RaeLynn’s latest album, Baytown, simmers with spunky sounds of freedom, self-love, and confidence—all of which the singer-songwriter from Baytown, Texas has fought hard for over the past few years.

Her new project, which releases today (Aug. 14) marks her first on Florida Georgia Line’s Round Here Records, a place RaeLynn says offers her more creative control and the support of two longtime friends and country superstars. AWAL, Kobalt’s recording company, is also involved with the deal.

Earlier this year RaeLynn released the tracks “Bra Off,” “Keep Up” and the introspective “Me About Me,” the followup to hits including “Love Triangle” and “God Made Girls.” RaeLynn recently spoke with MusicRow about the six-track project, peeling back the emotional layers to reach deeper truths in her songwriting, her new label home.

MusicRow: In 2019, you signed with Round Here Records. What drew you to sign with the label?

RaeLynn: It’s kind of like how we all fall in love with a song and we just go with our first initial gut feeling. I’ve been a big fan of Brian [Kelley] and Tyler [Hubbard] for years. I’ve known them since I was 18 years old. It was just finding a new home for me that I could feel valued and seen, and really kind of let me do what I do with my music.

I knew that Round Here Records was going to be the place, because I think that being with a company that’s really innovative with the way the music industry is going… The music industry’s like the Wild Wild West right now. There’s so many ways to be able to break through and to be with a company that’s innovative, it feels like, ‘Okay, well we don’t have to do this the traditional way.’ I think that’s really cool.

The pandemic has certainly shifted the traditional ways of doing business right now.

It really has. I think at first, everybody didn’t know how long to wait, because I don’t think we realized it was going to be this long before we could tour again, and just the weirdness of everybody not knowing what’s going on in the world. Like ‘Let’s settle down.’ But then we’re like, “Okay, this is our reality. This is the way it’s going to be. Let’s all put out music.”

Because we need music right now more than ever. I’m so thankful that all these artists are putting out music now because that’s one way it’s going to help us get through this time. And then when we’re able to go travel again, they’ll have something to look forward to more.

How did the studio shutdowns affect the making of Baytown?

I had half of it completed beforehand. All the production for “Still Smoking” and “Me About Me” was done with everybody sitting in their own production studios. After everything kind of calmed down, I went in and did vocals, really just me and [producer] Corey Crowder. With “Me About Me” and “Still Smoking,” everybody just killed it because they were able to be creative in their own home and still make it happen.

What inspired “Me About Me”? The vocal has a very intimate feel to it.

I was talking to a friend from back home and she was talking about relationships that she was in and how she didn’t really feel valued or seen. And then she asked me about one of my past relationships, and I said, ‘Well, you know, he just never asked me about me. I didn’t feel valued in that relationship.’ And when I said that, I was like, ‘Wow. Here I am and here is my friend. We both feel the same way about not being seen or valued in relationships when we’re giving a hundred percent and they’re not giving that.’

And from there it flows into “Bra Off,” which feels like an exhale.

I know. And that’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted it to be like, ‘That guy? He’s gone and I felt amazing about that decision.’ The order of a record means everything to me. I literally listened to it so many different ways before I put it together.

“Fake Girl Town” is very honest about seeking out authentic friendships in a place where that is not always easy.

I grew up in Baytown, and even there, it took me a second to find my real friends. Who loves me for me? Who is going to be there with me through thick and thin? And I found those group of friends and they’re my friends still today. But in Baytown, I was always the only one doing music. I was like big fish in a little pond, you know? I grew up in a musical family. Everybody in my family was chasing music, and so I never felt a sense of jealousy or a sense of like, ‘Oh, I hope this happens for me and not my cousin or my brother or for anybody like that.’ So when I moved to Nashville, it was really hard for me to find friends that were genuinely happy for me and were chasing the same dream as me, and who wanted to fully connect on a deep level.

So that song was really a cry for help because I was just like, ‘Gosh, where are all the real girls in the fake girl town? Where is the girl like me, who grew up in a town with two-lane roads and one stoplight? We’re all here. We’re all nervous. We’ve all had bad breakups. Where are those girls at?’ Because those are the ones that I want to hang out with. I feel like anybody can relate to that no matter where you live.

“Keep Up” turns the whole rowdy party vibe that male country singers have been so known for in recent years and proves that women can do the same thing.

