Justin Moore’s New Album “Late Nights & Longnecks” Delayed
Justin Moore fans will have to wait a little bit longer to get their hands on his latest record and fifth release overall, Late Nights and Longnecks. The record was originally scheduled to be released on April 26th, 2019 through Big Machine Records’ Valory Music imprint. Now it won’t be released until three months later, on July 26th.
No reason has been given for the delay, but it could be to allow his current radio single “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home” a bit more time to climb the charts. Released on October 12th, 2018, the song pays tribute to fallen service members, and a video for the song was released on February 6th. The song has been on the Billboard Country Airplay charts for 22 weeks, meandering just inside the top 40, but gained three spots last week to reach its highest position at #32, and two more this week to sit at #30.
Another song has also been released from the new record, the very traditional-sounding “Jesus and Jack Daniels.” Similar to new albums from Randy Houser, Reba McEntire, and even George Strait, Late Nights and Longnecks is said to be a strong return to Justin Moore’s country roots, with musical contributions from steel guitar legend Paul Franklin, and studio guitarist Brent Mason. Moore co-writes every song on the album, and says it was directly inspired by Dwight Yoakam and Keith Whitley.
Justin Moore has long been a hot topic among country fans. His sophomore album titled Outlaws Like Me had some hot under the collar for his self-proclamation of Outlaw-ism while releasing music under the same label group as Taylor Swift. His last record, 2016’s Kinda Don’t Care set a new low for the Arkansas native in the minds of many true country fans, with clear efforts at chasing contemporary trends. Now that he has committed to releasing a more country-oriented record, it has run into delays. Randy Houser’s Magnolia also was delayed multiple months before receiving a release.
April 13, 2019 @ 10:14 am
The delay was announced earlier this month. (Source: musicrow.com – Justin Moore To Help Launch Flora-Bama Concert Series, Delays Album Release – Lorie Hollabaugh – 04/02/2019)
Sorry Trigger…too late to the party this time.
April 13, 2019 @ 11:27 am
Not sure that I’m “late to the party” here. Just reporting the news. Have had a lot of interest from readers about this record, and was just letting them know why they shouldn’t expect it in a couple of weeks as originally planned.
April 13, 2019 @ 3:34 pm
News to me.
April 13, 2019 @ 10:15 am
Justin Moore might be my second fav behind king George
April 13, 2019 @ 10:17 am
Kinda too self-affiming for my tastes…but i have to admit i kinda liked his early stuff.
A return to a more organic sound ala Houser could be interesting…
April 13, 2019 @ 11:28 am
I’ve always been suspicious of Justin Moore, but after hearing Randy Houser’s and Reba’s latest, I’m definitely willing to give this a chance.
April 13, 2019 @ 10:36 am
Being inspired by Dwight and Whitley is great, but you need to be able to back that up with skill/talent. I remain wary of Justin Moore actually being able to pull off what he claims he wants to do. A lot of these contemporary male artists seem to go down the “getting back to my roots” road when radio shuns them. That’s fine, but it’s hard to take Justin Moore – Serious Country Artist – seriously when he has put out as many stinkers as he has.
April 13, 2019 @ 11:43 am
Justin Moore is the standard bearer for fake accents. There’s nobody more fake.
What’s really strange, is that he’s from Arkansas, so he doesn’t really need to do what he’s doing, as he probably has a natural drawl to some degree.
April 16, 2019 @ 8:20 am
It’s not over done on his new song and he sounds much less annoying for it.
April 13, 2019 @ 1:22 pm
Had to ask for a refund from iTunes because it appears he’s trying to “work” with radio and that’s a big hell no. As a fan, it’s disappointing because I would have expected him to release it in spite of radio’s cooperating (although let’s be honest he hasn’t sold well in ages). This is among his shortest in both tracks and length and was really looking forward to this. If his lead single was released in October and is not even top 30 I think the writing is on the wall.
April 13, 2019 @ 1:49 pm
99% of artists who have had some taste of mainstream success are loath to give it up. I’m not surprised that Moore would be wanting to play nice with radio since doing so allows him to live an uber-comfortable lifestyle.
See Jake Owen and Dierks Bentley, two artists who have historically talked a good game, but when push comes to shove will play the radio game because it allows them to live like the 1%.
The list of recent Country artists who have broken from the radio mold and willingly risked having to go back to touring in a beat-up van is damn small. House has been mentioned a couple times here, but he basically had no choice since his radio career looked done and he knew it.
April 13, 2019 @ 2:13 pm
Placing Dierks and Jake Owen in the same boat here is incredibly unfair. Outside of Black, Dierks has releases solid to very good music his entire career. And I’ll stand by that statment.
April 13, 2019 @ 6:13 pm
Sure, but Dierks radio career was dipping down after the Bluegrass album and he pretty much leaned in to a radio friendly sound.
