Tim McGraw is eager to share his new album, Standing Room Only, with the rest of the world. The record comes three years after McGraw’s latest project, Here on Earth, released in 2020, but the Louisiana native wasn’t going to be rushed into getting every detail just right, which he believes he did with his new record.
McGraw already released the title track from Standing Room Only, plus “Hey Whiskey,” two songs that offer a hint of what the rest of the album will sound like.
“Life-affirming,” McGraw tells Audacy Throwdown, when asked to describe the new project in one word. “This album is all about life affirmation, about being the best person you can be. It tells stories. It’s very cinematic, is probably a better word … I think from start to finish the whole album has a cinematic quality, where you can create your own movie and paint your own picture with every song.”
McGraw only wrote one of the 13 songs on Standing Room Only, but he had several more written, until he received songs by other writers that he believed beat what he already had.
“I’m a song guy,” McGraw says. “I love songs. Today I listened to two new songs. I’ll listen to new songs every single day. I’m always listening to new music, trying to find something special, and I’m writing every day. I think some people think I write everything and some people think I don’t write anything. I write all the time for every album, and I’ve had a couple of hits with songs that I’ve written. In fact, on our new album, there’s a song that I wrote with my guitar player and Lori McKenna that’s on our new album.
“But what happens is I have these ideas of the kinds of themes I want and the kinds of sounds I want for a record,” he continues. “I start writing songs according to those ideas. [Then] all of a sudden, I start getting Tom Douglas and Lori McKenna and the Warren Brothers, Lance Miller — all my favorite songwriters start sending me songs. They don’t know what I’m writing about, but then I’ll get songs that are thematically similar to what I’ve been writing and the ideas in my head and I’m like ‘Shoot, that’s what I was trying to write, and that’s way better,’ so that knocks mine off the list.”
The 56-year-old knows there was a large time gap between Here on Earth and Standing Room Only, but it was only so his next set of tunes could be exactly the way he wanted it to be.
“As an artist, I always want to dig deeper and get better every time I make a new record – it’s a big part of what drives me, and I really believe this is one of the best projects we’ve made,” McGraw shares. “I’ve been working on this album since 2020, and this collection of songs are some of the most emotional, thought-provoking, and life-affirming music I’ve ever recorded.”
Standing Room Only will be released on August 25. See a track list for the record below. All of McGraw’s music and upcoming shows, along with pre-order for Standing Room Only, can be found at TimMcGraw.com.
Standing Room Only Track List:
1. Hold On To It, (Ryan Larkins, Seth Mosley, Jimmy Yeary)
2. Standing Room Only, (Tommy Cecil, Patrick Murphy, Craig Wiseman)
3. Paper Umbrellas, (Monty Criswell, Drake Milligan)
4. Remember Me Well, (Heather Morgan, Jimmy Robbins)
5. Hey Whiskey, (Brad Hutsell, Joel Hutsell, Brad Warren, Brett Warren)
6. Her, (Jason Gantt, Tim Nichols, Jimmy Yeary)
7. Fool Me Again, (Kameron Marlowe, Brad Warren, Brett Warren, Rob Williford)
8. Small Town King, (Jaren Johnston, Jenn Schott, Jeremy Stover)
9. Beautiful Hurricane, (Mike Lane, Tony Lane)
10, Cowboy Junkie, (Bill Luther, Lance Miller, Justin Weaver)
11. Nashville CA/L.A. Tennessee, (Featuring Lori McKenna), (Tim McGraw, Lori McKenna, Bob Minner)
12. Some Songs Change Your World, (Mark Irwin, Josh Kear, Lance Miller)
13. Letter From Heaven, Songwriters (Chase McGill, Lori McKenna, Parker Welling)
