CROSSES OVER TO MORE SPIRITUAL ‘ ROOTS’
Country party boys go deeper, have more to say on new album
Depending on how you feel about country music, Florida Georgia Line represents either all that’s exciting or all that’s worrisome. Especially to the young fans responsible for the genre’s surge in popularity, FGL epitomizes the newer breed of stars, whose explosive shows, swaggering charisma, edgy guitar solos and paeans to partying feel foreign to old- timers whose ideas of country center on rhinestone stage outfits, steel guitars and songs of sweet romance.
What can’t be denied is this duo’s popularity. In just four years, Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley have rocketed from their music industry studies at Nashville’s Belmont University onto the stadium circuit. Their 2012 single Cruise won a rare Diamond certification for selling more than 10
million digital copies, making it the bestselling country digital single of all time. They’ve won many honors. They filled 1.5 million seats in shows throughout 2015 and are racking up similar numbers this year.
What might be overlooked amid all this razzle and dazzle is the fact that their third album, Dig Your Roots, out Friday, offers several areas of significant change in what they have to say and how they say it. Their good- time vibe has evolved: Summerland dissolves the pleasures of a seaside idyll into a wistful mirage. Island revisits the familiar scenario of a couple in a crowded nightclub, but rather than booze it up and hit the dance floor, they’re lost in their own world, oblivious to the distractions that were once central to FGL’s lyrics. On the smash single H. O. L. Y., love rises from a litter of beer bottles and pickup lines into a realm these guys haven’t visited before.
“We’ve dug our feet in a little deeper,” Kelley, 30, explains. “We still love our party songs but we want to focus on having more depth in our music. We’ve both grown up a little bit. We’re more alive and awake and more spiritual than ever. We’ve learned a lot. I think we know what we want to say. We’ve got a bigger voice and a bigger audience than ever. So it’s important to know what we’re singing about and to keep it positive.”
“BK and I are in a really good spot,” Hubbard, 29, adds. “We’re happy. We’ve seen a lot of changes for the positive. ... When we started this thing, we took it seriously but not too seriously. It’s still important to not take it too seriously but also to make sure we’re being the men we want to be.” Musically as well as lyrically, Dig Your
Roots reflects FGL’s willingness to explore a bit more, even if it means deviating from current country formula.
H. O. L. Y. boils down to vocals, piano and a simple beat, yet that proved enough for the single to lodge for more than three months on top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. With its sound and spiritual message, which deviate significantly from the “brocountry” phenomenon Hubbard and Kelley helped to launch, it was a risky choice as the album’s first single
“If you write for what’s on country radio, you’re already behind the curve,” Hubbard says. “Look, BK and I will always be boys. We’re always gonna throw big parties and play loud, rowdy shows. People can call that whatever they want, and we’ll take pride in it.
“But that’s not all we have to offer. That’s not all that we are.”