Tim McGraw Talks to Billboard about Split with Curb and New Album, Two Lanes of Freedom
11 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Tim McGraw Talks to Billboard about Split with Curb and New Album, Two Lanes of Freedom
Tim McGraw will release his new album, Two Lanes of Freedom, on February 5, 2013. It will be his first release on Big Machine Records and the singer has made no secret of the fact that the last few years have been more like tow lanes of frustration. A still-running legal battle with Curb Records took a lot of his energy and tied his hands creatively. Now, finally able to move forward with his career again, he has found the landscape of country music has changed. Several young artists had started to find success building on the new country sound he helped pioneer while he himself was unable to compete due to legal entanglements.
“They hurt my career,” he says in the article. “I felt like I was at the top of my game, and to not be able to get to the places I wanted to be…it was really hard to sit back, with me being competitive. Nothing against any other artists — I love success for anybody. I always say, ‘I want everybody to do great. I just want to do better.’ Just watching all the things that are going on and to have to sit on the sidelines, it’s been tough.”
The frustrations of the last few years have not dampened his drive. If anything, McGraw is using it to spur him on even more. With renewed vigor, he is anxious to continue building his career. “It’s like I put it in a different gear now,” he says. “I really feel like I’m only about 35% into my career. There’s so much more ahead of me, musically and everything else. It feels like the clouds have parted and now I can find my lane and press the gas.”
Asked why he chose to move to Big Machine, McGraw’s answer outlines why I think that company is so successful; they have a new business model to work with artists in a way that makes them feel respected and understood. “I wanted to go someplace where there’s a freshness and energy,” McGraw says. “And Scott [Borchetta]’s got that energy. Anything’s possible, there’s no rules, and I feel like I made my career that way. Had I known the rules, I wouldn’t make records the way I make records. I’ve got all the freedom I want. It’s a partnership.”
The new album, Two Lanes of Freedom, contains a perfect song selection, something McGraw has always been enviable good at. He combines light-hearted ditties with meaningful examinations, sometimes in the same song as on the project’s second single, ‘One of Those Nights.’ The title track is sonically stunning and an absolute standout (but here I must admit to being very partial to Jaren Johnston‘s songwriting). A song which will get a lot of attention is the collaboration with Taylor Swift, ‘Highway Don’t Care,’ which Ray Waddell of Billboard wonderfully describes as “a softly percolating carpet bomb, with Keith Urban adding tasty guitar licks.”
Two Lanes of Freedom will be in stores on February 5, 2013.
You can read more here, and find out about subscribing to Billboard Magazine here.
Liv Carter
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Latest posts by Liv Carter (see all)
- Well yes, racism, but it’s more complicated - February 13, 2017
- Black River Entertainment had a great reason to party! - October 25, 2016
- Keith Urban returns to the States for US arena leg of his “ripCORD WORLD TOUR 2016” - October 10, 2016
