Sometimes a country song finds you at the exact right time. That was certainly the case when singer-songwriter George Shingleton heard Hank Williams Jr.'s "Old Habits," a track from the Country Music Hall of Famer's 1980 album Habits Old and New.
Shingleton, who recently released his single "I Can't Let You Go," says the song found him during a heartbreak and he immediately connected to the tune about a man who's unable to shake the memory of an old flame.
"This song I heard probably the first time when I was in my early 20s," Shingleton tells Wide Open Country. "I grew up on gospel music and started listening to country music a little bit here and there when I got older and this song really reached out to me as far as the lyrics and how I could relate to it in that moment in time. I was going through a hard breakup....It just clicked."
Shingleton recently shared a performance of "Old Habits" exclusively with Wide Open Country readers.
Shingleton, whose song "Restless Ways" was featured on Yellowstone, grew up with family members who were steeped in the tradition of bluegrass and Appalachian "hill country" music.
"We were all taught that blood was basically your savior and your lifeline, and how close we needed to be to one another," Shingleton says. "We didn't grow up with money at all, but the 'family-ness' was very, very rich in our household, and I could never have asked for anything better."
The Nashville-based artist has been featured on Apple Music's "Country Roads," "Back Porch Country," "New in Country" and "Country Lovin'," Spotify's "New Music Nashville" and Amazon Music's "Fresh Folk & Americana."
Shingleton released his most recent EP Shot or Two earlier this year.
