The Country Music Hall of Fame, one of country’s most hallowed halls, was the intimate setting for a screening of Kelsea Ballerini’s short film, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, on Tuesday evening (Aug. 8).
Days before the release of her expanded EP, Rolling Up The Welcome Mat (For Good), Ballerini invited fans and industry folks to share an inside look at the project, an offering that Ballerini says is the “end of this chapter.” The film, written and directed by Ballerini, chronicles six songs on her EP, with each song representing a different chapter, depicting the unraveling of a marriage.
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Chapter 1 “Mountain with a View”
Chapter 2 “Just Married”
Chapter 3 “Penthouse”
Chapter 4 “Interlude”
Chapter 5 “Blindsided”
Chapter 6 “Leave Me Again”
“This is my way of closing the really life-changing chapter of my life as an artist and a woman and I’m really happy,” Ballerini told the crowd.
In 2022, Ballerini went through a divorce from her husband Morgan Evans, whom she married in 2017. The EP, which Ballerini says is not a response to Evan’s EP Life Upside Down, is the result of her own experience and what she was going through at the time.
“The truth isn’t pretty and I’m not super proud to say this, but it’s the truth. ‘Blindsided’ is the first song I wrote and people have often asked me, ‘Is this a response EP? It’s not a response EP, but that was a response song,” Ballerini shared. “I was feeling so much in my personal life and I was touring and promoting a whole different record and very exposed and out there. That was my way of bookmarking my experience. Then I wrote that [“Blindsided”] and I felt so much better. And I was like wait a second this is not my whole story, this is not my whole experience. This was the middle of it maybe, but there is so much more that I need to write. I opened a well that I need to write about, for me, selfishly to be able to properly handle my emotions like I always have, and that’s to write them down in some form of journaling or poetry or songwriting. Then I just started writing and it very quickly became the full experience of what I was going through and feeling.”
What started out as a passion project for the Tennessee native became a reflection of us all. “Through every life change that you go through, you take away… takeaways and lessons. My big one is that I will not ‘leave me again,'” Ballerini said, referencing one song on the EP. “That means something different now than it did when I wrote ‘Miss Me More,’ which is a very similar song. This is a theme. It’s a trend. It’s a really beautiful real tangible, active lesson in my life now.”
Fans were treated to an acoustic performance of “Leave Me Again,” as Ballerini sat center stage with just her guitar, baring her soul
I hope you spend Christmas with your family / I hope you write songs that you love / I hope you’re feeling happier than you’ve ever been / and I hope I never leave me again, Ballerini sings to kick off the song. I hope you’re hiking that old trail in West Meade / And I hope you and Jane are talking more / I hope the top is off the Jeep and your driving in the wind / And I hope I never leave me again.
Prior to the screening, Ballerini’s label surprised the 30-year-old singer with a plaque representing 31 RIAA certifications and over 6 billion global streams and counting.
“This is because of you guys playlisting it and supporting it and lifting it up and making it heard. Thank you so much,” Ballerini told attendees. “It’s been a decade that we’ve known each other. I really appreciate it. Thank you for showing up and continuing to show up for me. I love you. Cheers.”
Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good), which includes a live version of “Penthouse (Healed Version)” the full “Interlude,” an updated “Blindsided (Yeah, Sure, Okay)” and the brand-new “How Do I Do This,” will be available on Friday, Aug. 11.
