True South out May 29th via Curb Records
There’s a particular kind of country record that doesn’t announce itself loudly. It doesn’t come with a superstar feature or a trend-chasing production pivot. It just arrives, opens the door, and lets you in. True South, the new Rodney Atkins album due May 29th via Curb Records, is that record.
Seven years have passed since Caught Up In The Country, and Atkins hasn’t spent them anxiously. He’s been living, watching his kids grow, writing songs with his wife Rose Falcon, and apparently proposing to her at 2 a.m. in Las Vegas, which is now a track called Helluvit. The 12-song collection is rooted in East Tennessee, where Atkins was raised.
The singles that have surfaced ahead of release map the album’s emotional range fairly well. The Years Are Short hits the way only a song about watching your children grow up too fast can, which is to say, somewhere below the ribs. Hole In One swings the other way entirely: barroom-ready, piano-jangling, built for a good time. The two co-exist comfortably, which says something about an artist who isn’t performing a version of himself anymore, if he ever was. Perhaps the most quietly significant moment on the record is Watching You 2.0, a reimagining of Atkins’ career-defining, triple-Platinum No. 1, recorded this time with his son Elijah, who was the original inspiration for the song nearly two decades ago.
Atkins has over 5 billion career streams and six No. 1 radio singles to his name. He doesn’t need to prove anything. True South sounds like a man who knows that, and made the record anyway.
True South is out May 29th. Pre-save and pre-order available now.