Luke Bryan is opening up about his new Signs album. The record, which includes his hit single, “Country and She Knows It,” will be out on September 18.
“Every album has its own little things that happen throughout the making of it that you look back, and you’re like, ‘Wow,'” Bryan explains on TalkShopLive. “They all come together very, very differently, at different times. I’ve got songs on this album that we’ve had literally on hold for years that I’m finally glad I got around to recording. And then we have some other fun stories about some of the songs on there.”
Signs is Bryan’s ninth studio album, out 19 years after his freshman I’ll Stay Me record was released in 2007. But with eight other projects coming before Signs, the 50-year-old says no two records are the same.
“I think historically, when I start the process of making an album, you get four or five songs written, and that kind of facilitates you going into the studio and recording four or five songs,” Bryan explains. “And then you’re like, ‘Well, what do I have in these four or five?’ And then you know you need four or five more, so you go do four or five more. And then, most albums these days are 12 to 15 songs. Then you can start going, ‘Well, I haven’t talked about this on this album,’ and you can really round the album out. Or I can go back to old songs that I’ve written, and see if they have a place.”
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What Luke Bryan Says About Picking the Songs on ‘Signs’
Bryan is a talented songwriter, but he doesn’t feel the need to write all of his own songs. In fact, he only wrote two of the 12 songs on Signs, both “Fish Hunt Golf Drink” and “Crooked Rows of Corn.”
“We just try to go pick the best songs that we can, and kind of find them as we go, write them as we go,” Bryan says. “What’s always fun is, in the last, in the bottom of the ninth inning, some songs show up that we didn’t expect, too.”
Bryan hints that there is “a little bit of everything” on Signs, which is always his end goal.
“I look at this album, I’ve got sad songs, the love songs, the heartbreak songs,” Bryan boasts. “I’ve got the good ol’ classic fun ones too. I think when you look at singling ‘Country and She Knows It’ right off the bat, it’s kind of what my bread is buttered, singing songs that girls just want to get out and dance to.”
Bryan goes on to say he also has classic juke songs like “Down Goes the Whiskey” and a song called “Killer,” which Bryan says is “one of the most deep, thought-provoking songs” he has ever done.
“I’ve got a little bit of everything,” he adds.
Luke Bryan ‘Signs’ Track List:
1. “Finders Keepers” – Jimi Bell, Beau Bailey, Sam Ellis
2. “Country And She Knows It” – Josh Miller, Parker Welling, Matt Dragstrem
3. ‘Word On The Street” – Payton Smith, Josh Thompson, Justin Ebach
4. “Signs” – Jody Stevens, Patrick Murphy, Jason Duke, Tommy Cecil, Jon Mills
5. “Fish Hunt Golf Drink” – by Luke Bryan, Matt Dragstrem, Chase McGill
6. “Made It A Memory” – Matt Alderman, Jamie Paulin, Shane Profitt
7. “Woods” – Jameson Rodgers, Josh Thompson, Matt Dragstrem, Taylor Phillips
8. “Down Goes The Whiskey” – Jeb Gipson, Whitney Duncan, Jonathan Singleton
9. “Crooked Rows Of Corn” – Luke Bryan, Josh Thompson, Chase McGill, Matt Dragstrem
10. “I Liked Loving You” – Jimi Bell, Kyle Sturrock, Jimmy Robbins
11. “Killer” – Davis Corley, Mark Addison Chandler, Nate Kenyon
12. “Praying By The Rules” – Blake Bollinger, Chris Lucas, Nate Kenyon, Preston Brust
Photo Credit: CMA / Kayla Schoen