Scotty McCreery‘s Scooter & Friends EP is out! McCreery released the five-song project on Friday, July 18, which includes his current hit single, “Bottle Rockets” with Hootie & the Blowfish, “Once Upon a Bottle of Wine” with Charlie Wilson,  “Whiskey Said” featuring Lee Brice, plus “Swim Up Bar” and “Holding Down the Honky Tonk.”

“I had a lot of fun creating this EP and performing some songs that are different from my normal sound, yet are still me,” McCreery says. “Getting to record with Hootie & the Blowfish, Lee Brice, and my hero Charlie Wilson on songs that I co-wrote with some of my favorite songwriters has been a blast.”

The record’s title comes from McCreery’s nickname back home in North Carolina.

“Back home everyone calls me ‘Scooter,’ so since I’m singing with a few of my favorite artists, I decided to call this project Scooter & Friends,” McCreery explains. “It’s a fun collection of songs that are a little different from what I normally sing, yet they are still me. If the fans like it, maybe there will be a second volume in a few years.”

Scooter & Friends comes only a few weeks after McCreery released his Seasons Change: Platinum Edition album, a celebration of the success of his 2018 Seasons Change record. Seasons Change includes his first No. 1 single, with “Five More Minutes,” plus “This Is It” and “In Between,” which also landed at the top of the charts.

“The Seasons Change album was truly life-changing for me,” says McCreery. “After experiencing both some career highs and lows, I was starting over. For the first time, I co-wrote all the songs and felt like the project was truly me. It has been both gratifying and confidence-building to see how the fans, radio and streaming have embraced the music from this album and me. I’m a guy who loves to look back, and I celebrate the release of this new expanded edition and all the accomplishments we’ve made since the original album came out, while also looking ahead to making new dreams come true.”

McCreery has a Top 15 hit with “Bottle Rockets,” a song that came about out of McCreery’s deep admiration for Hootie & the Blowfish, and his friendship with the band’s lead singer, Darius Rucker. The song was written while McCreery was with some friends, writing songs for his next album.

“We had a lot of songs started going into that retreat, but this song came out of a conversation,” McCreery says on Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen. “This was us reminiscing on previous summers, like ‘I remember my last summer of no job, no responsibilities and school was out. That was such a fun summer.’ And for me in the Carolinas, and I think for everybody worldwide, Hootie & the Blowfish were huge. It was just talking about those soundtracks of summer. I forget who played into it first, but the chords were kind of matching, and we were like, ‘Man, that’s kind of cool,’ so we just ran with it.”

See a complete track list for Scooter & Friends below. Find all of McCreery’s music and upcoming shows at  ScottyMcCreery.com.

Scooter & Friends Track List:

1. “Bottle Rockets” feat. Hootie & the Blowfish
(Scotty McCreery, Brent Anderson, Derek George, Jeremy Bussey, Monty Criswell,
Frank Rogers, Bobby Hamrick, Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, Jim Sonefeld)

2. “Swim Up Bar”
(Scotty McCreery, Brent Anderson, Derek George, Monty Criswell, Frank Rogers)

3. “Once Upon a Bottle of Wine” feat. Charlie Wilson
(Scotty McCreery, Brent Anderson, Derek George, Jeremy Bussey, Frank Rogers)

4. “Whiskey Said” feat. Lee Brice
(Scotty McCreery, Brent Anderson, Derek George, Jeremy Bussey, Frank Rogers)

5. “Holding Down the Honky Tonk”
(Scotty McCreery, Brent Anderson, Derek George, Jeremy Bussey, Frank Rogers)