UMG NashvilleIt’s been exactly a year and one day since Sam Hunt’s debut album, Montevallo, was released. In that time, he’s seen three of his singles scale to the top of the charts and he’s racked up three CMA nominations, as well as three nods from the American Music Awards. So Sam’s celebrating with a free Nashville street party tonight and the surprise release of the collection that was the blueprint for his success.
Between the Pines: Acoustic Mixtape boasts his version of his first number one as a writer, “Come Over.” As he prepares to go on tour with the man who recorded it next year, he can’t help but reflect on the song that started it all for him, in many ways.
“It was huge for me going forward as an artist and created a huge opportunity to make a record, and just… validated me as a songwriter in this community. It was Kenny [Chesney] who made that happen,” Sam says gratefully. “[He] just sort of put me on the map, that first domino that has started the chain of events that led me to where I am right now. So it’s really cool to come full circle.”
The digital reissue also boasts a stripped down version of “House Party,” his number one written with Jerry Flowers from Keith Urban’s band.
“Sometimes I’ll have these thoughts in my head, these sounds and I’m not able to really express them with a musical instrument, but Jerry came in the first time we wrote and just pours out all this amazing music and knows all these chords, so that’s how that started,” Sam recalls. “We were just jamming…and somehow I had an idea in my phone for ‘House Party’ and [I] started singing along to what he was playing and it all happened pretty quickly and naturally.”
But Sam says it was “Take Your Time” that really convinced him he should move forward not just as a writer, but as an artist who would dare to fuse together his love for both country music and more urban sounds.
“That was the one song that I felt like captured the best version of what I potentially could offer as an artist,” he reflects. “So that really set me on the path of putting out a record as an artist and not just writing songs that other people may potentially cut.”
Fans should expect to hear all of Sam’s chart-topping hits Wednesday night, as well as the one that’s currently on the rise, “Break Up in a Small Town.” He’s set to take the stage on 5th Avenue South in downtown Nashville at 6 p.m. CT.
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