Lauren Alaina debuted three new songs during her performance at Live In The Vineyard Goes Country in Napa Valley, California, last week. The music is a taste of what’s to come from the singer/songwriter since she signed with Big Loud Records last year.
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“I’m very happy,” she says. “I feel like I finally landed in my place in all parts of my life. I finally figured it out so I’m excited.”
Alaina shared the stories behind her new songs hours before she debuted them at Uptown Theatre Napa. She wrote the upbeat breakup anthem “Walk In the Bar” with Lydia Vaughan, Casey Brown and Parker Welling.
“The four of us write a lot,” Alaina tells American Songwriter. “We write really well together. I had to do something recently and they were like, ‘Who are the writers that you would like to go with you somewhere?’ I picked them.”
Alaina explains that “Walk In the Bar” is a play on the phrase walk in the park. She admits the song title “sounds like a caption I would write on Instagram.”
“Walk In the Bar’ is sassy [and] shows off my personality perfectly,” she explains. “[It’s a] getting over someone song. It’s a play on walk in the park. ‘Getting over you is just a walk in the bar.’ The hook is who says heartbreak’s gotta be hard / getting over you is just to walk in the bar.”
Alaina explains her new sound as “more country.” The music embraces steel guitar and she says she’s returning to her Georgia roots. She’s been working with producer Joey Moi, who Alaina calls “a master” and “the best producer ever.”
“It’s more acoustic-driven, the ballads are more acoustic-driven, which is different,” she says, “but it feels like my hometown. … I don’t ever feel like I like got away from myself because I’m pretty comfortable with who I am. … It represents where I come from more. It’s a little more indicative of the person, the girl from Rossville, Georgia, in some ways.”
The two ballads Alaina played, “Like Her” and “Don’t Judge a Woman,” were outside cuts. Alaina says she won’t cut anything that doesn’t feel like a song she would write.
“Both of those feel very true to something I would say,” she says. “[I’m] very intentional with the outside songs, but I’ve cut quite a few for this new project. I feel really encouraged by the community in general.”
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Alaina describes “Don’t Judge a Woman” as a female empowerment song about women from all walks of life. She says “Like Her” is a song she wishes she had written.
“It’s about meeting an ex’s new person and saying you wish you could hate her, but you like her,” she says. “I’m trying to hate her but I hate that I like her. It’s a really good idea. That’s also female empowerment because we don’t have to hate the next girl. Honestly, we probably should like her.
“All my exes, I’m glad I’m not with them and God bless the women that are. I hope they’re wonderful women and I hope the men have changed. Everybody lands where they’re supposed to. I love that song because the lyrics are so true. It’s like you see her and you’re like, ‘She’s pretty. I wish she wasn’t. She’s funny. I wish she wasn’t.’”
Alaina already has a good track record with Big Loud as her feature with HARDY and Devin Dawson on “One Beer” went No. 1 in 2020. She optimistically looks ahead to her first project with her new label.
“I always feel like I say, ‘The new project’s the best project,’ but this one’s just really different and refreshing,” she concludes. “[This project] feels like it represents me as a woman and a new sound in general and I’m excited.”
(Photo Credit: Ryan Waneka / Courtesy AristoPR)
