Image Courtesy MCA NashvilleMost male country acts only cover songs made popular by other male artists. There’s no doubt you’ve heard a guy in a cowboy hat take on Garth Brooks‘ “Friends in Low Places” or a random Tom Petty hit at a country show in recent years, but Sam Hunt is always looking to break away from the pack. That’s why he’s covering songs from ’90s female country stars like Reba, Trisha Yearwood and Wynonna on his new Lipstick Graffiti tour.

Sam tells ABC News Radio, “Covers are tricky, but we’ve been sort of working up a little thing where we’re gonna do some cool songs that I grew up listening to. Maybe it’s sort of a nod to a lot of the female country singers of the era.”

While some songs Sam is covering, like Wynonna’s “No One Else on Earth,” could be sung by a guy or a girl, a few other selections are definitely written from a woman’s point of view. Sam isn’t overly concerned about getting the pronouns all worked out, though.

“At times, I think, as we cover those songs, I’ll change a few lyrics,” Sam explains, “but sometimes, like the song that we’re gonna do, ‘Fancy’ by Reba McEntire, there’s no real way to get around that, so I’m just gonna sing that one. It’s such a great song that hopefully it won’t matter.”

As for the title of his tour, Lipstick Graffiti, Sam lifted that phrase from the lyrics of one of his unreleased songs, “Vandalizer.”

He says, “The very first line of the song is ‘Lipstick graffiti on the bathroom mirror/What happened to me ain’t real clear.'”

Sam found those old song lyrics while searching for an intriguing name for his club tour. Something about the combination of those two words captured the vibe Sam hopes to create at his shows.

“When you look at a word or read a word off a piece of paper, they have emotions attached to them,” Sam adds. “The words ‘lipstick’ and the word ‘graffiti’ have these two different emotions that somehow blended in a cool way.”

Sam’s Lipstick Graffiti tour launches Thursday night with a sold-out show at The Troubador in Hollywood, CA.


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