My point is that Dierks (and others like him) talk a good game of wanting to be diet-Tyler Childers, but they never actually do it, often for business purposes. I’m not blaming them, it’s hard to say no to fame and fortune, but it does get tiresome to read so many mainstream artists talk a good game, but not back it up.
April 13, 2019 @ 4:40 pm
One big picture trend that I’m a little surprised hasn’t come to be yet is for lower tier acts to just stop with albums all together. Or at least with set release dates. The major mainstream acts are selling so few actual albums it’s kind of silly to stick with the old system any longer.
Release a song or a handful of songs at a time with nothing tying them together. Can still promote certain songs to radio and push the others live or via social media.
Other than nostalgia for a better past that is gone I can’t see a purpose for some acts to release album length material anymore.
April 13, 2019 @ 6:07 pm
The one issue with that is that the people who still buy albums are statistically older, so eliminating albums would make it harder for artists to sell to that older audience, which may not desire something like Apple Music or Spotify.
But I do agree the album is an endangered species that probably won’t make it much longer.
April 13, 2019 @ 1:31 pm
Given Brent Mason’s catalog of solos, it’s amazing that the guy hasn’t repeated himself. I mean, I’m sure there are dozens of lick variations that he uses, but with throwaway takes, he has to sometimes lose track of what was on the final take of every past track. Would’ve thought I would’ve heard a blatant copy of a multiple bar lick by now. Should nickname the guy The Finishing Touch.
April 13, 2019 @ 4:07 pm
I absolutely love Justin Moores music. He just gets better and better
April 13, 2019 @ 4:13 pm
I actually really liked the last album as well as earlier ones and he was here a few weeks ago with Cody Johnson opening in the 4000 seat Rosemont Theater next to Joe’s Live. To be honest and I’m sure it has something to do with being long past the Kinda Don’t Care album cycle and playing a couple a new tunes one of which the the band had to start over and nobody knew I was a little bored with him and Johnson. The album hadn’t been delayed as of then but I’m still looking forward to hearing it upon release and hope it’s good.
April 14, 2019 @ 12:24 pm
I do the “going back to my roots” thing on a case by case, artist by artist basis. If I have a gut feeling it’s just a marketing ploy by artists jumping on the bandwagon, I tend to pass. We’ll see with Justin Moore. Not sure yet.
April 15, 2019 @ 6:36 am
What a crappy and cliched album title.
April 17, 2019 @ 8:53 am
That about sum’s up Justin Moore’s entire career. I can’t think of one original song that he has really come up with. Every song of his that I can think of was just following whatever trend was popular at Country radio (i.e., trucks, troops, tailgates, Jesus, etc).
April 17, 2019 @ 8:59 am
Daisy Dukes and Deer Stands
Tailgates and Trailcams
Bars, Guitars, and Muscle Cars
Cornbread and Catfish
Dobros, Bolos, and Rodeos
That should keep him busy for his next few albums.
April 15, 2019 @ 9:43 pm
If this dude is country then I’m not the son of God, which of course I am, and so he is not.
Big weekend coming up. Just celebrating my badass miracle is all. Be on your best behavior. Never know when I’ll be hanging out on the corner taking notes in my afterlife log book.
April 18, 2019 @ 6:31 am
As King Honkey pointed out, his embellishing “Southern Drawl” just sounds incredibly fake. I could never really get into any of his music because of it. Just as a lot of other main streamers are doing he is calming to “return to his roots”, how brave and original, yet again chasing the direction the radio is probably going. Generic Album title, a cliche country song about soldiers and public servants, generic and cliche 2nd song title “Jesus & Jack Daniels”. The sound of the songs might be more “country” but he is certainly not going too far out on a limb with with the album and song names and lyrics so far. Lots of room for improvement based on what he has released so far.
I will give him props to for writing his own songs on this album I am sure that is new for him in comparison to his more recently releases. And it’s great that radio country might be going back to a more country sound. It still doesn’t excuse all these “returning to their roots” guys from a decade + of churning out Tractor Rap and bro country while trend chasing for a few dollars.
I do think this is going to show how glaringly terrible they all are at writing and performing actual country music. I believe they will have to keep the general listener on the hook with cliche lyrics and song titles.
April 21, 2019 @ 2:50 pm
This guy has the fakest accent I have ever heard. And by what I’ve heard about him being a preppy growing up with Daddy’s money, his persona is just as fake. Hard pass.
June 13, 2019 @ 10:13 am
HIS DAD WAS A POSTAL WORKER, NOT FROM MONEY SO THAT DOESN’T HOLD WATER. HE HAS TALKED THAT WAY HIS ENTIRE LIFE, SO AGAIN, IF YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, KEEP YOUR WORTHLESS OPINIONS TO YOURSELF. EASY TO BE HATERS AND TEAR DOWN RATHER THAN BUILD UP, SHOWS LACK OF CHARACTER.