Country artist David Nail has parted ways from MCA Nashville / Universal after a tumultuous period where his music was stuck in seemingly endless delays, and his last few singles stalled in the charts. In late 2015 / early 2016, Nail became one of many MCA Nashville-signed artists mired in endless delays for new music by the company.
It takes more than a few really good songs to make a great album. David Nail’s ‘Fighter’ has some really good songs. I’d even be willing to go on the record saying it’s got some really great songs. But it also has some of the usual suspects of mainstream songwriting tropes that you have to sift through to get to those great songs.
One of the biggest questions coming off of Music Row at the end of 2015 was what the hell was going on at MCA Nashville. Artists on the roster not named Sam Hunt seemed to be in perpetual limbo and lost in time when it came to new music and new albums. Well perhaps all the bellyaching by fans finally helped shake the MCA Nashville log jam loose.
Now there’s some news, though it’s of a convoluted variety. On Wednesday (3-31), it was announced that Gary Allan had “re-signed” with Universal Music Group Nashville—the parent company of MCA Nashville. The press release spoke about how Gary had been with the label for the entirety of his 20-year career, which is true. But one very important distinction in the press release is that Gary is no longer being promoted by MCA Nashville.
Are you waiting for your favorite music artists signed to MCA Nashville to release an album after a prolonged hiatus? Perhaps you heard the first single months or sometimes years ago, but still no record? Well you’re not alone. It looks like the unenviable position of being the most notorious label on Music Row is no longer a slam dunk for Curb Records.
There’s been much ado about country artists of the fairer sex over the last couple of weeks. For Logan Brill, whose Carnival Records album Shuteye came out on June 2, that debate is all just noise. Sure, she’ll righteously stand up for women artists and songwriters. But for Brill, music is pursued for the passion of good quality songwriting and the artistry of storytelling—everything else comes secondary.
What’s so great about “Yo Bro” is that it’s deftly inclusive of both of the audio plagues country music finds itself suffering from at this very moment. As Bro-Country is trending downward, but still trying to hold on in its last dying gasps, and Metro-Politan is attempting to rise up and take its place, “You Bro” straddles the line between the two, offering an illustration of the absurdity of these “country” styles.