‘Something for everybody’
Thomas Rhett lightens up the mood for his current album and tour, which hit Virginia Beach this weekend
Last year, Thomas Rhett threw a bit of a stylistic curveball with his album “Country Again: Side A.” It moved away from the pop elements and modern production that had been a big part of albums “Center Point Road” (2019) and “Life Changes” (2017), and it featured a more organic and relaxed sound.
It got good reviews and produced two No. 1 singles, “What’s Your Country Song” and “Country Again.” But Rhett felt that the songs didn’t translate to the stage the way he hoped. He rejiggered his live set and generated his follow-up album, “Where We Started,” which he’s just released.
Expect to hear the old and the new when Rhett’s Bring the Bar to You tour comes to the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach June 25.
“I’m beyond proud of ‘Country Again: Side A.’ I think I’ll look back when I’m 50 or 60 years old and think that was my favorite record that I ever made,” Rhett said in a mid-June phone interview.
“But I also have to look back at that record and realize that every one of those songs that I wrote, I wrote in solitude. I was literally in my basement writing those songs on Zoom and I’m dealing with the heaviness and the weight that the rest of the world was dealing with. By the time we got on the road, I started playing a lot of these kinds of heavier songs and realized man, maybe there’s just too much heaviness that’s happened to continue to hear heavier, deeper songs.”
Rhett used co-writers during his tour last summer, and by fall he had songs for “Where We Started.” He went into the studio looking to capture a different spirit.
“I think we just wanted to go in there with joy,” he said. “I wanted the recording process this time to not be so weighty and heavy and just have a blast doing it.”
The “Where We Started” album does share one important dimension of “Country Again: Side A,” with a trio of songs that go deeper lyrically. The ballads “The Hill” and “Angels” deal with meeting the challenges of marriage and long-term relationships, something Rhett knows about as a father of four, and who has been married to his wife, Lauren, since 2012.
“I think people always expect happy-go-lucky love songs from me, but these were two songs that really stuck out to me because I think they went deeper into what a marriage really is,” Rhett said. “After the honeymoon phase is no longer there, marriage really is a choice. My wife and I have chosen to stick with each other and love each other through our disagreements and our arguments, and I think that’s what makes a marriage so strong.”
A willingness to test musical boundaries without losing the country thread or accessibility of his music has made Rhett one of country’s top stars and most consistent hit makers.
The son of country star and songwriter Rhett Akins, he made a debut album, “It Goes Like This” (2013), that was a breakout success. It landed three No. 1 singles, including the title track, which was co-written by his father.
Rhett’s momentum has grown over the course of five albums and 19 No. 1 singles. The hits will be a cornerstone of his live shows this summer, which will have an element that ties into the title of the tour.
“This is for sure the longest show we’ve ever played,” Rhett said. “I think we have a 25-, 26-song setlist this year, which
I’m really excited about. There’s going to be something for everybody.”