Trisha Yearwood is embarking on an exciting new chapter with her forthcoming new album, The Mirror. The record marks the first project that features Yearwood as a songwriter, after spending four decades performing other people’s songs.
“I’ve written some over the years, but I always would preface it with, ‘I’m not a songwriter,'” Yearwood explains on the Today Show. “And I think I had this aha moment. I turned 60 last year, and I highly recommend it. Everything sort of opened up. Somebody had told me in college that I was not a songwriter, some guy. And bless his heart … he probably wouldn’t even remember saying it.”
Yearwood still recalls the moment someone unintentionally killed one of her biggest dreams, and it was when she was still a teenager.
“How we take things somebody says to you, and especially as young girls — I was 19 years old, and I gave him a bunch of poetry,” Yearwood says. “Everybody in Nashville was writing. I was in college and he just said, ‘Yeah, you’re a good singer, but you’re not really a writer.’ And I let it be the truth for 40 years. I just thought, ‘That doesn’t have to be the truth about me, just because somebody says it.’ I started writing for me. I didn’t ever intend to make a record. And then, the more I wrote, the more I loved it, the more confidence I got. And then people in my life said, ‘You should make a record of this.’ And so, here we are.”
Yearwood has been able to interject herself in songs like “She’s In Love With The Boy,” “The Song Remembers When,” “Walkaway Joe” and more. But now, there is a new, deeply personal layer to the songs on The Mirror.
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“For the last 30 years, I could go, ‘That’s a really personal song, but I didn’t write it, so it’s not about me,'” the Grand Ole Opry member shares. “And now everything has a little piece of me in it. I always felt as an artist that I chose songs that I made mine. They were mine when I was done with them. But this is just another layer, when you actually have a hand in writing the song.”
Yearwood, who recently received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, credits hit songwriter Leslie Satcher with convincing her to start writing her own songs.
“She’s like, ‘Girl, every time we get together, I think you’ve got something to say,’” Yearwood tells CMT. “So, I finally said, ‘Okay, I’ll do this with you, but I’m really nervous.’”
When announcing The Mirror, Yearwood reflected on the beginning of a new era in her life as a country music superstar.
“This is a new chapter for me and one I cannot wait to share with you … I am so proud of this record and hope you love it as much as I loved creating it.”
Ahead of the July 18 release date, Yearwood has already released “Bringing the Angels” and “The Wall Or The Way Over.” Pre-order The Mirror and find all of Yeawood’s music and upcoming shows at TrishaYearwood.com.