Hey, this is Thomas Rhett, and thanks for checkingOut my Country Again, Side A release specialThat's rightIt is finally hereI feel like Thomas Rhett has been teasing us for, like, a yearWith all this music because some of these songs he wroteDuring the pandemic, and he played some of them on InstagramPeople have been dying for him to put themOn an album, and it finally happenedThe album is called Country Again, Side A, andWe're gonna play every song on the album, andThomas is gonna tell us about writing these songsSo first of all, Thomas, thank youFor being here and, uh, how are you?GoodHow are you?I'm greatI love this new albumI can't wait to play all the songs for everybodyBut I guess the first thing I would love for youTo explain because I've heard you talk about itA few times, how would you sum up Country Again?Country Again, Side A is 11 songsWe recorded about 24 or 25 for the entire projectWe were thinking about doing a double albumOr just a single album that was a bit longerKinda had this idea we're gonna split it up over the course of timeAnd so Country Again, Side A has a song on it calledCountry Again, but that song wasn't really writtenWhen we were thinking about this process yetAs I listened down to all these 11 tracks, I feelLike they have, uh, just somewhat of a common themeSo much of this album is nostalgic, but it'sAlso somewhat of just a moment in timeSo it's kind of a lot of looking back, but a lot of things thatI've learned over the last 10 years; becoming a better dadBecoming a better husband, becoming a better friend, better manAnd so this collection of songs, to me, is exactly where I'm at todayEven in the song Country Again, it's not evenAbout putting boots back on or fishing againIt's just about kinda getting back to more ofThe simplicity of life that I think I kindaMisplaced over the last, I don't know, decade or soAnd I think 2020 had a lot to do with me kinda getting back toMy roots and just living a little bit more of a simplistic lifeAnd, and that kinda showed through in the songwriting of thisFirst collection of songs, which is called Country Again, Side AI totally get thatI kinda went through my own wanting to simplifyMy life and get rid of clutter and stuffAnd, you know, when I look at this album, I, I love theSongs on here, but I know that you had a lot to choose fromSo how did you go through that process and was itA hard one for you to whittle down these songs?It was really hard to narrow down the songs for thisProject because we started with, I think, 75 to100 Songs and somehow whittled them down into 30And then when we got to the studio, a lot of itWas like, "Well, which of the 30 do we wanna record?" And so we ended up recording about 25 of themAnd in many ways, it was the hardest record I've madeBecause we haven't done it like this in a long timeBut in some ways, it was the easiest record I've made because IWas so sure in the songs and so sure with the choices that we madeOn what to call the record, how we were gonna brand it as a themeAnd so for me, it just felt like every song we recordedWas like, "That's right, that's right." At least forMe, in my brain, in my heart, they were all the rightDecisions that I wanted to make as a person todayThat's pretty awesomeWell, I can't wait for everybody to hear this musicI know they're gonna love itI love itSo let's start with track one, Want It AgainTell people what this song is aboutSo Want It Again was a song that I wrote on a trip in CanadaI was there with Josh Thompson, Matt Dragstrom, and Josh MillerAnd, uh, we were writing a song and I had to runBack to, uh, the bus to grab something andUm, I was talking to a buddy of mine on the busI was like, "Hey, where's those headphones I was looking for?" And, uh, he was like, "Man, I put them in that drawerI figured you'd want them again one day." And immediatelySongwriter brain 101, I take things that I hear, whether it'sJust from talking to my wife or talking to friends, and eitherImmediately write it down or immediately, like, voice note itAnd I remember going back to the bus and being like, "Guys, we needTo write this song called Want It Again." They're like, "WhatDoes that mean?" And I love taking little sentences like that andTrying to shape them into something that means a little bit moreAnd so I started diving back into, like, Lauren and I'sLike, dating life and then going on to getting marriedAnd this is somewhat of a continuation of Marry Me in waysBasically, I kept my heart safe because IFigured you, you would want it again one dayAnd so as we go through this song, first verse, second verseAnd then the last chorus, it's kind of this progressionOf I thought we were in love at 15 and then we weren'tAnd then I thought that you were gonna marry somebodyElse and I was gonna marry somebody else and weDidn't, and the song kind of reprises with thatI gave a little bit of it to people, but I didn't giveThe whole thing away because I hoped that thereWould be a time when you would want it again one dayAnd so I think that song right there is my wife's favorite track onThe record and just a really neat way to write a love song to meI can see why this would be one of Lauren's favorite songs on thisAlbum, and I, I just kinda love the thought of it, that I'mHolding on to part of my heart just in case you ever want it againThat's the name of the songYou'll find it on Country Again, Side A from Thomas RhettIt's his new album, which we are listening to now
