Kip Moore Finds Catharsis Through Creation, Reveals ‘Solitary Tracks’ (Exclusive)

It’s about one week into 2025, and Kip Moore has just come inside from a morning spent surfing on a Costa Rican beach. Riding those waves is Moore’s break before the proverbial storm. Today, Friday, January 10, Moore officially revealed his next career chapter – and it’s a rich one. Almost 14 years after Moore released his debut single, “Mary was the Marrying Kind,” through Universal Music Group Nashville, he revealed his first studio album after leaving the label.

Moore will release his 23-song deep album Solitary Tracks on February 28 through Virgin Music Group. Moore had a pen in writing 22 out of the 23.

The Georgia-bred singer sipped on a cup of something and explained he divided the album into parts. When he finished Solitary Tracks, it was 13 songs –sides A and B. The first 13  tracks fit together and were born during an emotionally heavy time in his life.

“It’s an opening the closet and looking at all the wreckage that you buried, and it’s facing everything in there, all the skeletons,” Moore said of the first 13. “It’s not just facing and saying you’re sorry or making your peace with them, but it’s doing all that and not just closing the door but walking away from the door.”

Kip Moore to Drop Solitary Tracks February 28

However, he still had four months before his album deadline. He wrote songs every morning and didn’t stop just because the project was complete. By the time the calendar told him he was cut off from adding to the album, he had written 10 additional songs he felt the project needed.

“I just looked at it as a collection at that point,” Moore said. “With (sides) C and D, there’s no rhyme or reason. A and B are just really heavy, and I knew that maybe I should give everybody something that didn’t feel so dark after that. That was such a cathartic process.”

Moore co-produced Solitary Tracks with friend and frequent collaborator Jaren Johnston. Then, he enlisted more of his favorite people and career-long creative partners to co-write and play on the album, including Charlie Worsham, Dan Couch, Brett James, Casey Beathard, Manny Medina, and Erich Wigdahl. Moore and Couch teamed with Sugarland singer/songwriter and Megan Moroney producer Kristian Bush to write the hopeful “Livin’ Side.”

“Livin’ Side” encapsulates Moore’s headspace – but the lyrics take a hopeful turn by the song’s end.
“There were all these different things that I had compartmentalized just to keep my feet moving,” Moore said. “That’s not healthy, and I know that.”

He quoted the song’s lyrics: Tonight I kicked out the footlights that were shining on a broken man| They took my deposit, and I cleaned out my closet, and I shut the door on the boogeyman.

Kip Moore Leans Into Hope with “Livin’ Side”

“That’s one of my favorite lines I’ve ever written,” Moore said. “I was wrestling with those thoughts of something specific, and then I finally found a way to say it in a unique way.”

Moore wrote “Pretty Horses” with Nathan Chapman and Blair Daly. He thinks it’s one of the best songs he’s ever written. The lyrics came together over a Zoom write during the pandemic that none of the men were happy to be on. Snow was falling; the singer had had a melody for months, and he couldn’t figure out what to do with it.  He remembers the men were disenchanted with the Zoom process and wanted to be in the room together. Moore took a break, went outside, and lit a smoke.

“All of a sudden, that whole first verse was there in a matter of seconds after wrestling with it for months,” he explained, then offhandedly commented there was a monkey in the tree beside him. “I remember writing that whole first verse and chorus.  I walked back inside and said, ‘What do y’all think about this?’ And they both were like, ‘Holy shit.’ Then we were off to the races.”

“Bad Spot” is the only song on the album Moore didn’t write—and it came courtesy of Beathard. The song is a play on words about losing a relationship “in a bad spot” – a bad spot in life, a bad spot in the relationship, a bad spot for cell phone service. Moore released “Bad Spot” on January 10. Beathard played “Bad Spot” for Moore during a writing session, and Moore claimed it immediately. The song felt like something he wanted to say, which was the same experience he had with his fan-favorite song “The Bull.” Moore has only recorded two or three outside songs in his entire career – and it was the same every time. He knew within 12 bars he wanted to record it.

Kip Moore Won’t Record a Song Just Because He Thinks it’s a Hit

“I’ll only record a song when it feels like me,” he said. “I never want to pander, and I never want to record something just because I know it’s a hit. If I don’t connect with it, it’s a hit for someone else. I don’t give a shit. I won’t record it no matter how big of a hit I think it is.”

Moore spent more than a year writing and recording the album between shows. He juggled the wear and tear of the road to write and record songs on his off days – a process he repeated repeatedly.

“It is one long, arduous process,” he said. “My only hope is that because I was honest in the writing process of this record,  it brings solace to someone else who’s trying to find the words to cope with their own situation. That’s all you ever hope as a writer and artist. By being honest, you are somehow going to connect with people who need it.”

Photo by Steve Galli/Shutterstock