Trisha Yearwood has little time for reflection at the moment as she launched her headlining tour this week in support of her new album, which she revealed today.
The Mirror, Yearwood’s first album in six years, will be available July 18. The project is the first time Yearwood co-wrote and co-produced an entire album. Two songs — “The Wall or the Way Over” and “Bringing the Angels” – from the project will be available Friday, May 2.
“I can’t wait to share my new album, The Mirror,” Yearwood said in a statement. “Creating this music has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
The Georgia-born songstress called The Mirror “a new chapter for me” and said it was one she can’t wait to share with fans.
“I am so proud of this record, and hope you love it as much as I loved creating it,” she wrote on Instagram.
The Mirror marks the first time Yearwood has relied on herself to craft songs for her albums. Someone discouraged her from writing songs while in college at Belmont University in Nashville. She internalized the negativity for decades.
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Someone Told Trisha Yearwood She Wasn’t a Songwriter
“I’ve always written a little bit, but I’ve never called myself a songwriter,” Yearwood told Kelly Clarkson. “In fact, I usually will say if somebody says we should write, I’m like, I’m not a songwriter. Because someone told me when I was in college that I was not a songwriter, and I let it be the truth for just like 45 years. I sort of had an aha about, ‘Why does that have to be the truth?’”
Yearwood grew up idolizing Linda Ronstadt, who didn’t write many of her songs. So, it wasn’t necessary to Yearwood, either. When journalists reviewed her albums, the clips always highlighted that Yearwood wasn’t in the writer credits. The jabs started bothering her.
“I’m like, ‘I want to just say if only Patsy Cline had written “I Fall to Pieces,” it would’ve sounded so much better,” she quipped. “I never felt like I needed to write. But I guess it’s just been as I get older … I’ve recorded so many songs now, it’s harder to find ones that feel like, ‘Okay, it’s mine.’”
Yearwood invested herself in writing for The Mirror to see what happened. The result is she co-wrote and co-produced the whole album. She said she wrote a lot of songs to her younger self.
She described “The Wall or the Way Over” as: “Words matter.”
“It’s like, ‘Be careful what you say because words have a way of staying in the back of your mind,’” she explained. “It’s like, ‘Are you going to be the person that is supportive, or are you going to be the person that puts up the wall to hold that person back?’”
Kelly Clarkson Wishes She’d Written These Trisha Yearwood Lyrics
Clarkson quoted one of Yearwood’s lyrics from the song and said she wished she had written it.
She’s a river/ She’s a flame/ She’s a wild horse/ You’ll never tame/ Everything that drew you in/ You love her freedom/ You love the ride/ Until it’s pushing on your pride
Yearwood, whose breakout hit “She’s In Love with the Boy” is the most-played song by a female country artist since Billboard started monitoring airplay, spent much time as a young woman trying to be what people want her to be.
“(It was like) ‘I love you in the beginning because you were so wild and crazy,’” she said. “Well, I still am. But it’s not so fun for you anymore that I’m a little bit wild and crazy. The thing you fell in love with is now the thing that annoys you, and that’s not cool.”
The singer/songwriter has spent a lot of time hiding behind songs that, if they got too personal, she just highlighted that she didn’t write them. She can’t do that anymore. Performing her new music makes her emotional – some of them even make her cry. And Yearwood isn’t a crier. She called the encouragement she’s received “amazing.”
She’s Accepted That Not Everyone Will Love Her
“You get to an age, if you’re lucky, where you kind of go, ‘You know what? I’m just going to be me. And some people will not love that,’” she said.
Yearwood promised fans could expect to hear a mix of old and new songs at her upcoming concerts.
“We’re going to do a little songwriting ‘round’ in the middle of the show,” she said. “We’re going to kind of break it down and show people what these (songwriting) sessions are kind of like. I’ve got a couple of songwriter friends – Erin Enderlin and Sunny Sweeney – coming to open the shows, and then they’ll come out and sing with me in the middle of the show. So, I’m excited about that because it’s going to be something different!”
Yearwood’s The Mirror is available for pre-order in digital, CD, vinyl, and limited edition custom color vinyl.
Photo by Hubert Vestil/Getty Images
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