Joe Nichols Announces New Album “Honky Tonks & Country Songs”
True country music fans can only hope and pray that we’re finally coming out of the long cold Bro-Country winter that put the careers of mainstream country traditionalists like Joe Nichols on ice. Similar to the fate of Josh Turner and others, Nichols spent what should have been the best years of his career trying to stay on the right side of record labels and radio play.
But now that actual country music is cool again, it gives an avenue for guys like Joe Nichols to step up and find renewed interest, and with the kind of country music they want to record. That’s what we’re all hoping to get with the new Joe Nichols album Honky Tonks and Country Songs set for release on Friday, October 25th.
“My job is to make people feel good. And sometimes that means with fun and happy songs, and other times with sad and sorrowful truths. But the goal is always to make them feel good,” says Nichols. “This album is meant to do exactly that. Everyone can find a good time in a honky tonk and a country song.”
Produced by Mickey Jack Cones and Derek George, the album is said to highlight “Nichols’ steadfast commitment to country music that has made him one of Nashville’s most honest and versatile voices.” Well, we like the sound of that. Not sure we like seeing Tyler Hubbard’s name as a co-writer on the title track, but we’ll see what the results sound like.
It’s also cool to see we’ll get Joe’s version of the Hank Jr. song “Country Boy Can Survive.” There are also collaborations with Stevie Woodward and Annie Bosko on the album. The latest single “Doin’ Life With You” is out now.
“I’ve been in a lot of honky tonks,” Nichols says. “They’re the only places I could play for a long time, and you learn a lot about being an entertainer there, because people come wanting to hear a good song and have a good time. Country songs speak not just to those people, but to all people.”
Honky Tonks and Country Songs is now available for pre-save/pre-order.
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Track List:
1. Honky Tonks and Country Songs – (Tyler Hubbard/Matt Jenkins/Travis Wood/Casey Brown)
2. Bottle It Up – (Josh Kear/Dan Isbell/Paul Sikes)
3. People Still Doin’ That – (Justin Lantz/Clint Daniels)
4. Helpless in a Honky Tonk – (Jared Keim/Ryan Beaver/Neil Medley/Dan Alley)
5. Country Boy Can Survive – (Hank Williams Jr)
6. Hard Fires (featuring Stevie Woodward) – (Michael Carter/Adam Craig/Matt Rogers)
7. Doin’ Life with You – (Jimmy Yeary)
8. Y’all Do – (Jake Mitchell/Michael Hardy/Mike Walker)
9. On and On – (Jason Sellers Terri Jo Box/Dan Smalley)
10. Better Than You (Joe Nichols & Annie Bosko) – (Derek George/John Pierce)
11. Amazing Ways – (Dan Isbell/Jordan Minton/Jonathan Smith)
September 15, 2024 @ 8:58 am
Just saw Joe at the Lodi Grape Festival. Still has a great voice and performed his new duet with Annie Bosko. He also covered Alice In Chain’s “Rooster” which went into “A Country Boy Can Survive”. That was really cool.
September 15, 2024 @ 9:18 am
Nothing says “coming out of the long cold Bro-Country winter” with Nichols recording a song co-written by Tyler Hubbard. Lol.
In all seriousness, though, it’s nice to see Joe still out there in the trenches. “Doin’ Life With You” is a solid song that wouldn’t have been out of place in the late ’90s or the early ’00s. Hopefully the rest of the album is this good.
September 15, 2024 @ 10:05 am
One of the great country voices in country music. I am looking forward to the new album.
September 15, 2024 @ 1:02 pm
I liked his last record, Brokenhearted is a fantastic mashup of 90’s and modern country but it went unnoticed. Shame
September 15, 2024 @ 3:53 pm
I don’t know a ton of his songs, but God bless him for recording Blaze Foley’s “If I Could Only Fly”. That alone is enough to root for him.
September 15, 2024 @ 4:38 pm
I feel like “A Country Boy Can Survive ” has been done a lot, if not quite to death. I’ve heard Blake Shelton and Toby and Kid Rock do it, and there was also that Y2K version by Chad Brock. I can’t really figure that Nichols will bring anything new to it, but we’ll see.
September 15, 2024 @ 9:27 pm
Nichols and Craig Morgan did a pretty cool version at the Opry once, but it was stricken from YouTube many years ago.
There is an alternate Chad Brock version that included George Jones, John Anderson, and Hank Jr.
September 16, 2024 @ 8:17 pm
It’s already been released in one form. He released a mashup version of Rooster and Country Boy Can survive on June 28th on all streaming sites. I’m pretty sure the same version of CBCS will be on his new record (w/o Rooster). He didn’t try to do anything special with either song just recorded them in their original arrangements with very similar production, to the originals.
September 15, 2024 @ 5:02 pm
will try it out reminds me a little of haggard
September 15, 2024 @ 6:21 pm
Will give it a listen when it comes out. The lead song is good, i woildnt call it great. Far as him doing a hubbard song, i dont see the issue though i know fgl gets too much hate on here. Fgl had some good songs regardless of anything said on here . We will see if its any good.
September 15, 2024 @ 5:56 pm
God bless Lefty Frizzell.
September 16, 2024 @ 5:03 am
I had heard about this and while I’m excited for this album, I’m confused why it can’t be ordered directly from his site. His website doesn’t even reference a new album coming out. Even for non-radio artists, that would be strange, but for an artist with some level of name-recognition in the mainstream, it’s exceedingly odd. His website has no pre-order information…his official store on his website doesn’t even have any music for sale at all.
This seems awfully undercommunicated and if it weren’t for the fact that I’d heard something about it and went searching for information, there would be pretty much no way of knowing that this was coming.
September 16, 2024 @ 5:44 am
This is one of the reasons I posted an announcement article for it, like I do for many non-radio artists. Can’t announce every article, but I try to do it for ones I’m worried are going under the radar.
September 16, 2024 @ 12:50 pm
Someone gave me that Chad Brock tape, and I ejected it and threw out the window into the Columbia River. I don’t think Hank done it this way….
September 16, 2024 @ 4:46 pm
Saw him years ago opening for Charlie Daniels. Did some Haggard better than anyone else that I have ever heard, dare I say even better than Merle’s son Ben.