I am a very bold, sassy person. I have a huge personality. It took me a second, but I finally have come into my confidence of knowing, ‘Okay, this is how I like to sing. This is how I liked to dance. This is how I like to write. And either you take it or you leave it.’ Now it’s coming into this place of feeling so comfortable in my own skin, and my songwriting, and in my artistry. I feel like guys have so much fun on their songs, on country radio. They always talk about having a good time. I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t know if you’ve seen every single country girl on Broadway, or country girls at a festival, but they get way more rowdy and way more ratchet than any of those guys do, most of the time.’ So I’m like, well, ‘Y’all keep up with that. Country girls know how to get it done.’ I wanted to write songs like that from a woman’s standpoint.

Outside of Baytown, you also contributed a song, “Chase Me Down,” to Chris Tomlin’s recent project, which FGL executive produced. How did that come about?

I was going into a writing session with Josh Kerr and Hannah Ellis, and my mom had told me about this woman that she had heard at a conference speaking about how it doesn’t matter where you’re at in your life, God wants to be a part of your life and he’ll chase you down, and I knew we needed to write that.

I think that there’s such a beauty in following your heart with songwriting. It shouldn’t be about, ‘Oh, I need a hit song for country radio.’ It needs to be, ‘What does my heart feel today? What is my spirit telling me that I need to write? That’s what I need to write.’ Now that I’ve tapped into that, to me it feels like the sky’s the limit and I’m writing some of the most honest music I’ve ever written. I’m so excited about the future and what the next EP holds or the next record holds and Baytown is just the beginning of that. That’s why I named my record Baytown, because Baytown, Texas, helped shaped the woman and the personality and the faith and the ability. It’s the reason why I love country music.

Is there a possibility that you might put out your own CCM album at some point?

That’s something that I’m not opposed to. Faith is very much a part of my life, and I feel like if God put it on my heart, I would do it in a heartbeat.

For nearly six decades, Jeannie Seely has blazed a trail as a songwriter, artist, and outspoken advocate for female artists. Along the way, she’s forged friendships with her fellow country music elites and inspired generations of female artists who pursue their careers on their own terms.

At 80, she is still as passionate as ever about good friends and good music. She offers both on her new album, An American Classic, out Friday (Aug. 14) via Curb Records.

The project is a collection of collaborations with an array of friends Seely has made over the course of her career, and features duets with Willie Nelson, Rhonda Vincent, The Whites, Steve Wariner, Vince Gill, and Lorrie Morgan, as well as a tribute to her longtime friend, the late Dottie West. She also revisits some of her classics, such as her signature song “Don’t Touch Me” and her 1974 Top 10 hit, “Can I Sleep In Your Arms.” She also collaborates with Ray Stevens on “Dance Tonight,” which was penned by Sir Paul McCartney.

Author, teacher, historian, songwriter, producer and executive Don Cusic reached out to Seely with the idea for the collaborative project.

“He’s such an incredible historian, that I was absolutely thrilled,” Seely says. “ I learned so much and he is fun to be around, so I enjoy his friendship.”

Many of the artists included on the album are connected through Seely’s work from more than five decades as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Bill Anderson joins Seely on “When Two Worlds Collide,” which Anderson co-wrote with Roger Miller and Miller originally released in 1961.

“Bill and I do so many concerts on the road from the Country Family Reunion shows, so to add another dimension to the shows out there, we started doing a duet on this song. I have always loved this song, and my probably top 10 favorite songs of all time. And so I was delighted to have Bill do it. He’s truly one of my best friends.”

Vincent, whom Seely invited to be the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry earlier this year, joins her on “All Through Crying Over You,” and recently earned a No. 1 bluegrass record with “Like I Could,” which Seely co-wrote.

Seely has long been one of the Grand Ole Opry’s biggest champions—and, at times, its conscience. She was inducted as an Opry member in 1967, barely a year after earning a Grammy for “Don’t Touch Me.” Seely was the third artist to win a Grammy in that category.

Seely was also the first woman to host one of the Opry’s 30-minute segments, in January 1985—though she says that first hosting gig came about by necessity rather than by design.

“There was an ice storm and I was the only Opry artist in the building that evening,” she recalls. “I opened the show, and because there weren’t many other artists there, I featured my steel guitar player Tommy Hannum. After that, every manager that came in, I would make an appointment with them to discuss the fact that women simply were not allowed to host the Opry. To me, they were ignoring 50 percent of the audience and 50 percent of the talent pool and Opry cast. Every time, they would say, ‘Well, that’s the tradition here.’

