On Sept. 29, Brad Paisley shared Songs of the Mountains: The First Four Tracks, a sampler of a new album slated for 2024. The often whimsical singer-songwriter's new material focuses sincerely on his home state and the challenges faced by many of its resilient, hard-working residents.
Per Paisley's website, the songs "Son Of The Mountains" and "The Medicine Will" are "representations of the Appalachian region including Brad's home state of West Virginia" and "reflections of the beautiful and the painful." Paisley added that the album "doesn't shy away from reflecting real life and real situations going on in America and in our world today" because "this is what I think country music is about, which is truth."
Fellow West Virginian Jennifer Garner shared a screenshot of Paisley's Instagram feed in a story as black-and-white videos for the songs debuted.
"Please check out [Paisley's] page and new music tonight," Garner wrote (as quoted by Country Living). "You make West Virginia proud, Brad. Thank you for sharing the voices, faces and stories of WV's opioid epidemic, thank you for sharing WV's beauty —oh, and for your music— and also your wife [Kimberly Williams Paisley]."
"As a proud West Virginian who was able to make a life for himself outside of the issues facing the people of his home state, Brad is continually returning to use his platform to bring awareness not only to the opioid crisis, but also to the hope that these people have," his website adds.
Songs of the Mountains will be Paisley's 13th studio album and his first since 2017's Love and War.
During an interview with Variety, Paisley explained how the project digs to country music's deepest roots.
"They did two different things where I'm from," he shared. "They powered America with their blood, sweat, and tears and back-breaking labor for many, many, many decades. And then a lot of those immigrants that moved here to work the coal mines from Scotland and Ireland and places like that really did shape what we know of as hillbilly music, [which came to be known as] country music. And this was a record where my focus was sort of going back there and exploring a little of that."
