Kelsea Ballerini & Noah Kahan Reunite On ‘Cowboys Cry Too’

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Cover Art: Courtesy of Patrick Tracy and Black River Entertainment

After Grammy nominees Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan teamed up at the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards to merge their hits “Mountain With A View” and “Stick Season,” the singer-songwriters decided their chemistry warranted a song of their own.

Soon, the artists, joined by producer/songwriter Alysa Vanderhyem, were crafting a song that blends the ethereal alto of Ballerini with the confessional vocals of Kahan. The track, “Cowboys Cry Too (With Noah Kahan),” aims to showcase the duo’s experience with honesty, love, expectations and letting go.

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“In our world and culture and echo chamber of highlight reels and pretty things, sometimes real feelings start to feel like something you just set aside or push down to keep up,” explains Ballerini. “Especially the way so many men grow up, that kind of toxic masculinity mindset of ‘saddle up, brush it off.’ I wanted to write my perspective and essentially celebrate the vulnerable men in my life, and Noah adding his really unfiltered perspective into it just brought it to life in a more meaningful and beautiful way.”

Kahan adds, “It’s the writers who are willing to go to the awkward places that inspire me. Kelsea is one of those, and I knew if we could find something we both believed to sing, it would expand how we look at the way we live, what society decides and we should reject. ‘Cowboys Cry Too’ is everything I believed our collaboration could be.”

The star-studded track, arriving today (June 28), was co-produced by Ballerini and Vanderheym in Nashville, with Kahan’s vocal produced by Gabe Simon. The song also features lead electric guitar from John Osborne of Brothers Osborne.

John Nix Arledge
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