“And I would point out that it sure looked and smelled like discrimination to me,” she states.

Undeterred, Seely kept asking, and when issued a proper invitation to host one of the Opry’s 30-minute segments, she made the most of it. “I did my homework every week,” she recalls. “I was aware that if I didn’t do that, that door would be closed, not only to me, but all the other young women coming up. It’s such a rewarding thing to me when Lorrie Morgan and Pam Tillis and that generation came in, and they could walk out there, and do a great job without ever having to be even concerned with that. It was just simply the right thing to do.”

An American Classic also includes a duet with Willie Nelson, whom Seely first met in 1963 in Los Angeles, where Nelson was recording for Liberty Records and Seely was working as a receptionist.

The work at Liberty sparked an enduring friendship, with Seely and Nelson including each other’s songs on their projects, touring together, and even collaborating on a duet, “You’ve Been Leaving Me For Years,” on the ‘90s album All-American Cowboys. Even then, Seely was fighting for equal recognition as a female country artist, both for herself and for her peers.

“I wish they would re-issue that album. And I wish when they repackage it, they’d put my picture on it,” she says. “There again, as a female, these are battles we’ve always had to fight. And we’re still fighting them. It’s just ridiculous. When that album came out, I called them and asked, ‘Why did you not put my picture on there?’ And they said, ‘Well, because it was called All-American Cowboys.’ And I’m like, ‘So maybe you named the album wrong.’ As a kid, I played cowboys and indians, and nobody ever told me I couldn’t because I was a girl.”

For An American Classic, Seely invited Nelson to sing on Dallas Wayne’s “Not a Dry Eye in the House.” Nelson recorded the song in Austin and sent in his vocal track.

“First of all, what a great song, what a clever idea to write it from a theatrical standpoint. When Dallas first heard it, he said, ‘Seely, I love the reading you all did because it sounds like an intimate conversation between two old friends.’ I thought that was perfect. I didn’t even ask Willie about playing guitar, so when I got the track back and that guitar comes in, him playing Trigger, it just sounded so good. That was just an added thrill.”

“He’s been a wonderful friend to me,” she adds. “Years ago, he gave me a little hands-up with the opening for him on fair dates. And after the Nashville flooded 10 years ago, when I lost my home, one of the very first checks I got in the mail was from Willie Nelson to help me out. He’s just a wonderful man. He does so much to help so many people that nobody even knows about.”

She also honors her late friend, fellow Opry member and country music trailblazer Dottie West—who was the first female country artist to ever win a Grammy.
On “If You Could Call It That,” songwriters Bobby Tomberlin and Steve Wariner incorporated unfinished song ideas that Seely’s late friend Dottie West kept in a notebook. West died in a car wreck in 1991 while on her way to perform at the Opry.

Seely recalls that when people would ask West how she was doing, West would often say, “I just go on living, if you can call it that.”

“I was thrilled to get the song and I can tell you, honestly, I would have been absolutely destroyed if they would have given this song to anybody else. I felt like Dottie was right there, a part of it. I try, normally, to never phrase or sing a line like somebody else, but in this instance I could hear and feel her so strongly that I really channeled her on a couple of lines on it.”

West and Seely first met at the Palomino Club in Los Angeles. “I told her I was a fan and had been following her career since she was on the Landmark Jamboree in Cleveland. She just looked at me and she said, ‘I don’t even know the last time I talked to anybody that remembered that show.’ So we just kind of clicked from the very beginning. She encouraged me to move to Nashville and introduced me around. She was such a great friend. We called each other ‘Three O’Clock in the Morning Friends,’ because if you needed to talk to someone at three in the morning, you knew they would be willing to wake up and be there for you.”

Seely hopes her enduring career and work as part of the Grand Ole Opry will continue to inspire generations of artists—especially female artists.

“I’ve always said, ‘Somewhere out there, there’s a little 12-year-old girl that wants to be at the Grand Ole Opry, just as much as I wanted to.’ And so the last several years of my career there, I have felt very strongly that it is my obligation, but also such a joy to encourage and to make sure the Opry stays viable. So that little girl out there gets to see her dreams come true, too.”