its already paying off. Though his new music might not be getting the radio play that his older songs might have, Chase says he now defines success in the country music industry differently:
“You want as many people to sing your songs as possible, especially when I love these new songs so much more than anything I’ve done. I just want people to know who I am through my music and know that it’s not fake.
I don’t care about if I’m the most popular artist in the world. I just want people to care about what I’m doing, and know that these songs were written really well, and say, ‘I want to hear these songs in 50 years.’ The stuff I was doing before, it’s not going to stand the test of time.”
You can hear more from Rice in the latest episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast:
