Travis Denning

Mercury Nashville Recording artist Travis Denning recently released his sophomore project Dirt Road Down, which provides a well rounded spectrum of Denning’s personality.

With a long song (“Dirt Road Down”), a bar-burner (“Call It Country”), a wise look at life (“I Went Fishin'”), and a tongue-in-cheek ditty Denning is becoming known for (“ABBY”), the ever-charming artist shows off his songwriting chops on the six-song set.

Denning recently spoke with MusicRow about his Dirt Road Down project.

MusicRow: You wrote over 100 songs during the pandemic. Other than your current single, “ABBY,” are the rest of these songs from that period of time?

“Jack And Coke” is an older song. The other four were all pandemic songs.

How did you pick four out of 100 for this project?

I still don’t really know to be honest with you. It’s tough when you’re looking at an EP and you have all these songs that you want to put on there, but for me, it was more about balance. I knew I wanted a show-opener and I wanted a slammin’ song. I also love nostalgic love and heartbreak songs, so that was “Dirt Road Down,” I always try to have a song like that on an EP. And I wanted to put something really personal in there and that was “I Went Fishin’.” So it was more about a checklist of songs that fill these slots in my head for the whole thing.

“ABBY” is currently climbing at country radio. Do you ever notice people in the audience the moment they get that “Abby” is “any body but you?”

Oh yeah. The the first time we ever played it was in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Riley Green. It wasn’t even out yet—it wasn’t going to be out for another couple of months but I was like, “Here’s a new song. Just pay attention to it and you’ll get it.” You see some people get it immediately when I say “any body but you,” but there’s some others [that don’t get it that quickly]. I remember that show just looking at the band and going, “This might be something right here.” Luckily now most people have gotten it, but every now and then I have some people tweet me and say, “Oh my God, I just got this.” I’m like, “Well it’s only been out for two years, but it’s all good.”

“Call It Country” is a jam, and so wordy. Tell me about writing that one with Jessi Alexander and Chris Stevens.

Jessi is one of my best buds in town, especially in the songwriting community. I just walked in there and said, “I don’t want to write anything slower than 120 BPM. I want to write a bar burner.” She immediately was like, “Thank God. I’m so down for that.” Me, her and Chris Stevens actually ran to the gas station and bought beer because we had to have beer for that song. I just wanted it to be very rhythmic, that was the thing. I had the guitar lick right off the bat. I wanted it to be very staccato and very bouncy. So for the melody, I was like “We’re gonna put a lot of words in this bad boy,” and treated the melody more like a rhythm or a pattern or a drum. It adds a layer to that song.

You wrote “Grew Up With A Truck” by yourself.

I partnered with Charles Schwab to debut their giveaway for their PGA tour stop. They called me and asked, “Can you write a truck song?” I was like, “Yeah, I probably can. I think I’ve written about 9,000 of them.” I just sat down and took that as an opportunity to write it myself. I had a lot of time to write it and it was really cool to be in that process of picking at it for a week versus going, “Hey, I’ll meet you at 11 o’clock at this office and we’re going to write this song.” Being able to do it like my idols and heroes, like Neil Young, Gregg Allman and Steve Earl, I got to spend some time and really put every little piece that I can remember from growing up into that song. I’m gonna try to do that more often because I felt like I got a little better at writing.

“I Went Fishin’” was written a few days after you got the news about the Sam Hunt tour that you were supposed to be on was canceled.

It just sucked. It was the realization that COVID wasn’t going anywhere and that we weren’t going to be on the road anytime soon. It was just an overall bummer. I had the title in my phone prior to that because I really fell back in love with fishing when the pandemic hit. I fished a little bit growing up. And truthfully, it’s up there with playing guitar and being a songwriter for me. It’s just something I really love to do. It gives me a lot of joy and happiness.

But even with the headspace I was in after the Sam tour was canceled, I realized I had the opportunity to go out on the boat and do things. I was like, “You know, this sucks and this pandemic is not going anywhere, but I don’t think about it when I’m out there. I just think about trying to catch a damn fish.” It seems so simple, but just that moment of peace, turning the world off, that’s when it all really clicked for me and I realized that for a lot of people, that is what fishing is for. I thought about the times in my life that felt like wouldn’t get better during first heartbreaks and losing the dog I’d had my whole life. I wrote that with Thomas Archer and James McNair, it literally just fell out of us. We all sat there and went, “I think this could be something special.”

The Academy of Country Music and ACM Lifting Lives have announced their newly-elected officers for the 2021-2022 term.

Stepping into these roles are Chair Lori Badgett (City National Bank), Vice-Chair Chuck Aly (Country Aircheck), Vice-President Ebie McFarland (Essential Broadcast Media), Treasurer Carmen Romano (FBMM), Sergeant-at-Arms Gayle Holcomb (WME), Parliamentarian Paul Moore (PGM Connections) and Secretary Tommy Moore (Academy of Country Music).

Stepping into these roles for ACM Lifting Lives are, Chair Troy Vollhoffer (Premier Global Production), Vice-Chair Lorie Lytle (Fridrich & Clark Realty), Vice-President Daniel Miller (Fusion Music), Treasurer Duane Clark (FBMM) and Secretary Taylor Wolf (ACM Lifting Lives).

“After the year the music industry has gone through, we have been so proud of what the Academy and ACM Lifting Lives staff, boards, artists, partners and our community have been able to accomplish. It was incredible to have a front-seat view of the dedication to bringing live music to the forefront both virtually and through our television screens as well as aid to those in need during an ever-changing time,” says past ACM Chair Ed Warm and past ACM Lifting Lives Chair Paul Barnabee. “We look forward to the great future that is in store for both historic organizations and we’re so proud to have ACM and ACM Lifting Lives Boards in the hands of Lori Badgett and Troy Vollhoffer respectively.”

Charlie Worsham. Photo: Jason Myers

Charlie Worsham has been named the newest Artist Ambassador for the CMA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Country Music Association.

As a CMA Foundation Artist Ambassador, Worsham will participate in a virtual panel that will be shared with Tennessee Music Education Association (TNMEA) membership later this month. Joined by his mother, Sherry Worsham, and TNMEA Advocacy/Government Relations Chair Christopher K. Dye, the group will discuss the life-changing impact of music on young people. The Worsham’s have witnessed this positive impact first-hand following their 2016 launch of the Follow Your Heart Arts Program, a music education and advocacy program located in rural Mississippi available to elementary and high school students free of charge.

“Charlie has been committed to helping students get excited about and stay involved with music for as long as I’ve known him,” says Tiffany Kerns, CMA Foundation Executive Director. “From his ‘Donuts & Jam’ fan club parties during CMA Fest benefitting the Quest Center for Art & Community Development to his Follow Your Heart Arts Program and Scholarship, Charlie is hugely passionate for this cause. I know his involvement will help us further our mission to serve even more students and educators.”

“From the Mississippi Delta to the halls of power in our nation’s capital, I’ve been proud to work alongside the CMA Foundation to advocate for music education,” says Worsham. “It is critical that we offer the next generation a chance to discover themselves through the power of music.”

Worsham is also participating in season two of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Words & Music at Home, which provides free, digital programming and resources to encourage audiences of all ages to try songwriting as a way of self-expression. His episode will premiere Thursday, Aug. 19.

Worsham joins the CMA Foundation’s Artist Ambassador collective alongside Jimmie Allen, Russell Dickerson, Lindsay Ell, Maddie & Tae, Ashley McBryde and Caitlyn Smith.