New music is here from Raleigh Keegan! The rising star’s 13-track Clocks Roll Forward album, co-written entirely by Keegan, will be out on Friday, October 15.
“I would describe it as 13 songs that share my personality,” Keegan tells Everything Nash. “It’s very personal. I think that the common thread between the whole album is it’s true. That sounds simple, but I think people will know me after this. I think there’s a quirkiness to it. There’s production choices that show up that show my personality. And then the common theme, why I got into country music, is the truth. I connected with other artists that I felt like were telling the truth, and that that might not even be personal to them, but it’s some form of truth that that was the common thread.”
Keegan teamed up with hit writers like Leslie Satcher, Phil Barton, Kyle Jacobs, Marshall Altman and more to pen all of the tracks on Clocks Roll Forward. For Keegan, writing all of the songs was the best way — and perhaps the only way — for him to make sure his fans knew who he is, and what he stands for.
“I think if my hands weren’t all over this, then personally, I think that’s when you could start doing something that’s not as unique,” Keegan shares. “It could land that way. But also, here’s what I think: if I’m going to leave my house and my family for 200 dates a year, I really have to believe this stuff. I’ve really got to believe what I’m saying, and love what I’m saying. So for me, it wouldn’t be worth it if, if my fingerprints weren’t all over this.”
Not only did Keegan write all the songs on Clocks Roll Forward, but he says it is likely he will only ever record his own songs, because songwriting is a lot of what drew him into music in the first place.
“I doubt I will ever record an outside song,” Keegan concedes. “I’m not looking down on anybody who does that. It’s just, I enjoy the writing process so much … It is really hard for me to sell something that I don’t like really love, or have an emotional attachment to creating. I’ve always struggled with that. When I first moved to town, I wrote songs that I thought everyone would want to hear, versus songs that I personally loved, and there’s a big difference between that.
“I found out very quickly that I can’t sell something I don’t like. I wish I could. I’d be a billionaire,” he adds with a laugh. “But nevertheless, I just have to follow that internal thing that I keep talking about, which is hard to follow when there’s outside noise that says, ‘Do this, don’t do this.'”
The songs on Clocks Roll Forward are deeply personal to Keegan, including “Our First Goodbye,” which was written about his birth mom, who had him while she was in prison on drug-related charges, and chose to give him up for adoption so he could have a better life than what she could offer him at the time.
“It’s about the redemptive story of how one woman’s brave choice gave me a chance,” Keegan reflects. “It was selfless for me. She was so selfless, she gave me up. And then that leads to verse two, where I had this awesome family growing up, and that would have never happened, had she not … She was clean when she had me and she gave me a chance. I think that says it all.”
Find Clocks Roll Forward, and all of Keegan’s music at RaleighKeegan.com.
