Colby Acuff concept album incoming.
Calling the country music artist from Idaho a prolific singer-songwriter might be an understatement. The up-and-coming artist has put out five studio albums in the last five years, and Acuff explained why he does that in the latest episode of our Whiskey Riff Raff podcast. You’ll have to tune in to hear Colby reveal the method behind the madness (GOTCHYA… now you have to listen).
Though I won’t be diving into that topic, I will be talking about the newest project that Acuff has in the works. Coming off the release of American Son in August, the country singer is keeping his one-album-a-year streak going. In his interview with Whiskey Riff Raff, he revealed that he’s currently piecing together a new project:
“For anybody who is wondering, definitely (some) new music (on the way). Nothing has changed. It’ll be a new record. Our sixth album will come out sometime this year. I think, as of right now, I’m recording it in March.”
Sounds to me like it’ll be here before we know it.
Before he explained the idea for the new record, he reflected a bit on his latest contribution to the country music world: American Son. The album was packed with emotional ballads and overflowed with sadness… and I mean that in the best way possible. We love sad country music here at Whiskey Riff.
But even Acuff admitted that, as a whole, it all came out a little darker than he anticipated:
“‘American Son’ is a representation of a very hard year for me and a lot of the songs are pretty brutal. There’s a lot of sharp edges on that record. I think I got a little lost in the brutality… that’s what I’ve been calling it. Something my producer told me, he was like, ‘Remember when you used to write funny stuff?'”
That quick note from his producer ended up being the motivation behind Colby’s latest venture: a concept album by the people, for the people. What do I mean by that? Well, Acuff took a boots-on-the-ground approach to the upcoming project, and as he shared, he and his team walked around with a tape recorder asking people about their lives, and most importantly, what they want out of country music:
“There was a concept of, ‘Hey, why don’t we go ask people what they want to listen to?’ Because I feel like a lot of people are sitting in a room trying to guess what everybody wants, or how people are feeling. But it’s very rare for people to go out and actually talk to the fan or the consumer and see what they want.
So we went out and did 30 interviews and we just recorded it all on a tape recorder. There’s no video, we didn’t have a camera in their face, because some people don’t react well to that stuff. We just asked them questions about them, a little bit about music, and tried to get some stories that we could turn into songs and have this concept record that is truly for people that we talked to.”
How about that for an amazing idea?
Colby went on to say that they met “some amazing people” throughout the extensive interview process, and encountered people in churches, bars, restaurants, and even talked to people walking down the street. Most everyone was more than happy to help Acuff out with the project, except for one guy that’s actually somewhat plugged into the music industry:
“One of the only people that turned us down was a guy in a record store who owned the record store. We walked in and we were like, ‘Hey man, we’re just interviewing people for this thing…’ We didn’t even get to the part where we were making an album. He was like, ‘Nah, not today.'”
As to what people should expect when the concept album is completed and released to the masses, Colby says that this one should be a little lighter than his last album… but it’ll still feature some of his signature sad songs that he’s become known for:
“What we’re going for on this one is sort of a celebration of people and life. There will be your classic Colby Acuff sad songs in there, but we’re trying to go for something that’s a little bit more uplifting for people.”
Maybe one of those sad songs we can expect will be about a lonely, disgruntled man who owns a record store?
We’ll soon find out what stories made the cut when Acuff releases his sixth studio album later this year. Until then, make sure you check out the latest episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast, where Colby talked about learning how to write songs from a young age and growing up in Idaho, making his Grand Ole Opry debut, his passion for fly fishing and much more.
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