Not holding back.
In early December, viral singer Oliver Anthony uploaded a 15-minute YouTube video laying out his thoughts on the music industry, explaining why he’s moving to ministry and dragging Nashville. He especially came for who people suspect to be Parker McCollum for “using autotune” during his live shows, which McCollum vehemently denied.
Additionally, he came for the “system” that exists in Nashville, complaining that the business model set up in Music City to make it run sucks the life and authenticity out of the songs… and while I agree with him in a lot of aspects, there’s a lot talent involved too, and I don’t think it’s fair to just say everyone sucks. Like most things in life, it’s completely unfair to paint with such a broad brush when the country music industry is filled with all kinds of artists and songwriters. Some blew up on TikTok, got a record deal, and never performed for a crowd in their life… some have been writing songs and/or playing clubs for 20 years, meticulously honing the craft.
And during a recent appearance on the Ten Year Town podcast, Kip Moore roasted Oliver for his comments, saying they were “silly a**” remarks that were missing a lot of context and leaving a lot of very talented, important writers out of the conversation like Casey Beathard, Brett James and Tony Lane in particular.
He also agreed with some aspects of how music in mainstream country can get watered down, though generally speaking, Kip definitely seemed to largely disagree with Anthony’s perspective:
“I couldn’t help but kind of giggle at that dude, the Oliver dude, who went off the other day because, you know, he was talking about songwriters.
And yeah, maybe the craft and the type of songwriter has slipped a hair with people not really understanding the craft of how a song goes. You’ve got a lot of people in town, like, ‘Yeah, that’s what’s up. Yeah, let’s just go with that.’ And it’s like, ‘Well, hang on, should we go with that?’
But to say some of the silly a** stuff that he said, you know, I’m like, buddy, go sit in a room with Casey Beathard, go sit in a room with Brett James, go sit in a room with Tony Lane and they will write circles around you.”
He added that Anthony’s point about the money aspect is unfair too, because these top tier writers have dedicated their lives to honing their craft, and are very good at what they do, so obviously they should be paid appropriately:
“The people that spend their life learning that that craft, Nashville’s special because of that. And they should get paid for their services. That’s what they’ve dedicated their whole life to. So it was just, the whole thing was like a clown show to me.”
Here’s the clip:
I think Kip definitely has an interesting perspective as someone who has been part of the Nashville “system,” so to speak, for many years now, while at the same time, has maintained a space in the industry largely outside of the mainstream view in many ways. He offers a rather unique perspective, and I think it’s a pretty reasonable take, especially coming from someone who has worked closely with so many of Nashville’s best writers of the years and is a talented writer himself.
Kip is gearing up to release his sixth studio album Solitary Tracks on February 28th, and it will feature a whopping 23 songs on the tracklist. The last time we heard from Kip in an official capacity in terms of an album was when he put out his fifth studio album Damn Love in early 2023, though he’s turned the page to a new chapter, now signed with Virgin Music Group, after leaving his longtime label MCA Nashville last year.
It’s also the most ambitious album he’s ever released in terms of the length and scope coming in at 23 songs, which were co-produced by Moore with Jaren Johnston and additional production by Oscar Charles and Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Lainey Wilson).
So far, Kip has released several new songs from the album, including “Learning As I Go,” “Live Here To Work,” “Flowers in December,” “Wildfire,” and most recently one called “Bad Spot,” which is my personal favorite.
“Bad Spot”
You can watch the full Ten Year Town episode below.
Solitary Tracks Tracklist:
01) High Hopes (Writers: Kip Moore/Dave Nassie/Zach Ziemer)
02) Solitary Tracks (Writers: Kip Moore/Dan Couch/Brett James)
03) Pretty Horses (Writers: Kip Moore/Nathan Chapman/Blair Daily)
04) Livin’ Side (Writers: Kip Moore/Dan Couch/Kristian Bush)
05) Around You (Writers: Kip Moore/Jaren Johnston/Casey Beathard)
06) Half Full Cup (Writers: Kip Moore/Jaren Johnston/Casey Beathard)
07) Bad Spot (Writers: Casey Beathard)
08) Straight Line Boots (Writers: Kip Moore/Jaren Johnston/Casey Beathard)
09) Rivers Don’t Run (Writers: Kip Moore/Jaren Johnston/Casey Beathard)
10) Burn (Writers: Kip Moore/Jaren Johnston/Casey Beathard)
11) Like Ya Stole It (Writers: Kip Moore/Jaren Johnston/Casey Beathard)
12) Southern Son (Writers: Kip Moore/Dan Couch/Will Lynde/Morgan Evans)
13) Learning As I Go (Writers: Kip Moore/Dan Couch/Luke Preston/Oscar Charles)
14) Alley Cat (Writers: Kip Moore/Dan Couch)
15) Live Here to Work (Writers: Kip Moore)
16) Love And War (Writers: Kip Moore/Erich Wigdahl/Manny Medina/Dave Nassie)
17) Flowers In December (Writers: Kip Moore/Erich Wigdahl)
18) Forever is a Lie (Writers: Kip Moore/Will Lynde/Erich Wigdahl)
19) Wildfire (Writers: Kip Moore/Dan Couch/Oscar Charles/Hank Born)
20) Tough Enough (Writers: Kip Moore/Brett James)
21) Good Things Never Last (Writers: Kip Moore/Casey Beathard)
22) Take What You Can Get (Writers: Kip Moore/Dan Couch/Luke Preston/Oscar Charles)
23) Only Me (Writers: Kip Moore/Oscar Charles/Luke Preston/Dan Couch)
